To Broken Top Mountain

Heading out on a crust ski! Mt. Bachelor is in the background but for Sunday's crust ski our destination was Broken Top, to the North of Bachelor. I spent the previous week doing some on snow training down in Bend, OR. Most of the training was technique or intensity focused but some days you simply have to get off the trails and enjoy the mountains!


Laura Valaas, ITA Athlete Brian Gregg, & Kristina Owen taking a photo break.

Crossing Todd Lake, Broken Top barely peeking out above the horizon.

We paused to regroup once we neared the edge of the trees and finally had a clear sight of our goal... that bowl under the peak and above those moraines that look like pinball arms.



Slowly, the mountain came closer.



and even closer, over playgrounds of snow.



When we made the top we could see the multicolored bands from red to yellow and back to rock-colored undulating through the peak.

Jamie Bronga & Sadie Bjornsen just finished their first year of NCAA skiing and are going to be training together in the beautiful Methow valley this summer. They got the summer training season started off right with a ton of skiing here in Bend under the watchful eye of their coach Scott. Go get it done, girls!

See those tiny dots in the middle of the snowfield?



...they're skiers!

KO & LAV's Super-Awesome-For-Girls-Only Ski Camp

Stina & I hosted our inaugural training camp this weekend for girls in the old-enough-to-roller-ski-but-young-enough-to-respect-us age bracket. We had a small group but it allowed for great customization and we got to work with each of our athletes (I feel so proud to be able to claim athletes as mine!) on what they needed to focus on. This was a good thing because we had a wide range of abilities. But ALL the girls were super tough and up for whatever we suggested. I love having tough girls around!

KO & I have a very spontaneous style and I felt a little guilty for subjecting these girls to our whims and impromptu decisions but they took it in stride. All-in-all I think we accomplished our goals for the weekend: have fun, teach some technique, inspire, not kill anyone. We also managed to go over some topics sitting around and while we were out trainings such as goal setting, college & skiing, coaches, training hours & types, boys (come on, we're not that mature that we're not still giggling about boys).

We have a long list of things we should do better if we repeat the camp. Actually, for just about any activity I pursue I have a long list of things I could improve upon, so there's nothing new there!