Fair Weather Racing

On -20, snowy chairlift rides wearing nothing but a thin layer of spandex I start to question my insanity.  If I wasn't so addicted to the mountains and the white fluffy stuff that covers them there is no way you could get me out into the cold. Recently I've discovered there are other ways to enjoy the thrills of racing in mild even hot climates!

On concrete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzbWpcrxGSI

On grass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFqTeYJbuEs

On turf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8SiZ5RZp9U

I won't have to even wear a speed suit or invest in goggles!!

Big Bertha Bruising is Back

When I was still in High School, I would come back from a ski trip and the latest bruises I had to showcase would alarm my fellow class mates and make my teachers question domestic violence. However, for some reason I just naturally seem more prone to bruising then any other skier, I know. I guess I am  repetitively  hitting hard cold plastic at 100km/h but my bruises get bigger and brighter then some one who has been in a car crash. After two weeks of speed and wearing arm protection, this is what I returned home sporting....

This is NOT even close to the biggest, brightest bruise.... 

Chile 2011

Both arms from hitting gates

From crashing

Red Mountain 2010

From crashing and landing on my ski

This recent bruising is all on my left arm without a mark on my right. It seemed weird but I figured my right footed turns were just better than my left and therefore I was hitting the gates harder on that side. My old Castle Mountain coach Jean-Marc who is now coaching with Calgary Alpine approached me in Apex and said he noticed I was having trouble initiating the top of my right footed turns. He said he has been observing this problem for a while and believes that it could be a problem with my boot alignment. After the speed Norams I went to Lou's Ski Shop in Calgary where he had me stand in my ski boots, on a pressure pad and we discovered that
75% of my pressure was on to the outside and 25% to the inside with more naturally on my right foot. It should be 50/50 for everything. To move the pressure more even it took five minutes. All we did was move the cuffs of my boots out, and a little further out on my right then left. What a difference!!!! Now I'm able to effortlessly roll my skis on edge! The bruising it turns out was due to the fact that I didn't have time to start the top of the turn on most of my right footers and to compensate I was twisting my body and hitting gates in places where there wasn't padding on my arms.

The slight adjustment to my boots was instantly apparent. Right after I had a successful Super G series at the Nakiska Vanhoutte Cup where I took my first win of the season and was on the podium all three days. I was home for a week skiing powder at Castle and was again amazed by my new control. I'm now in Sunpeaks training SL and GS. I am super excited to get my technical events tuned up and to further my alignment experiments. Hopefully this is the fix I needed to keep my bruises at bay!

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!

Moose Wonderful Time of the Year!

              After a long prep season of too many squats to count, we finally got to do our first race of the season at the Speed Norams in Copper Mountain, Colorado. Even though we had less pre-season speed training than planned due to Global Warming, the races went relatively well considering I never felt like I was able to execute a full run. On the last day of the series I crashed into the nets at 100km four gates from the finish. Unfortunately since it was the last day the coaches didn't have the video cameras on but I was told by one American coach that my crash was the best he had ever seen live. I walked away with a buggered up ankle (opposite one as this summer) that made it really hurt to pressure the front of my stiff racing boots. I ended up not being able to race the Panorama Noram Series or the Van Houtte Cup before Christmas. As hard as it was to not strap on my skis for most of the Christmas break, my sights were set on healing for a three week Europe trip in the New Year. The time with my family was amazing. It had been a year since all 3 sisters had been together and it was a reunion full of sleep overs, fleecy pajamas and cat shirts. 

 Christmas morning at our cabin at Castle Mountain was sunny, snowy and beautiful! It was great spending the holidays with my Mom's newest addition to Team Cas Libby. She is wonderfully helpful and happy. The way she fits in with our family after only a few months proves how fantastic she is. It was so fun for me to get to witness some of her first winter experiences. She was over joyed by the snow on the trees, the frozen lakes and getting to look out the window at all the skiers passing by. Switching from flip flops to winter boots was a big change but we couldn't be more grateful that she did.

 Christmas breakfast after presents and face masks with a wonderful bouquet from Windymere.

 Christmas at Grandma's was as always hilarious, delicious and amazing to be together. Presents from Alice and Charlie were definitely a hit!

Since everyone was out on the slopes during the day I went on adventures in the snow with my friend Jenga.

 We had another person join our family over the holidays who had little experience in winter. Kyra's friend Nick Dobbie from New Zealand stayed with us for only five days and it was so much fun by the end we wanted to adopt him. He would be the red head child my mom always dreamed of having.

Annual New Year's Hockey and Nick's first time on a frozen lake!

 I'm so lucky to be able to visit and explore all kinds of mountains with my skiing. All are unique and have different slopes and terrain to play on. I love skiing new places but there is something about skiing the familiar runs that you learned to ski on that makes me bubble over with joy. I finally got to go out skiing with everyone at the end of my break and I couldn't have been happier. I love my home and my family!