Denver Glacier Camp

I just got home from my first on snow summer training camp.  We (the Yukon Elite Squad) were on the Denver Glacier (near Skagway, Alaska) for six days of skiing.  I had never been up there before so I didn't know quite what to expect.  Last Friday afternoon we drove down to Skagway (a two hour drive from Whitehorse), spent the night and hiked up to the glacier Saturday morning.  We spent the night at local legend Buckwheat Donahue's house (founder of the Buckwheat Ski Classic) who showed us great hospitality and even treated us to dinner. The next morning Temsco Helicopters flew our gear into the Glacier while we hiked in with daypacks, the hike took us 5 hours and 45min.  The camp we stayed at is owned by Alaska Ice Field Expeditions, who (in partner with Temsco) runs spectacular dog mushing glacier tours for tourists coming into Skagway on the cruise ships.  The company graciously put us up in one of their huts and took care of us for the week. The food was amazing.  We had bacon and eggs or oatmeal in the mornings, hot sandwiches for lunch, gourmet dinners consisting of spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes and fresh cookies were in no short supply! The weather changes fast up there and we saw everything from rain, snow and sun during our stay. The skiing was pretty good.  Usually the snow would firm up overnight and we would go for a long skate ski in the morning. In the afternoon the snow would normally soften up and we would go for a classic ski or do some weights/core strength.  Throughout the camp we did some speed (sprinting) work, specific strength (legs only classic and skate or double poling) and some long zone 3 intervals.  One advantage of this glacier versus others in Canada or Europe is that it's really low (only 1,300 meters elevation), so doing intervals or races is no problem!  I'm super pumped about the camp and satisfied to get some great quality training on snow so close to home in July!  Another huge benefit for us is that this camp didn't cost us a fortune! Usually the glacier camps I've done in the past (in Alberta or Europe) are nice, but can easily cost up to $3,000 with all the transportation, ski passes, hotels and food.  This camp only cost us a couple hundred dollars each!  And we didn't have any jet-leg or time change to get over/adapt to!  I would like to give a huge thanks to the Alaska Ice Field Expeditions and Temsco Helicopters for supporting the Yukon Elite Squad and helping us reach our goals!  I would also like to thank our coach Jonathan Kerr for participating/organizing the trip! It was great to have him around to help coach, motivate us and get us out of bed at 5:50 in the morning! Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip, enjoy:

-David

A TEMSCO Helicopter getting ready to fly up to the glacier

Me skiing on the loop

Me during our long, wet hike up to the glacier

The view from the front door of our hut on the glacier

Some sled dogs

more dogs..

lots of dogs...(over 200!)

Puppies!

Classic skiing in the afternoon

A picture I took of teammate Colin Abbott skiing on the loop

Another classic shot

Group shot! The Yukon Elite Squad and the Alaska Ice Field Expeditions Skagway Dog Camp Crew

Some stretching after a ski

They even had weights up there so we did some max strength one afternoon.  Here's me doing some bench press.

And some squats 

The team on a cloudy/snowy day.  (l-r) Colin Abbott, Fabian Brook, Knute Johnsgaard, John Parry, David Greer

Me enjoying the nice view!

It doesn't get any better than this!

Another cool team shot. (l-r) David, Fabian, John, Colin, Knute

Me doing some speed work

and again...

A shot of one of the two dog yards

Click HERE to see I neat panorama photo I took on the hike out.  You can see dog camp down on the glacier, and Skagway down on the other side of the mountain!

All photos © David Greer, John Parry, Jonathan Kerr