HURT Camp Vermont

As the summer winds down and kids begin to transition from rambunctious trouble makers back to students eager to learn, team HURT jumped on the opportunity to teach about skiing. With a trip to Jericho, Vermont, athletes found out that learning happens everywhere.

The first thing the team learned: how to entertain themselves on long car rides. This is crucial because if everything goes well this winter, we will be spending quite a bit of time in the car. What’s the best thing to pass time in the car? Freestyle rapping, of course.

The first day was full of fear conquering. The trails at Jericho can be intimidating, but the team went in with full of confidence. By the end of the week everyone enjoyed flying around the big sweeping turns. That afternoon the team went cliff jumping at the Bolton Potholes and really learned how to get past the imaginary wall in their brain holding them back.

Maybe the most important thing the team learned during the trip was if you are unhappy with the way something is, do something about it: the team was upset there wasn’t a camp shirt. So we while on our trip to Walmart, the whole team bought matching shirts reading “Camp Vermont” so with a few orange and green sharpies the team made official “HURT Camp Vermont” shirts.

Over the week the team met many high caliber athletes from around the continent and hopefully learned by example. New York athletes such as Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey were great models and Coach Halligan didn’t pass up the opportunity to use these athletes as technique examples.

HURT watches Sochi Olympian Russell Currier

Since the team was so close to Burlington, they decided to check out Church Street after dinner one night. Not 4 minutes into getting to Burlington, HURT’s Mikey Halligan almost got into a rap battle at The North Face. Luckily Mikey’s intimidating beats from his phone were enough to scare the challenger away. But it goes to show you: it pays to freestyle for 2.5 hours on your way to ski camp.

The whole point of the trip, however, was to watch the biathlon Rollerski races and learn from the best. And thanks to cooperative weather, there were great races.

Tim Burke Showing us how it's done

New Yorkers Unite!

HURT had an awesome opportunity to meet arguably the most successful biathlete of all time.
Andrea Henkle-Burke is a multi-time Olympic Champion, World Champion and Overall World Cup Winner.

The Trip ended with one last learning opportunity that doesn’t have much to do with skiing but is an essential life skill. As the team pulled up to the gas station to fill up for the ride home, athlete/team driver Nino Manzella admitted “coach, I have no idea what I’m doing.” Referring to the gas pump.

So as you can see team HURT is getting a jump start on the learning as school is right around the corner.