National U16 Elite Camp kicks off in Jackson!
If you have been spotting a large amount of high visibility t-shirt clad kids on bike paths and trails around Jackson Hole this week you just spotted the top 50 U16 cross country skiers from all around the country! We are hosting National U16 Elite Camp in Jackson Hole this year, and it means that we get to host some of the strongest youth skiers in the USA right here in our little valley! By hosting this event all the local Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club athletes are given the opportunity to train alongside really strong skiers for no additional cost, and they get the opportunity to push themselves and get inspired to reach the highest levels of the sport! JHSC Nordic has traditionally qualified multiple athletes per year to attend this camp but this gives some of our younger skiers the chance to ski up and see how the fastest kids of their age group train and race.
We started off with some rollerski technique and agility then had a mega L3 bounding interval session on Snow King along with a strength test and strength education in the afternoon. We have capped it off with a long run in the Tetons and a long classic rollerski up north to get views of the mountains. We have also mixed in water time at Slide Lake and some basketball and spikeball on the fields. Camp rounds off with a skate sprint simulation on Saturday and some easy workouts to end the week for these amazing JHSC nordic and National U16 Elite athletes! If you see us around the valley make sure to honk your horn and support our athletes!
Summer Training keeps rolling
In addition to the out of towners, the local JHSC Nordic teams have been hard at work for the last month! We have over 45 athletes ranging from middle school to collegiate ages training with us this summer and the energy at our practices has been electric! This month has seen the JHSC athletes complete a huge variety of incredibly challenging and fun workouts on rollerskis, running with poles, running without poles, biking, lifting weights, and generally increasing all of their nordic-specific capabilities. At the start of the month we hosted our annual Bring Your Dog to Practice Day which saw dozens of athletes bring their furry friends to socialize and exercise. This has become a fun tradition that all the JHSC athletes and staff look forward to. We have also done many long endurance activities including bike rides on the Elk Refuge Road, rollerskis all the way to Hoback Junction, hiking up Jackson Peak, running from Mt. Glory to Ski Lake, running with poles to the top of Snow King, rollerskiing to Jenny Lake, and many more! We have also been working on our rollerski basketball game, sprinting on rollerskis at parking lots all around town, and doing intervals up every hill we can find. As collegiate PG athletes start to take off for their respective school semester starts and the summer winds down we will bid farewell to the dog days of summer and turn our focus to Fall training and the winter ski season.
Registration OPEN for new and returning families!
This summer we tried out a new strategy and opened programs to returning athletes on July 15th to ensure that our loyal skiers would be ensured the chance to lock down a spot in their program of choice this winter! This move worked great and we saw dozens of families sign their kids up and get priority registration for their dedication to the program. We recently opened up registration to the general public, for athletes who are just starting new to the program on August 1st. As of August 2 we already have over 131 athletes signed up for programming this winter! THANK YOU to all the families for their dedication to and support of JHSC Nordic, we could not do anything without you!
