Speed, Strudel and Snow

 With my ankle well rested and feeling good I said goodbye to my family and flew to Munich. Meeting up with coaches Don and Speedy, we jumped in our massive van and headed to Spittal, Austria for a day of Super G training before two races.

The biggest team van for seven people

The train we had to lap on instead of a chairlift

The weather was uncooperative with that plan. Snow and fog made for long days of waiting in the lodge. After some success for Canadians when the race finally happened (Juila Roth in 2nd and Sarah Elliot in fourth) we packed up our lives and hit the Autobahn.

Instead of waiting in the lodge Vicky and I took advantage of the snow in Austria

Two or less nights in on place became our pattern. We headed to Garmisch, Germany for a double super G and seemed to be followed by the fog.

Beautiful weather on our cute little street

The nicest ladies at our hotel would draw happy faces on our hard bold eggs in the mornings

 

 Next was Sella Nevea, Italy where instead of downhill, we got faceshots in the meter of snow that just kept falling.

The track looked like a lot of fun

Sella Nevea has lifts that go into Slovenia but unfortunately they were closed due to avalanche danger. 

As we traveled through Europe, the mountains and castles we passed at speeds of 130km+ were breath taking.

I want to grow up and own a castle one day

The whole series in Italy got cancelled before it even began because of the snowy weather so we headed to Maria Alm, Austria for GS races where we saw the sun for the first time during our trip.

View as you walked out of our ski room

The start

A break from our hectic trip came after the GS's when Rikke and Siri had our whole team stay at their beautiful house in Innsbruck. They were wonderfully hospitable and everyone felt instantly at home. We went to the old part of the city to be tourists and Don took us to an amazing strudel cafe that he found when he was in Innsbruck for the 76 Olympics. They had 16 different types of sweet strudel and a dozen more of savory.

It was such a nice restful time off, I can't thank Rikke and Siri enough for having us stay. Little things like being able to do a load of laundry, make your own breakfast or curl up together in the living room to watch a movie makes a world of difference when you are on the road.

 I love traveling and exploring new places and this trip has been full of that. Even though there has been challenges like winter conditions and higher levels of competition, everyone has stayed positive and is skiing hard. We have a really fun group of girls from all over Canada who love to go fast. Now we are back in Italy for more Super G racing!

That's all for meow!