October 30, 2015 (Park City, Utah) – The US XC Ski Team just finished a two-week training camp in Park City, Utah, in preparation for what Head Coach Chris Grover says should be a big season for the American athletes. This is the second big camp this fall for the US team, as the 16-member squad, along with the National Training Group, held a one-week intensity camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY in mid-September.

Team USA XC and Nordic Combined © USSA

“We’ve had an excellent preparation period,” said Grover. “Our one hiccup was not being able to conduct our traditional on-snow camp at Mt. Bachelor in May due to the poor snowpack in the Cascades last winter.” Usually the team holds a partially on-snow camp in Bend, Ore., but due to the unseasonably warm winter that kept snow away from much of the Pacific Northwest, they were unable to do so this year.

“The Team is quite strong right now. We have a few athletes with minor acute injuries but they are getting excellent treatment and support and I expect all skiers to be healthy and race-ready by early winter. I also feel we’ve done a much better job this season of monitoring fatigue and recovery, and I feel confident that it will translate into some big results this season,” commented Grover.

When the fall training period kicked off in Lake Placid, the team also opted to depart from what had been the norm at this eastern camp. Although these changes broke from tradition, they were well received by members of the team. The camp, which also gave many of the country’s top juniors a chance to train with the team, was shortened to one week. Organizers wanted to focus more on intensity, and decided to remove the Climb to the Castle rollerski race from the schedule, as to not overwork the team.

Sophie Caldwell leads the train during Lake Placid Camp © Reese Brown

Sophie Caldwell, who enjoys being able to spend more time at home in Vermont during fall training, preferred the shorter camp. “I think the Climb to the Castle is a great event, but it’s never been my favorite race. I enjoyed having the harder workouts at this camp which lined up more with my strengths and focuses for the year. ”

Echoing Caldwell, was Simi Hamilton who told us he also liked the nature of the shorter camp. “Since our camp was only a week long, we were definitely focusing on quality. We had a few very productive volume sessions on the plan, but our primary focus was speed and intensity,” commented Hamilton.

Simi Hamilton leads the charge at the USST Camp in Lake Placid © Reese Brown

After Lake Placid, Jessie Diggins joined her SMST2 teammates in Vermont for a week of recovery training. “It’s important to train hard but without adequate recovery it doesn’t do any good,” said Diggins. “So that recovery period between camps was big for me.”

Jessie Diggins Roller Ski Training At Soldier Hollow © USST

Diggins, who placed second in the 10km Freestyle at last season’s Nordic World Championships, has been working hard on her classic technique alongside teammate and bronze medalist Caitlin Gregg, according to Grover.

Aspen, Colorado’s Noah Hoffman, who is looking forward to getting back on the World Cup circuit after missing a majority of last season due to an injury sustained at the opening race in Kuusamo (FIN), spent the week of the Lake Placid camp doing a similar camp in New Hampshire with Kris Freeman and Tad Elliott.

Once in Park City, the team spent a week doing mainly threshold and volume workouts, then transitioned into a week of intensity, capped by a three-day rollerski mini-tour at Soldier Hollow. The mini tour consisted of a freestyle sprint last Sunday, followed by a short classic mass start Monday and a long freestyle pursuit on Tuesday. Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg/Madshus) and Sun Valley’s Miles Havlick took home top honours.

Women USST Camp Lake Placid © USST

One of the youngest members of the team, Katharine Ogden seemed most excited by the racing at the end of the camp. “I don’t often do three races in a row so I think it will be good practice, especially since I will be able to jump into the (NENSA) Eastern Cup and SuperTour combination weekends later in the season which will also end up being three consecutive race days.”

The Park City camp gave the team members a good opportunity to test out new uniform items provided by Craft and L.L. Bean, who launched the new uniforms during the camp.

“Everyone is excited to be working with L.L. Bean and Craft,” noted D-Team member Patrick Caldwell. “All the uniform components are really high quality, technical pieces. The team is psyched to show off the new gear on the trails soon!”

Kikkan Randall Roller Ski Training At Soldier Hollow

Both company’s are first-year partners of the U.S. Ski Team’s cross country, Nordic combined and ski jumping teams and the uniform design had significant input from athletes, including World Champion Kikkan Randall, a testing and design partner for L.L.Bean. Randall, who recently announced her pregnancy and will sit out this season, was also on hand for the training camp and launch along with Robert Lazzaroni, USSA’s new Nordic domestic program director.

At the end of all of these camps, Grover says that there are a few athletes dealing with “minor acute injuries,” but that they should be back to race readiness in the time for the World Cup openers in Kuusamo.

For the future, Grover says that the team is really focusing on having a good showing at the season-ending Ski Tour Canada, taking place from March 1-12. “The Ski Tour Canada is absolutely going to be one of the main focuses of the U.S. Ski Team athletes and our overall Team in general.  It’s chance for US athletes to demonstrate their ability in their home time zones and in front of what I expect to be big turn-out of American fans.

“Because the USA gets a Nation’s Group in Canada, we’ll be starting 24 athletes in Gatineau.  It’s a big opportunity for our top club athletes to prove that they have what it takes to compete at the highest level.  Beyond the Ski Tour Canada, individuals are focused on many different World Cups over the course of the season.  For some Team members, the Tour de Ski is a big focus.  For others, it’s individual World Cups in their preferred events (sprint, distance, skate, classic, relays, etc),” he concluded.