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CANMORE, ALTA.:<\/strong> Before the holidays, one Fall River cross country skier and a coach attended a development camp in western Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emma Archibald accepted an invitation to Nordiq Canada\u2019s annual para-nordic development camp; held at the Canmore Nordic Centre Provincial Park, in Canmore, Alberta, from Nov. 20-25. Skiers from across Canada were in attendance, including club and national team athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two days of time trials also included participation by national team athletes from Great Britain, United States, and Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The camp offered athletes one-to-one coaching from provincial and national-level ski coaches. Nova Scotia provincial coach, Lila Roy from the Stewiacke area, also attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was Archibald\u2019s second year participating in the national camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was just an amazing start to the season, an amazing opportunity,\u201d said Archibald. \u201cThe first couple of days it was the training camp. It was good to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”127″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”8″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lockview High alum said the first time she went she had been on skis, so she was just trying to stand up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis time, having a bit of background and being on the skis, I was able to take in more information and do more with it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe last time I was just getting used to the skis, but this time I could make tweaks, which was really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI also felt more prepared going into the time trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She explained that Monday and Tuesday, Lilla and she did some long skis and explored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn Wednesday there was a classic time trial, 5 km. On Thursday, there was a skate time trial, which was 7.5 km. Those went really well,\u201d said Archibald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was just also so cool to see the national para-nordic skiers, like Natalie Wilkie<\/mark><\/a> and Mark Arendz<\/mark><\/a>. It was insane just watching them ski \u2013 inspiring seeing them and how fast they go; they are great athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”146″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was also an athlete from Japan who is a World Champion, and he was a no pole skier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was so cool seeing him on the course, seeing his technique and trying to mimic it. That was a really, really, cool experience,\u201d said Archibald. \u201cIt was a great experience to compete, but I also loved just watching them and taking in their technique.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe program was mostly one-to-one with a couple of coaches, for half-an-hour to an hour. I was with the BC coach who would work with me on technique \u2013 we would go for little skis, maybe some sprints, but it wasn\u2019t necessarily an assigned work-out. It was a lot of technique and video coaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n