June 14, 2011 (Girdwood, Alaska) – After only spending three weeks of my life now in the green building on the side of the cliff, I am beginning to feel like it is my home away from home. For this past week I have been training my heart out up on Eagle Glacier, about 6,000 feet above Girdwood. I just recently returned from a 10-day on snow camp in Bend, Oregon, so after 3 days of resting in town I headed for the snow again…. this time a bit closer.

Eagle Glacier is a very unique training atmosphere very different than any other training camp. Because you are perched on the top of a glacier, there is limited activity to do other than skiing, thinking about skiing, and dreaming about skiing. This is what makes it super fun though. You are constantly surrounded by the energy and enthusiasm of training hard and getting one step closer to your goals.

On Monday morning Alpine Air flew us up from cloudy Girdwood to a pleasant surprise of sunshine and great afternoon skiing. During my three glacier camps on Eagle Glacler there have only been about five crystal clear days where you can see mountains forever. So, when that happens I have this uncontrollable excitement where I want to be taking pictures constantly. Unlucky, but also lucky for me, I forgot my camera in town this week. So thanks to Holly Brooks and Greta Anderson for all the photos. As much of a bummer as this was, I honestly think my training greatly benefits from a mistake like this. I am still in the tourist stage that every five minutes I think the view is better so I have to take a picture. Or the conditions are soooo crazy bad that I have to take yet another picture. There is a lot to document during a week on a glacier!

Tuesday morning, and the majority of the rest of the week we woke up to socked-in clouds that allowed you to only see about three feet in front of you. As much of a bummer as this was, it made for quite the adventure. Because the light is so flat on the glacier, and everything looks the same, many times you loose track of the ski trail. Luckily there are wands placed every 20 or so feet, but you would be surprised; you can easily get lost within 20 feet.

There were a few times that I was at the point of near delirious exhaustion that I was beginning to wonder if I was lost in the cloud. Luckily I was always saved by the orange wands that would appear from the mist. I am convinced that if someone were to have videotaped some of the 180 degree corners, they could have submitted the tapes to America’s Funniest Videos. You would be ripping down the hill, and out of nowhere, the corner you were anticipating about 20 seconds further down the trail, would appear and shoot you flying this way or that. This became especially crazy in the afternoons when the snow was soft and we were in our little classic boots with no support. There were some hilarious tracks to watch!! I got a good chuckle every time…. even when it was me getting flung off the trail!

At my two Eagle Glacier Camps last year, I was suffering with knee injuries, so I was only able to classic ski. With skate skiing being added into the mix, I was able to train a bit more and hit some more specific workouts. I have been working a great deal on technique this year with my coach, so the glacier provides the ultimate “playing field”. Learning various techniques is all about trying things out and playing around with what you feel. You can watch videos for hours and hours, but the magic comes from going out and feeling things out.

Aiming for training between 4-5 hours a day leaves ample time to try one thousand different tricks. Between Monday and Saturday we were able to fit in many different workouts with many different goals. In order to keep our volume high for the week, we limited our week to two sets of intervals both with L3/L4 focus, some speed sessions, some relays in the mist, strength workouts, core routines, and lots of solid hard distance skiing. By the end of the week it simply becomes work to walk up the stairs three times a day. Once for a change of clothes after training, once for a nap, and once for bed.

My favorite part of the camp is always the last night. Everyone is so tired that they go into this stage where it’s as if they are looking through goggles, and everything slows down and becomes really funny. When your body gets to a point of being so tired, it simple goes into auto-pilot and you loose control of what you are saying, what you are doing, and everything becomes hilarious. For many of us, six days of training meant between 20-30 hours of focused work and upwards to 400km of skiing. The final night of cooking dinner was just awesome. We were all cutting up random things, stirring in odd concoctions, and being lead by our stomachs. I think it actually took four boys to lift the bowl of pasta sauce onto the table. I was waiting for someone to fall asleep on their plate, I am sure there were several of us that were nearing that point!!

Between training, cooking, napping, video review and chores I spent the remainder of my time studying. I have been taking an on-line class this summer, so things got interesting Thursday night when I had to get creative in order to attend class. Holly Brooks is also taking masters classes this summer, so luckily there were a couple of us to try the system out. We were able to tether internet from an iPhone and then connect to our computer. Seems pretty crazy you can be up on a glacier training and still going to school. Not a bad life, I must say!!

Thanks to Erik Flora, Mike Matteson and Casey Fagerquist for putting on an awesome camp. Awesome grooming, drinking water, electricity and plenty of energy and enthusiasm! Rock on!

For now it is back to dryland training in town for a week before taking off for Rookie Camp in Park City. I have had quite the month filled with lots of skiing, so I am actually excited to jump on the rollerskis for a bit. I am especially pumped because I just got some new Marwe’s, brand spanking new, thanks to FinnSisu! I am having a hard time taking them out in the dirt because they are so pretty… so maybe I will save my first time for the treadmill testing in Park City next week.

Saturday we get a new teammate, and a good friend of mine Rosie Brennan. I am super pumped to have a new talented, motivated girl on the team! There is nothing like having a huge woman’s group to train with, I truly believe that is the magic! So welcome Rosie!!!