#vail

Okay, so first I have to clear up that those three camps are all different things.

So the Vail camp was originally a private affair organised by Andy O’Brien (with/for Sid, basically as a late-offseason altitude training camp for a week). earliest mention I could find of it is 2012, but I don’t know when Sid and Andy originally started doing it. earliest photo evidence is from summer 2013 from Nate’s nuked insta, courtesy of the original sidnate primer (the one that extensively covers everything up to 2017). They’re a small group here, but already wearing O’Brien-branded jerseys, so I’d wager they’d been doing it for a couple of years already at the time

not sure who the guy on the right is, but otherwise that’s (starting from the left): mike chiasson (known childhood friend of sid’s and longtime employee of the pens) edit: it’s roberto luongo, thanks @fairybreadevangelist for catching that, matt duchene (when he was still on the avs and friends with these guys rip), sid, nate, and the mystery goalie.

in the late 2010s it became kind of a big deal and bigger and more famous, but it’s centered around the Nova Scotian guys, and actually pretty old.

Now, as far as I know it ran until covid hit, at which point the two-year disruption led to the by-then-sizeable Vail crew joining the giant star-studded bio steel roster for 2022 and 2023 (where it was actually in Halifax).

biosteel camp, on the other hand, was a different yearly camp organised by the biosteel sports drink company for four days in toronto for toronto-based players starting in 2010 (hence it being historically attended by the likes of tyler seguin and connor mcdavid). however, biosteel filed for bankruptcy in 2023, and while they still exist in some capacity after being sold multiple times, they have not done the NHL camp in the last two years afaik.

Cwench hydration is a company that was founded in 2024, i suspect to slide into the gap that biosteel left. it was founded in part by Andy and Nate, and Andy is the brains behind it pretty much, and he also developed the drinks.

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 9831

Vail, Colorado - Dec, 2025

A boy prayed for one thing.

From the other side, fate replied:

“You may touch it… but not as yourself.”

Silence took him.

When he stepped through

the world was gone.

Behind the veil,