Holderness / FSC Summer Ski CampJuly 25 – August 8, 2013 Saas-Fee, Switzerland
Philosophy of Our CampThe Holderness School is proud to offer you fantastic ski training along with a cultural experience. The ultimate goal of the camp is the development of the whole person, through skiing, a variety of afternoon activities, cultural visits and daily interaction with people of a different culture. We strive to promote the athlete's own love and excitement for the sport of ski racing while simultaneously instilling the principles of hard work, discipline and fun. By using the U.S. Ski Team as well as Holderness Ski Team drills and exercises, complemented by gate training in GS and SL and daily video analysis, we are confident that your children will return home with improved technical and tactical skills. One of the biggest benefits of skiing at Saas Fee is watching World Cup skiers from different national teams using the same drills as we are. On any given day, you will see 5-10 teams training SL, GS and SG, and each one has its own training lane. The reason why the French, Austrian, Sweden, Norway, USA, Canadian, Swiss, Italian, German, Slovenian, Polish, and Spanish national teams train at Saas Fee is because it offers the world's best summer training. History of Saas FeeThe Saas Valley has been populated since the time of the Celts, but it was Roman emperor Augustus who united the Valais with Italy, founded its first towns and set up the trade route across the Alps, Monte Moro and the Antrona Pass. The Saracens invaded the Valais in 939, and the names of many places and mountains in the area bear witness to their rule. For example, Allalin and Monte-Moro. The Saas Valley started attracting tourists around 1830. The valley's first hotel, the Hotel Monte Rosa, was built in Saas-Grund in 1856. Coincidentally this was the same year that Matthias Zurbriggen was born (15 May 1856 in Saas-Fee). He was one of the great 19th-century alpinists and mountain guides. He climbed throughout the Alps, and also in South America, the Himalayas and New Zealand. He made a considerable number of first ascents, the most well-known of which was Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas. Climbers revered him as one of the greatest of all alpine guides. His family still live in the Saas Valley today. One of his descendants Pirmin Zubriggen dominated ski racing in the 1980s wining two Olympic gold medals, 4 World Championship Gold medals as well as 4 season triumphs in the combined disciplines of Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom and Slalom. His sister Heidi also won several World titles and today he and his parents own a hotel in Saas Almagell and one in Zermatt For much of the 20th century, Switzerland’s Saastal Valley was inaccessible to most of the world. But in 1951, when a two-lane road linking Saas Grund to the village of Saas Fee was completed, skiers caught on fast: Here was access to some of the western Alps’—and Europe’s—most consistent year-round skiing. No cars are allowed to enter Saas Fee (they have to be parked in special car parks outside); only small electric vehicles operate on the streets (and some petrol-driven garbage trucks). The decision to exclude most motor vehicles was made by the village at the time of the construction of the road from Saas Grund in 1951.The resort features the highest underground funicular railway in the world up to the skiing area and the highest revolving restaurant in the world at 3,500 m (11,500 feet). Houses are still required to be 40 percent wooden, which is why the village often seems to blend in nicely with its surroundings. With eighteen peaks over 4000 meters high surrounding the villages of Saas-Fee and its three neighbors of Saas-Grund, Saas-Almagell and Saas-Balen are always in good company. They are set out in a shell-shaped constellation which has earned the glacier villages the nickname of "the Pearl of the Alps." When you raise your gaze upwards Switzerland’s highest peak, the Dom, standing proud at 4545 meters, dominates the panorama. Then when you take the cable car up to a height of 3000 meters you find the Felskinn glacier displaying its pearly whiteness. After 500 meters of further ascent, which are rapid via an unusual Alpine underground funicular system, the Mittelallalin summit multiplies the perspectives even further. Here the world’s largest ice pavilion plunges into the blue veins of the Mischabel mountain range and a revolving restaurant, that embraces the Bernese Alps and the Grisons canton, winks at and is seen by the Milan metropolis below. A cable car departs from Saas-Grund that takes you uphill to the resort of Hohsaas where you can wander around this gigantic natural theatre on foot. At 3142 meters, this site has 18 circuits of paths equal to the number of the surrounding peaks that reach over 4000 meters high. Each stop along the trails features a small cairn or a sculpture of each mountain that tells the story of the mountain’s history or its first ascent. The DetailsDates: July 25 – August 8, 2013 Team Size: Maximum 24 skiers and 5 coaches Coaches: Jonna Mendes, Courtney Calise Temple, Georg Capaul, TBA Cost: $3,100 this includes:
Airline reservation and cost: Individual responsibility. Daily Schedule6:15 Warm-up6:30 Breakfast 7:30 Tram open 8:15 Training Session # 1 10:00 Snack on hill 10:15 Training session # 2 12:30 / 1:00 Depart from the mountain 1:00 / 1:30 Lunch at the hotel 2:00 to 3:00 Rest 3:00 to 5:30 Activities and ski preparation 6:00 Dinner 7:30 Video analysis / lectures 8:00 / 9:30 Leisure time 10:00 Lights out Coaching Staff
Georg Capaul
Courtney Temple Hi Saas Fee Campers, My name is Courtney Temple and I can’t wait to head over to Switzerland with all of you. I love coaching, especially in the summer. I coached the Holderness Summer Ski Camp in July, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011and 2012 and had an amazing time. My ski racing career started at Cannon in NH when I was 10. I hopped the border, not too long after that, to Burke in VT. I spent all four years of high school attending Burke Mountain Academy, where I qualified for the US Ski Team in 1997. I spent six years with the team racing all over the world at the FIS and Europa Cup levels. I was top 10 in my age group in the world in SL for the six years I was on the team. I had a few top ten Europa Cup finishes, several podium Super Series/Nor-Am finishes and in 2001 I was 6th and 7th in GS and SL respectively at US Nationals. I parted with the national team in 2003 because of injuries. That year I started college at Dartmouth where I became a two-time All American athlete. I was 2nd in the NCAA SL Championship in 2004 and I was 3rd in the NCAA GS Championship in 2005. I’m currently married and live in Cambridge, MA. I graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in psychology in 2007 and I earned my masters degree in education in 2008 from Lesley University. I taught fifth grade in Georgetown, MA last year and loved it. Enjoy the rest of the ski season. See you in July.
Jonna Mendes I'm Jonna Mendes, one of your coaches for the 2013 Holderness Saas-Fe camp. This will be the 8th Holderness camp that I have coached at, and I'm really excited to be joining you in Switzerland this summer. Another reason I can't wait for the Holderness camp is because I get to work with all of you. I know I have skied with some of you before, but there are some new skiers for me to meet, which is awesome. I love being able to use my experiences as a national team athlete to help junior racers. I was on the U.S. Ski Team for ten years, some of those years with Courtney Calise (Temple), who is also a coach in Saas-Fee. In those ten years I earned four national championships, and a bronze medal in Super-G at the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. After I retired from competition, I got married, and now I am a frequent guest coach at the U.S. Ski Team's National Development System projects. My current home is Sun Valley, working as the Director of recruiting for the SunValley Ski Academy. I would like you to think about how we can help you become better ski racers. Our coaching has a lot of unusual experiences that can help you become so much better, so make sure you come ready to work on what you normally spend time working on with your home coaches, but also ready to ask us questions and use us!!! I can't wait to see all of you! For More Information:Please contact Georg Capaul at gcapaul@holderness.org |
