Day 1

First day up on Mt. Hood! The weather was not optimal, but the minimal visibility and bumpy terrain helped us work on staying balanced and centered. The cold and wet conditions did not affect the smiles and excitement of our first day on snow since winter. After taking a couple of warm up runs, we split in to groups by age and spent the rest of the morning doing drills to help us get that good feeling back. By late morning we caught a glimpse of blue sky. 

Each house did their own recovery and journal time (each athlete has an athlete journal in which they record what they worked on that day and other personal notes). Tonight we are having an all camp dinner at Tracy's house for some world famous chicken caesar wraps. 

We are off to an awesome start and are hoping for some better weather tomorrow.

li

Highghts from the travel day

The travel day went incredibly smooth (aka our head count is still 62). Our main highlight of the trip was Casey Cardon’s birthday celebration. As our plane was preparing to land in Portland the flight attendants directed a special ceremony. Here is a video of one of the most memorable performances of the “Happy Birthday” song any of us will ever sing. 

Though it was raining and freezing cold (compared to the east coast heat wave) when we arrived in Portland, Tracy warmly welcomed us with some fresh pizza outside the baggage claim. After our pizza party the group split into their assigned houses and headed off to Welches (our home for the next 10 days).