Week #2 - Days #4 & #5
Groundhog Days #9 & #10
Groundhog Days #9 & #10
Up and at em' and out the door by 5:05 (sound like a familiar time?), Huck's for breakfast, Wy'east Day Lodge by 6:00. Now the Region #1 invasion is in full swing with Sailer, TR2 and Team Gilboa all in session; everywhere we turn there is a familiar face.
Sailer Camp, TR2 and Team Gilboa were all training GS on Thursday and it was a classic Mt. Hood training day. It was cold enough to set and start training right away and as the day warmed it was time to break out the salt when it was time to reset.
Due to the limitations of iPhone photo's the above picture does not do justice to how clear the atmosphere was on Thursday. Looking to the south we could see Mt. Jefferson, The Three Sisters, Mt. Bachelor and for the 1st time this summer Mt. Shasta in California.
Everyone headed down from the Palmer snowfield around noon and it was time the last run to the test centers to pick up skis for our 2014 summer tour-of-duty.
Dan Fleck was nice enough to take Tyler, Dave, Sarah & myself out to dinner up in Govy to the Glacier Haus for some Czech food and it was awesome. After a grueling 2 weeks it does not get better than goulash soup, schnitzel and Pilsner Urquell.
When we awoke Friday AM we were more than a bit surprised to check the web-cam at Timberline and see that it was in fact raining. This was less than ideal as we had over 30 athletes set up to test GS skis for the day.
Surprisingly The Mile & Palmer lifts were set to spin before 7:00 AM and as we headed out the door it was evident it was going to be a Gore-Tex day as we were literally in and out of the cloud bank the entire day.
The clouds came in and out all day and visibility and trying to video was tough. In the end it was a solid training day as most of the athletes logged 15 to 20 runs in the gates.
The clouds moved in for good late in the training day and it was time to head down into the clouds.
We were on a tight timetable to return skis to the test centers today, so for the 1st time in 17 years we collected all of the test skis as the athletes skied to the parking lot. Within 20 minutes we had reclaimed over 35 pair of skis. Hmmm, it only took 17 years to figure this out.
The end of another summer at Mt. Hood comes with mixed emotions. We love being here with the athletes and coaches. At the same time it is time to get home to our families who we miss very much.
In closing out this year's Mt. Hood blog I would like to thank again our friends from the Rossignol, Nordica, Head & Fischer Test Centers; without their support we would never be able to accomplish what we do in our 2 weeks here.