Summertime

      Summer is always an interesting time as a ski racer.  In some ways in doesn't really exist, in others it is the busiest time of the year and in a third sense it is our only relaxing part of the year.  This summer I was centred in Canmore, Alberta to train with the rest of the National Team and our amazing trainer Matt Jordan and staff.  It is possibly the coldest part of Canada (at that latitude) as well as one of the most strikingly beautiful.  It always seems a place of extremes.  The mountains, the wildlife and this year in particular, the flooding!  While we were stationed in Canmore it had a record breaking amount of rainfall which led to a very bulging creek and river.  It managed to damage thousands of homes in the Western part of Alberta and we spent many a day (when we were done training) huddled indoors to escape the cold/wet weather.  That said the training environment was excellent and I think as a team it was one of our most productive training "seasons" yet.  So, in terms of warm summer weather...it didnt really exist.  Until our on-snow camp in Zermatt.

     In Zermatt we had an amazing two week camp.  The weather was incredible, warm enough to tan in the afternoons (or in my case burn) and it also meant really nice hard snow in the early mornings.  Every morning we would wake up around 5 and start our day amongst the hustle and bustle of the crazy tram rides up to the glacier.  Europe really knows how to "pack-em-in-there" when it comes to their transportation.  "Rucksac Bitte!" will permanently be engrained in my brain after my multiple trips to the summer glaciers.  Trying to fit 60 skiers in a tram when our skis and bag packs way more than a person each is always an interesting experience.  Once you get to the top of the glacier though you are treated to the amazing experience of viewing the Matterhorn from a little seen angle.  Often it peaks out of a layer of cloud.  Quite a sight.

     After Zermatt I travelled to Boston, Massachusetts to visit my boyfriend and his family for a week.  It was so nice and relaxing in comparison to the hectic schedule we keep while we are full time training.  The small break allowed me to do a "mini" internship with my boyfriend at his work!  I was beyond excited to be able to go to work at an geotechnical engineering firm and learn/watch what happens beyond the school engineering curriculum.  I loved it!  We dissected site drawings, checked out job sites and made preliminary CAD drawings for the actual engineers to then work with.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  We also took a day trip to Cape Cod which is definitely a place I will be returning to!  After spending a amazing week in Boston I returned to Canmore reinvigorated to train and get ready for our next camp in New Zealand.

     We were in New Zealand for just under a month.  In that time we were a internet "dead zone".  Our first week was spent at the incredibly beautiful Lake Tekapo....with no internet access except for a cafe over a mile away from our house.  It was incredible training and very high volume we had multiple "millennium" days (over 1000 gates) in a row and the weather was once again very much on our side.  After 6 days of great training we headed to Methven to train at Mt. Hutt.  I even trained SG!  We had a great SG/GS block there and experienced some crazy weather days where we were the last people allowed off the mountain.  300 Methven school children were stranded at the mountain overnight as the road down was closed!  After carefully monitoring the upcoming weather and conditions we chose after our stint in Mt. Hutt to head back to Lake Tekapo instead of our original plan to spend the last week of our trip in Coronet Peak.  We finished off our trip with an incredible slalom block.  It is safe to say that it was an incredibly productive camp!  We ended our camp about 3 days early because of an huge impending storm.  The day before we left the winds at the top of Mt. Hutt were 250 km/hr!  Luckily it calmed down enough for us to depart without issue the following day!

I am now in Vermont relaxing, recovering and enjoying seeing everyone from school and my UVM team.  I am not formally attending school this year which has been one of the toughest decisions I have ever made.  It is nice still coming back here absorbing information second hand from my friends!  I cannot wait to start my studies again!

I unfortunately have no program on my computer right now to upload photos from but I will add some photos when I can!