PETTIT TO TIMP

IDAHO/UTAH - Summer is in full swing, here in the Wood River Valley. The Olympic Development Team just got back from a week-long camp in Utah. Thank you Scott, Chris and the team at Soldier Hollow who let us monopolize the place for 5 days.

We spend our nights in the basement, strewn across the deck and lawns of the SoHo venue. We tried our best to play nice with the other residents, mainly earwigs, during the day - and by nice I mean ran from, cussed at and stomped on.

We played hard, slept like rocks, and smiled all-day everyday. We put in some solid hours of training and took advantage of the steep-grade roller ski trails. Video clips from technique to come in a future post.

Simi found dueling bananas in the same peel that Trav adopted and coddled the entire week. The affair concluded with a full-on photo shoot (evidence pictured).

We hiked Mount Timpanogos (11,749') and swam in the ice covered mountain pond on the way down (see video below). We glacided, made friends with some mountain goats, and thought of our teammate Willie, often.

After the hike, we hit up the 7 Peaks water park. I received a black-and-blue the size of a soft ball from the blue slide. Simi almost fell 25 feet after launching himself down the same blue slide and Trav beat me in a head-to-head race (our excuse to avoid doing the blue slide again).

Our return trip home was uneventful, although Sim's roller ski did fly off of the van on the Interstate at 80mph. No one was hurt and the ski was recovered, somehow undamaged.

Pettit Lake, thanks Sinnotts! and hiking Timp

All for now folks. Live your dreams, don't just visit them at night!