My Experience at World Juniors as A Forerunner.

So probably one of the coolest experiences / opportunities is happening this week!  I am an official forerunner for the World Junior Ski Championships at Le Massif and Mont Ste Anne this week.  We started off the week with the first two days of Downhill (DH) training being cancelled, due to excessive amounts of snow and wind at Le Massif.   On our two days off we went up to Mont Ste Anne to try and get some training in on the north side.  Needless to say that since we couldn't race cause of all the snow, training would be very soft and possibly impossible.  We got about three runs in on our first day in Ste Anne, but unfortunately no gates.

First day view out the window doesn't give much justice but we got close to a meter in 2 days

Bubble Chair at MSA for some Powder Skiing!

Our second day we went up and it was slightly better the powder on the runs was dry and soft so it made skiing really fun, but when we got in the Slalom (SL) gates we got 2 runs in and then called it quits because of how soft the conditions where.  On the other hand they where able to pull the women's SL off the second day.  The conditions on the SL run where perfect (on the track) but off the track you had no chance.  Slipping down their course there where probably 30 volunteers going gate to gate raking and shoveling the snow off the track! With out the volunteers there is no way they were pulling off that race.

My Camera Set up for TV

Finally on the third day, so yesterday, we where able to do the first run of training for the downhill (the only run of training).  Ive gotten the honor of having bib F1, aka "the most expendable."  Also during this day I was given the honor to be the personal camera mount for Radio-Canada.  They attached 4 go pros to me one on my head, one on my back, one on my fore arm, and one on my ski.  Unfortunately the one on my ski came off before i was even out of the start.  Now that i've been decked out with about 1500$ in cameras on my body, and finished my pre run interview, it was time for my run.

Drop into the wall

Bank Turn 2 minus 2 gates until the wall

... Enough Said

First things first, if you ever say or wonder why they have forerunners, well I can personally say because of us there was a training run yesterday.  So I'm standing in the start of my first DH run in 2 years on what is to be the gnarliest downhill I've ever done, and to be honest I was nervous maybe even a little scared.  The start clock ticks down, 10 seconds... 5...4...3...2....1 and I'm off.  right away all fears where gone I knew if i was scared the whole way I wouldn't make it down in one piece.  How ever my skiing was cautious I was slightly in a defensive position but that's where I felt comfortable for my first run in 2 years. I get threw the top flats and threw bank turn, and I'm now 2 gates away from dropping into the pitch I was confident with my inspection and my approach to the course thus far, so I was totally nervous coming over the pitch.  I will admit I didn't take enough direction over the pitch but that was least of my worry's at this point.  I came over and the set was really straight and way to fast to enter the pitch and I flew no word of a lie flew.  Remember those dreams where your falling and you wake up all of a sudden, yeah? well that's what it felt like while I was in the air, and I couldn't wake up it was do or die. The most common distance that people where estimating my flight to be was around 35-40m before hitting ground and just avoiding going into the next gate.

A Little fogged in but meh what ever its only DH

All that fear that I had gotten over... It was all back and my heart was pumping like you couldn't believe. The next two gates I stood up and checked to make sure everything was good and my pants where clean. Unfortunately I lost the helmet Go Pro on this semi crash so any footage after that was not going to happen. I made it down the rest of the way and came threw the finish line with a huge sigh of relief, I made it.  F2 how ever didn't, he had done the same thing as me over the pitch but his tails slid out in front of him on landing and he went down.  After the 2 of us had gone over and our hearts nearly came out of our chests they changed the gates at the entrance of the pitch and it was running smooth after that! 

From what I've been hearing today was that if they did not change the gates up top after me and F2 came flying down that pitch there where coaches who where going to pull their athletes from the race because of how dangerous it was.  So yeah thank god for forerunners.

First ever triple black! It was fun

Nice View

Today was DH race day I was F1 again apparently if you don't die the first time they keep sending you F1 until you do.. not actually tho! I was nervous again today after the events of yesterday so I skied very conservatively over the pitch and didn't take any chances, and minus the bumpy track everything ran smooth. 

Air Ambulance and Regular Ambulance on stand by in finish area of the DH

 Tomorrow is Super G down the same pitch so this should be pretty fun hopefully I get bib F1 again :)

Only Fore runner casualty on the first day of the DH

Starts to clear as the final racer leaves the star

Panoramic shot of the lodge at the top of the DH start

Last bit of training before the race's

November 21, Panorama, British Columbia.  We just finished our 4th day on snow in Panorama.  Our first day here the snow was incredible, bullet proof and super grippy perfect for breaking in new skis and getting balanced on the skis after being off for 7 weeks.  The time off was well spent in the gym and healing our bodies for the up and coming season, lots of massages, stretching and rest over the past 7 weeks on top of all the training made for a perfect prep block for our long camp in Pano, along with the NORAM's at the end of it.  

This years fleet!

Packing for Pano

The view on our drive from Calgary to Panorama

Top Of Old Time the small opening in the trees on the left is the entrance to Hay Fever

This year in Pano is probably the hottest year I have seen here in the past 4 years ive been here, I still have yet to break out my big jacket.   Because of the hot temperatures they have only been able to open up 2 runs so far, Hay Fever and Show Off.  Show Off is the run right underneath the chair with some fairly simple terrain, its got a small pitch right off the start that goes onto a flat which than gets slightly steeper once it straightens out, and than has a couple rolls along the way.   Hay Fever is completly the opposite, you go threw a small cat track threw the wood's which then opens up to a gradual pitch that slowly gets steeper as you go down and than completly drops over into a steep decently long pitch and than flattens out after about 20 or so gates onto a long flat, my favorite SL run.

Top Of Hay Fever

Hay Fever, looks flat... Its not

The snow making crews have been out and in sight on the mountain the past two days looking like they are going to get ready to blow snow as soon as it gets cold, and from what I hear they are going to hopefully start tonight and continue blowing for 36 hours straight, which will get Old Timer open, a great GS and Super G training run. 

Always check your dins on new binding before you start skiing

As you've probably figured out the weather has been up and down for the past 4 days, our first day was clear skies warm and perfect snow, the next day was overcast still warm but softer snow.   Yesterday the worst so far it was warm super soft snow and mixed between rain and snow threw out the day, needless to say we got wet.   If you look at the positive side of things it was kind of cool as you went up the chair and the temperature got colder as you went higher the rain turned into thick big snow flakes, kind of cool.

Its snowing, or is it raining either way nice view!

Today, was a great day snow was excellent on Show Off and the weather was co-operating until now,  its started snowing again, which isnt bad because 1. we are off the mountain and staying warm and 2. if its snowing it must mean its almost cold enough to blow snow.

Show Off on the left and the chair lift we take every day!

We started out the camp with a block of free skiing and a few stubbies, and than going right into a second block of full gate SL training in a fairly simple course, and than been in full gate courses getting longer and trickier over the past 4 days and than today with a full length SL course with some timing to see where everyone was at.  Tomorrow we are going into GS for the next days and than taking a day off before our next block of the camp.   The camp has definitly started off on the right foot for everyone I'm pretty sure but definitly for me, some of the big changes we were working on in Chile have really happened the past few days and we are just working out some kinks to make my skiing even better. Hopefully my GS will do the same!

Cheers

Back again, we are now in Valle Nevado, a 30-40 min car ride or a 10 second hike from the top of one mountain to the other.  We arrived two days ago in Valle Nevado, the weather is great and the conditions are great on the runs but to get to the run can become quite tricky depending on what part of the mountain we are on.  Our GS block is now over and we have started a 5 day SL block here in Valle with one last day of GS on our last day. 

View from our room in the hotel

Day 1 of SL we were in full gate SL courses but for small sections one of which was quite off set but 13-14m and the other was more of a normal SL course we would tend to see.  Day 2, so today we were on a run called Fox Trot its a gradual pitch at the top and than a long flat with two decent rollers half way down.

Fox Trot is the run straight ahead to the left of the run on the right

On our first day of skiing in Valle we were on the hill loading the chairs at just before or at 7am... the sun wasn't even up yet.  We ski probably an hour to and hour and a half more here than we did in El Colorado and can get alot of runs in, in the day because of such a fast turn around.  Today the team did about 900SL gates give or take a few.   I unfortunately could not get that many runs in for a mixture of reasons, one being the soreness of my feet from the bone spurs pushing up against the shell but the foremost reason is once again my hip.  Yesterday on the second last run of the day I caught my tip on a SL gate and twisted my hip which brought it to and past the range of motion where the pain begins.  It has been sore all yesterday and all today as well, lots of ice and stretching will hopefully help bring down the pain in it so I can ski more runs tomorrow. Today I think I got in about 5 or 6 runs in the course before the last run I did jerked my hip into an uncomfortable position and had to call it a day.   On the bright side I got to tan a little bit while sitting on my balcony watching everyone else ski while icing my hip.

Skiing at 7am

Icing the hip while watching the team ski

One of the best things about Valle Nevado is the nightly sun sets!! even though they are all the same view, which is coming out over El colorado its some of the best sun sets I've ever seen. 

Sun set over El Colorado from Valle Nevado

Sun Rise looking over the mountain

Sun Set View from the common area

Sun Rise over El Colorado

Tomorrow we are back on Fox Trot with nice and sharp skis, as needed, and looking to get as many runs or more tomorrow.  The snow here in Valle is very very slick and our skis dull very easily if we don't bring a diamond stone, file guide and file on the hill with us every day. 

Warming up while the sun is getting up

There really isn't much else to talk about for now besides the skiing and taking care of injurys there isn't really anything to do here.

Until next time.

Watching the team ski from the balcony

Last minute changes

Hello from El Colorado Chile!  I am currently in Chile for a 2 week training camp 1 week in El Colorado and 1 week in Valle Nevado.  The weather has been great for the last week, minus one day.  We have now been on snow for 4 days, or 17 days total this season if we include the trip to Mt. Hood, Oregon.

 

Early morning on day 3 of the camp

For the most part this camp has been building off of what we did in Mt. Hood, except at a much faster pace and in some actual 26m plus GS courses.  Feels great!  Our first day on snow was mostly just shaking off jet lag and getting back into the grove of ski racing.  After a couple runs and a bit of exploring the mountain we started doing some drills. Our first day was also one of the coldest days we've had this camp, needless to say my feet where not ready for the temperature and froze, literally.

Tuning room or tuning spot rather

We have discovered that my feet have terrible circulation and my toes need a lot of space so that they don't freeze more on that in a bit!

The new boots

Day two was a little more interesting than day one, in three words I can explain it as a total white out.  We woke up at 6:30am and were on the transport at 7:30 we arrived at the mountain to be told that it is not letting anyone up because you cant see more than 5m ahead.   So, what else to do in ski racing than wait it out inside the lodge playing games and cards.  Joey, our coach bit the bullet and went up to see what was going on. with a radio in his hand and a radio in our hand we awaited news on the conditions.  1 hour later he had reached the top of the mountain where we were supposed to train, the ride up takes about 30min tops, not looking to good.  Report back from Joey was well cant see much i'd say its a 80% chance we will not ski today.  Two and a half hours into Joey's expedition we decided to radio him to find out where he was, as we asked him he emerged out of the fog.   That was all the skiing that was done for that day.

Cant see much out the window and up the hill...

Days 3 threw 5, where fairly straight forward minus a few changes to the plans that were unexpected unwanted, day three and four we skied 24-26 gate GS and than today about 35 plus gate GS course in the back right beside Valle Nevado, we could literally take 10 steps and be in Valle Nevado.


At the end of day 4 my two big toes where completly frozen one was purple and the other the toe nail was starting to fall off,  it was time to make some adjustments and fix this probelm, I did not want to loose a toe or two for that matter.  Back at the house me and Joey went threw all our possibility's and decided that the best and easiest way was to shave down the foot board in the bottom of the boot we took of about 3mm and boy did it make a difference, you wouldn't think so but my toes felt 100000000x better today with that small adjustment. We are going to keep a close eye on my toes for the rest of the camp but I think they will be alright from here on out!

Not alot of space in there

Solution, I think so!

The BIG difference

Now to get to the title and what I mentioned in that last paragraph all these last minute changes.   To start off our camp was supposed to be 3 weeks long we only found out 2 days prior to leaving that we would loose a week and only be here for 2, that's a lose of 7 days, its fair to say the team and myself where not to excited about the lose of an entire week of skiing,  the next thing that changed on us was day 2, the weather, yes I know we cant control the weather, but because of it we lost another day of skiing so we are now totaled at 8 less days of skiing and because of the weather we sacrificed our day off for the second day and will now ski the rest of the camp no breaks, as long as the weather permits.  Than Day 3 our transport who is to arrive at 7:30 arrived about 7:45 7:50 and than as we got into the transport the truck would not start... try after try the truck would not start... so we wait yet again new transport truck arrives around 8:05 and we rush up to the hill.  Now for the next thing that has changed on us without notice or planned for was the closing of the front side of the mountain. meaning the chair lifts and t-bars we take up in the morning all closed... new way to get up the mountain, a convoy of around 10 pick up trucks to transport our team the French woman's B team and Chileans up dirt roads that are barely 1 car wide all the way up to the back of the mountain.  It's a little scary but its really fun at the same time to be in a truck on the edge of a mountain drifting all over the place cause its all mud or snow. 

Nice sun rise as we drive up the mountain

Decent down partly in snow

Decent down the mountain partly in mud

That's basically the most interesting parts of our camp so far, more to come as we ski more, I'm sure more plans will change, just a hunch tho!

Enjoy the view!

Visibility 0 to 100

It is now day 5 here in Mt.Hood, hope everyone had a good Canada day weekend.  The previous three days have been quite interesting.   The last three days consisted of poor viability and high quantities of skiing.  A regular day consists of waking up at 5:30am departing from out condos 6:20am and going up the lifts at 7:00am, to say its early is an understatement.  By 9:30 we feel like its 4pm and we have been skiing all day.  Unfortunately day's 3-4 we did a lower amount of skiing due to lack of visibility so we only did between 6.8 to 7.6km total of skiing.  Yesterday as we where arriving at the mountain it seemed like it was going to be our first clear day of skiing... that was false hope. Luckily we had about an hour of clearish skiing but after that visibility got to an all time low, you could see maybe 10m ahead if you where lucky.  For the coaches they basically saw us for two gates and than we disappeared into the clouds again.  The weather out here has been a little temperamental to say the least.

Rowan from less than 15 m away in the clouds

looking down into the clouds from the top

Yesterday, July 1st was my birthday and as tradition a classic pie took place luckly for me they missed me with the first pie (dog food (I was not happy about that)) but they got me later on that night with blue icing, which isn't so bad.  Yesterday was a good day it was pouring rain, and it wasn't super dark all day and skiing was fun and i learnt some stuff so all in all it was a good day!

Now back to that dog food pie, I just want to make it perfectly clear that on someones birthday you pie them with wipe cream or something that tastes good, ie: moose, icing, etc.  you do not go out and get dog food and try and pie someone with it,  because for one its insanely gross and it will ruin your whole day and two if you where the one getting pied would you want it to be dog food?? so think about what your using to pie someone with and make sure it wont ruin your day... I was slighty pissed about the dog food thing and if they had got me yesterday would have ended a little differently.

 Happy Canada Day From Mt.Hood

Today was our first fully clear sunny all day, day on the mountain.  We skied a total of 8.4km which doesn't seem like a lot but on the ski hill it is a lot of skiing.   The sun was out all day and it was a little windy but once the sun was up and high the ski hill got pretty hot.  We worked alot on slow low performance skiing for the last five days and today we got into a little more carving mode with the majority of our runs being full performance carving.  Still tons to work on but it is starting and building rapidly right now!!