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North American training during COVID-19

karlo

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Seems like it’s do-able.


From watching her warmup, looks pretty firm. Early morning no doubt. Anyone know if it holds up through the day?
 
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karlo

karlo

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“there is reason to be optimistic with the governor of Oregon issuing an executive order that will allow Timberline Ski Area on Mount Hood to open this week. The ski team also remains hopeful — but not necessarily optimistic — that Mammoth Mountain will get the lifts turning in time for its scheduled training block in June.”

I guess Mammoth didn’t work out. I suppose Argentina and New Zealand look like lost causes without charter flights and quarantines. Those in EU that have access to the glaciers may have a competitive advantage next season, if races are held at all.
 

tball

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I'll chalk that video up as pretty good evidence that Copper could give A-Basin (which was closed) a run for their money in the late-season game if they wanted to compete!

@mikel do you know why they were using the Super Bee to upload rather than the brand new Eagle? I guess the US Ski Team's Speed Center is normally based out of the East Village with the Super Bee. Not sure of the logistics, but it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to base out of Center Village with the Eagle when there is no public skiing, unlike November.
 
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karlo

karlo

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Mikaela and team are training on Hood right now. They are in the lane next to my son and daughter who are incredibly pumped to be training next to their heroes.
And to watch how great skiing is done. Wow!
 

robertc3

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That is the best part. My son and daughter took so many photos and videos of her. I implored them both to study all of the National team and see what they could pick up. Maybe some will rub off on them!
 

sparty

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US Ski & Snowboard has posted guidelines for return to training. https://usskiandsnowboard.org/covid-19/return-snow-training

Of particular note, I think the following are going to be among the more challenging guidelines:
  • Athletes and staff should arrive at the on-snow/sport-specific training venue changed and ready to start their warm up/training (try not use mountain lodges or changing rooms at the mountain, unless necessary (restroom)).
  • Athletes and staff should bring their own water bottles (filled), towels, radios, drills, cameras and other equipment needed and do not allow sharing of items.
For academy programs, not sharing equipment will, I think, mostly mean carrying it on your person and never putting it down (the programs I've worked with generally had close to, if not quite, enough equipment for each coach to operate independently). I'm not aware of a single club program that has enough drills to go around, let alone cameras (radios, maybe), though, and I sure wouldn't expect this to be a good year to ask for more equipment spending.

Also,
  • All “team/site equipment” should be sanitized before, during, and after the on-snow/sport-specific training session.
So we need to sanitize all the gates at least three times a day? That sounds...challenging. I have strong suspicion that whatever protocols we end up with, there's going to be a bit of handwaving here (like, are we really going to separate out a bundle, sanitize all the gates, wait the appropriate time for the sanitizer to be effective, and then rebundle, or are we just going to liberally spray Lysol at the bundled gates?). At least plastic gates should be relatively easy to disinfect; I'm not sure the same is true of panels or other fabric materials.

edit to add: and hopefully that "team/site equipment" sanitation requirement doesn't extend to B-net, or we're going to need full-time folks just for that.
 

James

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All “team/site equipment” should be sanitized before, during, and after the on-snow/sport-specific training session.

There’s really no reason to sanitize “before” if you do after. I suppose heavy breathing by a coach, and a coughing fit while carrying a bundle would make it a different story.

I think you should emphasize athletes are not to lick the gates.

It’s a respiratory virus. You can clean all you want, but two or more people talking close together in the parking lot or on the hill is where it’ll spread.
 

mikel

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It's going to be interesting how early season training at Copper goes. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see opening day pushed back. Maybe some type of limited access to the east village? Who knows if teams and/or schools will even come this season.
 

sparty

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There’s really no reason to sanitize “before” if you do after. I suppose heavy breathing by a coach, and a coughing fit while carrying a bundle would make it a different story.

I think you should emphasize athletes are not to lick the gates.

It’s a respiratory virus. You can clean all you want, but two or more people talking close together in the parking lot or on the hill is where it’ll spread.
No licking gates? I'm glad I don't coach U10s.

...and what, exactly, does "during" mean? Should we be spraying down the last 20 gates of a slalom between racers, because everyone is breathing hard at that point and the gates could be flinging viral particles when blocked?

I do get that the surface-transmission risk is not even in the same zipcode as the shared-air risk. The two things that gives me pause are
a) knowing how often I end up wiping my nose with my gloves while on the hill, and considering that I'm not the only one and that we're then all touching gates, etc., with the same gloves; and
b) if the NGB and/or governmental organizations are providing best-practice guidelines, I'm most definitely not interested in claiming to have the knowledge to say when it's reasonable to diverge from those guidelines
 

tball

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It's going to be interesting how early season training at Copper goes. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see opening day pushed back. Maybe some type of limited access to the east village? Who knows if teams and/or schools will even come this season.
Yeah, it's a reminder of the coming early-season challenge of distancing when there are limited lifts and open terrain. Add to that early season training competing with the general public for the limited space. It's a conflict in a normal year at Copper and seems like it will be next to impossible this year. If the racers paying the bills show up, the public may be forced to wait. I could see Copper potentially open to racers weeks before the public if capacity is limited by the gov.
 

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