Mountain Mayhem: Traveling light

This spring, we saw a six-weekend run of Aspen Lacrosse Club tournaments with our son playing for the Aspen fifth- and sixth-grade boys’ combined teams, making the most of family time, team bonding, and traveling around the state. At Aspen Lacrosse Club, they begin playing as young as kindergarten for the “Never Too Early” age group and go straight up to eighth grade, and spring tournaments take place in neighboring cities and towns in Colorado with competitions for both boys’ and girls’ divisions. 

As we know, springtime in the Rockies can translate to a range of rain, sun, sleet, and snow at any given elevation and day of the month, which makes planning what to bring each weekend — both as a player and spectator — a game of preparation and flexibility!

The initial tournament in April featured a tag team of Denver and Boulder fields for the first set of games then, on to Grand Junction for the following weekend. Next up was a visit to the Vail Valley for games in Eagle. Part of the fun is figuring out where to stay for the out-of-town visits. Some camp; others might stay with friends or in a hotel, and some even drive to and from home each day, depending on the distance. For the Eagle games, the Westin in Avon was hotel headquarters, with kids of all ages playing in the pools and just enjoying time before and after games together.

We opted to stay at the Sonnenalp in Vail for a special sojourn, which is my favorite place to call home in the area. For the Roaring Fork Valley tournament, ALC presented a well-run operation at Crown Mountain Park, which served as an ideal layout with games in play in nearly every direction, scores of parent volunteers keeping it running, and easy access to Willits for restaurants and accommodations. The next weekend took the teams to Telluride, where the town genuinely welcomed all with a banner over Main Street honoring the kids’ competition and the Elks Lodge #692 opening their doors for a pasta dinner and adult social hour in the historic Swede Finn Hall. The season closed out in Steamboat last weekend for a grand finale and what felt like a start to summer with flowers in bloom and green fields — both grass and turf.

Hats off to all at ALC who create an incredible sense of camaraderie with ongoing opportunities to learn from the coaches, pay respect to the refs, appreciate the other players and parents and families involved, and embrace the opportunities to improve. I also appreciate how ALC encourages lacrosse players to rally behind the other teams. For example, they helped drive interest and attendance for the Aspen High School’s championship run this spring, supporting the team’s impressive effort with their undefeated regular season, which earned them the number one seed in the Class 4A state tournament. 

We look forward to more fun with sticks this summer through local programs like Elite Performance Academy in the valley and playing pick-up in the parks.