Zermatt, Switzerland – In a Swiss village with cobblestone walkways and no cars, and with the famed Matterhorn as a backdrop, the U.S. Freestyle Moguls Ski Team set up camp for a few weeks in Zermatt.n”Zermatt has to be one of the most scenic places I’ve ever been with massive endless peaks surrounding the area,” described team athlete Jeremy Cota, of Carabbassett Valley, Maine. “The views are pretty spectacular. It makes for great Facebook photos.”

Zermatt, a mountain village located in the Swiss Alps, is known as one of the great ski and climbing areas of the world. Zermatt is tucked away in a deep valley surrounded by a ring of mountains over 13,000 feet high, including the nearly 15,000 foot Matterhorn at the head of the village. The ski and climbing village can be accessed by train and cruised by foot, but not by car. Visitors and guests can anticipate doing a lot of walking but also a lot of fine dining, hiking, climbing and skiing.

Of course the athletes, including Olympic gold medalist Hannah Kearney (Norwich, Vt.) and fellow Olympian Heather McPhie (Bozeman, Mont.), were shredding the course and hitting the jumps, but what did they do when they weren’t training?

McPhie enjoyed the scenery and all Zermatt had to offer, “I did yoga out on the balcony, hiked almost every day, walked around town and ate delicious and leisurely meals.”

Cota decided to catch up on some sleep as well as getting in some laughs with teammate Sho Kashima (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.). “We would spend time going on hikes, doing upper body workouts in the gym and making funny movies with Sho’s Flip cam.”

With everything Zermatt had to offer, when asked what Cota’s and McPhie’s favorite thing about the camp, both responded with the same answer: training.

“My favorite part about camp had to just be the training, Coach Harald [Marbler, who went down a couple days early to build the course] did an amazing job with building the course,” said Cota. “For me it was the best training camp I’ve ever been to.”

“It is tough to say a favorite thing about Zermatt, but I feel it was one of the best training camps I have ever been to,” said McPhie. “The snow was great, the weather was beautiful most days, the course was great and my training went really well.”