We had a lot more time on the course the days leading up to Finals compared to every other race we’ve had this year which was a pleasant surprise. The wether was spectacular all week, another first for this season. I actually stopped taking my vitamin D pills for a few days.

I qualified in 14th, a position I was not happy with in the slightest. I had a poor start which didn’t help and did not absorb the jumps on the track as well as I was in training. Longer airtime and opening up of my upper body slowed me down.

Thirty two girls qualified here though so I had the green bib in my first round, the second lane choice. At the Olympics and World Champs, 32 girls move on to Finals compared to 16 in most of the World Cups on the circuit.

I pulled a fast start in my first round and skied well following Katrin from Switzerland down the whole track. I was pumped I had moved on to the Quarter Finals of the World Champs!

The track in Voss was fast with no long straight sections so passing zones were next to non existent unless carnage was taking place. Carnage, meaning either skiers made mistakes and crashed or poorly judged passes were made resulting in crashes. A few successful ones were seen.

The start feature itself was uneven so skiers in the far right lanes sure had their work cut out for them to get out front by the first turn. This did not happen when the skiers in the left lanes had fast starts themselves.

I unfortunately had the last lane choice in my second heat. I got pinched off at the first turn ending up in 4th from the start. I skied well trailing close behind the three girls ahead of me even with the Norwegian exfoliant treatment I got with ice chunks obliterating my face from their skis. No passes were made though

Kels took a spill in training and unfortunately didnt get the chance to race. Mar quali’d fast, had fast starts and skied her little but off into 2nd!

Some courses have blatant differences from lane to lane out of the start. You don’t want to get stuck in a lane that makes your job that much harder to come in 1st or 2nd. Quali fast and you avoid this. Lessons learned.

We are flying to Sweden tomorrow for a double header event in Are!

The weather FINALLY cooperated with us holding out till our last day possible. Many teams had to leave directly after the race and rush to the airports, while others had chartered flights waiting for them…

We had an inspection, one training run, quali’s for both men and women followed by two sets of 4 rounds of heats with 64 athletes. The exhaustion was showing on all our faces in the early evening as some of us were attempting to have some celebratory drinks. We were all drifting to bed by the minute. Bed. Where we had one hr of sleep before hopping on our bus to start our travel day back to Germany and onward to the Czech Republic for our next race. We are delirious.

This course was the most intimidating for me. The features were very large and some of them were extremely kicky. Because of this my confidence was not as high as it was for example in the races I have skied fast in this season.

All three of our training runs were completely different: two the day before we raced in the snow and fog and one yesterday the morning we raced in clear skies and much faster snow. Because of the difference in weather and snow conditions, the speeds changed forcing us to be on our toes with our thinking caps on the entire way down the track, every run. We were having to double rollers where we were singling them the day before, standing up tall before jumps to dump a little speed to not overshoot the landings when we were hitting the landings easily the day before.

My focus this race was to obviously ski fast and move on in a couple heats (even more so it was essentially to not scare my coaches and myself flying off jumps leaning back and possibly crashing). This course was ready to give me that challenge, but I kept my focus the whole week and overcame some mental obstacles that were inevitably going to have to be faced.

I started my morning off well, qualifying in 9th, skiing better than I had in my training run earlier in the a.m. I skied well in my first heat as well. I had no choice but to practice being extremely patient as I was a close second out of the gate following Marte from Norway down the entire track until the bottom big finish jump. She was speed checking before most of the features from top to bottom, so with being in her draft as well as her speed checking I had to make sure I didn’t get too close to her over jumps and land on her or her tails of her skis and catch an edge myself. Skiing right behind someone in their draft, the trick is not have a yo yo effect. Although the toy is a great invention its physical functions are not compatible with Ski Cross. You must keep cool and calm without yo yo ing behind someone (and potentially crashing into them or loosing their draft entirely) by opening up your body position or making yourself more compact when necessary. Off the final jump though in my first heat the Norwegian speed checked again, looked left right behind her shoulder, and I was right there. I didn’t speed check, said “thank you very much” to myself and flew off the jump to win my heat! Unfortunately for the Norge I had a German hot on my tails and as I flew off the finish jump passing Marte, the German, Heidi, did as well catching her just at the line to move on to the next round!

In my second round I was with Kathrin from Austria and Offie from France and Heidi. With my splint on my hand my initial pull out of the gate (or so I thought) was not that strong, so I was anticipating expecting to not be the fastest in my second heat out of the start gate. BUT I WAS! It surprised me actually. I was neck and neck with Kathrin, who passed me through the first turn. Then Offie in the third turn completely cut my off (it was a clean, smart move by the veteran) so I had to slam on the breaks to make the gate before the wedge step down. So now I’m in third… I was right behind the two girls leading for the next section of the course which included TONS of airtime: a big wedge step down, another step down, then a huge step up. I was solid in the air the whole way, getting in their draft and then absolutely SENT it in the air off the step up, totally missing the tranny (transition, aka the down slope on a jump where you WANT to land in order to keep your speed going forward and down) landing in the compression which killed all my speed right before a uphill table top feature getting passed yet again… Since my speeds from then on were much lower than the three girls ahead of my, we stayed positions to the finish line, finishing me in 13th place for the day.

The positive thing that I am taking from this race though is that every single time I skied the course my confidence, aerodynamics, balance off take offs and landing of features got better and better. I became more confident and compact. I had traffic right in front of me in both heats and I kept cool.

As I said, my confidence wasn’t super high going into the finals today but I am proud of myself for getting better and better every run, including my heats, making a pass, and taking this into the next race.

Kels skied like a champ and came up with the big W. Mar skied well all day in the finals as well coming in second!

The unfinished Athletes Village where no athlete has stayed at for any Olympic TEST event in the last two years in Sochi… Hope they get it right the first time!

Inspecting w Kels and coach Willy

Take off

Landing

Run in to the finish jump! Was HUGE! And awesome

We have arrived to Munich now after one hr of sleep last night before starting our travel day here at 1 am Russian time. A sketchy bus ride, two plane rides, loading and unloading of many many ski bags and duffle bags later we were able to pass out and sleep and rest all day. Our bodies need to be taken care of.

We load up everything tomorrow morning and drive 7 hrs to Czech Republic to our next stop!

I’d fill up an entire blog post if I wrote about our travel day(s) here, so let’s not  We arrive in Sochi at 4am arrival local time!

“Cee Oh Four Backwards En” in this photo means Sochi in Russian!

The town of Rosa Kuhtor where most (if not all) of the snowy event are being held.

Clock Tower

Kels and I walking to the Ski Room

My name is Russian is dope. The picture….is not

Terese, our physio here with us, and I had to take a drive 10 minutes or so down the road to x rays on my hand. The construction going on and unfinished projects actually blew my mind

Hello kitty welcoming us at the Hospital

The weather hear so far has been worse than a bad wet day at Grouse or Seymour. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping to get training underway that should have started today! I’m bib number ten!

Our last stop in Germany I qualified my best quali so far this year in 3rd! The weather was very west coast. I felt right at at home; foggy and soft snow.

I moved on in the first round. I was winning the run by a long shot till the bottom where I almost bailed hard off a jump but used my (oh so fitting) German genes (we were in Germany…) aka my super strong quads to come up with a wicked recovery. I was cruisin in the powder trying to get back into the track as one girl passed me. I some how got my speed back and held on to second position to advance to the semi’s. I skied my best heats racing of the season in the semi’s, winning the run comfortably to advance to the finals.

In the start area right before the finals I wasn’t breathing properly to be able to control my heart rate, which was getting higher and higher with adrenalin sprinting through me. I was also highly depleted in glucose levels. These factors contributed to me not connecting my mind to my body and I therefor skied like a banchie with it’s head cut off in the heat; I was not smart, safe or fast. I fell off the last jump trying to draft the two girls in front of me bailing through the finish in a crumpled mess, coming in 4th.

This result was bitter sweet. I handed a medal away, yet earned my second best result of the year.

I learn every day in this sport. Last Sunday was no exception. I am taking what I learned from the last race, pumped that I know I am skiing well, and moving on with a broken hand to Sochi. I and ready for the next 6 weeks on the road in Europe. We have a LOT of racing ahead of us.

Here is my semi’s heat from the Race in Germany last week. I am in the second heat in the video, in the far right lane (red bib) looking up at the start, skiers far left.

Semi’s- Grasgehren, Germany World Cup

Check out all my Videos in the new tab on my Home Page

We flew to Frankfurt, Germany then to Geneva, Switzerland. We spent the night in Geneva and in the morning loaded our jet lagged bodies into the vans for a short drive to St. Gervais, France.

The town is about 15 minutes away from where the race is held, Les Contaminne. We arrived here in the afternoon. To stay awake I went on a long walk to town. Ok… It wasn’t that long, but I don’t enjoy walking much, so it was long for me.

I did my job, stayed on my feet, skied well, skied smart and I got my first PODUM of the year! Pretty pumped.

I did not ski well in my Quali run which really pissed me off, coming in 14th. Making it the next day for Race Day, I made a commitment to my self to do what I am capable of. Because I only qualified in 14th, I had the last pick. I had the far lane the whole morning. I knew that because I had the slowest lane I was going to have to get my booty out of that start gate as fast as I possibly could. I pulled decently fast starts all day long. I was in 3rd or 4th at the first section of the course all morning but I knew there were big ruts in the course lower down and that girls were going to be skiing right into them! On two turns of the course where the holes were big, I skied wide, clean and made passes. This got me to the final, where I met my teammate Kels! More falls happened in the final, Kels and I stayed on our feet, skied well, made passes and ended up ONE and TWO!

I could not be more excited with this result. It’s behind me though, and there is a LOT more work to do this season in the new year.

I am thrilled to get home, see my family, annoyingly kiss the heck out of my nephew and welcome the new little member to the family!

Here are some shots from the last few days!

I am in love with this little town

Shots of the course and race day!

Hey COACH!

By far my favourite mountains. The Dolomites!

Little foggy on race day

I made it through! Hugging my bud Marielle on the French Team

Waiting to move on and get back up to the top for more racing!

Hugging teammate Kels who won!

Canada ONE TWO!

I am sitting this one out to rehab my back for the last World Cup in San Candido, Italy before we fly home for the holidays.

I am obviously disappointed I am not racing here, but staying very positive because my back is healing, and I have one more race to focus on!

There is so much snow here the training day yesterday was cancelled. I’d be very impressed if the race crew get the training session and qualifying done today for both the men and women! Over 100 athletes including forrunners on a very soft course does a lot of damage…

I have been spending my time during the last two days on the physio table, the massage table whining like a little baby getting bruised by Kathy (releasing my muscles that are in spasm! It’s painful, okay…), the bike and elyptical, the yoga mat, doing difficult  core exercises with a Core X with our physio Terese (she, and Kathy, is the number one reason to quick healing), and stretching in the hot tub. I saw way too many overweight men in speedos yesterday. It was a shock and reminder to me that I was in a European spa… Surprisingly, the days have gone by very quickly! I am also trying to speak as much french as I can as well. It is very fun! I have noticed that the locals here really appreciate my butchered french than no french at all.

We hop in our vans in two mornings for another 7hr drive to Italy, regardless if this race gets cancelled or not.

Some major pow shots of Val Thorens

Our gorgous view from our window!

The Canadian squad had no skis when it was time to get on the track for our training day. Other teams, Europeans, that had some of their ski bags generously leant skis to us in order to get on the track! I found this really amazing. So many people came up to us the day and night before offering skis to us! I didn’t even have most of my ski gear either so I looked like a Norwegian for the day! It was quite fun.

There is a Snowboard Cross event here as well so things were slightly complicated for the race commitee and other course officials the first few days… Because it was a joint race, the course was very different than a typical Ski Cross. There was a LOT of air time, and few turns in the course.

I had injured my lower back a week before the Nakiska World Cup that I had healed enough in time for Nakiska, but after a solid and VERY fun day of training here at Telluride, my back seized up again. I had skied well in training and was so pumped for the quali’s the next day, but I woke up not being able to move. I was choked. I managed to do one training run and one qualifying run, but it was pretty unfortunate looking… I couldn’t get up the wootang which was the start feature of the course because of my back so that killed all my speed for the rest of the way down the course. I qualified in 18th position.

So today, I was cheering for Kels, Mar, Brady, Dunc, Ian and Leduc! Kels ended up 4th, Mar was 8th, Dunc was 9th, and Brady was SECOND! It was a day of rest and rehab and cheering loudly in the sunshine!

My back has already got A LOT better. We are traveling a long way for the next two days to France! Two more stops to get business DONE!

Here are a few pics from our training day, when I was PUMPED and feeling GOOD!

SO SO SO happy to be reunited w my favourite scot! Pam!

Upper mnt. village of Telluride

Hey cool kids, take note

Finish Jump

Finish Jump into the town

So many rollers

Step up into a bank turn

Start Wootang feature

A pip broke, causing a Mud slide…. Not the most convenient

Oh Instagram…

Last weekend we had our first World Cup race on Canadian soil at Nakiska, Alberta.

The course had a pretty technical start feature with a step down into a woo tang. I was not the fastest over the start throughout training so I knew I had to ski well the rest of the way down the course on the qualifying day in order to move on to the race day.

I managed to sneak into quali’s along with my teammate Kelsey who quali’d in 2nd! We were the only girls to make it in and were also in the same heat! It was unlucky in some way that we were in the same heat. At the same time I really liked having Kels in my heat. We were chatting in inspecting the course together how it is comforting having a teammate in your heat knowing there is at least one less racer you know is not out to get you! That was one aspect (of many) in Ski Cross I experienced for the first time over the weekend. I am learning every day.

We unfortunately didn’t move on in our heat (Kels was on her way to advancing and then had terrible luck at the end of the course). Both of us are returning this season from serious injuries so our confidence is building as the season progresses even though our experience levels are at very different stages of our careers.

Loui and Ian, new members of the team, along with one of the vets Brady also quali’d for the Men. Brady finished 6th.

The volunteers who worked their buns off at Nakiska and the staff of Alpine Canada put on an amazing weekend.

I was lucky to have most of my family present for the race! I really enjoyed having them there. Seeing them all at the bottom of the course after my heat, congratulating me even though I didn’t move… It was amazing visibly seeing the support I have over the weekend from my family and one of my sponsors who could make it out, Manni of Sunview Custom Cabinetry.

Below is the link to my Fan Page to see photo’s from the weekend! If you like the page, “LIKE” it!!!!!

Facebook Page

We flew the next day to Telluride Colorado. We are staying in a castle. This is the nicest hotel ever. That’s all I need to say. We have a day off today, followed by three days starting with training, qualifying and then racing!