Two weekends ago the Yukon ski team went on a roller ski training camp on the Highway between Haines Junction and Haines Alaska. The area in between is known as the Kluane National Park. We left on the Friday night and drove three hours from Whitehorse to Kathleen lake campground.
Saturday morning we start with a two and a half hour roller ski with two sets of five sprints in between. First roller ski felt pretty good but by the time we got back to camp most people ate a quick lunch and headed straight for a nap. We wake up from our naps to some nice summer weather and start getting ready for a gradual uphill run. After two hours and around fifteen km we are stretching in the sun and still feeling pretty good since it’s only the first day. That night we had spaghetti and sausage for dinner and I don’t remember the exact amount but I believe it was something like 2 kilograms of pasta between seven people, to say the least we were all pretty full. Since the last training camp it has also become somewhat of a tradition to play a game called mafia at night where you sit in a circle and there are bad guys trying to get everyone out of the game but no one knows who they are and you all have to try and figure it out.
Sunday morning we started with a hike right behind the campground called kings throne. You start running along the lake then go up a fair bit of loose rock which brings you to a bowl surrounded by mountain. After the bowl we started on the left ridge and went up until we hit fog. Alain our ski coach has done the whole ridge hike but says it gets pretty dangerous coming down the otherside. It looked scary enough to me considering it didn’t look like a nice stroll for the mountain goats we saw. It is too bad however that we didn’t make it to the top because apparently you can see the peak of Mt. Logan from there. After the three hour hike we had a similar afternoon of eating and then taking a long nap. Everyone was feeling the hike in the afternoon so we decided to do a shortened roller ski with some specific strength.
We finished the camp on a beautiful Monday with a two and half hour roller ski with around thirty minutes of intensity. We also got to take a cold dip in the Kathleen lake to freshen up a little before packing into the van for the three hour drive back.
Taking up the empty highway roller skiing.
Hiking up the left ridge of Kings Throne with Kathleen Lake in the background.
Thanks to Lee Hawkings for the great photos and the video.
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