Europe Camp Part 2

​The second half of my fall camp in Europe blew by as always, I am now traveling back to the US. When I left off last time I had just arrived in Croatia, a new country for me, in fact it is the 26thcountry I have traveled to! One of the many things I love about my sport is the opportunity to travel the world and experience all of those countries. In Croatia we had all of the National Teams (Men’s & Women’s Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined) along with a large contingency of coaches. Our camp mostly consisted of dryland training and plyometric type of work. It was fun to spend time with all of our teams as it is rare that we are all in the same place together, intermixing and doing training sessions together made the camp very unique and fun! We stayed at a resort right on the beach, so naturally the first thing we did upon arrival was jump in the water! We also did several intensity sessions on roller skis, climbing up into the mountains and changing landscapes. Croatia is a beautiful country and it was very interesting to ski up through different parts of the countryside. If you haven’t seen any yet my teammate Jared Shumate started a Vlog (video blog) and made a funny little one from our camp in Croatia, check it out below! He also has a couple other good ones on his Youtube page you should check out here. 

​After Croatia we drove back to Slovenia for a few days rest before the final part of our trip. Naturally we took to the mountains and went on one last beautiful hike, it was classic Slovenian hiking gaining 4,500ft in elevation and then descending right back down in 3hrs. After our short rest we drove to Oberstdorf, GER for the final week of camp and finally time for some more ski jumping! We lucked out big time and had wonderful weather for almost the whole week, naturally it was rainy and cold the morning of our Time Trial, only making a warm shower and coffee that much better afterwards. The ski jumps in Oberstdorf are fun hills, however they bring out some of my weaknesses on the jump hill. With the help of my coaches I was able to learn from them and greatly improve during our week in Germany! We were in Oberstdorf with our entire USA Nordic National Team (same as Croatia) making for a super fun week. We all jumped together and stayed in the same apartments. USA Nordic has created an awesome team atmosphere and vibe that has gotten better each year I have been on the team. This camp was a great example of how everyone can work together and have a fun but productive training camp. After a month in Europe I am now traveling back to the US with all of the National Team, we will stop in Minneapolis first for another visit to the Mayo Clinic. This will be great to check up on each athlete before our final weeks of preparation and the season begins! As always keep scrolling for more media from the camp and stay tuned!