With two second-place finishes at the 2022 U.S. Cross Country Ski National Championships in Minnesota in January, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Nordic skier Trey Jones earned a spot to train in the National Training Group camp in Park City, Utah.

Jones traveled to Park City for the weeklong training camp on Oct. 8 that consisted of athletes in the under-18 division and older, including U.S. Ski Team members who competed in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

SSWSC alumnus Wally Magill was also invited to the camp but could not make the trip while he attends classes at Dartmouth College where he skis at the NCAA level.

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SSWSC cross country head coach Josh Smullin was proud to see Jones qualify for the camp and thinks the experience from training with other top athletes around the nation is extremely beneficial for him. 

“One of the ways to become the best is to train with the best,” Smullin said. “I think there’s a lot to be learned, not just in the training, but maybe in living with them, riding in vans with them and seeing how they conduct themselves. It goes far beyond the training.”

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Jones thought training with other top talent was extremely advantageous for him and he marveled at the Olympian’s abilities to be focused and professional during all workouts while never taking it too seriously. 

“Skiing behind a lot of them, their technique is so effortless and just flawless that you can learn a million things from just skiing behind them for five minutes. I think that was the biggest thing,” Jones said.  

The camp involved dryland training including rollerskiing, long distance mountain running, uphill skiing, biking and strength and conditioning workouts.

The majority of cross country ski training is done in the summer and revolves around conditioning. Smullin explained skiers are made in the summer and that is when the bulk of training takes place. 

“In the summer and the dryland period you can really go into detail on fine tuning your muscles and really going hard in the gym and put down solid sessions,” Jones said. “You’re building muscles that you really didn’t know you had that contribute so much to your skiing.”

At the end of the week, the camp took its athletes to two rollerski races at Soldier Hollow, the venue of the 2002 Olympic Games, on Saturday, Oct. 15 and Sunday, Oct. 16.

In the event, athletes used matched rollerskis, meaning each person had the same brand of skis with the same wheels attached to make each race as even as possible.

The races were open to the public, giving SSWSC athletes Henry Magill, Charley Lodwick and Tristan Thrasher the opportunity to participate as well. 

Jones was the top U20 male finisher in the 15k race on Saturday and finished 12th overall in the sprint race on Sunday, getting knocked out in the semi-finals. 

Jones had compartment syndrome surgery in the spring and missed a lot of camps earlier in the summer while rehabbing. He was excited to get the invite to this camp and was appreciative of the intense training it had to offer. 

“This was really the last camp that I could go to so it was a big motivator to go to this camp and be able to train alongside the awesome girls and guys there,” Jones said. “It was a super cool experience.”