Agility Session with Amber McHugh

This morning we welcomed Amber McHugh to SDSC for our second instructional session on Agility. Amber coached at Burke Mountain Academy for 10 years, primarily as a FIS coach for both men and women. This past winter she was the head women's FIS coach at Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club in Colorado. We were so lucky to have her!

Amber brought a session that kept the kids engaged for the entire 2 hours, from an animal themed warm-up to a relay race at the end. Even though we had a tiring hike yesterday, the kids rallied and put in some amazing effort for Amber. It was fun to watch!

Good Morning at SDSC!

How would you like to wake up in the morning? Counselor Anna brings the energy to our morning warm up!

Ski Video Session and SWIMMING HOLE!

Our evening activities tonight started on the big screens going over ski racing video.  We examined racing clips to pull bits and pieces for everyone to identify things in their own skiing, regardless of age.  For the older half, we discussed terms such as elevation, rise line, depth (coming out past the gate, and moving back to the gate).  For the younger half, the focus was more on body position and being able to maintain pressure on the outside ski (foot) and pressure on the front of the boot/ski.  We are focused on implementing the same focuses on Thursday at our next skate instructional session.

The second half of our evening took us to The Swimming Hole, an indoor pool with water slide and play area.  The kids had a blast and it was a nice reward after two full and challenging days to start our week!

Our Featured Coach From NORWAY kicks a little Norwegian to stump our camp...

Hike Up Mount Mansfield!

Up, Up, Up, and Away! SDSC took advantage of a beautiful day to charge up Mount Mansfield this afternoon. Standing over 4,000ft, Mansfield is the tallest mountain in Vermont and offered some incredible views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains. Our kids were determined to summit or at least make the ridge, and we all made it back safely. This is often the biggest challenge of the week for many of our campers, but we took it in stride.

Our youngest group Italy took a trip to the nordic trails behind Trapps Family lodge, and had quite the wildlife sightings. When the older groups returned to the Round Hearth, our Italians were just about ready to burst with excitement to share all their adventures!

Happy Trails Everyone!

Balance with Sohier Perry, Heming NORWAY

This morning featured coach Sohier Perry joined us to run our second instructional session focused on balance.

Here at SDSC we invite high level coaches to come run our morning sessions to expose kids to some of the best coaches in the east and even the world. Sohier grew up racing in Vermont, coached for 3 years at UVM before coaching at Green Mountain Valley School, Burke Mountain Academy, and currently now at Heming in Norway. Heming is team in Oslo where many Norwegian athletes train before going to the national team. With all that experience, we were certainly lucky to have him!

Next on the schedule is a hike up Mount Mansfield. The weather looks great for us and we are ready for this next big afternoon challenge!

TEAM Building

After our MONSTROUS bike ride today *, we utilized the nearby space in the front lawn and across the street at the Mountaineer Inn for our activities to keep close to home base and repair our tired legs.

The Team Building activities included TANK, Centipede, Alligator Swamp, Helium Stick, and Team Hula Hoop.  While we want to push our levels athletically all week, teamwork is a very important aspect of athlete development.

*Update to Eric's note earlier about how many campers made it in the woods and onto the single trek... 100%, a first time in all our years at SDSC!!