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Showing posts from December, 2018

Busy times at WRF!

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What a crazy week! We have had everything from perfect temperatures and snow, to rain, to a small storm.  The program took the day off on December 25th and we have been hammering the mountain everyday. After our day off, we have seen an increase in athlete attendance each day. Today, we had roughly 265 athletes on snow! We have had an array of things going on throughout the week despite some challenging weather. Our grooming and snowmaking teams have been doing everything they can to continue to provide a surface for the general public and for us. I have said it before, but we are so fortunate to have a dedicated trail for training. We had all of the athletes slipping the hill at the completion of the day to avoid the need to groom. We had such an amazing surface all week that we didn't want to run the risk of grooming and ending up with a less than ideal surface. Having a high quality surface allows our athletes to get the most out of their time in the training envi

Holiday training madness!

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Holiday training has commenced! The conditions are leaning slightly to the side of variable around the mountain but with some cold nights coming up for snowmaking, I think we will have some improved conditions when we return for training on the 26th! We had a great weekend with a large portion of our program on snow Saturday and Sunday. Monday saw our numbers thin a bit, but we were still a presence on the hill with groups continuing to work on their fundamental base. Warm Up has officially been dubbed "The Glacier," due to the perfect, (super) firm surface. The kids have been making laps either in training environments or working on free skiing drills and we are so grateful to have The Glacier exclusively for our program. When doing slow speed drills, it is so great to be in a safe and enclosed environment without the risk of collisions with the public. Riding with legendary, Franz Krickl! Perfection Sinead made an appearance on The Glacier!

Opening weekend - complete!

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What an AMAZING first weekend! Nearly 225 athletes and over 50 coaches participated in opening weekend. The groups went out in waves with the our U14 team hitting the snow at 8:15AM, followed by the U12 team at 8:30AM, U10 team at 8:45AM, and our entire Mini World Cup and U16/19 teams at 9:00AM. Each group brought a great amount of energy to the mountain and it was inspiring to see the athletes (and parents!) so fired up for the start of program. With the development of our program wide curriculum, all of the age groups hit the snow moving. They all had an agenda to cover for the day with a couple of simple focus points for their groups. Things will continue to shift within each program as athletes settle into their programs and groups. We are already on the cusp of heading into the holiday period where we will be offering a full program to the athletes. In the coming days, coaches will be sending out communications through TeamSnap to find out who will be here for the

Prepping for Opening Weekend

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We are only a few days away from the first day of program and things are really ramping up! The Westside Six is nearing completion as they have spliced the cable and are scheduled to start putting chairs on at the end of the week. Hopefully all goes as planned - they will do a load test next week, and before we know it, we will be loading the Westside Six! Remains of the cable splicing The coaching staff participated in a coaching clinic this past weekend. 50+ WRF coaches were in attendance and had a full program on Saturday. Starting promptly at 8:30AM, the coaches covered all things WRF. While the morning was spent covering much of the season long logistics and programming, the afternoon gave us all a chance to get on snow together and work through an early season progression. The coaches were split up into groups by first pairing up with a fellow coach who they do not normally work with on the hill. They were then grouped together randomly with a group leader to work through t

We are less than two weeks away from OPENING DAY!

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That's right - we are less than two weeks away from the first day of program and I hope you are all excited to get the season started on December 15th! It was great to see some WRF athletes, parents, and coaches taking advantage of the early season snow this past weekend. While we did go through a bit of a warm weekend, the temperatures have dropped and they fired up the snow guns this morning. They are working on expanding the available terrain and improving upon what they currently have available. Either way, the mountain is fully committed to getting the season off to a great start and using that momentum to carry us into the holiday season. The resurfacing and expansion has begun! I am sure many of you have been wondering what is happening with the Westside Six. You are not alone! As with any construction project, they have hit a few challenges throughout the process that have caused the completion date to shift. While they do not have a specific date for opening, they ar