Sat, Jun 14, 2014

Saturday the 14th-End of Week #1

At 4:20 AM the Timberline web-site indicated mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers. It also indicated a temperature right around 32 degrees and winds gusting to 25 mph.

"Not sure what to expect today"

When we arrived at the Timberline parking lot it was relatively clear but when we stepped out of the truck it became immediately apparent that every available layer of clothing in our backpacks would be in play today; it was windy & cold.

"Hinzy enjoying the first lift ride of the day"

"In and out of the cloud bank"

"Palmer is closed for de-icing"

"Looking up from the bottom of the Palmer"

"And looking down from the bottom of Palmer"

The Palmer lift was covered with rime ice from yesterdays storm and as such it was closed for de-icing. The coaches sent the
athletes on a free-skiing run and then they set up coaching stations from the top to the bottom of the Mile and had them do a variety of drills.

Alan Kildow told me years ago that when it came to finding snow to train on (due to it being in short supply), Erich has always been extremely resourceful. This was based on his years of experience training and coaching with Erich both at Timberline and at Red Lodge.

"Uros & Erich planning the strategy to set gates"

Sailer Camp has always been on Lanes 1, 2 & 3 for the 17 years I have been coming to Timberline. Lane assignments are made 1 and 2 days in advance and now we were faced with finding a place to set when it already had been assigned to another program.

"Time to ski some gates"

Erich found "the spot & Uros negotiated "the spot" and soon the Sailer campers were training right next to the US Ski Team.

"Sarah & Tyler in a Battle Royale"

"Heidi Flood ready to stomp some GS"

"Tyler Pierce is coming out of retirement..."

A new strategy for coaching took place today, referred to as "Gauntlet coaching". Each racer would show up to the top of the course and be asked "What are you working on". Whatever it was would then be repeated by Resi, Michael, Jake, Chris & Sarah as they skied by.

Oddly enough it actually seemd to work. Each athlete would cite one thing like "outside ski" at which point all 5 coaches would start chanting "Outside ski, outside ski, outside ski" as the racer skied the course. To complete the ritual Sarah would let out a primal scream.

"Home Sweet Home for the day off"

The training day ended at 11:30 as we headed down for the last run of week #1. We said our good bye's to some of our favorite campers, test skis were returned & we headed to The Schooner on Netarts Bay & then onto Cape Lookout State Park on the coast for a well deserved day off.