North Melbourne’s future stars are hitting the pre-season early with a two week intensive training camp in Utah.

The club’s first-to-four-year players began the long journey to the United States on Friday.

As in previous years, the nature of the training is more challenging with the high altitude environment making breathing very difficult especially during exercise.

Sessions involve lengthy hikes, time trials, skills, cross training, interval training, circuit training and weights at the United States Ski & Snowboard Association facility.

The 19-man playing group headed to Deer Valley in Park City includes:
Jy Simpkin
Declan Watson
Josh Williams
Nick Larkey
Oscar Junker
Cameron Zurhaar
Ben McKay
Ryan Clarke
Mitch Hibberd
Declan Mountford
Braydon Preuss
Sam Durdin
Ed Vickers-Willis
Daniel Nielson
Kayne Turner
Paul Ahern
Luke McDonald
Trent Dumont
Jed Anderson

The players will be accompanied by Brad Scott, Leigh Tudor and new High Performance Manager Jona Segal, among a host of other support staff.

Check out photos from the players' social media accounts below. 

Sam Durdin

Trent Dumont

Jed Anderson