3rd Trip to Eagle Glacier, AK

I just got back from a camp on Eagle Glacier. This was my third trip up to Eagle, this trip turned out being quite a bit different then my other two. The weather was horrendous. My coach Erik Flora, who has been going to camps up there three or four times a summer for the past 20 years said it was the worst week of weather he has ever seen. He said that sometimes it can get crappy like that, but it never consistently stays that bad. The first part of the week it was very windy and raining. Alpine Air measured gusts up to something like 60 mph. The second part of the week the winds did lighten but it got a little colder, so the rain turned to freezing hail and snow. Skiing four hours a day in that type of weather was a little miserable at times. I already feel tougher. This is where the guys that have been on the team for a while really stood out to me. They are strong! Being able to ski conditions like that is important, I'm in a winter sport where similar conditions have start showing up even more and more often at championship events lately. I wish I could have every race be held on beautiful Methow Valley corduroy tracks but truth is, no where is as nice as where I grew up.

We now ride the piston bully(groomer) up and down to the ski loop because there are a couple of crevasses showing up on the way. Our coach never takes any risk of loosing an athlete.

We were able to fly in before the weather got ridiculous. As you can see it wasn't very nice to start with.