Note: Mountain Camp Participants all received NEGATIVE test results for COVID-19 and quarantined prior to the start of camp. No out-of-camp-group activities other than trails and roads for training were involved during this camp, and additional groceries were only purchased with online order/curbside pickup.
The 2nd edition of Mini Mountain Camp just wrapped-up, and there wasn’t much that was “mini” about it in terms of vertical climbs, hard work, and strong skiers. This young crew is going places…the U16 NENSA field is going to get a lot more stacked with strong MNC suits this coming winter!
I can’t say enough about the professionalism of this group, which means a lot since I feel like that was a primary topic of my post on the OLDER Mountain Camp group too. These skiers were up before the alarms, cooking breakfast and preparing for the day ahead. They were ready to train half an hour before they needed to be, and they were spending their downtime playing around on bikes and messing around outside, training more without even realizing it.
What’s more, the vibe is fun and quirky. Picture a Nickelodeon sitcom with a cast of zany characters and personality types that all somehow mesh. Mini Mountain Camp is a type of “Holiday Special” episode where these characters are thrown into a new environment with a new set of unique circumstances outside the norm. It’s an Emmy-winning recipe, for sure.
This squad undertook many of the same workouts as the older group, with some new adventures as well. One thing that remained consistent was the classic sprint held on the challenging and net-uphill course by the golf links. Here’s some video! We learned a lot about working on our striding this day, as fatigue can really bring out some tips to work on. Our big goals as a group are to stay more upright, strengthen and lock-in that core, and read the terrain to best decide on running vs striding vs double poling vs kick double poling.
We also took to the bike trails for some riding. Mountain biking has only grown with every passing year…at this point we’re borrowing an open-bed trailer just to be able to stuff all the bikes in and make sure we can get everyone on two wheels! As more and more of the team gets introduced to mountain biking, the level keeps rising. It was especially tough for Brady and Taylor to constantly see downhill bikes driving by, with rippers off shredding berms in the distance as we were stuck keeping it low-key. Those two had done some lift-serve riding at Killington only a week prior and boy did we hear about it!
Of course, there was plenty of hiking and trail running to be done. We had some slightly better (sunnier) weather for our Pico->Killington hike/run, and we even did a Facetime with the MNC crew at home who was on top of Mt Mansfield at the exact same time…the things you can do with technology these days.
2 groups and the 2 tallest in VT
BUT we weren’t done with this mountain just yet! We all woke up at 4am on Sunday, the final day, for a sunrise hike up Killington. Under cover of darkness, with one bear spotted on the drive up and one porcupine spotted on the trail, we got to the top and awaited a sunrise that…well…sort-of appeared. A faint line of clouds kept it from being totally iconic, but what can you do? It was quite an experience and there was zero hesitation from the group when it came to the early rising and early workout. Pretty sweet way to end a camp.
Pretty exciting to think of what this crew will accomplish over the next 4-5 years as they begin their journey into the world of Junior skiing. They have a great trail ahead of them!
You can find all photos from camp at this Flickr Album.
