Juniors travel to train with national snowboarding team
Rose Bransford and Iris Pflum practice during their time in Colorado.
January 21, 2020
Juniors Iris Pflum and Rose Bransford recently spent a week in Colorado training for their upcoming snowboarding season. Pflum and Bransford compete for the G-Team alpine team through Hyland Hills with around ten other teammates. While in Colorado, they participated in races, competing against other riders from all across the country.
In northern Colorado, Pflum and Bransford spent time training at Copper Mountain and competed in the race at Eldora Mountain. Typically, each race is split by gender. The women race, and then the men race, and then the process repeats. “[After that] the top 16 riders of both genders will go on to ‘finals’ where the first ranked will race the 16th [and so on],” Bransford said.
During the week the girls were in Colorado, they were able to compete, train, and spend time with their team. “My favorite part of the trip was getting back on snow after a long break of only doing dryland training and spending time with my teammates,” Bransford said.
Training with such an intense team comes with its perks. The girls are exposed to some amazing athletes to meet and compete against. “My favorite part of the trip was meeting and becoming really good friends with some of the top racers around the world,” Pflum said.
The girls’ training is pretty extensive, having practices on every day of the week. “We train Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday on snow. On Tuesday, we workout as a team in a gym. Friday, we workout or [train] on snow,” Pflum said.
Bransford started snowboarding when she was a lot younger. “I would go sledding with my brothers, and once I decided to stand up on the sled to see if I could do it. It took me a couple of tries, but I eventually got down the hill without falling. I thought doing this for a sport would be so fun. So I decided to try it out, and I became obsessed with the sport and haven’t stopped talking about it since,” Bransford said.
Pflum began the sport after her brother’s snowboarding experience sparked her interest. “My older brother, who I have always been best friends with, started snowboarding, and like I did all the time, I followed behind him in his footsteps. I urged him to teach me, and since then I’ve fallen in love with the sport. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be on snow riding with my teammates,” Pflum said.
