Park City, Utah

Happy New Year!

I was a little bummed about having to race on New Year’s Day and not being able to celebrate last night, but that feeling soon passed. The morning was very brisk and cool as we arrived to the mountain. The race hill had been groomed and the sun was beginning to shine-it was going to be a good day.

I think sometimes your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Today my mindset was good and it paid off. The first run set was challenging to say the least. I watched 2 forerunners nearly blow out of the course before the 9th gate. I knew my line was going to be important and that’s all I thought about, turning early. I skied the line I wanted but didn’t let the skis run, I was sitting 4th. The second run set was a little less difficult and I tried to be more aggressive. The terrain was bumpy and tough, I made a few mistakes but I made it through. At the end of the day I had a Bronze medal around my neck! My first podium of the season and literally of this year! 2008 started off just fine for me. Yeah!

Still Going

The ski season is in full swing. It’s been snowing, the mountain is almost all open and the race season has begun. We have had 2 races now and a big road trip to come.

Our first races were a SL and GS in Breckenridge, December 6th and 7th. This is normally a good warm-up race and a gentle way to begin. This year it wasn’t exactly like that. We got over 10 inches of snow the first day and several more inches the next. While I was pleased to see the desperately needed snow, it is not what we as alpine ski racers want to see. Fresh snow makes the course very soft, uneven and holes are created almost immediately. These types of conditions are a test to even the most experienced racers.

I had two decent days of racing with 2 solid finishes, but I definitely did not ski the way I wanted or expected. I told myself that it’s the first race of the year and I’d just take the good things and build on them.

I spent the next couple of weeks training here at home in Winter Park and trying to ready myself for the races here. We had one GS and two SG races the 17th-19th. Prior to the races, I had finally gotten all my new skis, had been training well and the snow was good. I felt very prepared and confident. It was the first time in a long time that I felt comfortable on my Super G skis. I guess confidence and performance do not always match up. At the end of the 3 days, I had 3 mediocre finishes at best. Once again, I had skied parts of each course very well, but then made mistakes here or there that ended up costing me a lot of time. It only takes one wide turn, a poor line choice, a few skidded turns down the pitch, and you’re way out of the mix. Ski racing is an unforgiving sport.

For the next week, I’m going to go over video, reflect, ski and try to figure out how to make it better the next race. I’ll be headed to Park City, UT on the 31st for races the 1st-3rd. From there it’s off to Europe for some World Cup races in Abtenau, Austria.

Opening Day at WP

Well Winter Park Resort has finally opened. I have to say that the snow pack is the worst I've ever seen for opening day. The only snow that is up there has been man made. There is only one run open but, hey they're open. We were fortunate enough to be able to use the resort before it opened to the public the past few days but it's nothing spectacular. With only one run open our "training" is very limited, so we're free-skiing and doing drills. As disappointing as the snow situation is, I'm still happy to be on the little snow that's here, at my home mountain.

The snow is almost here

I was hoping when I arrived home from my African adventure that there would be snow on the ground. Unfortunately I'm not quite that lucky. We did have a dusting on Monday night but when it warms up during the day it doesn't really do much. I guess I got a little spoiled last year when we had snow early in September. At this point I can just hope when it does start snowing it doesn't stop so the skiing is fantastic!

Fantastic news

I just found out that U.S. Paralympics wants to be a big supporter of my latest adventure. Including myself, there are 4 female ski racers that are going to climb Kilimanjaro this September. By climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, we want to not only raise awareness about female athletes who have a disability, but also raise money to create two scholarships for female athletes to attend the NSCD race program. Having U.S. Paralympics on board is a huge deal! I am so excited!

Unfortunately, it's has still been snowing up here. The past 2 days we've seen nothing but snow and rain so I haven't been able to play outside. That's Winter Park for ya!

I also got some other good news the past couple days. Rudy Project USA has been sponsoring me for sunglasses for a few years now. I just got an e-mail from them saying that they want me to use their goggles as well. I love everything that Rudy has done for me and I feel special to be a fully sponsored athlete! Thanks Paul, Avi and Molly!

Next adventure

I've decided that I'm not going to be skiing much this summer, if at all. I could really use the break mentally and physically. Time off the hill will also give me time to do other things, like work on the ambulance, going to a cycling race that I want to attend as well as doing as much hiking as I can.

Three girls that I race and train with and I have decided we are going to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa in September. I don't know exactly how this all came about but we’ve decided we're going to do it to raise money for the NSCD. It's going to be a lot of work and a lot of fun. We have been working out the details and setting things up. We actually have a blog for it if you want to check it out. http://disabilitieswithoutborders.blogspot.com/

End of the season

Photo by Ken Watson

For Winter Park, the season comes to a close on Sunday. You wouldn’t know that from looking outside as it has been snowing for days. That’s okay though, we need the snow. In some ways it’s hard to believe the mountain is closing but in other ways I’m ready for the break. It feels like it’s been a long hard season. I guess all of the changes and ups and downs, has just taken a toll on me emotionally.

Our racing season ended at Waterville Valley, NH with U.S. Disabled Championships. Because we couldn’t run the speed events they ran 1 Nor-Am race and one National race for GS and SL and then the last day we did a dual GS for fun and prize money. I skied well. I had two of my best SL races of the year and I actually beat my friend and teammate Liz Miller in a few runs of GS, which usually doesn’t happen. In the Nor-Am GS I took bronze. For the Nationals GS I came back from being behind first run to taking silver! The Nor-Am SL was a heartbreaker for me. After first run I was sitting 3rd. Second run the leader DNF and I won the run, but it wasn’t enough and I lost by .58 of a second- OUCH! For the nationals SL I was down by 2 seconds after first run, had another good second run and made up time but it wasn’t enough and I ended up 3rd. The final day was the duel GS and I had another good day. I skied fast in the qualifying and then throughout the day to take 4th place behind my teammate Laurie Stephens. Not bad.

All in all I had a good week but it was bittersweet. At the end of the week we had our individual meetings with our staff and made decisions about next season. The decision was made that I will not be part of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team next year. This was really tough and I wasn’t quite ready to deal with it. I think I’m going to take a step back and focus on training and maybe just local races, I don’t know. I’m not sure how everything will work out but I’m going to stay in Winter Park and WILL be training and racing. There are a lot factors that have affected my skiing but the bottom line is that I want/need to race faster, whatever it takes. Photo by Kurt Smitz