Morning Stretch

What were you doing at 7:23AM...

Greetings!

We're back and psyched for another action and adventure filled week with Stowe Dryland Ski Camp! After welcoming 85 campers and helping them settle into their rooms, we had our camp kickoff meeting to get everyone excited and give a glimpse of all the fun that's in store this week.

Campers split up into their team groups and played some fun games to get to know one another and the camp counselors. The Round Hearth provided a deliciously classic meal of spaghetti and meatballs and we geared up for our first night activity of field games, swimming in the river and a mountain biking obstacle course. 

The water was a bit chilly but campers were brave and jumped right in!  After biking home we had a quick birthday celebration, a bit of downtime and it was off to bed for all. Time to rest up for our first full activity filled day tomorrow. Campers will enjoy mountain biking at Cady Hill and a skate session to learn basic athletic stance with Danny Noyes- until then!

Closing Ceremonies SATURDAY MORNING

Awards will begin at 11:00am Saturday morning.  All parents are invited to join us, however we ask you to leave the seats up front open for the campers.  We should be wrapping up at noon.

Also, please wait to take bags from the building until after the awards.  The camp has been a safe and organized place for the last two weeks, and we would like to keep the organization all the way through the ceremonies.  Thank you for understanding.

The Final Night

This evening we wrapped up camp with a great celebration on the front lawn with an inflatable Sorry game and music from DJ Sounds. Once again, it was a bittersweet moment as camp is coming to an end. It was so great to have the new campers this week fold in so nicely with our two week crew, and that was pretty obvious at how much fun everyone had together this evening with inflatables all the smiles full of ice cream.

Here's to a good sleep tonight before our final games tomorrow and the closing ceremony for SDSC 2015!

Final Afternoon Mountain Bike

On a beautiful sunny afternoon, SDSC departed on our final afternoon activity to Cady Hill mountain bike trails. Thunderstorms cut our ride short there on Tuesday, so the whole camp was pumped to get another shot at it.

I took an ambitious crew of older boys on a long ride at a very fast pace, and I can tell you that they sure tired me out! When I asked if they wanted to go get ice cream or swim, they responded, "Neither! We want to keep riding!" That's one of the reasons I love working at this camp. Even on the last afternoon of a long week, you still have campers who are having too much fun to stop and want to keep going. 

That said, there is no question that many of the groups did it all and made it to IC Scoops in Stowe for a quick recovery cone before swimming on their way back to the Round Hearth. Max sure was a lucky counselor in the picture below!

Tonight we celebrate a great two weeks with inflatables and a DJ, and we will see you all tomorrow!

Featured Coach: Mike Day, GMVS, former USST

This morning I was pleased to introduce Mike Day to the camp as our featured coach of the day.  Mike is currently coaching at Green Mountain Valley School (GMVS), but his path through his ski coaching career is a special one.  Early in his career, he had the opportunity to spend time working at Carrabassett Valley Academy (CVA) and the Park City Ski Team (PCST).  At each of those places, he coached a one-in-a-million athlete.  Later in his career, he coached the World Cup Men's Technical Team for the USST, and coached the same two athletes again... Bode Miller (CVA) and Ted Ligety (PCST).  To have the experience to work with two young individuals who pulled it all together and eventually became the best in the world, including winning Olympic Gold Medals, is as transcending as it gets in this industry.

After numerous agility drills using cones, ladders, and low hurdles, the camp turned to speedball to implement the skills recently refined.  At the end of the session, Mike stayed around for a while to answer questions from the group about his vast experiences with two of the Worlds most dominating skiers of this era.  What a treat to close out the featured coach visits of the last two weeks.

SDSC Scavenger Hunt

Tonight's evening activity took us back to the Stowe Rec Path for a scavenger hunt where groups had to complete and document a variety of tasks throughout the session. Here are a few samples of the cues and completed tasks: I know I had a ton of fun, and judging by all the talk and giggles after we finished the hunt, I think the rest of camp did as well. 

1. Locate a gazebo and have everyone sing a song while sitting together in the gazebo.

2. Take a team picture. Extra points for good views and creative poses.

3. Spell SDSC in some way and take a picture of your creation. (with campers, rocks, etc). Extra points for good views and creativity.

4. Do 3 BASE Exercises 

 

And upon our return to the Round Hearth, we were all rewarded with S'MORES! Last full day tomorrow!