"RonaSeason", a BC Ski Team update from coach Morgan PridyAlpine is a four-season sport. Each having itre running on nothing but fumes and passion all the way to spring. Rinse and repeat, right? RIGHT?!Nope. Super wrong. Welcome to the fifth season t matter. The fact remains, skiing just got John Wilkes Boothed. Hard.Now you may be thinking, Letm sure each of you has your own specific D-day during these wild times. So we hop in the time machine for the first of two stop and spin the knob to around D-day minus 40.We are neck deep in Quebec and have just finished racing on ice so icy that it has literally been ripping the bases off the crewd say two factors played huge into it: Fear and hot sauce, plain and simple.First night we have a team dinner, a random selection of the closest restaurant. Quebec Tex MexPart two of this apparent cocktail for success was fear. Not ski related fear, not at all but more traditional fear. It started with a little unease stemming from the dilapidated barn attached to the house. A structure with rusted scythes and a dusty collection of hillbilly knickknacks that could only belong to some sort of psycho killer. The unease grew as the nights fell, the temperature plummets and the house produced sounds that were hard to explain. Of course this is only the mind playing tricks, but being in the middle of nowhere seemed to amplify everything a little. Now picture that you are me and you.It was only a 10 minute drive to get back and when I arrive all the doors are locked of course they are locked now, after the fact. So we get to talking and establish that whomever was in the basement actually did know the owner of the house and acted as a care taker. They were cold from sledding through the fields of rural Quebec and he had wanted to warm up his hands on the furnace downstairs. At this time the whole story starts to take shape.Okay, we were upstairs and we hear a bunch of rustling around in the basement, so we assume its GVS trying to scare us and you know we don well because F that, its scary down there. Uhm alright, what did you do then?*Sheepish looks* We went to the top of the stairs and started shouting at him that this joke wasnt stop messing around. But then GVS walked out of the other room and asked what we were shouting about.Rightt also named Gerrit. What happened next?We could still hear someone down there and we had to find out who it was.It was at this point Nate decided he would put on his cape and save the team. Half way down the stairs was all it took for the cape to come off and he decided this was a job best done not alone.Marcus and I go down together and we see this guy all hunched over at the furnace and we ask him what hes doing. He tells us and a few minutes later he gets up and leaves.Wow, thats so reasonable, very composed, good work guys, apart from the initial shouting you handled that well.*Much MUCH more sheepish looks* Well maybe Marcus was holding an ax the whole time.I literally drag the palm of my hand down my face. In the minutes to follow the complete recap of the afternoons events unfold. Nate takes off his cape, gets a somewhat unwilling Marcus to accompany him to the basement, en route Marcus gets what we are going to label as a self defense/prop ax on the off chance that it Somehow they have a calm conversation and all is resolved.Not how you draw it up, but scared kids with 250,000 Scoville units in them race fast. Make sure to put that in the coaches manual.Jump to D-day minus 20, Life is good, like damn its good. The team is as back together as it has been since December and we are all completely soaked to the bone up on Grouse. We are collectively wetter than the dirty water dogs they serve at the clubhouse. Its) adapt and excel throughout the series.Apex was next, a short training block directly in front of Pano Forever. It Just prior to our arrival we were slapped with a non-essential travel ban. I can confirm that it is also a six hour drive back to Whistler.(Time machine sounds) annnnnd we are back in the present. Put down the pallet of toilet paper and while you are at it, take that shopping cart with the 300 liters of milk back to wherever you got it from, you cans take a collective breath through our facemasks and remember that the world is going to keep on spinning.Just my thoughts on it, and remember this is coming from a guy who loves social distancing at the best of times. Do some things you enjoy while you have the time. As an athlete isolation can get mighty close to solitary confinement and there is a reason that solitary confinement is used as a punishment in prison, because its worse than normal prisont under lock down, where are the BCST now?Strava would be your best bet if you are curious about what the team is up to during these strange times. It is refreshing to me to see a glimpse of what the crew is up to when normal life has been cancelled for the time being. It also is a great reminder that the work is never finished for these guys. On days where you have every excuse to be a potato and set a new high water mark on screen time, they are taking the opportunity to get out and enjoy a time of year usually dominated by hotel rooms and the late season grind. In so many words, the BCST is NOT dead in the water. We may be paddling upstream and the current may get stronger in the weeks or months to come but I
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