Glacier to Glacier

The Denver

The Denver Glacier had a lot of miles put on it this past July. We’d wake up from our damp wall tent, take two steps out the door and snap on the zeros. For five days we skied through a mix of foggy, snowing, and bluebird conditions. Typical Glacier weather I guess: never knowing what to expect. Training was phenomenal. 

Higher intensity training and speed work was difficult because our baskets punched though the snow’s crust, especially later in the afternoon. There are no trails on the glacier and we had a loop specially groomed only the day before we arrived (making punchy conditions inevitable). I could only imagine what it would be like to have a pisten bully up there. Still the skiing was amazing; the last day especially. Not a cloud in the sky and a smooth crust to explore the whole glacier.

 It was hard to stop skiing that day, but we had to make the hike down to Skagway and drive home. Only a three hour hike and two hour drive later, I was back in Whitehorse for a much needed shower. First glacier camp in the bag.

                                                             The whole glacier crew

Now we’re In Anchorage about to hop up on the Eagle Glacier. I don’t know where the rest of July went. A lot of it was spent fishing. Caught my biggest lake trout ever. A little over 15 pounds. 

Hit’n the Training Camps

Summer has not moved north yet. July 3^rd with daytime high of 14 degrees, I reminisce about the weather at nationals this past March. But cold weather hasn’t stopped us from putting in big hours on training camps.

Our first Yukon Elite Squad camp took place right here in Whitehorse. Believe it or not, it felt good to get some hours in on roller skis after spending so much time on snow this spring. I forgot how nice the roller skiing could be in Whitehorse. A paved footpath following the Yukon River goes the length of the town and we are able to complete a loop, an hour or so long. We’ve also been enjoying the odd “urban roller ski” and if the weather permits, cooling off in the lake after intervals. RIGHT after intervals…

We pulled off a lot of quality workouts including a couple long road bike rides to prepare ourselves for the Kluane International Bike Relay the following weekend. The Yukon Elite Squad smashed the field in the 4-person category.

Having an at-home camp seems very beneficial to me. That is as long as you can stay focused and remember its still a training camp. Why waste energy and money on travel when there is the making for a great training camp at home?

Our latest camp was a hiking camp in Atlin, BC with the Yukon Ski Team. A 3-hour drive down a dusty road brings you to the beautiful town of Atlin. Population: 400. The town is located on Atlin Lake, which is home to the highest fresh water island in the world (Theresa Island). Staying in tents, like every other Yukon Ski Team camp, we cooked bison roast over an open fire and made atlatls on our off-time. We did 3 hikes, one a day, along some beautiful mountain ridges. On the last day we did a  30 minute running race up a steep-ass mountain.

Navigating the ridge through the fog

boot skiing like a pro

up-hill running technique: using arms to drive legs up the mountain

(Photos by David Greer)

Getting back to at-home training camps and how silly it is to create unnecessary travel/fatigue… we could fly to Austria to ski on a glacier but there is literally a glacier 130km from my house. That is why this Friday we will leave to here, the Denver Glacier.

These shabby wall tents will be our home for 5 days. “Sleeping on glacier, no good.” You say? Well the best thing about this glacier is it’s at 1400m. The same elevation as Canmore! The Denver Glacier is a short but treacherous hike from Skagway, Alaska. There are dogsled tours offered on the Denver Glacier all summer long but as far as we know, nobody has ever skied on this glacier. So for the time being we will call it an experimental camp. If it works out, we could be back here several times a year.

Total cost for Glacier camp: about 300 bucks!

Stay tuned to here about the Denver Glacier camp in the following weeks!

Mountain Sliding

CRAZY carpet

Colin and I taking crazy carpeting to a whole new level

catching burbot

yesterdays catch: 15 burbot and one lake trout

Hiking Yukon Style

Climb a thousand vertical metres with dry feet and slide all the way down? Next time we're bringing a wooden toboggan.

The Rumours are True

Word got out. For a while now there has been a rumour going around that the Yukon boys (David, Colin, and myself) were leaving their training centres to return to their one true home. Yukon! We will be joining Yukon ski team members John Parry, Ray Sabo, and Fabian Brook to create our own “elite” branch off of the Yukon Ski Team. Team name and details are yet to be finalized (I’m open to suggestions), but the blueprints are laid out.

First thing I would like to make clear is that neither me, Colin or Dave despise training centres. We simply see the Yukon as better suited to fulfill our needs or desire to become a better athlete. 

There is the obvious benefit of extended on-snow training (late and early season), as well as the psychological benefit that I will call the “happy benefit”. As you know, the most important thing is for the athlete to be happy with what he or she is doing. Plain and simple, I am happier in the Yukon.

The structure of our team lies in our own hands, which is both a good and a bad thing. There is a sense of freedom to be running on a program you’ve created yourself, but also there’s the added stress of having to organize these things that would normally be taken care of for you on a training centre.

It will be somewhat of an experimental year to see how things turn out. That being said, we would not just throw our training centre positions out the window for something we believed wouldn’t work. After all, our goal is all the same: to become the best athlete possible.

I am flattered by the interest in our “team” from outside athletes but because of the low-key, unofficial (but highly professional), stand point we cannot support outside athletes. Sorry, maybe next year!

Our team has got off to a great start; spring skiing being at its best! The snow is going fast though!

Less time training has given me more time to build some willow furniture.

And practice my tomahawk and slack line.

The lakes are getting a bit soft for skiing…

  

But the ice fishing is still good!

epic spring ski videos to come!