Volcanoes, wind and no power? No problem for the BC Ski Team

For the first three weeks of August, the BC Ski Team experienced a bit of everything in Chile, South America, during an on-snow camp on Caorralco, a dormant volcano inside the Malalcahuello national reserve.

According to head coach Morgan Pridy, the team had some productive moments – mixed with a fair bit of adventure – for the seven skiers and four coaches. “There was a crazy big wind and rain storm that rolled through Chile on the tail end of our travel day. We had power outages everywhere … luckily our accommodations could be run on a couple generators, and the resort – since it is build in a national park – can’t run power lines up direct to the resort so they run all the lifts on diesel on so they were able to operate normally. It made for a crazy long drive, but a fun adventure for the kids.”

The team also had some productive training sessions, focussed on “slowing things down and working to establish – and to reestablish – strong fundamentals,” Pridy said.

The team then transitioned to training at higher volume and a mix of training environments, which included some sublime training days.

“This was our first on-snow camp together as a new team and new staff so it was a very cool experience learning how the athletes understand skiing and seeing the unique things each of them bring to our daily training environment,” Pridy said.

For Dillon Prophet, in his first camp as a coach of the BCST, it was a productive few weeks. “The surface really came together through the second half of the camp after some early storms,” he said. “Working with many of the athletes for the first time on snow, it was great to see how hard everyone works and how they push each other as a team. We spent some time slowing things down to establish a solid individual focus and laying the groundwork for a productive camp and rest of the season.”

Eric Schwenk, also new to the BCST staff, was equally impressed with the focus level. “Due to the storm the surface the first week wasn’t ideal, but the athletes took it in stride and put in lots of effort in their slow skiing and drill. Once the surface came together we got really solid GS and SL training. They were all working hard and capitalized on each day on snow.”

Former BCST member Soleil Patterson was also part of the on-hill staff, under the Jonny Kellock Foundation Interface program. Soleil will be working with the Vancouver Ski Team this season, primarily with U16 and also with the FIS athletes.

Pridy was happy with the overall focus and ability to adapt during the camp.

“Everyone performed admirably, took advantage of the bad days just the same as the good ones,” Pridy said. “Maybe it’s a BC upside, but wet & windy conditions didn’t deter anyone and all of our athletes have done the work and understand where they need to focus technically and have given themselves the opportunity for a productive next camp.”