1st NORAM experience

I just finished my first race series of the season.  This was also my first NORAM level competition.  What a great way to start!  The week started with two official training runs.  I skied well, but was trying to figure out which tactics worked on different parts of the course.  When the race days came around I knew what I wanted to do, and executed my plan well everywhere but at one turn on a big break-over.  Gosh, that thing bugged me!  I still scored close to my downhill points, which is pretty good for this time of year against an international field.  The final race of the week was a Super G, on the same slope.  It's a totally different game than the Downhill due to only one hour for inspection and no training runs on the course.  I had a really strong run and scored 38 FIS points!  This is my best result ever in any event, so as you can imagine I'm pretty excited!  Next on the schedule is two slalom races at Jackson, WY, some Giant Slalom training, and a return to Canada for a tech series.  So far it's been a great start to the season and I'm planning on keeping the ball rolling!

Home and off again

I spent three days at home for the holidays and then headed up to Panorama, BC. It was great to be back on snow again! GS this morning started at 10, but the sun still had not crested the mountains by the time we got up there. Fortunately, being a Pacific Northwest skier, it was not the first time I had found myself in flat light. I was glad the snow was grippy. It is such a pleasant change from theshiny ice that predominated my last few weeks of training. in Colorado. Another positive thing was that my knee did not hurt at all! What a relief! I felt like I could really push the line more direct and use my strength to get myself out of trouble. That said I am still trying to get the touch back, but it is comming along nicely. Tomorrow I'm doing Super G for two hours in the morning, and Giant Slalom for a few runs in the afternoon. Looking forward to another sunny, 4 degree day!

Colorado training summary

It was great! We started out the first two weeks training at Copper Mountain with the same group that I went with to Switzerland. The snow was that perfect, hard, grippy Colorado snow that spoils me at the start of each season but makes for some great turns! I could really feel the improvement in my skiing from Zermatt to this camp. After those first 2 weeks I took 3 days off for some R&R before training with the US Ski Team at the NDS camp in Loveland, CO. The run was injected from top to bottom, and turned out to be pretty slippery! Never the less it was very good training from an experience standpoint. Now I am home for 3 days before heading off to Canada 'till a few days before Christmas!

More from Zermatt

The gear is working great! I just got off the hill from the 4th straight day of slalom. I am really skiing well and made a breakthrough today with my line. Fortunately, Atomic skis are perfect for me; no complaints! The slaloms have a small sweet-spot, but when I am in it things are rippin'! Now I am back at the hotel doing school and getting ready for dinner :) This food.... I'm thinking about applying for citizenship!! Not really, but the food is amazing. The next two days are GS, and the two days following are slalom. I am interested to see how many runs it takes to get the feel back in the GS skis after being on SL for a while. Hopefully it all goes well!

A Russian racer named Uri joined us today.  He's 18 and a bruiser of a guy.  He's supposedly the top Russian downhiller.  He's working on tech skills though and needed a lane to share.  We cycled together a bunch of times and it was cool.  He speaks pretty good english.

First day on snow today!

Great sunny day! Today was just GS freeskiing, nothing crazy. It was so good to be back on my feet, but I was definitely a bit rusty. The new equipment is going to be really great this year. GS skis are 191s and really stiff, but combined with the 150 flex boot they are killer. Getting ready to go for a run to work out the "lactic acid." :)  Honestly I don't thnk one day of skiing can do that to you, but who knows!

Welcome to my blog

I'm heading to Switzerland tomorrow and will be back on skis in two days.  I'm pretty fired up about this trip, but it seems funny for summer to be over already (it is, isn't it?).  Anyway, off to bed for a 3AM wake-up.