European Tour 2011

Coffee with my brother in Den Haag
The Church, Windmills and canal around the corner from my aunts place

So since leaving Courcheval we went to Flauchau where I had a good but disappointing World Cup. Basically I skied well but straddled a gate! Its nice to know that my splits before I DNF'd were fast enought to be competitive to make the top 30 again. I am really starting to feel like Im getting into my stride in Slalom! After Flauchau we had a four day break before christmas which I took full advantage of by visiting my cousins in Holland that I haven't seen since I was 16! I come to Europe 2-4 times a year for the past 5 or so years and have not been able to make it up to see them so this was a VERY nice change! I toured around Den Haag (The Hague) and Schevengingen with my brother and my cousins. After eating a ton of yummy black licorice and drinking coffee I flew back to Saal Felden Austria and rejoined the Canadian Team for christmas. We did a "white elephant" gift exchange and I picked out a Rubix Cube (a four by four one which is harder than the 3x3-which I already have) so I have been spending my time trying to solve it! I am so close every time before I screw up...I know Ill solve it in a day or two! We did two good days of training in Hinterreit which is right near Saal Felden before driving today to Lienz...the location of our next World Cup. I will race the day after tomorrow (The girls race GS tomorrow). Really looking forward to racing again!

Cheers, Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOmc_tuuJks&list=UU74kgl2AndmuwrSMWO-MAnA&index=1&feature=plcp

This is the link to the freeskiing video I made from yesterday!

Enjoy!

World CUPS!

I have been incredibly busy lately and I cannot believe I actually made it through intact! Since my last post much has happened. I qualified for the Aspen World Cup which I competed in and straddled a gate first run. It was very disappointing to not finish when I felt so ready to compete! I knew I could make top 30. The next two days we had NorAm races in Loveland Colorado. Almost the entire World CUp field stayed for these races. I had two good days ending up 7th and 9th in a very stacked field. During these NorAms I was also studying because directly afterward I had final exams at school! When I went home I completed three midterms then did two final exams. I also saw an awesome band friday night before I left called Good Old War. It was a great note to end my stay in Burlington on. On Saturday I headed to Panorama BC for some NorAm Races. On the road I found out that I would have the opportunity to race the next two World Cup races in Europe. So on monday I booked a flight for thursday to head to Europe. The NorAm series was a bit of a rough go for me...I didnt hit my stride until the second day in the races despite feeling really good in warm up both days. While I was in Panorama I also completed the last two of my 4 final exams. It was interesting coming off hill and going directly into an exam. It was not very relaxing. However I am now finished my first semester of Civil Engineering which I am very proud of! I cannot believe that I managed to pull off this semester with all the skiing I did. I am also LOVING school and feel I am in the right program which is also a great feeling to have. So after a pleasant upgraded flight over to Europe we travelled to Courchevel...which has recieved over a metre of snow in the past week. They tried to run the race yesterday but it was cancelled thankfully. Instead we had an amazing powder day which we filmed a little of on Marie-Michele Gagnon's GoPro. There is nothing like freeskiing in powder through trees when you can cover a HUGE amount of vertical. So today they were able to hold the race. The weather improved drastically today. We even had sunshine! With bib 47 I knew it was going to be a fight down the course. I watched my team mate Erin Mielzynski slay her run starting 33. After watching her myself and Anna Goodman, who was starting ahead of me knew it was possible to still have a good run. The course ended up being in way better condition than I was expecting and I charged the whole way down. When I crossed the finish line I was tied for 26th place! I was pretty happy with that but thought that it wouldnt hold. I did move back to 27th but happily QUALIFIED FOR SECOND RUN! This was a pretty big deal! First of all, for me it means that I will now be racing the World Cups in Lienz and Zagreb. Secondly, it means that if I finished I would score my first world cup points and thirdly if I finished I would open up another spot for Canada in Slalom (meaning one more Canadian Girl can have the opportunity to compete). I tried not to think about any of this before my second run. I focused on the immediate future. Skiing well. I felt I had a good inspection and managed the stress of the situation well. The awe of World Cup is definitely wearing off now so it felt like I was prepping for a normal race which was nice. My second run went well though not without a few baubles here and there. I ended up 23rd overall. I scored 8 World Cup points and opened up another spot for Canada! I am extremely happy with today. Sometimes it is nice to know you can achieve your goals! I am also very excited to return to Flauchau...which is where I had my first World Cup start last year. I will keep everyone updated and thanks for reading! Hope everyone has a great christmas!

Elli

Good News!

So after some very difficult training in Nakiska we headed to Colorado on Monday. And WOW what a difference it has made! There is nothing like skiing in warm weather, with great snow and sunshine. Nothing can compare to that! With these lovely conditions to contend with it was easy to be in a great headspace for training. We have done two days of training at Loveland Pass- which is where the NorAms will be held next week. Being back on hard snow immediately made me feel more comfortable on my skis than I had felt all week in Nakiska. So, after two successful, consistent days of training, I got some very good news! I will be racing the Aspen Slalom World Cup this sunday! I am very excited! Last year I missed qualifying for this race by .09 of a second over a four run time trial. It feels quite amazing to actually get the opportunity to race this year. The next few days will be spent making some final preparations for the race. Today we had the day off which we spent very very casually. We did a movement and stretching session this morning and the rest of the day I have spent trying to get through some of my Chemistry homework. It is a little difficult to comprehend the hybridization of orbitals and the molecular orbit theory when you are far away from the classroom! Tomorrow we have race simulation training which should be great...and I will again take my mind off of skiing by investing some time on my homework. I am actually really enjoying having school with me on the road. Sometimes it gets very easy to obsess about the insignificant details of skiing and things which are outside of your control. Doing homework makes me feel productive and allows my brain a chance to switch gears for a while.

Erin Mielzynski has a schedule on her blog (which is on the list of blogs on the bottom right of my blog) of which World Cups will be televised and which channel in Canada you can watch them. In the states it is possible to watch via Universalsports.com. I hope everyone is enjoying their evening and happy american thanksgiving!

Nakiska...

After an incredibly fun, nose to the grindstone month at school I am back in the mountains of western Canada! This is the closest I have gotten to home since July! Well I think you could call the Canmore area my second home for all the time I spend here! It feels very circular sitting here in front of the fire at the Delta writing a blog post! I have done this so many times before. For all its similarities though this time is slightly different. This time I have homework and am wearing my new University of Vermont team gear.....And I love it! I have absolutely been loving school! I spent the past weekend building a truss bridge out of balsa wood and glue...whats not to love??? Since Chile I have been feeling the tug of winter....every morning I have been loving school but dreaming of skiing some western Canadian Powder! And well there may be no powder here in Nakiska it feels pretty darn amazing to be back on my skis!

Today was my first day on snow here. Last night I got to the hotel at 11 30pm (which was 1 30am Burlington time...so I was feeling slightly fatigued) and after unpacking my skis fell into the deep slumber of someone how just disembarked from an airplane. Today we skied slalom. It felt great to be back on the shorties! We did four runs of timing on a 75 gate long course! 53 seconds of sprinting. It was great but difficult training due to the marbling in the snow between natural, man-made, soft and compact snow. I am really looking forward to the next few days of skiing!

Until then,

CIAO!

Chile

This fall has been an epic adventure of the unknown: SCHOOL!! I started school this fall at the University of Vermont. Somehow I am in the Civil Engineering progra,...well I know how...but it still seems crazy to me! I have my own house (with three awesome roommates) and I have training two hours per day with my UVM ski teammates. It has been a super busy schedule full of very interesting new information. I am absolutely loving being back at school. It feels great to use my brain! It has definitely not been easy using it since it has basically been on a 4 year snooze (calculus has been a little difficult) but it is slowly waking up!

This fall I was supposed to join the Canadian National Team on their camp in Saas Fee. I was really excited to go and have a great camp with them but, alas, it was not to be. The National Team wanted me to bring my own coach to the camp which would already have been expensive...to bring my own coach would have meant nearing the $10,000 mark for a 16 day camp. This.....well this is DEFINITELY above my budget! I started looking around for other opportunities for good skiing and ended up coming down to Chile with the BC Mens team with Brandon Dyksterhouse. I arrived in Santiago with my homework in my backpack and a stoked feeling about skiing! When we arrived at Valle Nevado it became very apparent that they were badly in need of snow! This was negated however by how good the snow that was there actually was! I had two days of amazing training in Slalom when Dykster broke the news that the BC team was going to pull out due to the lack of snow in two days. To say I was surprised and a little disappointed would be a little mild. I decided to stay because who comes to Chile only to leave after four days? AND the training that I was getting was great! After the BC boys left I continued to have great training. I did a day of training with the US mens europa cup team which was great followed by two days of training with the Whistler Club which were also great. So despite some challenges (including having to tune my own skis...which got shredded here by rocks and also delaminated...MY NEW SKIS!!! BOO) this has been a very successful short camp. I feel I am skiing the best slalom of my life and more consistantly too.

I would really like to thank all the people at home who have made this trip possible including Tim Schmidt, Sun Peaks Resort, my Mom and Dad and John Crichton (coaching from afar!). You guys make my dreams come true!

On that note here is the link to the video edit I made of my camp!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IabR5RPDB8A

Thanks!

Elli

New Zealand Video

Here is my video from New Zealand sorry for the wait!

This is some skiing that I feel pretty good about! i am really happy with my slalom skiing coming out of this past camp and I am looking forward to heading to Chile next week with the Mens BC team! Cant wait to get back on snow!

So I am SUPER PROUD to present my big brothers new amazing bike video! There are so many reasons why I look up to my brother it is ridiculous. The fact that he is an amazing rider is cream on top of the cake...but here is the link!

AMAZING!

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Silvia-at-Sun-Peaks-Bike-Park-Justin-Terwiel-2011.html

Have a great day everyone!

New Zealand

So I am now in New Zealand having a great time! I was feeling extremely home sick this time around when I left home knowing that it was going to be a very long time before I came home again. I had a great few weeks there training and hanging out with great friends. It was really hard to leave that atmosphere. But once again as soon as Im was on the road I stopped focusing on home and started focusing on skiing, my new team mates on the UVM ski team and life at that moment.

It has been a great trip so far. The skiing has been good. The weather has been cooperative and the friends a plenty! I am now in Coronet training with the Canadian Womens team. Last week I was training in Snow Park with TCRA. I will try and upload photos or video soon!

Cheers,

Elli

Mt Hood Video

Here is my latest video of my skiing in Mt Hood, Oregon.

Summertime and the livings easy....

So I spent two weeks in the middle of June training and working in Canmore.  My goal for my training has been to increase my core stability, my quickness and keep strong.  Being able to go to Canmore and spend a few weeks training with the National Team girls (and having the gym soo close by) was great!!  Unfortunately when I returned home I immediately got a wicked cold and had to take a few days off.  NOT my favourite way to spend my days- lying on the couch with a box of tissues and tea.  Yesterday I left for Mt. Hood.  I am here on-snow training with the Mens BC ski Team.  It is always great to train with them as they are all good skiers who push me to ski my best all the time.  Luckily, I started to feel better the day before I left.  Lets hope that is the last bit of "sick" I'll see for a while.  We are going to be here training for ten days straight.  The weather looks like it will hold so the plan is 5 days of gs-progressing from sliding drills to timing in gates followed by 5 days of slalom-same progression.  It is a great opportunity to get my stuff together in GS and follow it up with skiing my favourite-SLALOM!!  Im looking forward to ripping up on my slalom skis which I haven't been on since the end of the season.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!!

Spring 2011

This spring has been a very good! I went to Thailand and have since been home training. In mid May I went to Whistler and tried my hand at coaching! It was a very fun experience which actually ended up helping my skiing. After that I focused on returning to a fairly normal life training in the gym and getting to spend time with my family. I have been in Canmore for the past two weeks training and working at the Alpine Club of Canada as a dishwasher. I went straight to the bottom of the job food chain!! Despite that, it was a very fun experience which was full of good laughs and new friends.

In other news, I have decided to take a scholarship to University of Vermont in the fall. I am very excited to join the Vermont team and get an education!!! I will continue to pursue my skiing. I want to prove that you can go to school and compete in World Cup as well. I am doing all the training this summer in order to set myself up for success this coming winter.

Here are some photos from the past few months (out of order of course)

Today we went rockclimbing out by the grassi lakes in Canmore

Dirtbiking with my dad

Babysitting my little cousin Saywer

Vietnam
The cu chi tunnels outside of Saigon

Thailand

Sorry...i know I am a terrible updater!

Hello everyone, Well the past month has flown by. Life has finally slowed down enough for me to reflect and have time to write everything down! I arrived home from Europe tired and motivated. The Nor-Am finals were moved up due to bad weather so after spending 12 hours at home I drove off to Whistler. I also managed to pick up a cold on the way home! Blagh! NorAm finals were a mixed bag of happiness and disappointment. The first two days were slalom-my main event! The first day was incredibly tough conditions but I managed it well ending up 2nd...scoring an 8 and moving myself back into the top 2 for NorAm standings. Day 2 of the slalom days was again very challenging conditions snowing, fog and soft wet snow that broke through very quickly. It was a rollercoaster ride! I was sitting in 5th after the 1st run and I knew I had to go for it 2nd run. Kiley Staples who I was racing against for the NorAm spot was sitting in 6th. So my mentality out of the start was to gun it! Unfortunately half way day the pitch I felt my ski catch on plastic. It was very small but I straddled a gate. I knew I was having a good run and all I had to do was finish. I couldnt believe after all the work all year I lost my NorAm top 2 spot due to a tiny straddle that I couldn't control. Gut wrenching. I had the same thing happen to me last year as well. In the top 2 till the last day then bam! gone. For those who don't know if you are in the top two overall in NorAm standings for the year you earn yourself your own WorldCup spot for the following season. Its basically a golden ticket. And I lost it again! So that was a little disappointing! By the time the GS days rolled around my cold was in full bloom. Having not been sick all year I felt as whinny as a child with the sniffles! Hah I couldnt handle it! However the conditions drastically improved for the GS days and they ran without a hitch. I can't remember how I did but I was happy with the progression of my skiing over the four runs! From Whistler I went home for a couple days. I trained with the club...drove to Vancouver to see the epic Cirque de Soleil show Cavalia with horses!! It was great! Then off I drove to rejoin the "white" circus in Nakiska for Canadian Nationals. Nationals are always a good time. Everyone is excited that it is the end of the year and to be all together again! This year there were some surprise winners (congratulations Madi McLeish for winning the Canadian SG Title) and some not so surprise winners (congratulations Marie-Michele Gagnon on winning the SC, SL and GS titles)! Personally I was quite happy with my performances in GS and Sl. I was 6th in the GS with my 2nd run being the 2nd fastest! That is a huge improvement! In the slalom I was 4th. I was hoping to podium but luckily Canada is not lacking for talent in the slalom discipline! After Nationals it was decided that I would fly to Quebec for Eastern spring series. As the whole National team was going the points were going to be very good with the possibility of scoring! It was a solid effort but I matched my points-I did not score. Flying home from Quebec the incredible feeling of relaxation almost came over me....the season is over! What now? I don't have to ski?...I say almost because my flight from Montreal to Calgary (where I left my car) was delayed by over 5 hours!!! After I arrived in Calgary I had to drive back to Kamloops. So in total I was awake for 23 hours. I arrived home at 12 30 pm after waking up at 4 30 am (eastern time) to catch my flight from Quebec City to Montreal. Needless to say I can't believe I actually made it home that evening! A few days have passes since I've been home. Its been a great opportunity to see family and friends and re-learn the slower pace of spring time. This isnt lasting too long however as I am headed to Thailand today! I know what your thinking..how is that possible? Kindness and areoplan points my friend. Both absolutely amazing things! I am joining my friend Kelly McBroom (yes she loved the Coffee Fund for those of you who have been following my blog...thank you for donating and she is much recovered!), her uncle lives in Bangkok so we are going to visit him! And of course just see where our adventuring takes us while we are over there! a note on the end of the season....its been an amazing year. Full of friends, family and improvement throughout the season. It was a season of firsts and this will definitely not be my last season of racing! I am looking forward to training this summer and racing again next year. Thank you to EVERYONE who has supported me this year. It has meant the world to me! I will update when I get home from Thailand. Until then have a great spring!

The last four days

So on Saturday I raced my second World Cup. It was a beautiful sunny day with really icy snow! It was again a good experience. It was interesting coming through the finish line and seeing that I was in 34th...I definitely wasn't as excited as after my first World Cup! I really wanted to make the top 30! Somehow being just outside the flip just wasn't good enough anymore! Funny how quickly our expectations change! The Canadian team had some trouble first run so we all packed up and left after the first run. We drove straight to Munich. After some great Pizza we headed to bed and on flights home the next morning.

I arrived home at about 5pm on the 13th. After a lovely dinner with my whole family I headed home to do some laundry! The morning of the 14th at about 9 30 I left home to drive to Whistler. We raced today (the 15th) Slalom in crazy coastal weather. It was dumping snow with a very soft base. This is actually great conditions for someone like me who grew up in BC! Today I ended up 2nd in the first of two slalom NorAms here in Whistler!

Looking forward to the next few days!

More soon,

Elli

Spindleruv Myln

After a couple great days of training in Saalfelden we left to drive 6-7 hours to Spindleruv Myln in the Czech Republic for a World Cup race! We circumvented the beautiful city of Prague...it looked nice from the highway...! We ended up getting lost as our GPS gave us drections to a hotel with the same hotel name but in a very different city. It believe the city we ended up touring was called Lubrik or something like that! It was a very beautiful looking town! We continued through some back roads to Spindleruv Mlyn a little ski ski town! We trained yesterday are watching the GS today and will race Slalom tomorrow! Its my 2nd World Cup. I am very excited and ready to throw it down!!! I will update again after my race!

Eastern Promise.

Photos from the road!

Its been a very busy few days! Since I last blogged I have done a lot of travelling! I travelled from Dornbirn (see I told you I'd figure out the name!) to Poland, Slovakia and now in Germany. The weather was not great the second day of the Bodele races so we decided to drive to Poland instead of racing. 11 hours later we arrived in Poland. I think we were all a little shell shocked by Poland our first day. Our hotel turned out to by a tiny wooden house. Athletes on one floor and the coaches on the level above us. The beds were tiny with sheets that were a foot too short for the mattresses. The walls were made of wood with bits of rope in between the logs. You could say there was no privacy but that would by a bit much. As well the bathroom had a door with a opaque glass window in it! So not only could everyone hear you they could basically see you too! Not a fan! We arrived fairly famished from the drive to go straight to dinner. It was a cold plate of cheese and meat, egg salad and a petit serving of a light stew-ish soup. Needless to say we were starving!!! Breakfast the next morning was the same cold plate, the same salad, the same bread with a few breakfast food additions. We were starving as we trained the next morning. The town of Zakopane heats their homes with coal as well so that was also incredible. We couldn't place to smell in the air when we arrived. In the morning there was a dark fog over the town which decreased as the sun shone warming up the air. The hill was a great little ski slope. A steady pitch with nice injected snow on the race hill and music playing from the lift towers. It was incredibly sunny and pretty warm while we were there. After training we were so hungry we went and found (I'm embarrassed to say) a McDonalds. YES I KNOW...horrible. Why would you eat at a McDonalds in Poland? Well basically it was a quick, familiar menu where we knew we'd get food that would fill us up a little more! From this first 24 hours the food drastically improved and the sun continued to shine. Despite the weird accommodation..it did have a steady internet connection which was a saving grace...and it was right across from the hill. The race didn't go as well as I had hoped. Steady pitches arent really my forte. I ended up 25th. It was a Europa Cup so the field was really competitive...you really have to ski well to do well. That said I would like to congratulate my team mate Erin Mielzynski on her first Europa Cup Podium! She came 3rd! After the race we went out for coffee with one of the Canadian Team sponsors Hermes head honcho Darius. He took us to a beautiful hotel with incredible desserts! He told us a little more about Poland and the area. Overall, it was a lovely two hours spent in interesting company! After coffee we headed 3 hours over to Jasna in Slovakia where we were racing the next day. It was a beautiful drive through the Tatra Mountains. It reminded me of the area around Invermere...wide flat valley with white tipped mountains all around. Race day it was beautiful and sunny. The track was injected perfectly and it was a flat-ish course one of my favourites! I felt good in warm-up and was excited to really attack the course. I felt good for the first 20 gates. Then coming out a a hairpin I got a little in the back seat and injection takes no prisoners. I was not able to recover and straddled the next gate. My day was over after about 30 seconds of racing!!! It was really disappointing but I know I was going for it. After the race we headed 7 hours to Germany. Today we had a day off which has been a welcome rest. Tomorrow we race GS (exciting!!)

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Cheers

ET

Photos from the road

Poland
Slovakia
Slovakia
Jasna, Slovakia
Top of Jasna!
the sunrise in Poland...beautiful!!
The morning smog created from the the coal heated houses!!
Driving through Slovakia
Hmm...where to go? Budapest or Bratislava?

Our average speed...

I will try to add more photos later!

Off to the little ski hill we went...

Hinterreit, Austria

Essentials to making it through your first night in Europe....

Hello All!

So I am now back in Europe! It was a hop, skip and a jump over the big 'ol pond and away I went! I arrived in Munich two days ago and drove straight to Saalfelden, Austria and did two incredibly tough days of slalom training. It was tough because of the conditions and terrain. Steep and freshly injected (so ball-y ice). It was good training...I don't think we will have a race that will be nearly that difficult. Today after training we up and moved to some town near the hill Bodele. Kind of hilarious that I dont actually know the name. I guess that is a prime example of how we travel in Europe....so quickly in and out that we really only see the ski hill. We race tomorrow and the next day here before heading off to Poland. I'm sure I'll know the name by the time we leave. Wish me luck!

On the upside.

Hello all!

I know I haven't updated in a while but i am trying to not bore people with the small details of ordinary life!

I have now been home for two weeks! I will be home for another 2 weeks before commencing on the final push of the season. Two weeks in Europe followed promptly by Nor-Am finals and Canadian Championships. In Europe I will be doing 4 FIS races, 2 Europa Cup Slaloms and.....ANOTHER WORLD CUP! YES! I will be competing in the World Cup in Spindleruv Myln in the Czech Republic March 12th (I believe is the date). I am very excited about this!

SO "all that" being said I am taking serious advantage of being home to get back in the gym and train with some great coaches before "all that" begins. This weekend I went down to Apex Resort near Penticton, BC- a place I used to race regularly but have not visited in about 5 years!

It was not the best snow conditions but it was amazing training. I got three sessions of slalom in about 12 hrs. I trained with the BC Mens team and also with John Crichton my Sun Peaks Alpine Coach. It was a superb environment to push my limits.

So that is my small update! Once I get back on the road I will have more exciting stuff to offer up! As for now I am enjoying the comforts of home, family and friends while priming myself for action! Love it!

Cheers,

EL

A week in Euroland

After the world cup in Flachau we headed back to the Canadian Home Base of Kirchberg, Austria....and the pouring rain. The next day we trained doing 5 runs in the rain. We were driving up to the top of the hill in an ttempt to stay a little more dry...but we were still soaked. Despite the weather it was good training! The snow was great. Icy and firm!

We then drove to Maribor, Slovenia. My first thought about Slovenia...beautiful and green! The hills are rolling with houses strewn across them. They are built in a different style than the rest of Europe which is kinda refreshing. Though it is very apparent that this country doesn't have the same history of a healthy economy as other European Countries. I'd love to come back and stay a little longer. In our meeting that night it was decided that the slalom girls would drive two and a half hours to Tarvisio, Italy on the GS day in Maribor. So at 7am we loaded into the vans and headed off. Training in Tarvisio was great. Ice and sunny! We did 6 high quality runs and then went for pizza just across the boarder in Kranska Gora, Slovenia. It was probably the best Pizza I've ever had! mmm!!! It is amazing...in the two and a half hour drive we went through three countries...Slovenia, Austria and Italy! And there was no snow within two hours of Maribor. No wonder they couldn't run the race!!! Though it must be said that they did a good job preserving the snow that was there. It just isn't possible at +14 to run a quality race!

That night we had our meeting and I found out some random good news! Apparently after being on injury status your points can only go up by 2% per list for the next 14 lists. So in december everyones points were dropped by 2.3 points...and they went back up in January...only because my points can't go up above 2%..I got to keep my good points!! So I went from being ranked 69th in the world to 48th! Nice!! So for the slalom in Maribor my bib was supposed to be 41. I big improvement from 55 at Flachau. I was very excited to race and take advantage of the great start number!

We arrived at the hill in Maribor to mixed sun and cloud and people boot walking down the course followed by two teams of volunteers with hoses watering the course followed by people slipping the course and finally buckets of salt being thrown down. They were trying everything to get the race off!! I have never seen anything like that the morning of the race before!! We arrived at the top of the warm-up course to the news that it was already cancelled. We did two runs in the warm-up course anyway. Then we got to run the race course from the pitch down. It was great to try out the hill even if we didnt get to race it! I love the hill and can't wait to do it next year (hopefully). The snow, however, on the race hill was completely rotten...as we skied down the course gates flew out and it was super crystally snow.

So we went back to the hotel and packed up. We are now back in Tarvisio, Italy for a Europa Cup slalom tomorrow. Really looking forward to it!

World Cup Photos

After Inspection...

During my run!

So stoked to cross the finish line!

Looking at my run time

Happy Person in the finish...

My First World Cup

So tonight I just raced my first world cup. I feel like it has been a long road to get here and am super stoked on finally making it!!! YAY!

I managed to stay pretty calm about the whole thing until the race actually started. I did yoga off of youtube this morning and also watched tutorials on knitting socks...so exciting! ha! Basically I was trying to get activated and stay calm...I was really trying to nail the process of how to "race" my first world cup...not only just "ski" it. We went out on hill at 2 45 and I had a good warm-up...not spectacular but just good. I didn't start feeling like i was in a big race until inspection. Feeling the incredibly hard snow beneath your feet...slipping past Lindsey Vonn...looking down at the huge stadium lit up by incredibly powerful lights. There was music blaring and people were just starting to file in to the finish area as we left inspection. I was still pretty calm...I only betrayed my nervousness a little...by forgetting the 2nd half of the course immediately after I left inspection. I really had to work to remember what was happening down there!!!

After inspection all the racers went back up to the top and waited in the mid mountain lodge...they had big tv's in there so we could watch the race. It is really helpful when they send the camera man down the course!! We knew exactly what it looked like! It was a blessing and a bit of a curse to see the top girls go. They looked a little rugged. They made the now look very slippery and alot of them had issues on the bottom. I started to get major butterflies as I was watching the top 15 go. The realization that I was watching them on tv...and that I would be on that same TV really got me jittery! I went down to the start at bib 30. I was almost hyperventilating as I arrived at the start. That is where I got control of myself. It doesn't matter what race you are at...the atmosphere at the start is always the same. I just started to focus on my warm-up and not getting over-heated(it was 0 degrees...pretty warm for a night race!). About 5 racers before I went all I thought about was that no matter how this race goes I'll be fine. All I need is shin pressure and that skiing is the same no matter the back drop. In the start. I focused on the girl skiing in front of me...too scary to look out at the 20,000 people who were cheering at the finish!! I felt I skied well. My only thing was that I maybe backed off a tiny amount at the bottom where I knew (from the tv at the top) that girls were having issues...I had none at all. Coming through in 32nd place was interesting. I was really happy with the placing but also knew that I hadn't made 2nd run. Ah well. First world cup ending up at the end of the race 34th and .17 away from qualifying for 2nd run made me pretty happy! We stayed in the finish area for the 2nd run and watched our team mate Anna Goodman slay second run...moving from 27th to 15th position! Way to go Anna!! We also got our photo taken with Herman Maier...we couldn't help ourselves!

Overall it was a great start to World Cup and I can't wait to do it again in Maribor!

Thank you BC Ski Team, Brandon Dyksterhouse, John Critchton and all my family and friends for the amazing support! Photos will be uploaded later!

NorAm Races

First World Cups

I have some exciting news. I am doing two world cups!!! I am racing Flachau tomorrow, a night slalom, and Maribor, a slalom as well, on the 15th! I am pretty excited! I am driving to Flachau today for the freeskiing on the hill this afternoon. I don't have a camera but i am going to get my team mates to take some photos for me! Wish me luck!! And please continue to donate to Kelly's Coffee Fund! We reached the goal of $75 but why not go for $100!!! Thank you to everyone who donated! It is amazing what a small act of kindness can do!!

Cheers,

Elli

Kelly's coffee fund is up and running!!! Let the donations begin!

Ok I don't know how to set it up yet but PLEASE check back later to donate to Kelly's Coffee Fund!!!

Will try again tomorrow!

Kelly's Coffee Fund....Donations accepted!

So after my Nor-Am win I went to Nakiska for some FIS races. They went well and showed how far I have still to come in GS!

After that I headed home for some great food, family and some great training at Sun Peaks! There isnt anything better than great training at home!! I love being surrounded by my family and doing the thing that I love at the same time!

On the 31st I headed out East. We flew to Montreal then drove down to our current location Sunday River, Maine. A quaint old town with lots of character!! THe hill is actually pretty big for out east!! We arrived a day early and free skied on the hill. It was slushy and almost rainy...it made us a little nervous about the races to come!

We woke up in the morning of our first gs race to wind!! It froze the snow solid on the hill. The race hill was solid ICE!!!! Luckily it was still a little grippy but it was incredibly different than what I have been training lately. The first day I had a great second run...I was 3 and the 1st in the splits...before crashing on the bottom. This gave me motivation to go for it today!

Today I came 3rd!!! My best gs NorAm result yet!! I was a long way out but I was second on the 2nd run and made up alot of time in comparison to my 1st run.

Tomorrow is slalom which is always very exciting however I have something else I'd like to mention. One of my best friends and team mate Kelly McBroom sustained a compound fracture of her left Tib/Fib. She has had surgery and has one more to go before heading home. This is particularily devastating because Kelly is just coming back from 2 YEARS out from an incredibly complicated knee injury. I am trying to find ways to make her life a little easier. I know first hand how hard it is to suddenly be left at home with nothing to do but recover. It is very easy to get incredibly depressed and as a friend I am going to try and not let that happen!!! I am setting up a little donation on the side of my blog...a "kelly's coffee fund". Hopefully this will brighten her long days ahead and show her how much support she has behind her!! I am hoping people will donate between 1 and 5 dollars..feel free to donate more. The goal being $75!

Have a safe and happy week...more updates to come!