Date: 9th of January 2008

Hi All,

More snow greeted us this morning with another 5cm falling overnight. Everyone was super excited to get back out there and enjoy more of the awesome snow that we had yesterday. Everyone was down for breakfast early and most groups headed out for training before their scheduled times.

The freeriders headed straight out Alder Point, the first time for this camp.  The group had to hike for about 20 minutes along a cat track  to get them to the start of the run but it was well worth it.  Many were out of breath by the time they arrived, but once they had a looked down the run and realised they would be skiing knee to waist deep powder the looks of exhaustion turned into smiles.  Chris headed down first to scope the run and set up to do some video.  Ridley was at the top sending the group down with a little spacing so Chris could capture them.  The run was so deep and long the only thing holding the group back was everyone’s fitness; an amazing run and one that will definitely be done again during the camp. For the remainder of the morning the group joined up with Pez, and skied more powder and shot plenty of photos.
Everyone was little sluggish after lunch due to such a huge morning. The group was a little smaller with Hamish, Lauren, Marnie, Piers, and Mike all up for another session. Chris took them to the secret area with plenty of small drops over on the backside.  The group then had another few runs and received plenty of face shots on White Elephant and a tree runs off Sunny ridge which had hardly been touched.  Even after all the powder the group still wanted more so they ended the big day with a run though the park.  

The moguls crew joined the free riders this morning for a trek out to Alder Point. After reaching the top Ridley determined the skiing order of his skiers by last name. Alex Cassilles was therefore first cab off the rank and into the pow he went. After their adventures in the deep Silver Star powder the group headed for the new moguls course for a step and slip to prepare the course for the afternoon session. The course is in absolutely great condition with two great jumps covering the four lines. The lines came out perfectly straight and all spacing is equal so great job Ridley. The only problem was ski patrols lack of coordination with their fence spacing and direction. Put simply, Stevie Wonder could have done a better job.  The group headed in for an early lunch and were back on snow by 25 past 12, great job guys! They then headed straight for the bumps course to ski it in for the first time. The lines came up quickly due to the fresh snow and remained in great condition for the afternoon. Big congratulations must go to Kate who was able to successfully ski all the sections of the course with little trouble. All the guys skied really well with many turning up the pace for the later runs. Unfortunately the jumps had not yet set up and the crew was unable to ski top to bottom. Tomorrow they will train on the course with groups from Silver Star, Apex, Vancouver and Blackcomb. They will work through a comp simulation in the morning followed by a stretch and sauna in the afternoon. Competition runs will be held on Friday.

The plan for Phil and his group of racers/boardercrossers was to run GS all day but all the fresh snow made that impossible so a quick change and it was powder riding. Chrisy, and Julia charged all morning as did Jack and Greg. For some of the group they had never ridden in snow so dry and as deep so there were plenty of smiles. Ash came in early as she didn’t feel well and took the rest of the day off.

Like the other groups the snowboarders took advantage of the 20cms +  and headed straight to Alder Point . The snow was amazing on the run although there was still lots of Alders (small trees)  poking through and like Phil’s kids many of the freestyle boarders seemed to think it was the deepest powder they had ridden. Rowan didn’t like it too much but by the bottom he was all good. Oli and Nath charged the run with Emma who was also flying sending up big rooster tails in her wake. Kane and Jack didn't wait for anyone at the top but had a good wait at the bottom while they waited for the group to catch up. After Alder point the group spent the rest of the morning lapping the six pack riding their favourite gully's and bike tracks and including the park in each lap. Just before lunch Kane landed his best backside lipslide of the camp.

After lunch the group headed to the bottom part of the Red Bull bike trail where they shaped and sessioned a wall ride that someone had built yesterday. Matesy started the session off strong with a nice backside lipslide, Jack did some nice backside wall rides hoping to get a backside 5050 on top of the wall. Jordy was doing well getting used to the transition of the wall while Jamie was the standout of the afternoon doing some sweet handplants and blunt stalls. But the overall standout of the day and winner of the Skullcandy daily award was Kane who rode strong all morning, destroyed the wall ride session this afternoon and was one of the few on time to training after lunch today.

The Alpine racers ran into the same problem at the alpine boarders did this morning being too much snow. The plan was to train GS in the morning and SG in the afternoon but plans had to be changed and the group skied powder. The schedule for the next couple of days is for SL training so fingers crossed for these guys that the weather cooperates.

Pinky was too busy enjoying the powder like everyone else today to give outb his daily award so he’ll be back tomorrow.

Tonight’s activity was movies down in Vernon with both Chris and Matesy piloting the vans. They left just after dinner for the 20 minutes drive downtown and the movie of choice tonight was “National Treasure”. As usual the group attacked the concession stand all night – mainly due to the fact of free refill for both the soft drink and popcorn. Everyone stuffed themselves to the limit but this did not sit too well with some as the 20 minutes van ride back up after the movie had some running for the bathroom when they arrived.

Looking at the snow report and it’s calling for another 10cm overnight so maybe we’ll be treated to another powder day tomorrow.

Until then.

Stowie