July 22, 2010 – New Zealand’s Snow Farm is a busy place in the summer, and it’s about to get even more crowded. The USST is already there working on a three-week on-snow training camp at the world class training facility. And Canada’s National Ski Team (NST) will join them on July 27th, for some quality training and many co-operative workouts.

New Canadian World Cup team coach Justin Wadsworth explained the importance of working with the USST.

“The feedback I got from the [Canadian] athletes is that they wanted a shorter camp than the three weeks, so we’ve overlapped with the US mainly for the FIS races at the Snow Farm.” Summer racing is something that the NST has been doing a lot of this year. Alex Harvey recently competed in the Canadian MTB Nationals, Ivan Babikov had a notable 3rd place at the Canadian Mountain Running Championships, and Devon Kershaw donned a race number for the Calgary Stampede Road Running Race. For Wadsworth, this is more than coincidence; it’s part of an overall strategy.

“For me I think it’s important for the athletes to put on a bib and get some competition in the summer. I think that’s something we lack in North America, we don’t have rollerski races for athletes to go to, so it’s important to find ways to keep the athletes’ stoke level high.” As well as getting some good North American competition at the FIS races, both teams will be doing a lot of work together over the course of the 15-day camp.

“Chandra [Crawford] and Kikkan [Randall] will be training a fair amount together, we tried to make their schedules pretty similar.” The two sprinting queens will be doing a lot of speed workouts together, as will Stefan Kuhn and Andy Newell.

“They’ll be doing lots of other training together too like going to the weight room, doing longer workouts. It’s good to have other people to ski with occasionally, especially the sprint sessions and the speed work.”

The Americans, who are already at the Snow Farm, seem equally excited. Newell could find hardly a bad thing to say about it.

“My favorite part about the Snow Farm is by far the skiing and the atmosphere for training here. The skiing is better here than anywhere else in the world and the trails are perfect for easy distance training which is what we trying to focus on. Yeah we have the occasional day where the clouds roll in the and wind starts howling, but for the most part it’s really pleasant and perfect for training and staying focused. There aren’t a lot of distractions up here on the Mountain so we basically eat sleep and ski.”

He added that he’s looking forward to getting some quality distance workouts with the Canadians, and just enjoying the amazing vistas. After the camp he’ll be heading back home for a little bit of recovery before the US team regroups in Sun Valley, Idaho in September for their next camp.

Fellow American Kikkan Randall’s next few weeks will be a little more rushed. Randall, who hasn’t been back to the Snow Farm since 2004, is very excited.

“It’s almost like coming again for the first time.  I haven’t seen my US teammates since the end of the season so I am pumped to see everyone and get in some training sessions together.”

After the Snow Farm Camp, Randall will have to forego any vacation time and is heading straight to Ontario for a guest coaching spot at the Ontario High Performance Camp at Hardwood Hills.

“The last time I was here I was able to take a flight seeing tour at Milford Sound which was amazing. This year however, I will be heading directly back to North America after the conclusion of our camp here. I’m joining my husband in Ontario for a few days of vacation at the lake and then I will be guest coaching at the Hardwood Hills camp.”

The Canadian Team’s plan after the Snow Farm is to continue with a few more race opportunities. Wadsworth said Kershaw has expressed a keen interest in doing some more running races, and possibly a triathlon sometime in the late summer or early fall. They’ll have a few weeks in Canmore for things like that before heading to Quebec for an 8-day sea-level intensity camp in Quebec in September. After that it’s off to Park City Utah for a three-week high-altitude camp later in the fall. And as all ski racers and fans know, once the fall rolls around the ski-racing season isn’t far behind.