The alarm blares loudly, shocking my teammate Stef Fleck and I awake at a painfully early 5:00 am sharp. Stef usually sets the alarm with a pleasant ring for a much more peaceful wake up, but for some reason it’s my phone that’s going off and I rush to turn it off. I shiver out of bed and throw on my sweatshirt before heading into our little common room area to start my morning warm up. We usually stay in hotel rooms, but in Saas Fee we’re in apartments which is so great to be able to cook our own food and have a little extra space. Stef and I alternate making breakfast in the tiny kitchen and doing our own individual stretching and muscle activation exercises to get ready for the day ahead on the glacier. Breakfast usually consists of hard-boiled eggs, toast with peanut butter and maybe some fruit and cereal as well. My morning warm up routine usually takes about ten to fifteen minutes depending on how sore or stiff I am when I wake up.
At about 5:45 am we put on our ski clothes, load up our boot bags and head down to the ski room in the bottom of our hotel. We grab poles and two pairs of skis each (our ski technician will bring up a third pair for us because we usually need three sets of sharp edges on the aggressive glacier snow). Then we walk the 500 meters down to the gondola. Next we wait in little queue lines outside the gondola building until our team is called. We file up the queue, cram as many people as possible into a tight gondola, and head up the mountain. We reach the top of the first gondola and briskly walk across the building to the second gondola, again cramming as many people as possible. At the top of the second gondola is a long tunnel that literally goes straight into the mountain to a train that takes us up to a little building on the top of the Glacier where we finally are able to put on our ski gear and head out for training. The whole process takes anywhere from thirty-five minutes to an hour depending on lines, weather, how aggressive you get with your elbows and mechanical issues along the way.
We’ve finally made it to the top, and it is, without a question, worth the commute. The glacier is massive (although I will note that it is noticeably smaller and dirtier than when I was here five years ago), and has four different training hills/slopes that each have 5-10 courses lined up side by side. It actually takes a little bit when you first start skiing at Saas Fee not to get lost on your way down and accidentally ski into the course next to yours! Today we are on the ‘Derby’ slope and I ski down, set my bag and extra skis at the top of the course, and then do a couple warm up runs and inspect the course. It’s around 7:30 now and we start taking runs in the course. We’ll take around 8-10 runs each day with snack breaks to refuel and watch some of our video with the coaches. After training we pack up our bags, put our skis on our shoulders and start the same long commute down. Depending on when we finish (usually between 10 and 11 am) the commute down might be just as hectic as the way up or sometimes we luck out and catch a window where less people are trying to get down.
Next, it’s time for a big lunch and then a long nap! I nap pretty much daily at training camps because my body is exhausted and it’s a great form of recovery for me. It also helps me feel more energized for the rest of the day. Afternoons usually consist of a dryland workout session (core, a light strength session, stretching, agility, or a recovery hike), video session, talk with the ski technicians about skis and equipment, and then start making dinner.
There were about 50-100 different teams at Saas Fee while we were there, which means anywhere from 500 to 1000 people on the mountain each day, and lots of friends to hang out with in the town or play beach volleyball with on the athletic fields. Getting to catch up with friends I haven’t seen since last season is one of my favorite parts of summer ski camps!
Our daily schedule will shift a little depending on what event we are skiing, how many days in a row we have been on snow, or if it’s an off day. But you start to find a routine that works and then stick to it. 9 pm bedtime is almost always a must for me :)
Update
I just wrapped up my second of four ‘prep period’ camps in Saas Fee, Switzerland. We had unbelievably good weather and conditions the whole time. Usually when you ski on glaciers in the summer, you have some cancelled days because of weather. Either the snow is too soft, or it’s too windy to run the gondola’s, or too foggy to see anything, or raining! But this camp we had zero ‘weather days’ and almost straight sunshine. Very lucky indeed.
I wanted to give you a play by play of a typical training day in Saas Fee, because it can be a strange concept to be skiing in the summer!
Now I am back in Buffalo for a couple weeks for some gym and family time, and to get the last details of the season organized before everything starts ramping up in October. I’m feeling healthy and getting more and more excited for the season.
love the new friend!!!