Training camp in Canada
November 2005
by Jennie Bender
I met up with ten Gunstock Nordic snow seekers Saturday the 19th on their way to the wild hills of Canada.
I must say I had no idea what to expect, mainly because I was not mentally prepared for snow and so packing was stressful, but also because I didn’t know where I was going, nor exactly who I would be going with. I guess that just makes it part of the adventure. On the way up, eyes were quietly scanning the ground for amounts of snow scattered here and there. Traveling for snow always seems to be a gamble in one way or form. After stopping at a restaurant for lunch with lots of huge plastic dinosaurs and even bigger supped up Chevys on gigantic wheels outside, we got to the Stoneham downhill ski area where we were staying. It was about twenty-five minutes away from the Foret Montmorency Nordic ski area. The two story condo was tight with all of us, but there were extra mattresses supplied. Did I mention that Martina Howe, Nina and I were the only girls? There were lots of “downs”, such as trying to ignore the boy’s obsession with bathroom habits, and not to mention being the target for pretty much all teasing including being a Vermonter, the only Rossi amongst tons of Atomics, and much more. However, there were hundreds of “ups”, because they are all fun to be around, I didn’t need to compare myself to their skiing abilities, and hanging out with only guys is very under rated.
When we got to the ski area, we knew some other groups would be there from the New England area, but by the end of the week I was surprised by exactly how many. There were people from NYSEF, Colby, GMVS, Williams, UVM, and Maine Winter Nordic to name a few. The weather was nice to us the first couple of days, because it broke us in with some 20-30 degree days with sun, preparing us for the 0-10 degree weather to come later in the week. The good news was the huge two day snow storm that dumped about a foot and a half of snow by Friday. It is too bad that we have to leave, because the conditions by the end of this week of course, are close to perfect. The main trail open was a long and hilly snow covered road. On this we practiced two times a day, usually classic in the morning and skate in the afternoon. We brought our own lunches and hung out for a few hours at the lodge in between daily practices. Nina was great with helping to work out many of those beginning of the year technique glitches. Even though she is occasionally unsure of her English abilities, we all can understand enough to know when we are doing something incorrectly that needs to be fixed! She is quite knowledgeable and friendly once you get to know her, and I am glad to say I’m not as scared of her as in the beginning!
Other events over the week included one crazy game of poker, a dented car (don’t worry - no one or anything else got hurt), an incredible amount of food consumption, a few games in the snow that didn’t stop until someone got beat up, and a freezing and choppy time trial. Also many rounds of “sting pong” (the boys), which I learned is when teams of two play ping pong, and when one player messes up, the loser gets pelted with the ball by the other team. The manly factor includes comparing welts in the end. With fatigued bodies, tonight we are packing and eating as much food as possible to limit what we have to bring home. We are leaving early tomorrow morning, and I haven’t done anything, so I should go! Overall, I would say that this training camp was a success.