Mount Sainte Anne
January 25, 2025
Another Mont Sainte Anne Camp is in the books! We were thrilled to arrive in typical winter weather. A coat of new snow weighed down the tree branches alongside the trails and contrasted nicely with the pristine corduroy of the groomed ski trails. Needless to say, the athletes, coaches, and parents were very excited to go skiing!
We’re lucky to have good snow during this week in particular, as it’s the juniors’ biggest week of training for this time of year! We skied twice a day, making sure to rest and refuel in between sessions. Some of our training sessions included intervals, technique work, adventure skiing, specific strength, and having an all ‘round fun time. As in past years, the team was joined by Dublin XC. We are thankful to have gotten some guest coaching from Coach Kathy Maddock and to have had some new athlete faces skiing with us!
Highlights of the week included:
No athlete injuries! The Mont Sainte Hilaire downhill is epic, fun, and fast, but also has a history of causing crashes. Luckily, everyone stayed safe this time around.
A classic ski along the river. Nothing beats an L1 cruise along the rolling and scenic terrain.
A full team game night.. No coaches were in attendance, but it sounded like a fun team-building event!
The Royal Court sprint simulation has been a hit for years. The great thing about this format is that, unlike normal sprint racing, there are no eliminations and athletes get to race all four rounds. This year, coaches communicated with Club Nordique MSA and were able to acquire some V-boards to make the course “official.” It wouldn’t be a sprint day without some “drama” (the good kind), and there was lots of friendly and aggressive tactical skiing, a broken pole or two, some barf, and a bunch of tired, happy skiers.
SO much rain. Not-so-shockingly, the weather threw us for some loops … we’re hoping rain at MSA doesn’t become a tradition. For the first time in Coach Chris’s memory, we ended MSA camp early due to the arrival of 1.5 inches of rain and subsequent closure of the MSA trails. Luckily for us, we had 3 solid days of training at MSA and we stopped to ski at Oak Hill in Hanover on our way back.
