Hi all, this is Max checking in from Salt Lake City, as we kick off the annual October Park City camp. For those who don't know, alongside skiing for the BSF ProTeam I am also currently a sophomore at the University of Utah, and a member of the UofU Ski Team. Having lived in Salt Lake and trained in the Park City area for over a year now, I figured I should give the top 5 places to train as a preview for the camp.

1) Soldier Hollow (Soho)
No list of places to train in the Salt Lake area would be complete withoutmentioning Soldier Hollow. As many of you probably know, Soho was the venuefor the cross country skiing and biathlon events at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.Although I wasn't alive yet for those games, I am still very familiar with Soho as Ihave raced there every year for the past 8ish years. Under the thick layer of manmade snow that blankets soho in winter, lies a 5ish km rollerski track which wasjust repaved last summer. The steep hills, and closed course of soho makes it agreat place for interval or speed sessions, as well as the Schutzen Ski Roller SkiRaces at the end of the week.

2) Pine Canyon
Also located in the Heber valley not far from Soho is Pine Canyon. Its locationmakes it a convenient spot for intervals, or the end of an OD ski. As the secondsteepest road in Utah, Pine Canyon is a great spot to practice skiing incontinuous steep terrain, which can be difficult to find, especially aroundBozeman.

3) Town Loop
Town Loop as it is commonly referred to is a loop around the Park City valley, that is a very common ski during this camp. As a mix of mostly flat roads and bike paths, it is less glamorous than the previous locations. The flatter nature of town loop makes it great for easier skis, and with many route options it can be anywhere from about 2 hours minimum, up to 4+ hours of skiing. This ski is often used for easy distance, but being as high as it is, this workout can easily end up harder than expected.

4) Mount Timpanogos

Mount Timpanogos is the second tallest peak in the Wasatch, and one of themost prominent peaks from both the Salt Lake, and Heber Valley. Typically covering about 15 miles of trail with 5300' of vert, this session can be along one. Last fall I summited it with the Utes in just over 5 hours. Due to its strenuous nature, this session is not completed every year, but as an Iconic PC session it had to be on the list.

5) Emigration/East Canyon
Beginning in the Salt Lake valley just a few miles from campus, this is the classic Utah Ski Team training location. With a steady grade to the Emigration Summit, and steeper terrain behind it at East Canyon, there is terrain for all types ofsession here. Along with terrain the length of the session is also very easily adjusted, as you can easily ski an hour long out and back just on Emi, or do a 4.5hour OD all the way out and back on East Canyon. Along with rollerskiing you can also road bike both canyons, and run/mtb at many of the trailheads along the way, making it an ideal all round training location.

As you can see there are many great training locations in the PC area, including countless others which didn't make the list. As long as the smoke and snow hold off, BSF should be in for a very fun and productive camp this fall!