From canoeing the mighty Huron River to Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, Troop 8 at St. Thomas Church runs the most amazing year-round outdoor adventure and leadership program in the area.

Wednesday

With everyone a touch sore from their first long day skiing, today was an “off” day.  The group got a quick lesson on ski wax from the Vulture, then headed in to the Lake Placid Olympic Development Center for an opportunity to practice the sport of biathlon – cross country ski racing where you pause occasionally to shoot things.   After a bit of confusion as to where we were supposed to meet up, the group headed out.

Second Day of Ski Camp

Our second ski day dawned clear and cold, with temperatures hovering around zero.  The guys were good about stoking the stoves during the night, so the cabin stayed warm and the breakfasts came mostly on time.   The JLT gang was doing quiche like real men, but it took just a bit longer to cook than the recipe suggested because they used a pan that was about 3 full inches deep.  Ah, the wonders of learning thermodynamics through experience!

On the Mountain

Monday dawned with cooler temperatures, and while we didn't get snow at least we're not getting rain!   The Ventures headed off to pick up Noah's skis and hit the beginner runs, where they promptly broke the Magic Carpet ride for being too heavy for kid beginners.  Meanwhile the JLT gang got Bob's talk about ski levels and then headed off to learn how to lead Liam and Bean through the rental lines.  First day logistics are always hard, and there were multiple trips to cars for boots left behind, etc.   We went through a checkout of the rental ge

Venture Telemark Pretrip / Ski Instructor Junior Leader Training

Hello to friends and family back home!   This is your midweek JLT/Venture Pretrip update.  Due to a momentary loss of sanity by Scoutmaster Max and the adult crew, we scheduled joint and overlapping trips.  Our JLT ski instructor crew includes Liam, Aedan, Maks, Ben, Bean, and our fearless leader Jason.  The Venture telemark crew includes the Idaho crew plus Thomas and Evan, minus the Incomparable Shanel who opted to go pre-scout Colorado for the group.   Happily, our adult team has been supplemented by the Scouter Reserve of Nick Wei, Colorado Connor, and