COVID
As all our teams get involved with training we must stress the importance of mask-wearing and social distancing at nordic practice. Masks should be worn at all times that athletes cannot maintain 6 foot distance when not strenuously exercising. Teton County and the entire region is experiencing the largest surge of the pandemic to date, and although we may be experiencing pandemic fatigue this is no time to slack on public health measures. If athletes refuse to abide by these rules or do not have a mask available at training they will be sent home. Thank you for your compliance and understanding! JHSC Nordic has not seen a single positive case due to your diligence and some good luck, and I am doing my utmost to keep it that way.
Dryland Transitions to Snow
October has been a great month to get dryland training in, while giving us our first taste of on-snow skiing! Many of our athletes are now in action in locations across the valley. Juniors have been at it since mid-October at the Middle School with coaches George, Johnny, and Charlotte! Hiking the Butte and Josies, playing speedball, and navigating obstacle courses are starting to give the Juniors a good base heading into the winter. Devos just started practice at Trail Creek and they are having a blast going on adventures around the trails with Rob, Anna, Mark, and Kim. Hopefully we will only have a week or two more of dryland before we start sliding around on snow!
Prep/Comp Update
Our older teams have been making the transition from summer volume to more ski-specific fast-twitch movements. We have been loving "Ranch Strength" at Trail Creek with the rollerboard, ski-erg, and other ski-specific exercises. Single stick specific strength warmups and everybodys favoriite "plank complexes" have been kicking things into gear. Prep/comp have been crushing training all around the valley with runs around Jenny Lake, double pole intervals around the bike paths, strength at Trail Creek, and bounding up Snow King! We also would like to welcome Luna Wasson back to the team as an assistant prep/comp coach. Luna grew up in Wilson and skied for JHSC growing up, eventually skiing for Middlebury College. She coached younger age groups in the past but most recently worked deep in the Gros Ventres at Darwin Ranch this summer. We are fired up to have Luna on board!
October also gave us our first on-snow practice! We classic skied out the skintrack to Mt. Elly and saw mostly beautiful powder snow conditions. The ski down from Mt. Elly to the pass parking lot was definitely sporty and provided a good indicator of our ski skills and balance headed into winter. Only one nasty bruise was sustained, so our downhill skills are looking good ahead of the start of the season! Hopefully it is not too long before we are schussing around the freshly-manicured trails at Trail Creek!
Important dates
November 5: 6:00 PM talk with Kikkan Randall (RSVP to submit questions) on Youtube Live
November 4-13: Preseason meetings with Prep/Comp athletes (Sign up if you haven't)
November 13: Uniform and equipment orders due
November 21 - 27: Stay-at-home Thanksgiving Camp! Schedule coming soon
Trail Creek Cleanup
Huge thank you to everyone who turned out for Trail Creek Cleanup on Halloween! We vastly improved the trail conditions on Outward Bound, Homeward Bound, and Woolsey Woods by laying woodchips donated by Arborworks and chipping some of the slash in the woods. Way less snow will be required for enjoyment and it will be a smoother ride all season long. We also cleaned the cabin to perhaps the most spotless it has ever been, bucked and stacked many cords of firewood, organized lease equipment, moved the fuel tank, and took down some problem trees along the trails. Nice work by all!
Student Athlete Support
Please read this month's Student-Athlete Support Program update. This information is relevant to all JHSC athletes:
https://jhskiclub.org/news/sas-november-newsletter
