The first hints of snowfall are still months away, but on the pock-marked asphalt of the Paradise Valley Road the future of cross-country skiing in western Canada is out for an early morning training session.
Four athletes and their coach, Amy Caldwell, are "double poling" for hours on practice skis that look more like elongated rollerblades. This work-out regime may take them all the way to the top.
The five represent the seeds of the Callaghan Valley Training Centre (CVTC) team, which will grow into the best cross-country skiers west of Saskatchewan.
Each athlete is in their late teens or early 20s, and they say they want to make the most of the Callaghan Valley's unsurpassed trails, which are due to open this winter at the 2010 Olympic cross-country venue north of Squamish. "These guys are still young for the sport," said Caldwell. "World-class cross-country skiers tend to hit their peak in their late 20s. The move has been great. Squamish is an awesome community with a lot of athletic people, so the training has been fun."
Caldwell brings a vast amount of experience from her 13 years of coaching at the Stratton Mountain School in Vermont, where she coached many junior team members onto the U.S. national and Olympic ski teams.
The CVTC program offers talented, medal-winning skiers a competition, training and monitoring program for the CVTC Team, which is targeted for developing junior athletes for the National Ski Team.
This inaugural group is kicking off what will eventually be a much larger program in the Squamish region, thanks to the soon-to-be-completed Olympic development up the road.
For the young people involved, the program means daily training sessions in and around Squamish, and a group of like-minded comrades to share the toil of working towards their goals in cross-country skiing, said Caldwell, who moved from Vermont at the beginning of June to take up her post.
As an Olympic sport, cross country ski categories mainly vary between distances covered by competitors. The men's events involve the 1.5-km sprint; 15-km classical; 50-km freestyle; team sprint; combined pursuit; and 4 x 10-km relay. The women's events are the 1.5-km sprint; 10-km classical; 30-km freestyle; team sprint; combined pursuit; and 4 x 5-km relay.
There are two styles of cross-country skiing at the Olympics, classical, in which skiers use a straight stride and must stay within predetermined parallel tracks.
This was the only style allowed at the Olympics until 1988.
The second style is freestyle, which is reminiscent of speed skaters. Skiers push off with each ski on each stride creating a much faster race than classical.
Meet the CVTC team
Jesse Heckrodt, 22, from Salmon Arm, is a longer-distance skier who has won three national junior gold medals. He started competing at the age of five and hopes to make the 2010 cross country team.
"I had a coach before coming to Squamish, but he was in Edmonton. Not close. It's nice to be able to work with Amy every day," he said. "We've been up there [to the Callaghan Valley] once to see the construction and drive the trails. Everything is looking good."
Hannah Perry, 19, from Calgary, is a sprint skier who has been competing since she was 13. She presented Canada at the 2006 and 2007 World Junior Championships.
She took courses at the University of Calgary and may continue with correspondence courses, as she likes to keep busy."There's a lot more kids doing it in Calgary at my old club, but they're a lot younger. It got to the point where I outgrew the program so I came here," she said. "It's lower altitude here, which is nice, because it means a better recovery. And I find the different approach to training refreshing."
Emily Nishikawa, 18, from Whitehorse, Yukon, moved to Squamish a week after completing high school to take advantage of the CVTC program. She won a bronze medal at the 2007 Canada Winter Games.
"Squamish is about the same size as Whitehorse, so that is similar. It was a big change getting used to living away from home, but I think I'm doing pretty well."
Bryn Knight is also 18 and a recent high school graduate from Whitehorse.
She won three gold medals at the 2007 Nationals and two bronze medals at 2007 Canada Winter Games.
"The transition from Whitehorse to Squamish went pretty smooth. For me the training is not a huge increase in overall hours, but it's easier to get the training you need to have for competing. It's a different kind of focus," she said. "I really enjoy Squamish, though there's a lot of rain."
