Imagine, every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday you have to travel an hour to practice the sport you love. Blaine Alpine Ski Team does this, just to have a hill to practice on. The amount of miles the team travels each practice there and back is mind blowing; a total of 86 in one day. The team leaves from the school at 3:15, fifty-five minutes after school gets done and normally doesn’t get back until 9:00 pm at night.

When we asked Megan Pass, a member of the Alpine team how she feels about this schedule she says it is annoying to travel so far, but she likes the team. The lucky part of traveling so far is you get a coach bus each time. Busses are better than traveling yourself, especially when it is snowy because they tend have better traction.

Blaine’s Alpine team usually arrives at Trollhaugen Outdoor Recreational Area a few minutes before 5:30. At 5:30 the team must be gathered around the hill. The process to set up everything needed for practice is tedious. Since it is away, the members of the team don’t have a locker room to change, so they have to change in the challet. When they are done they have to start setting up the hill for practice. They grab gates, which are the posts that, if you have ever seen downhill skiing are the colored ones a skiier must go around. They set up the hill and start their practice. Their actual practice gets done at about 7:40, but when you set up things in the beginning you have to take them down at the end.

One thing on our mind when talking to Megan Pass was dinner. If the team is so far away from home how can they possibly have time to eat dinner if they get back so late? The answer is quite simple, you have to bring a bag dinner. Homework on the other hand would be difficult to get done when you get home at that time. Blaine’s Alpine Ski Team has a very difficult practice scedule, and it is much different than most teams’ at Blaine. They are the only team throughout the year that has to travel 43 miles to get to their practice site. Although the drive there and back might be long, the feeling of finally getting to ski down the hill is “exhillerating” enough to continue making the trek.