Aloha from Sunny Valley, ID
· Fri Feb 29, 08:50 PM by Timothy M. Weston
Just a quick update from our hotel’s lobby. The kids have a few minutes of free time right now as we just finished dinner (pizza) and the team meeting. Parents, don’t worry, kids will be in their own rooms at 2100 and lights out at 2130.
We’re here with 25 athletes J5 through J3 for the Western States Youth Ski Championships. The bus ride was uneventful and we even have a great driver. We made it here in around 7 hours, which seemed like the blink of an eye for some of the athletes that travelled to McCall two weeks ago (11+ hours). Our digs at the Americinn in Hailey are very nice.
The conditions were great today. It was warm, the sun was shining bright and there was plenty of old snow on the trails at Lake Creek. We previewed the “distance” (1km – 3km!) courses and then took a look at the flying downhill and part of the obstacle course. Suffice it to say, I wish I was young enough to take part in the activities this weekend. Everything looks awesome.
Earlier this evening the athletes received a quick lesson on ski maintenance and then waxed their own skis with some expensive wax (Toko Dibloc HF and Swix HF). Hopefully the weather will remain the same. If it does, we’ll have a fun day filled with klister and sticky fingers on Sunday.
Tomorrow they’ll have an individual-start freestyle race, followed by oppotunities to face the flying downhill and the obstacle course. In the evening they’ll prepare classic skis, and then head to the banquet. Sunday morning they’ll race the individual classic race, attend awards, and we all will high-tail it back to Bozeman in time for you parents to get a good-night kiss.
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Tim, thanks for posting such a great update! I wanted to let you know that parents really do read these, and we appreciate the info. The kids are usually too busy during these trips to actually tell us anything – which is a good thing!
— Sharyn Anhalt Sat Mar 1, 10:22 AM #