Photos!

The annual Thanksgiving training camp began with the ride, starting as always from Piotr’s house in St. Louis Park. The total traveling time was estimated at a grueling 16 hours in the cramped but not too cramped 15-passenger van. The ride was eventful as always but nothing really worth mentioning besides the near brush with death concerning a crazy man and a red dodge Dakota.
Upon the bright and early arrival at the Brandin’ Iron Inn, sleep was the only option. After a 25-minute drive up to the plateau where the team removed two inferior drivers from the ditch, the team started in on an ongoing competition throughout the trip; “oh socks put the chains on.” With the first day of the competition being a warm-up run, no time was recorded. But the need for faster times and improvement were obvious.
The snow conditions were all but desirable and attractive, henceforth the need for the trip to the plateau. The snow on the plateau was everything that a young skier could want to fulfill all their snowy fantasies. The average training schedule with training in the morning and training in the afternoon was made far more enjoyable with the copious amount of snow found on the plateau. Without the snow up higher we would be forced to don rock skis and poor attitudes in the depressing nearly snow-less lowlands of the Rendezvous trails. Snow on the plateau, we salute you!
We all know that biathlon is a sport solely devoted to skating in competition, but the diverse athletes that we are: we have been taking advantage of the glorious classical conditions found in the area. The daily grind, that starts with the groggy morning run which is shortly followed by the delectable continental breakfast. The waffles, frozen omelets, yogurt, and Kremer’s biscuits and gravy have been followed by great classical skiing for the morning workout. To let you know how great the classical skiing is, it is possibly the best and most enjoyable I have had, and that’s coming from a biathlete who usually hates to classic ski with the passion of a thousand burning suns (William). After a lunch of ham, yogurt and sandwiches we have our afternoon nap or we might take advantage of the superb shopping in the area. With that said and done we head out for the afternoon shooting workout. After we finish combos some of us clean up for dinner and others just like to hang out in their pungent training clothes. Finally we can call it quits for the night and hit the sack.
The annual ski expo was held at the local holiday inn with that one thing that every skier loves, schwag. The schwag report for this year was a good one. Various t-shirts, water bottles, headbands, and of course everyone’s favorite, stickers; all this and more were to be found. All in all, a good year for free stuff.
Thomas Alsgaard gave a long-winded presentation on life, skiing, and rally cars. Regardless of how long the speech was, the master spoke, and we listened.
Tuesday it snowed quite a bit, possibly enough to stop our intense trips up to the plateau and our chain competition. The final overall best time standings are as follows. Chains on (including the 1/4 mile tightening): 1:36, chains off: 00:28.47. Also a special thanks to captain obvious, Leif Nordgren, for with out him telling us it was snowing, we may never have noticed. Leif, we salute you!
That’s the news from room 310 of the Brandin’ Iron Inn. Keep an eye out for more updates from your caring writers, Willy and Kyle.