Bend Camp Recap
As sure as the sun rises in the East, we know that mid-May finds the JHSC Prep and Comp teams in Bend, Oregon for our annual spring camp! This is the only training camp that we run in the summer and it is our traditional kick off for the training season. This year we brought 22 athletes along on for 10 days of skiing, running, rollerskiing, surfing, ultimate frisbee, strength, and fun times with friends! We skied every morning at the Mt. Bachelor nordic center where over 30k of perfectly groomed tracks awaited us, and we lucked out with fantastic ski conditions and weather for most of the camp. Temperatures were colder than normal but sunny so for the most part we avoided the suction slush that Mt. Bachelor can see this time of year. We saw a few days of snow and inclement weather but then lucked out again with amazing sunny and warm days to finish off the week. Our team did a lot of technique sessions to start the season off well, one L3 interval day, an amazing crust cruise, and lots of great kilometers out in the sun!
Bend Camp is a great place for the whole team to bond and start off the year on a great foot. This year was no different and we had lots of athletes attend the camp who were either in their first or second year on the team right along some stalwarts of the program who have been on the team for many years! We had three first year Prep Team athletes along with almost ten second year Prep Teamers on the trip, which made for a very exciting and energetic group of athletes. We are lucky to have a huge group of U16 athletes who are all pushing and supporting each other to stick with skiing and become better!
We also had the opportunity to collaborate with other teams from Sun Valley, Bend, Middlebury, and Bozeman in group sessions. This is another really valuable aspect of Bend Camp where we can plan workouts with lots of other teams and create larger groups of athletes to push with. This included doing L3 intervals with a huge group of athletes from all over the West, going on "the best crust cruise ever" along with Sun Valley and Bozeman PGs, and working on V1 technique with the local Bend juniors. Meeting up, collaborating, and learning from other athletes and coaches is a great way to diversify your experience and get new ideas and stimuli to change for the better.
JHSC Skier Races in Taiwan National Rollerski Champs!
While the Prep and Comp teams were training in Bend, one of our far-flung teammates was competing in a national championship event! Karsten Bessonette is currently living in Taiwan along with his family who are there for work reasons, and he took his rollerskis with him! Karsten has been rollerskiing almost every day this spring and has connected with a local Taiwanese rollerski team to ski and train with, which is amazing that it even exists over there. A few weekends ago Karsten got the chance to compete in the Taiwanese National Rollerski Championships in Taipei, where he competed in a 200m skate super sprint and a 10k classic distance race. Karsten won both U16 divisions and came in second overall! While the fields may not be as stacked as our national championship events, this was a really cool experience for Karsten to race fast and work on gaining power on rollerskis, as well as participate in a really cool cultural experience. Congratulations Karsten! We can't wait to hear more about his experiences when Karsten returns to Jackson this summer.
Summer Training Starts
The snow has stopped coming down (hopefully), PG athletes are coming home from college, and the start of summer training is just around the corner! We will have summer training options for athletes from the middle school level (Monday/Wednesday) to U16 age (M, W, Th, F) to Comp and PG athletes (every day). We are so stoked to have another huge group of athletes signed up for the summer and the energy is going to be jamming every morning at practice! Make sure to look for the JHSC crew as we put in the work and take over parking lots all over the Jackson Hole Valley!
Six Athletes Qualify for USST Training Camps
JHSC athletes had an amazing winter across the board, with innumerable standout performances throughout the year. Based on these winter results, six local Jackson Hole SC athletes have qualified for the Western Regional Elite Group training camp in Bend, Oregon! This is the most of any club in the West and it shows how strong and deep our team is across age groups and genders. Peter Warner, Lucas Wilmot, Abby Murphy, Aurora Stiles, Lena Poduska, and Nate Streubel will all attend this important development project that takes the top 15 U18s and U20s from across the West to train and learn together. This year's camp will last from June 22-29 back in Bend, OR! Lucas and Lena have also qualified again to be in the National Training Group, the next step up on the development ladder which takes the top athletes from across the country to train together. Lena attended the spring NTG camp in Bend earlier this year and both her and Lucas will go to the Fall NTG camp in Park City in October. Congratulations athletes!
