Sunday, March 11, 2012

Moonlight Training

"What time is it?" Sierras voice mumbled from underneath the covers.

"5 o'clock in the morning, time to get up" I replied, although the clock on Sierra's table clearly said 4:00, as we had failed to make it "spring forward" to Daylight Savings Time the night before.  Sierra dressed quickly, and we were soon on the road to Mammoth, for early morning ski team training.

You might think that ski team training at 6:45 a.m. the morning after the time change is cruel and unusual punishment for the parents who, after all, have to drive their kids to the mountain and then can't even ski until the lifts open to the public at 8:00 or 8:30.  But in truth, early morning training is even more difficult for the coaches, who have to arrive even earlier to check conditions, get the lifts going, and then set practice courses in icy snow, only to remove them when the lifts open to the public two hours later.  I really can't say enough about the wonderful, dedicated team of coaches (and race department crew) at Mammoth Mountain!

Thankfully, this weekend's early morning training happened to coincide with a waning, nearly full moon, adding to the pale, tentative glow of dawn. 


The kids had a great time training, and were thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day!

2 comments:

  1. Hi there:) This is Wired from class of 2011. Just want to wish you two luck and let you know I'll be following(I also linked you on my blog as a 2012 hiker journal to watch). So happy to see you two attempting the thru hike. I hiked a lot with Sunshine last year and we are still close, so it's great to know other young girls are getting out there! Thought you would enjoy this Oregon show that did a special on Balls and Sunshine. I'm even in there:) http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg

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    1. Thanks for the support and the link! I really enjoyed your journal last year, and I also really appreciated your very helpful articles for www.pctnews.com about blogging from the trail.

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