Elli Terwiel

Back to Work!

2012-01-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

After a wonderful (and short) stay at home I am now back in Burlington. My time at home was great. I did a few days of training, saw family and friends and took care of a lot of business! It has been a great time to reflect on how good I am feeling and how thankful I am to all my supporters. There is nothing like coming home to make you feel truly awed by peoples kindness and support. I think I must come from the most supportive community (Sun Peaks Resort and Kamloops area) in the world! So what I am taking away with me from home is a profound sense of thanks and a strong desire to be as supportive and kind to others as people in my community have been to me. Let it never be said that there is no love in the world, that is a completely false statement.... it just shows itself slowly with small gestures instead of grand strokes. Thank You so MUCH!

With this in mind I am looking forward to starting school on Tuesday! I did a lot of running around this morning catching up on groceries and other things that need to be taken care of after a long absence. This afternoon will be spent reviewing calculus and physics!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

2012-01-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UihjadQUJEk&feature=youtu.be

This is a link to a better quality version of the video I posted last time!

Home for a Rest...

2012-01-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

Here is a video of the footage from all the World Cups I did over in Europe. Tried to keep it short yet as unedited as possible...Thanks for all the support it was a great opportunity and look forward to doing my next world cups!

The last race I did over in Euroland was the Zagreb Night Slalom. This was an interesting experience for me as in the past two world cups I was SO close to qualifying so in the training in between Lienz and Zagreb I really searched for where I could close that .2 of a second gap. I really worked on being closer to the gate, in a more forward stable position and finishing my turn at the gate to keep my skis in the fall line. Unfortunately we didnt get a very good chance to warm up prior to the race in Zagreb with the serious lack of snow we found in Croatia. I think it would have been great to get some really good feedback with the "re-newed" focus on those certain areas of my skiing. Alas, as can happen regularly it seems on the eastern european tour this was not to be. So standing in the start I decided to really attack and take a fairly straight line out of the gate. However the course was a little turnier than expected and my straight line put me in a weak position to move cleanly through the corridor and I ended up making a large mistake on about the 4th gate which I was unable to make up time for. The course had a LOT of flats...and on hills like that is it very important to have as a mistake free run as possible. So my run ended up being slow. My worst result thus far in World Cup...41st. But I am overall very happy with my skiing and I like how I have been approaching these World Cups. I am currently sitting in the Vancouver airport waiting for my last little lag of the long journey home to Kamloops. This will be my first time home since JULY!!!! I am extremely excited to see my friends and family and to ski at my home resort of Sun Peaks. In fact I will be training there this weekend! Training GS...for the first time since the summer! Can't wait!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful January!

Elli

In honour of Sarah Schleppers retirement

2012-01-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

Sarah Schlepper, a great American ski racer retired in Lienz. We are really going to miss her!

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

European Tour 2011

2011-12-27T08:59:00.001-08:00

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!

2011-12-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-18T06:22:00.001-08:00

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!

2011-11-24T16:09:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-11-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-10-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

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

Summertime and the livings easy....

2011-07-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-11T01:17:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-03-03T06:19:00.000-08:00

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

Photos from the road

2011-03-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-02-25T09:18:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-02-08T16:22:00.000-08:00

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,

A week in Euroland

2011-01-16T05:51:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-10T01:07:00.000-08:00

First World Cups

2011-01-10T01:04:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-05T16:03:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

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!

NorAm Win!

2010-12-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

So I am in a much better mood this time around writing!!! I just won my second NorAm!! Panorama has been good to me once again! Kelly McBroom took photos at awards which I will post soon! Until then I will shout out some thanks!!

THANK YOU:

Mom and Dad-I've put you through the ringer I know!

BC Alpine for letting me train with the guys all summer

Kelly, Bre, Mike, Joel, and everyone else who has been sending me great vibes via text the past few days!

Brandon Dyksterhouse (and Sean Frith) and Johnny Crichton for being awesome at coaching me!

Izzy HamptonStone of BrainTrain and Dave Freeze of Ripplerock Consulting for the great mind power!!!

Enough self indulgence...tomorrow back to work..really looking forward to the GS!

on to Panorama!

2010-12-13T19:55:00.001-08:00

Well unfortunately I have no new photos to put up. Upon writing this I have realized that I have not been taking any photos of late! When you've been to the same places a few times the motivation to take photos dwindles!

At the Nor Ams in Colorado I had a mixed bag of results. I was 10th the first day of the Slalom I dnf'd second run the 2nd day after skiing the entire first run with my pole guard broken off. In the GS I was 14th and 15th consecutively. I felt good about my GS finishes because I definitely had some wobbles and mistakes during those finishes. Especially the second day...I stopped on the bottom flats! So I left Colorado with a mixed bag of emotions. Actually fairly happy with my results but also knowing that I could have done better.

After Colorado I got to go home for a week (wow! that never happens at this time of year!) I spent my first day lolling around..sort of.. then got straight to work training with the Sun Peaks Alpine Club and one of my favourite coaches ever John Crichton..who has just returned to the club after a 6 year stint with the Canadian Mens Tech Team...need I say more? I felt I skied really well and as always when skiing with positive coaches I feel really confident coming out of the week! Though somehow I did manage to get frostbite on all my toes at -2!!!

Yesterday my mom and I drove out to Panorama. Possible the worst drive ever! It started out with a 27cm dump of fresh, HEAVY snow at our place. We ended up digging for two hours to get our car out of the ditch before we could even leave! After that was accomplished we set out hoping to arrive in Panorama around 9 30pm....we ended up arriving at 2AM!!! The rogers pass was incredibly treacherous! It is best described by the sign which flashed "slick slippery sections, compact snow, limited visibility, blowing snow". We ended up going 50km/hr most of the way in a HUGE line of semi's. We even passed a snowplow newly in the ditch! At one point we were stopped for an hour waiting because a semi truck had jack knifed into the ditch and was blocking most of the road. Anyway wow was I happy to finally arrive in Panorama.

Today I trained three runs just to get my legs back after the drive. I watched my friends race SG. Congratulations to Madi McLeish and Kelly McBroom 1st and 3rd today! Always great to see Canadians on top!

I am hoping to forerun the slalom portion of the super combined tomorrow and start racing on Wednesday!

Ciao for now!

Welcome to the heartbreak hotel

2010-11-26T14:55:00.001-08:00

After a good camp in Nakiska I headed down with the Canadian Team to Denver to start off the race season! After a night in Denver we drove to Loveland. As it is the US Thanksgiving weekend...they served Thanksgiving at the ski hill for lunch. Not my favourite thing before a world cup time trials! Our time trials were 4 runs...our best two runs combined time. I had a good first run followed by two not great runs. My fourth was again better. The result was heartbreaking...I missed qualifying for my first World Cup by .06 of a second. I am not sure I have been as heartbroken as yesterday afternoon since I dnf'd at Nor-Am finals (costing me a world cup spot for this year). It feels as if I cannot catch a break. No matter how badly I want it...no matter how confident I am feeling going into things...it doesnt seem to work out. I keep thinking..sometimes good things do happen...just not this time...again.

So I am regrouping for the Colorado Nor-Am series which starts the day after the Aspen World Cup. Wish me luck!

2010-11-22T13:07:00.001-08:00

Now this looks like fun!

Fall training

2010-11-10T18:19:00.000-08:00

Today I commenced fall training in Nakiska. I have been here for a few days already and the BC mens team had some car issues so are arriving tonight vs yesterday (as was planned) so today I skied with the Women's Alberta team. I did 4 warm up runs and 7 in the course...a pretty good first day volume wise! Tomorrow I will be joining the mens BC team for the rest of the week. On the 15th I will be meeting up with the rest of the National Tech Women when they return from Levi and will be training with them till the 23rd.

So far I'm having a great time here in Canmore...but hoping it will snow soon!

In parting here is a shot taken in Chile!

2010-11-03T09:47:00.001-07:00

So after an amazing time at home my season will begin a little early this year. I am heading out a few days early to Canmore to hang out with some good friends of mine before commencing training in Nakiska on the 9th. I will be training in Nakiska until the 23rd so hopefully we have good weather and good conditions to make the most of the two weeks available!

Cheerio

ERT

2010-10-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2OMNyC_N5A

this is the link to my newest ski video. Skiing from Chile 2010! Enjoy!

Fall

2010-10-27T14:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone...I have been a bad bad blogger!! Sorry about that! I am home now after a amazing three week camp in Chile. I have been to Chile 5 times now...I already have all the photos I need of Chile! I am really stoked on how I am skiing after this camp. Amazing how a little positive energy can go such a long way! It was alot of fun skiing with the BC team men and women. They have so much energy and enthusiasm for the sport! Ah pre-political skiing...love it!

After Chile I came home and completed physical testing and my ACT test(an entrance exam for US Universities). Feels good to have both of those out of the way! I feel really good about my results in both!

So now I am home. Enjoying fall to the max and spending A LOT of time in the gym. I have been helping out my local club at dryland which has been entertaining and again motivational. Amazing how many kids start in this sport....I feel so privileged to have made it this far! Not many do! My mom always like to compare my success to hockey "If you were a hockey player you'd be on the Olympic winning team or a star NHL player!!....you just chose a sport that is way harder to succeed at". This is true. On the Canadian Olympic Hockey team there were 23 athletes. In Alpine skiing 7 women went and 12 men. Our whole sport was represented by less people than one hockey team. Putting my career into perspective has really left me proud of my accomplishments and also so ready to take on the world. Seeing my teammate Marie-Michele Gagnon have success at the opening race in Soelden shows that our Canadian team is incredibly strong. We have so many good young athletes who will be starting either their first or second year on World Cup. I cannot wait to see how this season plays out.

As my prep season comes to an end and the race season looms large in front on me I feel relaxed, motivated, strong and I know I have done everything this summer that I could to give me the greatest chance at success this winter. What a great place to be in.

Cheers

Elli

New Zealand Retroactive...

2010-09-21T15:28:00.000-07:00

Ok sorry about the late update! If you will believe it I am now in Chile!! I had 10 days at home where I was flat out working on our house and in the gym...it was controlled chaos! But I am getting ahead of myself!

The rest of my new zealand camp was good. I ended the camp feeling that I had a really good idea of what I needed to work on. Instead of going home straight away thought myself, Eve Routhier and Kelly McBroom took a little road trip!

We commenced our little journey from Christchurch and headed north to Hamner Springs. We had a quickie dinner then headed to the hot springs for a little relaxation after 4 weeks on snow. It was the perfect start to a couple hectic days of driving! The next day we drove from the Lewis Pass to Westport were we had a awesome lunch on the beach

Our humble little van!

The Beach in Westport

After a delicious/random lunch of hamburger, garlic bread and carrots we continued down the west coast. We visited a seal colony that was incredibly beautiful and it ws here that my team mate Eve learned to drive standard...on the wrong side of the road!

The Seal Colony

Around 4 pm we arrived at the "Pancake rocks and blowholes". It was incredible!

We were terrible tourists who went off the main track to discover "the real sites"! After walking around in awe at the pancake rocks we continued a little further to a deserted beach were we watched the sunset and drank kiwi wine.

After watching the sunset we climbed back into the van and continued down to Hokitika. The next morning we managed to find public showers (nothing better than being clean after a few days living in a van!). We continued down the coast past Franz Joesph and the Fox Glacier (we decided not to stop...we see enough glaciers). In the morning we had been told to visit a place called Okarita, a ten km detour off the main road, to see the "beautiful lagoon" and to possibly go kayaking. After navigating a treacherous windy road we arrived in Okarita....permanent population of 35!!! The lagoon looked like a dam that had dried out. After about ten minutes we turned around and left. We continued down the coast and decided to visit another place we had heard about called Monroe beach. The trail sign said a 1 30 hr round trip in and out to Monroe beach...it took us 15 minutes to run! Monroe beach was incredible. After running through jungle it was amazing to arrive at a deserted beach with perfect round pebbles. It was incredible sunny and we wandered the beach like explorers landing on a foreign shore after months at sea! We climbed, looked and pondered all the while being eaten by sandflies...but it was worth it!

Monroe Beach

After Monroe we continued down to Haast were we once again ate dinner and drank wine on the beach at sunset. Beautiful. After sunset we drove from Haast to Queenstown! We lived in Queenstown and had visited Wanaka before so it wasn't a vital area for us. The next day was Eve's birthday and she wanted to see Milford Sound...so we drove through the night!

The view from our campervan on Eve's Birthday morning!!

After we set out from Queenstown our drive was interrupted by a herd of sheep who came barrelling down the road towards us...we sat stunned and giggling in our van for I swear 10 minutes as sheep passed up! One of the cars passing the other way rolled down his window "It's ok if you're on vacation" haha apparently stampeding sheep is a regular NZ occurrence!

This was a photo taken about an hour from Milford sound...we had a personal joke during the drive were we bought a party pack of fake mustaches...the funniest part was when we forgot that we were wearing them and pulled into a gas station. We commenced filling the tank and the usual to do's without realizing how funny we looked! Epic!

We arrived in Milford Sound accompanied by torrential rain!!! We booked a tour of the sound on a small ferry. Rain couldn't get us down!

On board we celebrated Eve's birthday with a toast of white wine in the rain. After unloading from the boat we were soaked and decided that it would be prudent to actually "plug-in" at a camper van ground and try to dry out the van and our stuff! We ended up having a great night spent playing dual language scrabble (french and english) with many onlookers helping out with both languages. We met a few people who were from the same town in Quebec as Eve (Sherbrook)...they only live about 5 minutes apart!

The next morning we woke up to a sign that said road closed due to ice...so we had a lazy morning organizing the van before the road opened at 11. About 30 hr after commencing our drive I looked down and noticed we did not have enough gas to make it over the pass so we had to turn around and go back to Milford sound...however thank god we did as the sun finally came out and we actually got to see the sound! I guess some things happen for a reason!

Milford Sound the next morning!

That day we spent in Te Anau after we finally got gas and drove over the pass. We had a great time deciding on what wool to buy to make our own scarves. The knitting shop we were in had the greatest lady working there who was so knowledgeable and so enthusiastic! It turns out when you buy lots of GOOD wool...its expensive!! At 7 pm we went on a tour of some glow worm caves. It was incredible! Not easy to get to though! We had a 30 mn boat ride to the caves then we hiked up the cave system to where the glow worms lived. Each little glow worm twinkled like a little star on the roof of the cave. It was awe inspiring and so calming to be in the dark, silent cave in a boat over water looking at little lights! After the tour we proceeded just past the village of Gore to sleep for the night.

The next day we headed to Dunedin. I think this was our most memorable day. We booked 2 tours. the Cadbury chocolate factory in the morning and the Speights brewery in the afternoon.

Can you tell we were excited? I felt sick by the time we exited the Cadbury tour...for every question you anwsered correctly you got a piece of chocolate! Between our tours we browsed the shops of Dunedin and recovered from all the chocolate.

Our tour of the Speights brewery in the afternoon was amazing. Our tour guide was lively and hilarious! Sprinting from one part of the brewery to the next! After the tour we went into a bead store and spent over an hour picking great beads to make our own earrings!! then we went for Sushi. It was a great day!!! After sushi we rolled out of Dunedin (by far our favourite town) and headed back up the east coast towards Christchurch. We stopped for the night in Methven were we had left all our ski stuff. At around 4 am I woke up to the feeling of our van being severely rocked!! I thought someone was driving away with us in the back of the van! After thinking it through and realizing it wasn't someone driving away in the van or Kelly rolling around me and Eve decided it must have been the wind and swiftly fell back asleep. It was only in the morning thatwe found out it was a 7.5 earthquake that we had felt!

Morning after the earthquake...still obliviously that it had happened...

We drove from Methven to Christchurch and went to drop off our van. While we were there there was a 5.4 aftershock. We really felt that one! Throughout the rest of the day and that night there were constant small tremors. It was bizarre and at the same time you just got on with life! Our flight was cancelled and we ended up spending an extra night in Christchurch.

How many km's we drove during our trip!

Overall it was an amazing time with great friends and beautiful scenery! I would do it again in a heart beat!

I will update on Chile soon!

Ciao

Long lost from down under (NZ style)

2010-08-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hello from New Zealand!

I have now been down here for 15 days...and wow have they been busy! We had 7 days in Lake Tekapo skiing at a resort called Round Hill. It was a great place to work on drills and gain confidence back in speed (yes...I DID SG!!! AND...it was really fun). The lovely thing about winter in New Zealand it that there is only snow on the ski slopes...which makes it a very easy transition from 38 degrees in Kamloops to winter! We have had great conditions on hill and are able to go outside and play soccer in the afternoons! Lake Tekapo was a very small town...it consisted on a strip mall selling lots of wool products and a couple of gas stations. To get out to the ski resort it was a 30 minute drive down a gravel round that winded (beautifully) around Lake Tekapo. Round Hill is a great little hill!!! It has a t-bar and the official worlds steepest poma. The poma accesses a steep open face which has epic skiing in the afternoons when the snow softens up! But man do you have to work to access it! To go up the poma you must wear a harness and attach it to a moving wire and hold on with one hand the whole way up! So yes your legs burnt on the way up but it was the hand holding yourself onto the wire that got the rough treatment!! It was VERY difficult to maintain a tight grip on the moving cable for the 5 minutes it took to get up! Letting go just wasn't a viable option if you wanted to get a great ski in!! I must add that the day we trekked up the poma it was after 7 runs of SG followed by 12 runs of slalom (we hit the millennium club for slalom alone...which means we did over a thousand gates). So in our defense...we were a little tired!

After skiing at Lake Tekapo for 6 days we drove down to Coronet Peak...which is about 20 minutes out of Queenstown. Once again the New Zealand landscape is picturesque to the extreme. We are staying on a beautiful golf course near Arrowtown. Surrounded by snow capped mountains, green fields and sheep it is hard not to fall in love with this location! Our first day here we had a day off so myself and my team mates Kelly McBroom, Maddy Irwin, Maddy McLeish, Vic Stevens and our physio Jenny went skydiving!!!

Skydiving is possible to coolest thing I have ever done. It was much less scary than expected. I wanted to challenge myself so I went from the highest you can go (15000 ft) and got my skydive "guy" to do backflips with me as soon as we jumped out of the plane! It felt amazing! I want to do it again as soon as possible!

We have skied 5 days here in Coronet with excellent hard snow and challenging terrain! Our chef took us out to dinner at his winery on the night of our day off were we tested different wines and cooked our own pizza. Once again it was great!

I will send more photos soon!

Ciao for now!
One of our backflips out of the plane!!
The top of the poma at Round Hill
The view up the poma
Lake Tekapo
The view of Mt Cook from Round Hill
Lake tekapo
Kelly jumping as usual in the Round Hill parking lot.

New Zealand Bound

2010-07-29T20:12:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

I am on my way to New Zealand for a 4 week camp! Will keep you posted as soon I get there!

Cheers!

Elli

Summer and beyond!

2010-07-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hello All!

So it has been quite a while since I last blogged. Sorry. I have been working really hard lately and haven't had a chance to sit and think for a while!

This past 2 months I have been working non-stop on our home reno project. It is going really well but a little slower than initially planned (you could say renovating an old house is like opening a can of worms)...but I won't go that far. It has been a great experience which has taught me a lot about the construction business and how to work in close quarters with my whole family! It really has been good. I don't think I have been home for such an extended amount of time for the past few years....well actually since I finished school...this has been my longest stay at home. To qualify I did go away a couple times but they were under a week so don't really count!

So far in July I have gone to Whistler for a dryland slash ski camp and I am now in Canmore visiting and training with my friend and teammate Kelly McBroom. I leave for New Zealand on the 28th of July. So yeah...my stay at home is over for now. I will be in New Zealand for 5 weeks which will be very exciting as I have never been to New Zealand.

Ta ta for now!

Home Reno!

2010-06-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

New floor in bathroom
Hard wood floors!!
2275 kg of concrete later....

dirt everywhere!!!

Hello all!

So I have been so busy I haven't been able to et on-line to blog lately! My family bought a little dilapidated house in Kamloops which we have been renovating! What hard work!! My mom and I lugged 2275 kg of concrete out of the basement!! We have taken out walls...and removed a ton of lath and plaster!! Hard work aside it has been very interesting, and very fun!!! I love seeing the progress that can be made in such a short time!!!

So that has been my whole June. I am now in Whistler for two days training with my team mates Kelly, MP, and Britt in the gym! It is sooo nice to see them after so long puttering around in Kamloops!

Photos from the spring!

2010-05-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

The view down from the top of Mt. Rundle!
At the top of EEOR in Canmore! Top of Mt. Rundle with Kelly!
My new cousin Sawyer!
Working with my horse Shimmer
Rockclimbing at Lac La Roche

Back to work!

2010-05-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

It has continued to be a great week after getting home from Maui. First of all, I am the proud new owner of a car!!! Yay first time having my own car=more independence yes! I have a 2000 VW Passat...very pretty! Thank you to Kamloops Mazda for giving me such a good deal on a Volkeswagon!!

In other news I learned this week that there is good hiking around Kamloops!!! My friend Bre, my brother and myself hiked up the hoodoo's behind the Kamloops airport. They are so beautiful!! Such distinct features and peppered with bits of quarts and jade...and cactus!!! I got some cacti stuck in my ankle!!! Ouch...but I had revenge by collecting a bunch, peeling then eting them!! To anwser the question I know is coming....yes they are edible...yes someone informed on the subject told me...and yes they taste like chicken.....wait a tic....Kidding!! Just checking if you were paying attention!! They taste like a very watered down pear. Worth trying once in your life if only to say you've eaten cactus! Whatever the case it was a great hike in lovely Kamloops sunny weather!

I also went outdoor rockclimbing for the first time in a very long time! I have climbed indoors quite alot in the past few years but never had to opportunity to commit to the outdoors! I went with my friend Bre and her boyfriend out to Lac le Roche about a 30 min drive from Kamloops. I discovered that I was actually a little freaked out to belay back down the cliff! Going up no problem but coming back down took a second before I felt confident in my repelling abilities!

This week is about getting back into the swing of summer life as a ski racer...aka getting back in the gym and skiing!! Yesterday I drove out to Canmore in my new car! Today I went skiing with Jay Keddy (a nat. team coach) and it was excellent!! I feel like I learned a ton and that my skiing is already better! We worked on narrowing my stance, "clapping" in between turns and running a deeper line. I am going to ski for the next few days and I can't wait to continue working on these things! Hill in the morning gym in the afternoon...ah to be back in business!

Until next time!

Elli

Maui and Home

2010-05-14T14:41:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

I just got home from a wonderful week in Maui!

I am now home and back to getting ready for another ski season. I have been doing lots of other sports recently (today I went outdoor rockclimbing...hiking yesterday) and next week I will get back into the gym for "real"! Looking forward to it!

Spring is in the air!

2010-04-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

My dog Jazz after her first dip of the year in the lake!

The slalom of Nationals with Britt Jaynk

So I have been taking it nice and chill since finishing my race season at Spring Series in Nakiska on the 1st. I went home and fore ran the Canadian Masters Nationals which was a blast. It is incredible that you can ski race until your 90 (yes there was an incredible man there who's birth year was 1919!!!). If that is not motivation to live long and prosper I don't know what is!

I accomplished some real days of rest and got a few days of skiing in with my family! I also got to do a day of free skiing with my coach from when I was on the Sun Peaks Alpine Club, Johnny Crichton, who is still my favourite coach I have ever had! It is amazing how much confidence someone can inspire in you in just one day (thanks Johnny!!)

On the 9th I flew back out to the Banff area to have a great ski day with my buddy Mike Schneider who is out this direction to do his level 4 ski instructor exam (Good Luck MIKE)! We had a great day freeskiing the world cup downhill run at Lake Louise (much nicer to do on GS boards than DH's!!!).

Today I trained slalom at Norquay with Steph Irwin, Kelly McBroom and the BAR ski club. Again it was great! There were two courses set up, a drill course and a normal course. The awesome axis was off the charts (thanks mike for the quote!!). This was followed by lunch out in Canmore, a wicked game of scrabble, meeting Kelly's cool cousins and their cute dog Bruno, dinner at the grizzly paw-followed by crepes then....then to finish off an amazing day we saw three bands playing at a local coffee shop!! I absolutely loved the live music and drinking herbal tea!! The bands were Peter Katz (amazing lyrics and vocals), In-flight Safety (great sound!) and Yukon Blondes which blew the roof off the place with an incredible jam session at the end of their set...followed by an encore which resulted in the whole tea shop erupting into a dance party! I had no choice but to support them by buying a whole bunch of their CD's!! (Got to support the artists you know!!)

So basically my life has been great lately and I am hoping the trend will continue-on and off snow!

Cheers everyone...hope you are having an incredible spring!!!

Elli

Photos from US Nationals

2010-03-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some very cool photos taken at US Nationals by Jon Magolis! Thanks Jon!

Canadian Champs!

2010-03-28T18:09:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a great way to end off my season...or well almost end. We raced slalom and when all was said and done I ended up 4th (3rd Canadian). This is my best result in a while! After the slalom we all drove out to Calgary to compete in a dual slalom at Canada Olympic Park! It is a classic dual slalom...slalom radius with gs panels...two courses. It is set up so the provinces face off against each other. BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are the competing provinces and it was a close race. BC lost against Alberta in the first round by one point! Ontario took out Quebec to advance to the finals against Alberta. In the finals Alberta dominated! It is a super fun atmosphere with everyone cheering and the racers having a great time! Each team was comprised of a female and male club athlete, provincial athlete, development team athlete and a world cup athlete. It was great to meet some of the young hot shots coming up! Very exciting for them and for us to race and everyone is super supportive of the younger athletes!

Tomorrow I start western spring series where my sole role is supporting the younger athletes by showing them good skiing and showing my enthusiasm for their racing! Should be really fun to hang out with the western athletes! Can't wait!

until next time!

Elli

Moving on!

2010-03-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

So I am currently at US nationals in Lake Placid. It is amazing how "official" their nationals are! They had fireworks, autograph signing, and a band playing at their open ceremonies. At the mountain they have an official athletes lounge complete with free lunch, drinks and internet provided for the athletes! You actually feel like an elite athlete at this event.

Yesterday was a consistant day for my skiing. The weather and conditions here in lake placid are not ideal. It is was overcast yesterday and raining today. The snow is really granular and breaks down very quickly. It requires amazing amount of work to keep it in good shape. Yesterday was the type of day were starting early in the flip second run can result in amazing results ( Congrats to Maddie Irwin a young Canadian that took FULL advantage of her start second run to move from about 15th place to 6th!!). It felt good to finish but I would have like to have been in a better position than 14th. But sometimes things just don't line up.

Today we watched the boys GS. It took the course workers 4 extra hours to prep the course because of the terrible snow conditions. The snow was "rotten" it had a two inch crust on top of granular slush. I am hoping to have a good start number tomorrow as it definately played a big role in the placements today.

Devastation...fades.

2010-03-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the most devastating day I have had racing in a long time. This year I have been very consistant with my performances on the Nor-Am Circuit for slalom which led to me being second in the overall slalom standings going into the last Nor-Am race of the year. The top two at the end of the year get their own World Cup spot...thus propelling them immediately into every slalom World Cup next year. All I had to do to keep my spot was have a good finish. After first run I was sitting in 12th position which though not exactly where I wanted to be was a great start position for second run. On really warm spring days like yesterday having a great start for second run can be the best thing because you have a smoother course than the girls who were winning first run. Smoother course= faster time. The start of my second run was good. I felt like I was attacking and moving down the hill well. On the flats there were two hairpin combinations four gates apart. THe first was a delay into a hairpin and the second just a hairpin. Coming into the second hairpin I had a moment of confusion as the control gate was right in line with the end of the hairpin making it look like a flush. I screwed up royally by looking at the tracks set to make sure. Unfortunately I saw the tracks of a fore runner who had skied it as a flush and followed. This all happened within a second and as soon as I realised my mistake it was too late. I blew it. I lost my World Cup spot. Complete devastation.

After the race I ended up driving Marie-Michele Gagnon's car back to Quebec by myself which was a good opportunity for me to have some time to collect myself a bit before spending the night at Eve Routhier (my team mates) house. There was a change of plans after the race and Eve, Erin Mielzynski and myself are now heading down to US Nationals in Lake Placid before heading to Canadian Champs. I am feeling the need for some redemption.

It was my worst possible outcome for the Nor-Am series but it ended up being a great one for Canada. We took all four of the World Cup spots for Womens Tech. Marie-Michele Gagnon and Marie-Pier Prefontaine took the GS and the slalom spots went to my team mates Eve Routhier and Erin Mielzynski.

Tomorrow is another day and I am definitely going to take the opportunity to talk to my amazing sports psych Dave Freeze before continuing racing on Sunday.

Hope everyone got amazing weather this past week like we had in New Hampshire. We were playing soccer in tank tops and shorts!

Cheers,

Elli

On the road again

2010-03-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

So after a seven day break at home (that was amazing) I am back on the road. On the 9th I flew to Quebec for a few days of training at Mont Orford. It was a great few days of sunny warm weather and good training. We then drove down to St. Johnsbury, Vermont where we are skiing at Burke Mountain. This is the speed portion of the Nor-Am Finals. I am not doing the speed events this year so I foreran the mens slalom portion of the super combined (an event where the competitors do one run of sg and one run of slalom). It was great! Good snow and I felt I skied really well! Today the girls are doing the super combined and I am going to be doing some slalom training.

Today after skiing we are heading to Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. This is where we are doing the technical side of the Nor-Am events. I am really looking forward to this!

Thanks for checking in!

Cheers,

Elli

Olympic Spirit!

2010-03-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took so long for the blog! Here is my "official" thoughts.

The Olympics were an amazing experience. I was a forerunner for the women’s Alpine GS and SL events. Even though I was not officially a competitor, I had the same experience as a competitor because I still left out of the same start gate, ran the same course, went through the same finish line…just about 2 minutes ahead of everyone else. A forerunners job is to test out the course to make sure it runs well and will be fair for the racers. We still got times and if I had been a competitor my times would have put me in 33^rd position for the GS and 31^st for the Slalom. The forerunner’s job most importantly is to finish the course so you can give an accurate report on how the whole thing runs so taking chances and skiing on the edge were not really an option, as a result, I felt I skied well but not my fastest so I was satisfied with those results.

The atmosphere at the games was amazing. The crowds were jubilant and very responsive. High 5’s, the singing of national anthems, and fans in crazy garb were everywhere. The crowds’s cheered everyone on but were especially loud for the Canadians. I found the “Olympic experience” was felt upon arrival into the finish corral when you saw the amount of people watching and the spirit of the crowd. At the top of the course it felt the same as any other race. It was the same people I competed against a few weeks ago in Europe, volunteers who have been around the Canadian Ski Racing circuit for years and the same atmosphere as always. It seemed the people who stayed relaxed and didn’t stress about it being “the Olympics” were the ones coming out of top. The ones who were feeling the pressure of the games on their shoulders skied stiff as if they used every muscle in their bodies to will themselves into the top spot. It was a great experience to learn these things before actually competing in my first Olympic games.

I also feel that I really got the feel for the whole “Olympic experience”. I went a few days early before I had to forerun to watch some of the other events with my family. I was incredibly impressed with all the events I saw. Each one was exciting and incredible in its own way. We saw the Men’s Big Hill ski jump qualifications, the Women’s Cross Country 15km combined, the Men’s Two Man Bobsled and the Men’s GS Alpine race. It is incredible to watch these sports live. You can’t help but be captivated by the endurance of the women in x-country, the power and speed built up during the bobsled and the how far the ski jumpers fly. Each is more spectacular live than ever imagined when watching on TV.

Having the Olympics in our own backyard made it more accessible to Canadians and really brought the amazing spirit of the games to Canada. It allowed young athletes the chance to discover what it will be like to compete on that stage and gave young Canadian children new dreams to achieve. These games seemed to be incredibly inclusive. For instance I was a part of a large group of BC athletes that were invited to the Closing Ceremonies. The athletes included past and future Olympians. Being able to watch the closing of the biggest and most successful event in Canada with a group of high performance athletes like myself was incredible.

Hope you are having a great winter and watching the paralympics ! Canadian Josh Dueck came second yesterday in the Slalom! Congratulations!

Cheers

Elli

Photos from the Olympics!

2010-02-25T15:03:00.000-08:00

Some very out of order photos from the past few days!

I will write about it later!

Cheers,

Elli
After fore running with my happy tired parents
Some very tired volunteers at 7 15 am!
Me and my brother goofing around in the village
Another amazing Norwegian fan!
Best family ever!
Eve and I after our day forerunning
Me and my mom!
My mom's volunteer crew was up multiple days at 3 am helping to prepare the course for us! Thank you to all the volunteers!
Supporting the Canadian Boys at the Mens GS

A excited Norwegian Fan!
Eve and I went freeskiing in our new fore runner garb!
Blacktusk, an inukshuk and some fore runners

The peak to peak gondola! The view from halfway across! It is as high as the CN tower..

Justin ripping down the "Extreme Couloir" on Blackcomb

Having just skied the couloir it was time for it to be a great backdrop! We skied to the left of the peak.
Getting my Olympic Accredidation
Our night at the bobsled track!
Team Australia upside down!
Some big Germans! Bobsledders take the cake on the huge muscly factor!
The steep uphill hill! And a beautiful sunset behind!
Team Canada

Olympic Fever!!

2010-02-21T08:14:00.000-08:00

Since arriving in Whistler I have been consumed by the Olympic fever! It is impossible to describe the incredible vibe here. Everyone is energized, excited, happy and overjoyed to display their pride in their country. Especially us Canadians! It would seem that every single person has literally "bought" into the idea of the Olympic spirit. I have never seen so many Canadian Flags, Mitts, Scarves, Jackets, Sweaters and Toques. Now or should I say two weeks ago would have been the time to buy stocks in HBC. They must be making a killing!! Guess that is what happens when you make good stuff!

On my first day we went and saw two events. Men's Big Hill Ski Jumping and Womens 15km combined in which Sara Renner came 10th! Congratulations! Wow both events were incredible displays of athleticism and courage. After this Olympics I really hope they show more of both of these events on TV in Canada. They are epic!
Family in a Bobsled. Second day we went and watched the 2 man bobsled! Incredible!
The beautiful shrine dedicated to Nodar Kumaritashvili
The cheering crowds at the womens combined
The start of the womens 15km combined. Anticipation.
The big hill.

More to come!

On the road again

2010-02-18T13:14:00.000-08:00

Ninja moves in the air

My amazing brother!
Snowghosts
Sun Peaks...the most beautiful place on earth!

It has been WONDERFUL to be home! I was only home for a very short amount of time (three days) but I feel grounded again after seeing my family and friends. I met my new cousin Sawyer who is now 4 weeks old and beyond adorable!!! I got to play Cranium Cadoo with my cousin Taylor who at the age of 14 is now towering over me!! I got to ski with my brother which NEVER happens! It was a powder day at Sun Peaks and though it was really warm at the bottom of the resort the top still had amazing snow! He got me to do jumps off of the snowghosts which is something I haven't done since WAY before my injury. Unfortunately I was on GS race skis which are not the best skis for powder and moguls but it was fun anyway. I managed to cross my tips and do a somersault right under the Crystal chair lift which was highly amusing to everyone above me! We watched the Womens Downhill and cheered on my teammates who were competing! Congratulations to Britt (6th), Emily(16th) and Shona(21st)!

Today I am heading with my brother up to Whistler to watch some of the other events with my family before re-joining my team on the 21st. We are going to watch the 2 man Bobsled, Womens 10 k (I believe) cross country and the Mens GS. Very excite to be a part of the excitement!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and keep cheering the home team they are doing amazing!!!

Time to go home!

2010-02-15T12:43:00.000-08:00

Since my last post things have gone by quite fast. Counting the days till I was back in Canada was one of my main activities of the days. I am now sitting in the lounge at the Toronto Airport on my way home and I just saw myself on TV in the Panasonic ad I did earlier in the year. Very funny. It is soooo nice to hear English and be in Canada it was definitely time to come home (though I still have at least another 8 hours to go before I am in my final destination Kamloops)! I am going to be flying through the Vancouver airport on my way home to Kamloops for 3 days. Should be pretty interesting being in the epi-centre..."the gateway"...to the Olympics!

After leaving Munich we went to several races in very remote locations including Gaal and Krakauebene, Austria...Gotchsen and Lenggries, Germany. They were all cute little towns with a lot of leiderhosen and traditional garb. In Krakauebene we had to go to a bib draw where we witnessed several young men dressed in traditional Austrian wear perform a traditional dance complete with yodelling and sawing a tree in the middle of the room. Very entertaining!

I am going home for three days then heading to Whistler to play my small part in the Winter Games. Cant wait!

Continued...again

2010-02-08T05:05:00.001-08:00

Elephants in Munich!
Downtown Munich-Karlzplatz
Marienplatz
Italy
The girls! Eve, Erin, Britt and I in Melschsee Fritt

Long time it would seem with no talk! Sorry about that!

We have been traveling so much lately it has been very difficult to find time to blog!

Right now I am having a day off in Kirchberg. But before going into that let me tell you about what I have been doing lately!

I was in Chamonix for a day and a half. We managed to train slalom, watch the World Junior Womens SG Race (our team mate Steph Irwin came 10th!!) and I was able to get my wrist x-rayed before we left. My wrist has been bugging me since Maria Alm. Slalom is extremely painful and since the pain level was increasing the team doc and the physio agreed it would be a good idea to rule out any fractures. Successful was had and I did not break any bones in my wrist! It seems that I have done something to the ligaments instead which is better!

The hard part about it all was actually getting the x-ray done!! The night we were there I got it checked out by the team doc and we decided to go get it x-rayed after dinner. So by 8 we were on the road to the nearest hospital. When we pulled up we noticed that all the lights were off. It turns out the hospital was only open 9-6. Fairly interesting considering it was in a big ski resort area! So after some deliberation we decided to continue to the next nearest hospital which was about 30 km's away. Some serious windy roads later we arrived at the hospital. It was open! We walked into the emerge area and tried to explain in very broken french that I had hurt my wrist 7 days ago, it wasn't getting better and that the team doc wanted it x-rayed. Let it be said right now that the hospital was completely silent and empty. The attendant at the desk went to get the doctor so we stayed in the triage area. While he was away a lady came in and demanded to know what was going on. We told her that another person had gone to get the doc. She asked if it was "le garcon" and upon hearing it was so rolled her eyes and asked more questions in very broken English. As we were explaining the situation again the doctor came in and shooed the women away. The doctor did not examine my wrist at all she just explained that at this time of night (9pm) it would be very difficult to use the radiology equipement ("you are a doctor you understand" she said to our team doc Dave who is an ER doctor from Thunder Bay) "We are not some private radiology clinic....come back tomorrow morning when it is more convenient" We explained that I couldn't come back in the morning as I was training then leaving. Still the answer was no. It was a interesting experience to say the least to be refused at an empty 24 hr emergency clinic. Obviously the French medical system is very different from our own. So the next day after training in the morning we went to the first hospital and got it checked out. I was told to were a brace and ice to help it out.

That day myself and Eve Routhier left for a few days off in Munich. It took us about 8 and a half hours to drive to Munich. In that period of time we passed through 4 countries (France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany)! Our first day in Munich we completed a VERY important task...we did our LAUNDRY...in an actual washing machine instead of the sink! It is amazing how clean our clothes were and how good they smelled!!! It was a definite highlight! After finishing the laundry we took a bus and the S-bahn train into downtown Munich. We went to Marienplatz and just walked around and looked at the beautiful building and clothes in the shops. We passed four H&M stores within 3 blocks! We went out for pizza and ended up watching our team mates Erin's 2nd run at World Juniors slalom on TV in a sports store. Our second day we went to the zoo were we saw Elephants, Giraffes( we pet ones nose), Gorillas, Snakes, Moose, Chimps, Baboons, etc. It was really fun! When we returned to the hotel we were joined by the Alberta Womens Team and their coaches Mike Necesanek and Chris Mosead (Mosey). THe next day we travelled to a town called Speilberg ( I think that is what it was called!!! We were skiing in a place called Gaal) for 2 GS races. These were not very successful races for myself so I will move on. We then went to a place called Krachauebene (Pronounced Crack-cow-eh-ben-eh roughly). We raced against Maries Schild...and it was only a FIS race. It was an ok race series but my wrist was not doing very well and was really painful. Made it very hard to concentrate on skiing fast when it was all I could do to keep putting my hand up to hit the next gate. For the second day we had to go to a public bib draw for top 15. This was my first time participating in a bib draw. It was preceded by the coaches meeting and a traditional dance from the area complete with the chopping of a log incorporated into the dance!! The dancers were young leiderhosen wearing men who seemed to really take their yodel-howling very seriously. It was quite cool actually to see a traditional dance...not many of those in Canada!! For the bib draw 15 little boys and girls were marched to the front of the room hiding bibs under their coats and sweaters. Our job was to chose the little child which we thought would have a good bib. It was hilarious discussing before hand with the other girls which little kid we thought would have the best bibs...Eve decided to go with a little kid who looked "cool" and drew bib 2. Britt decided to go for one who she thought might otherwise get picked last and she drew bib 11. I decided to go for the short cute factor and came away with bib 13. It seemed the tall kids were the ones with the good bibs. I guess I will know for next time! The second day I starte right after Marlies Schild. I don't think I could have asked for a better visual of the course than that! Hilariously the leiderhosen men from the night before showed up at the race having not yet gone to bed!!! They were smoking cigarettes and drinking beer still but I don't think there was any other part of their brains still working...they were really out of it! Very hilarious but also very smelly to be near. They were getting the girls in the finish line to sign the inside of the flap on the front of their leiderhosen. It was very good entertainment to watch the expression on the girls faces when they asked for them to sign their flaps! From Krachauebene we drove back to Kirchberg! Today was great. I did nothing but go on my computer and go into town for some groceries and coffee. Looking forward to doing that again tomorrow!

Until next time!

Elli

P.S. here is a video I made of the average day in the life of a ski racer in Europe! Enjoy!

Current events (en francais!)

2010-01-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

Salut les amis!

J’ai decide que je vais essayer d’ecrirer mon blog en francais! (Pardon the lack of French accoutrement I am writing on an English keyboard...English version will be included)

Apres le GS a Maria Alm, nous voyagons en Suisse pour quatre courses (deux SL, deux GS). Premierement, nous avions deux Slalom a Melchsee Frutt. Elles etaient des courses de nuit! C’est une experience tres interessante! Nous arrivions a la montagne a 2 h 30 pm. La premiere inspection etait a 5 h. Par 6 h le ciel etait noir et la piste etait illuminee. J’avais le temp de regarder les premieres coureuses. Mon dossard etait cinquante et un (51) donc je ne partais pas avant longtemps apres la premiere coureuse! Ma premiere descente etait bonne, mais juste a l’exterieur du flip. Je n’ai pas fini ma deuxieme descente.

Notre deuxieme jour a Melchsee Frutt l’horaire etait devance de trente minutes. Mon dossard etait dix-neuf (Le premier jour etait une coupe d’europe et le deuxieme etait juste une course FIS). Je n’ai pas fini ma premier descente mais je pense que je skiais bien.

OK! now the English version!

After our time racing in Maria Alm our schedule looked like this: 4 days in Switzerland (2 in Melchsee Frutt and 2 in Crans-Montana), 2 days in Italy, and now 4 days in France (2 in Courcheval and two in Chamonix).

In Melchsee Frutt I raced my first Europa Cup Slalom..and it was at night! It is very strange doing night slaloms because it means you get to sleep in and have a leisurely morning. I think we woke up at 9! You do a 10 minute flush on the bike followed by some agility and core then sit around until lunch. Lunch was big (usually our lunches are just snacks really). It was strange arriving at the hill at the time we are usually leaving the hill. It was all shadowy and dark when we were training in the warm up courses. First inspection took place at dusk and first run started almost the very minute it got dark. My start number was 51 so I had enough time to watch the first few racers. I was a little intimidated by the competition. I am ranked 81st in the world and I was starting 51st...the race was a very world class race. After the first run I was in thirty-first which was good but I was not the most thrilled with my skiing. I wanted to attack the course more and have cleaner skis. The second run I went out on the third gate..I was too amped up and over excited I think. It was a very good experience though and Britt Phelan my team mate came 5th and Erin Mielzynski came 10th. THe next day was a FIS night slalom and I straddled a gate on the first run. THe next morning we packed up and headed to the French side of Switzerland to a place called Crans-Montana.

Crans Montana was quite the ritzy resort. Gucci, Louis Vutton, Chanel were some of the shops lining the streets of the town. Yet despite all the glamour of the place we were staying in the seediest hotel of our trip yet. It was called “la chaperone rouge”...yup the red chaperon!!! Our shower had a punch hole in the glass!!! It must be said however that it had amazing food. The race hill at Crans was extremely flat and long. It was almost a minute and 20 seconds. This would have been no problem except the the steep difficult part started at about a minute and 5 seconds into it. It was actually fairly dangerous...I saw two Swiss girls straddle the last gate and blow their knees/ severely hurt themselves on the very last gate as the struggled to get around it. The first day was a Europa cup and we didn’t qualify for the second run. The second day was a FIS race and I came 39th my team mate Eve Routhier came 40th. From Crans Montana we headed to Gressoney, Italy for another night slalom.

In Gressoney we stayed in a beautiful hotel that was built in 1906. It was also by far not the oldest building around. It looked new in comparison to some of the buildings. We arrived at night then had the next morning to putter around before heading to the hill at 3 o clock. The food was AMAZING!!! The best lasagna, schnitzel, ice cream etc that I have every had. Nobody can say that Italians can’t cook! So as you can imagine we basically rolled to the hill. The slope was steep and injected-it was perfect. I felt I was skiing well just in a little pain. Back in Maria Alm I hit my hand on a gate and have been having trouble lifting, pressing, squeezing with my left hand. It is only a tiny isolated area to the touch that hurts but oh boy hitting slalom gates was tough. So I loaded up with tylenol and away I went. I started 47th and ended up 23rd. I was quite happy with this rresult but I also feel that I can step it up another few notches as i got conservative at the bottom of the course both runs. I should be noted here that my team mate Britt Phelan had a stunner of a night! She won the first run!! Watching her second run she was in a completely different league than everyone else coming down the hill. But alas it was not to be she fell inside half way down the pitch and hiked a gate but we all know she would have killed it! Congrats Britt! The next morning we were back in the van headed towards Courcheval, France.

Courcheval is part of “de trois vallees” which I believe has one of the largest skiable acres in the world. Today was a GS EC Race and I actually qualified for second run. I was really unhappy with how I skied and tried to make changes for second run. I ended up 52nd. I am racing again tomorrow and right now it is snowing hard outside! Should be good! Today I found out that my team mate Erin Mielzynski qualified for the Olympics. This is amazing news as they were able to expand our quota which was originally 15 to 19. The girls who are going to represent Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics are:

Britt Janyk

Emily Brydon

Marie-Michele Gagnon

Brigitte Acton

Anna Goodman

Shona Rubens

Erin Mielzynski

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! As for myself and other team members not on the list we will still be attending the games...only as forerunners!! Which means we will still be skiing and running the courses just as the testers instead of the racers. We will still get the Olympic experience and I am very excited to take in the Olympic atmosphere. It is the best possible second option as now we will have experience with such a massive scale of event before heading into the Olympic Games in Russia in 2014.

Tomorrow we head to Chamonix for a few days while my younger team mates race the World Junior Championships there.

Ciao for now!

Some photos from the road!

2010-01-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

The Puzzle. The whole team was working on it for over a week...it was a 2000 piece behemoth! Thank you Brad for the great buy!
My prize for 3rd!
Photo taken in Bolsterlang
The start gate in Bolsterlang Germany

Hello!

A little update about how its been going!

After spending one night hanging out at our hotel in Kirchberg after coming home from Reiteralm myself, my coach Tim and our ski tech Speedy head over to rural southern Germany for two FIS slalom races in a little place called Bolsterlang. It was a very cute little town on a hillside and had great breakfasts!! The first day was beautiful and sunny (ok a little too warm at +7). I skied really well in warm-up but got too cautious in the race and ended up 3rd. The good news from that was that I received a clay pottery plate as a prize instead of a medal! I love it! My first piece of pottery! The second day it was just as warm but incredibly windy and snow/raining. I did not finish the first run. I got in the backseat and missed a gate. But because of how terrible the weather was I didn't feel so bad about leaving and heading back for Kirchberg and a dry environment!

In Kirchberg I reunited with my teammates who went to Maribor. We had one nice relaxing day off then yesterday and today we had GS races in Maria Alm. It was a pretty easy hill but very difficult racing for that exact reason. Within a few tenths of a second there were 30 competitors! Yesterday was a great re-introduction to GS after over a month out of GS gates! I was a little nervous about how the good ol' back would hold up...but it did just fine! When all was said and done I ended up 15th. As a celebration of one of our last days in Kirchberg we went out for pizza as a team for dinner. It was incredible! Nobody does pizza like the Euro's! To give an example my pizza had articoke heart, mozzarella, olives, ham, salami, and egg ( I think I am missing a few ingredients but you get my drift!). It was great to eat something other than pork for dinner (it would seem there was some serious over production of pigs this year in Austria...every dinner except for maybe one has been pork!!!)

Today, a very not so wonderful day, I ended up 37th! I skied aggressively but, not cleanly, a very important factor on flat courses! It was frustrating to follow a positive day was a not so positive one. But that is sometimes how it goes! No changing the facts now!

Tomorrow we are training some slalom before heading to Melchsee Frutt, Switzerland (pronounced Mel-chi Fruit!! ) ahem anyway...these are going to be my first Europa cup races! Plus they are night races. This should be a really good few days!

Notes about the team!

The plus side: the kitzbuhel downhill is this week!

The sad side: Gen Simard has announced her retirement after having difficulties with her knee this year. It was incredible to spend time with her this year. She will definitely be missed! Here's wishing her the best retirement ever with healthy knees!

Ciao for now!

2010-01-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! I have just reset some of my settings for my blog! It is now possible for anyone to leave (nice) comments! I'd love to know if anyone is actually reading this!

I am currently back in Kirchberg after a day and a half stint in Reiteralm...which is about 15 minutes from Flachau and right beside Schladming. Yesterday I freeskied GS and today....I did Slalom GATES!!! Felt great to be back in gates after a 12 day break due to a very upset back. It behaved itself all day today and I was able to do 5 runs in the course. It was excellent training conditions, sunny with injected snow. We were training with the Swedish team which is always good as well as Sarka Zarobska, a czech girl who wins WC slaloms.

Tomorrow I head to Bolsterlang, Germany for some slalom FIS races.

I am trying to make a video right now of what it is like being in Europe...haha however all I have so far is us driving!!! I am going to have to video the huge jigsaw puzzle we are working on downstairs and possibly grab my ski video...hmmm what else?

Until next time!

Rest, Recuperation, Recovery, Return!

2010-01-12T01:02:00.000-08:00

Room with a view-kirchberg
The hill in Kirchberg
My hovel

The past week has been one of the most boring and uncomfortable weeks that I have had in a really long time!

The GS races in Mont Ste. Anne were cancelled due to bad snow conditions. The first day I went up on the hill with the intentions of seeing how my back would react to freeskiing before the race and I was then going to decide if it would be ok to race. However we went up and immediately were told that the day was cancelled. I did one run (terrible grooming though so it was more like high speed sliding) before heading back to our condo. After that run I was having serious doubts about wanting to race the next day as my back was really not feeling great. I called my brilliant sports psych and he helped clear my mind. I already knew there was three options ahead of me.

1.Go full out in the race 2. Race cautiously to preserve my back 3. Not race. Given the circumstances it was impossible for me to go full out because of how sore my back was. The second option would leave me completely unsatified and angry...as well as possible hurting my back more. So after deliberation it was obvious that racing the one day would not benefit me in comparison to resting and hopefully getting better for the races coming up in Europe. It ended up not mattering as the next day was cancelled as well.

On the 7th we headed over to Europe. I got incredibly lucky and got upgraded to first class which was amazing for my back! Sitting upright is one of my more uncomfortable positions.

Upon arrival in Munich we immediately headed out towards the Austrian border. We stopped at a roadside gas station/food place and as I walked through the door I heard my name being called. I turned around and there was a friend of mine named Silvia from northern Italy who raced at Sun Peaks for year in 2005. I have not seen her since then so I was fairly incredulous that I ran into her in Germany four years later at a road side stop! It was amazing to see her! Unfortunately I was really feeling the jetlag at that moment so I don't think it was the highest quality of conversation on my part but all the same it was a coincidence and a half!

Once we reached our destination (Kirchberg, Austria-which in incredibly close to Kitzbuhel) I was able to get physio which was amazing. We had the next day off and I was able to get two physio sessions in that day. The next day (the 10th) we headed up to the hill for some gs and slalom training. I freeskied GS instead of hoping into the course. My back felt tight and unstable. My major problem when I have been skiing has been that my back has been making me nauseous. This was once again the case so I stopped early and went back to the hotel to rest up. In the afternoon I got physio from the WC tech girls physio who noticed that my SI joint was shifted up on my left side. I was not presenting signs of a disk injury anymore though which is good. My back was still pretty sore though. I took the 11th off as well and in the afternoon got physio from the mens tech team physio. Afterwards my back felt a lot better but it was still recommended that I take the next day off.

So now it is the 12th of January and I have skied three days since the 30th of December. My back is feeling pretty good today so hopefully I will get to ski soon! Tomorrow we leave Kirchberg for a place called Rieteralm(not sure if that is how it is spelled) which apparently has amazing training. Next weekend there is a world cup slalom in Maribor Slovenia that I am trying to qualify for. I am hoping to get in some good training before then!

In other news in the world of Elli yesterday I got an email from my Mom informing me of two pieces of news. The first was that my dog Benny, whom I received as a present for my 5th birthday, had passed away. It is going to be really hard to be at home without her! I feel very lucky that I was able to go home at christmas and spend time with her. She was the best dog ever. The second was that the day after that my Auntie Khara gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Sawyer. I am very excited to have a new cousin and can't wait to see him!

R.I.P Benny

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter and getting to spend time with the people (and pets) who mean the most to them!

Cheers

Elli

And a new year begins!

2010-01-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Another year is fini and this time its the fabled 2010 that has arrived. After the Olympics were announced so many years ago "2010" always just referred to our home olympics. It is really hard to think about it as an actually year versus an event! I was very lucky to come through the ski racing system just as it was getting injected with funding from Olympic Programs such as Legacies Now. Without these games many young athletes like myself would probably not still be competing due to the high cost of becoming an elite athlete! So even if I don't get to compete in the 2010 olympic games they are a huge part of how I became an athlete. They provided the funding, the motivation and the programs needed to get to where I am today. I am eternally grateful! So now that 2010 has actually arrived it feels quite bizarre. I guess it is time to start planning new long term goals and thinking about the rest of 2010!

Before I start that though I guess I should give a little update on the past few days. ON the 28th of December we once again boarded planes and travelled over to Quebec. We drove to a place called Val St. Come about 2 hrs from Montreal. It is about 40 mins from Tremblant. But I still have really no idea where it actually is! It was incredibly remote for a ski race. There was no cell reception ( a VERY important asset to people who are CONSTANTLY away from family and friends) and it cost $20 for internet-so that was not happening either! I did two days of training on the race hill. On my third run on the second day I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and stopped skiing for the day early. 5:30 AM the next morning myself and my coach Tim drove an hour to St. Jerome to visit a physio. It turned out that I had slipped a disk at L5. No wonder I was so sore! At first they didn't want me to ski the races in Val St. Come in case I might re-injure my back which could take me out for 2-3 more weeks. However these races were incredibly important so instead I was told to take lots of pain killers and anti-inflammitories (all legal) and was shown how to tape my back.

In the middle of all this was New Years! It was a fairly mundane event. However it should be mentioned that we usually don't get to celebrate it anyway so it wasn't disappointing to not celebrate it. We bought a bottle of wine, chocolate turtles and marshmallows and played a game of Uno ( a card game) with the Alberta Team girls. THis was finished by 10 at which time we watched a little of the Canada-USA junior hockey game. Bored of that we watched part of Pirates of the Carribbean 3. We realized we missed the toll of 12 half way through the movie so we turned it off and went to bed! Very exciting yes?

I got through my races though I was a little disappointed with my results. I came 8th the first day and 5th the second. But I guess I should be grateful that I could ski at all considering the alternative! On the second run the second day I got shot into the backseat and twisted my back slightly. Anyway now my back is fairly sore again. Today I am taking a day off. Tomorrow we start our GS races in Mont. Ste. Anne and the rest of my team is out right now training some GS. I definitely wish I was out there training right now but I think the health of my back is number 1 right now. I am hoping to race tomorrow but I am also trying to make sure that I am making the right decision to keep me healthy for the rest of the year!

On another note over the past month we have lost 6 Canadian Team Athletes to injury. John Kucera suffered a compound tib-fib break in Lake Louise. While we were in Panorama there was a four day streak were we lost JP Roy, Francois Bourque, Larisa Yurkiw and Kelly Vanderbeek to ACL (and other ligament) injuries. Yesterday we lost Anna Goodman to another ACL injury. I don't think there has ever been so many injuries within such a short amount of time! It is really sad as all 6 athletes were medal contenders for this Olympics. Having been in the position of being the injured athlete I know how disappointing it is to have to take a season off. However I can't even fathom the extra hardship of missing out on the Olympics. Sending my best to all those athletes and hoping for a fast healing process for each of them!

Elli

2009-12-27T19:13:00.001-08:00

I don't have alot of time to chat but I thought I'd give a bit of an update since I have been really bad about updating lately (blame dial up internet!)

OK so things went really well during pre christmas racing!

After arriving back from Colorado we did three days of trainng in Panorama. It was bloody cold! It was minus 30! However it was good training when all was said and done. We then went to Lake Louise to cheer on our team mates who were racing the Nor Am speed events there! Myself and Eve used this time to try and get some christmas shopping done in Banff!

We then proceeded back to Panorama for the Nor-Am events there. In the slaloms I came 4th then FIRST!!! I got my first Nor-Am win! One year and three days after my knee surgery! I was absolutely thrilled and shocked by this! But it felt amazing! It is always nice to feel that you are back!

In the GS's I came 10th and 15th. I then had two days off followed by a FIS race series also in Panorama. It was wonderful to see my friends who are now racing the NCAA circuit and to see the younger girls in our sport.

I am now home and just about to leave for Quebec for our next race series! It has been wonderful being at home and has got me energized to go back on the road!

Sorry for the short post...internet is fleeting right now!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Cheers,

Elli

motivation

2009-12-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

Here is a little video I made about my preseason training! Enjoy!

Footage taken in:

Wittenburg, Germany (indoor training slalom)

Nakiska!

Panorama

2009-12-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

We are currently in Panorama! It took us three days to get here!

After my last post a snow storm blew into Calgary and stopped all air traffic. We ended up spending an extra night there. When we went to the airport the next morning our flight was once again cancelled so we took a detour...to San Diego! We were closer to mexico than Calgary which was hilarious! The plan had been to leave from the airport to Panorama but because of how late we ended up arriving in Calgary we stayed overnight there. We arrived in Panorama at about 5 30 pm yesterday. Today we trained Slalom on Hayfever the wc slalom run here in Pano. It was injected but this was NICE injection....it was really grippy. TIm set a really difficult course and we only did four runs. Those 4 runs took us almost 2 hours as we had to go inside each run because it was so cold. It was around -27 degrees. It was cold enough that they delayed the dh start in Lake louise. It was -36 degrees there this morning. Tomorrow we are training slalom again and wednesday we are training gs. Looking forward to it!

Cheers for now,

Elli

On the road again

2009-12-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

Hallo

Another day gone by! We are currently in Denver over night before heading back to Calgary.

It ended up being a fairly good few days for me. Nothing spectacular but solid. In the GS's I ended up 23rd and 27th and in the Slalom I ended up 29th and 25th. Although this isn't great it is a good way to start the season. These are also the hardest Nor-Ams of the season as just before there were world cups races here in Colorado so a lot of the European World Cup teams stayed and raced the Nor-Ams. So that means I was racing against some of the best skiers in the world.

Each day I felt a little more comfortable racing and pushed it a little more. Right now I am skiing technically well but I have to work on my aggressiveness and trusting myself to take the straight line. It was great doing this race series and realizing that I am technically as good as anybody. Now I have a fairly big training block to work on some adjustments and getting confident and bam! anything can happen. The exciting thing is the next Nor-Am is at Panorama...a hill I have trained on since forever!! and since I came top thirty each race I gained Nor-Am points so will have a much better start position. THings are looking up!

Ciao for now!

Elli

All over again

2009-11-30T14:13:00.000-08:00

On the way to Aspen
Silverthorne Colorado

The average amount of taping needed for my knee

Well hello!

Today was an important day! Today was my first race back in 19 months (a year and a half)!!! It felt scary and great to be in the start gate this morning! It felt really normal and I was very comfortable about how to get ready to race...it was the actual going out of the start gate that made my heart race. Here in Aspen they injected the GS hill (which means they stuck tubes into the hill and flooded it with water...so the hill was a sheet of ice literally!!) so it was fairly intimidating when in inspection we were slidding sideways down the hill unable to stop! The ice made it really difficult to race on. I believe over half the field did not finish. before my first run I got the chance to watch a tiny section of the course. While I was watching a girl bailed really hard! She put her body through a panel and literally she exploded in a cloud of snow...after the snow cleared you could see that her helmet had flown off and was slidding down beside here. Not the best image to see before your first run! So getting ready for my first run iwas quite nervous. It was a difficult set, girls were going out of the course all over the place, I was starting 34th so not near the front of the pack and it was my first race! In the start I made myself take a second and said " I WANT to do this!" " I want to be here"...haha I think it helped a little! Needless to say I started and just thougth about moving forward and being on the gates. I slipped around a couple gates and went too round as usual but I finished. After the first run I was sitting in 23rd or so position. So I started 8th the following run as they reverse the top 30. Second run was better as I had already done it once! Again I went too round but I finished and skied well despite it all. It was a confidence building day and definately a starting point. I think i ended up 23rd. That may not sound great...are your right is it not the best but to put it in context the field today was stacked! Alot of the girls from the World Cup stayed and raced today. Lots of Europeans everywhere! Oh well! Tomorrow is another day.

Cheers,

Elli

Photos from the road

2009-11-26T13:40:00.001-08:00

the usual amount of stuff two ski racers carry around with them...
Eve early morning training at Nakiska
Nakiska morning sky
The bottom of Nakiska
6AM in the morning waiting for a possible meeting with Leonardo Di Caprio. He was staying in our hotel...turns out it was just a joke pulled by our coaches...hilarious that we all feel for it!

pre-season training

2009-11-26T09:33:00.000-08:00

Bonjour tout le monde!

So it is time to write. I was reminded today that people actually read my blog and they were curious what I was up to! So here it is.

After Soelden I got to go home for almost three weeks. I trained really hard and was feeling really strong. My initial plan was to go out to Calgary early and get some physio on my knee then head to my friend Kelly's for a great weekend and come back to Calgary refreshed are raring to go for dryland testing on monday and tuesday. However this was not to be! I was supposed to leave on thursday and tuesday evening after an intensive bike sprint workout I got home feeling sick. I have not been sick in over a year. I have not had the flu since I was in Chile 4 years ago. I haven't been as sick as I was this fall sick since I was about 10 years old! I ended up having flu symptoms for a full week!!!! Not only was I unable to leave on thursday like originally planned but I ended up missing testing too! In the week that I was sick I lost 4 kgs!

Needless to say when I was finally able to get out to Calgary I was incredibly tired and energy low...but feeling better!

From Calgary I immediately drove out to Nakiska. Unfortunately because I came late I ended up on a cot. But that wasn't too bad! I did one day of GS freeskiing and felt good afterward but tired. I had a hard time recovering after each run. My second day back I did GS gates down a run called mapmaker. I was quite pleased with how I was skiing when in my second run I pinched my line in too much and ended up going through a gate! I flipped over it and actually landed kind of back on my feet. Apparently it was spectacular! I ended up spraining my proximal tib-fib joint and getting a very minor concussion. I did not ski again that week in Nakiska because of my knee. After three days of lying in a dark room we finally moved locations to Panorama.

In Panorama we were blessed to have an incredible personal chef cooking for us! It was some of the best food I have ever had on the road! mmmm!!! It totally made up for having to stay on a pull out coach...AGAIN! The World Cup tech group was also in Panorama training with us. It was a great opportunity for us to see where we stood against them. It also put things in perspective. I now realize that coming back to snow is easy. Coming back to full on racing is tougher. It requires much more patience and baby steps. It takes pushing yourself beyond the edge searching for every possible tenth of a second to be fast at this level. You can't just ski technically well- like I do! You need that extra umph!

After three days in Panorama myself and two of my team mates were carted off back to Nakiska for one day to shoot a commercial for presidents choice. It was a very interesting experience and made for a very long day. The details that are looked over are amazing! The commercial will be shown in February. After we finished shooting at about 4 30pm we immediately headed back to Panorama.

While I was in Nakiska my team mates were doing a time trial to get spots for the Aspen Slalom World Cup. My two team mates Erin Mielzynski and Britt Phelan qualified. They will be racing their first world cups on the 29th of November! Be sure to try and watch to cheer them and other canadians on!

After 1 day of slalom training down the run Hayfever in Panorama we headed back to Nakiska.

We have since been in Nakiska for four days of training. The first three days we did double sessions of Slalom and GS. It was very tiring but the intensity was very high and it was a good way to break into a more "racing" atmosphere! We are now one day from completing our "pre-season" training. I would say this has been the toughest ore-season I have had. I am playing a bit of catch up and also trying to push myself to be aggressive and take my skiing to the next level. I think it is going to be a great season. I also think it is going to be a long season of learning and relearning how to race more than how to ski.

The day after tomorrow we head down to Aspen . Colorado for our first Nor-Am events of the year. We will be racing GS in Aspen on the 30th and 1st then switching locations to Loveland for two days of Slalom on the 2nd and 3rd. My goal for these races is to ski confidently and to the best of my abilities. I believe the results will come when preceded be confidence and knowing how you want to ski.

Salut pour maintenant!

Later is better than never!

2009-11-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

Some out of order photos from on trip in Europe....Soelden, Pitztal and Wittenburg

this is the early stages of my bruising from Wittenburg...because it was so icy the gates were coming up faster...the rest is explained by my arm.
Wittenburg indoor skiing. Super icy!
Pitztal after our mini snow storm...with of course a MASSIVE pushy line to get on the gondola!
Just a few of our skis
A walk the day before the snowstorm in the pitztal valley
Soelden-the difference in the amount of snow from year to year
The Devo team! left to right speedy, me, britt, eve, steph, erin. Coaches on the right are Walter and Tim.
Germany by air
After the first day of the snow storm
another shot from the pretty walk!

2009-10-16T06:16:00.000-07:00

Servus!

So I am back in Europe! I have been here since the 1st of october and I thought I would wait to blog about my time here till I actually had something to say!

We started our camp in Soelden, Austria. It was absolutely crazy how little snow they had and how warm it was !!! We were only able to ski about a quarter of what we where able to ski the year before! The rest was glacial ice imbedded with ancient dirt! We had to get rental skis to go up the t bar on because it would have absolutely wrecked our skis otherwise! In the afternoons we were able to go and play beach volleyball in tank tops and shorts it was soo warm!! My team mates and I had some great games! This was my first camp back with my team mates. It felt great to be back with them but at the same time I had a hard time at the beginning with how far ahead of me they are. I guess it helps when you haven’t missed 10 months of skiing! They are skiing really well which is great. When they were in New Zealand they were skiing just as fast as the world cup girls...and even beating them. This is great for all of us on the development team because now we know that we can be fast! Now I just need to catch up! It was slightly difficult being in Soelden because of how well I skied there last year. I wanted to ski just like that right off the bat. I had to separate my feelings of how I should be skiing and how I am skiing...not comparing myself and trying to work off what I accomplished in Zermatt instead of trying to achieve what I did last year in Soelden. After 7 days in Soelden we moved to Pitztal.

I was very nervous about going to Pitztal as that is where I tore up my knee last year. We had a day off the first day we were there. The same as the year before. We went for a walk down the valley as it was a beautiful sunny day. Same as we did last year. We were staying in the same hotel as last year. It was starting to feel like deja vu which was really not making me feel great almost as if I was being drawn into a vortex where it would end up the same as last year. Luckily that night there was a wind and snow storm. We were unable to ski the next day. It was really too bad that we weren’t able to take advantage of some time on snow but on the otherhand I was happy that it was different than what it was like last year. I felt relief at the slight difference from last year. We ended up having the next three days off due to the weather which was not great. On our last day we were actually able to get up on the glacier but the snow was too soft to ski gates on. As well the gondola system they have is very inefficient and by 11 30 we had only been able to do 3 runs as the lines were so long for the gondola. Even though we didn’t ski gates there I was actually really glad to go up and be on the glacier.

It made that little nagging feeling in the back of my brain go away! I survived/conquered Pitztal! No need to panic about going there anymore! That felt good! Because of the incredible amount of snow that fell and the prediction that the weather was to remain the same for the rest of the week we decided to bite the bullet and drive to Hamburg in Germany where there is an indoor ski area.

We left right after skiing on wednesday. It is a 9 hour drive ( I am sure it usually takes longer than that as we were averaging 160-180 km/hr in our loaded 12 passenger van!!) It is a good thing autobahns exist! We found out there are areas on the bahn that actually have NO SPEED LIMIT!!! We passed a police car going 170 km/hr and he did not react at all! CRAZY!!! I officially love germany for its roads! We stayed overnight in a place called Hof and continued for the last 4 hours the next day. This is the farthest into Germany I have ever gone. Usually we fly into Frankfurt or Munich and drive immediately into either Switzerland, Italy or Austria. I am actually pretty excited about being near Hamburg. I am hoping we will be able to go look around one day. OUr plan is to have double sessions while we are here in Hamburg. We will ski and then drive back to Munich on Saturday. I think that is is going to be very productive skiing indoors! Lots of runs with good snow! Perfect for someone just returning to gates!

Servus and goodbye!

2009-10-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

My return to snow video from Switzerland

2009-09-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

Servus!

Things here in Switzerland are “super oder”!!! We are now drawing near to the close of our camp...AND I DON”T WANT TO LEAVE!!! How could it possibly be that we have almost been here for three weeks?!? Not possible! Alas it is, thus I am forced to look back and try and grasp all the non-extraneous information that was stuffed into my empty brain!

I have re-learned a lot about skiing in the past 11 days that I have had on snow! Walter will watch my skiing then make a comment and something that he says usually clicks and I remember that I am supposed to make a clean transition between turns etc.

It is amazing how far you can improve in three weeks. I have gone from snowplowing to skiing (and crashing) gs and slalom gates. It feels incredible to hit gates! I will update again later!

Chus!

Elli

One week

2009-08-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

IN one week my life has returned! Skiing truly is the best thing in the world! I have now completed 6 days on snow. It has been very incredible watching video over the past week as I remember how to ski! The first 4 days showed incredible improvement that is very visible on camera. Now I am working on smaller chamges and it is less easy to decipher the differences in my skiing. I am now working on a very early short pressure, moving forward over the ski, and not letting my inside hand drop. I don't think I can remember when I last had the chance to freeski for so many days in a row. It has been a wonderful opportunity for me to improve!

Today we had a day off. My teamate Steph Irwin, our coach Walter Alber and Jeff Frisch all went down to the town of Visp for lunch. It was great to get out of the resort. Zermatt is a very popular tourist destination to say the least. You are constantly surrounded by people here so it was wonderful to go to a non touristy spot! We had lunch at an amazing pizzeria that served real Italian pizza's. Pizza with egg on it is simply the best! After a cappuccino we went and bought chocolate for our talented physio in residence Lili then headed back up the valley to the Matterhorn!

Tomorrow I am starting stubby gates (small rubber gates that are designed for drills). I am quite excited to put my skiing back into gates! Ciao!

Elli

Full Circle

2009-08-14T04:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the happiest day in my life-in recent memory anyway! August 13th, 2009 was my first day back on snow in 10 months and 2 days. I can know officially say that I am back on snow!!!!

Getting back on skis was a very interesting experience! It was a little surreal...it felt very normal and at the same time all the heartache, pain and hard work of getting back to skiing was running through my head. It felt incredible to feel so normal! My knee felt great skiing-it wasn't bugging me at all! It was great to not worry about my knee. I am actually skiing quite well too which is amazing! All the visualization I did this winter really paid off! I felt at home on my skis after the first run and today was able to put together some great feeling slalom turns! That being said yesterday we did snowplow drills all day. I never knew how hard it was to do a snowplow "correctly"!! Tough work! I really had to focus on keeping my ski tips together and using gradual pressure to slide the turn instead of having one really hard hit of pressure on the ski. It had to be flowing and over the outside ski...blah blah blah! I AM SO HAPPY!!!! I smiled all day even though I was only snowplowing! Just the feeling of turning and sliding was amazing! I love my sport and could not be happy in where I am at the moment!

Home tomorrow!!

2009-07-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Today was my last day in Calgary!!! I get to go home tomorrow! This is such welcome news! We have been having a heat wave here in Calgary and my team mates and I have nicknamed our dorm room the "sauna"...it keeps heat in! There are only a few small windows and no ventilation to be heard of!

Today ws a big day in the gym as I squatted past my max ever! My previous max was 218 lbs in the summer of 2007 and I was only able to do about 3 repetitions. Today I squatted two plates a side which amounts to 225 lbs!!! And I was able to do 4 sets of 7 repetitions at that weight! This is another huge step on the road to recovery...being stronger than ever! YES!

Hope everyone is enjoying the heat wave!

Cheers,

Elli

Gym shots

2009-07-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Shots from the gym!

Sledpulls, boats and Bike Death

2009-07-15T16:15:00.001-07:00

Sled pulls summer 2007-first year on the team...now these involve way more weight and we are doing them indoors on a track.

Hello All!

Half way through our second week in Calgary! Only 10 days till we can go home!! YES!

Things are still going really well here in Calgary as far as training goes. We finished off last week with sledpulls (death by sprinting with sleds stacked with weights). Going in Andrew didn't know if I would be able to do sleds as sprinting with weights was not something that i have even got close to yet in my rehab. I decided to give it a try and just stop if it got too painful. I was able to do the entire thing! GREAT!!! Saturday my knee was stiff and where my staple is hurt but other than that is held up! Just one more step in the right direction! Friday night we went and saw a movie and had a campfire in Steph Irwins backyard (s'mores oh yeah!!), saturday we went boating on ghost lake with Cam Brewington who was on the national team last year and his friend Chris Scheele who is ex-Alberta team. We ended up taking refuge for about 45 minutes under a bridge while a thunder storm passed by! The waiting payed off as afterwards the sun broke out and people were able to wake surf! I have decided to take the summer off water sports just as a precaution. I just don't want to take any chances. Being on the water was great...just being outdoors, listening to music and seeing my friends enjoy and challenge themselves made the experience very worth it! Afterwards we had a bbq on the bank of the lake before heading back into Calgary. Sunday we had an incredible beach volleyball game near the university with Cam, Chris, and my teammates Erik Reid, Kelby Halbert, Steph Irwin, Erin Mielzynski, Britt phelan, Eve Routhier, and Toria Whitney. It was incredibly fun to play volleyball again! I played all throughout highschool and would have loved to go further in that sport! it is definately my favourite sport after skiing (well ones that I have played competitively anyway)!

Monday saw us return to the gym and do lactate testing on the bike. Lactate testing has to do with Lactic Acid not lactating for clarification! We ride a bike starting at 80 watts, every two minutes the watts are increased by 25 watts and a sample of your blood is taken to see how much lactic acid you are producing. yes that means every two minutes your finger is getting pricked by a needle- not good for people who have needle phobia's- like me. You continue to go up watts every two minutes until you hit a lactate of 6 (this would be the equivalent of biking up a VERY steep hill ...6 would be when your legs feel like they are going to fall off...they are no longer able to keep rotating your pedals fast enough to keep your bike upright)...AFTER you hit 6 then they increase the wattage every minute until failure..which usually is only a minute or two after you hit 6. This is when they take your max heartrate...yes you read correctly...MAX heartrate....the fastest your heart can go! Mine maxes out at about 205. To compare...the average humans resting heart rate is about 60 and when running gets to about 150. To get back to what we did on Monday (we only had to go to 6 as this was just a clarification of training zones). My testing showed that I had improved! My heart rates went down in comparison to the amount of lactic acid that I was producing! yes! progress!

Tuesday had us doing a strength workout in the morning and 2 times 15 minute bike sprints in the afternoon ( about 200 watts and heartrate about 175-180). It is a really tough thing to try and distract yourself enough to forget how much these sprints hurt..and for how long you have to keep going! 3 minutes into the workout your mind is pleading at you to stop, your legs are screaming as they are being poisoned by lactic acid and it takes all the mental control you have to stop your hand from pressing the button which will turn down the amount of watts that you are doing. It especially is terrible when your ipod runs out of battery...music is the best way to take your mind off of the task at hand!

Today, wednesday, we had to do a 50 km ride. As most of us are pretty tired we decided to try and find a nice flat ride for today. On mapmyride.com we found a great looking 50 km loop out inthe foothills. On the map it looked about the shape of BC. Our plan was to ride the top side of the route (yukon/ northwest territories border heading west) then turn down (making the shape of the BC Coast) then riding straight back up (the alberta border) back to our starting point. It would have been the perfect ride-if we had actually followed the correct route! It all started when as a group we passed a fellow roadbiker on highway 22x. I guess getting passed by 4 young women is not something that the average adult make is used to when roadbiking. This particular roadbiker did not like getting passed! He sped up after we passed him and tried to take off. ony we caught him again. This time as we passed he actually reached out and tapped me on the shoulder. I was a little surprised! It turns out he is a retired roadbiking coach...he used to coach our nutritionalist Kelly-Ann (who is one of the most successful Canadian Road Bikers ever)! For the next 15 minutes he rode beside us giving us helpful tips about riding in a "peloton" and how to properly draft and use hand signals for changing leaders and poining out debree etc. It was actually really cool and funny! He couldn't believe what "big" girls we were. After 15 minutes he road off only leaving his name "papa". It was really cool to ride with him but during our little tete-de-tete we missed the exit which would lead us downwards (BC Coast)! We decided to take a parellel route which would take us to the same place. However, this small mis-step at the beginning of our ride led to problems down the line. As we crossed the bottom of our route we misjudged the distance we had gone and missed our upwards exit (Alberta border). We continued further down the road and ended up on a busy highway way past our starting point. By the time we stopped and tried to figure out where we were we had already gone 56 km and were FAR away from our destination. We ended up riding on a busy highway and crossing traffic on an overpass! VERY scary....to make matters seem worse there were huge signs along the highway reading DANGEROUS GOODS ROUTE...thats a real feel good sign! In the end we rode for 2 hours and 40 minutes and instead of 50 km's we rode 70 km's! 20 extra kms!!!!! Needless to say we were a grumpy, tired, sore, energy low, hungry group of girls by the end! I really crashed after the ride...I slept in the car ride back home!

Tomorrow we are back in the gym and in the afternoon we are scheduled to go play some squash! Exciting! Friday will entail more sled pulls Yuck!

Until next time!

Calgary

2009-07-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
Ok! So!

I am currently back in Calgary! AGAIN! yay? yup! I am doing a ton of working out! That is all I say! I arrived on Sunday and have since completed 6 workouts (its wednesday). The intensity of the workouts have been upped and the amount of cardio is down slightley. Only a 40 km ride this morning instead of 80. On monday we were in the gym for 3 and a half hours in the morning and completed an hour bike ride in the afternoon. Yesterday we were in the gym for 2 and a half hours then had a nutrition seminar followed by an intervals cardio workout. Welcome back to Calgary! We are in a new dorm ...it is quite "cozy" shall I say. One thing is for sure....the fridge is not big enough to accommidate 4 female athletes food!

More updates to come!

baby bambi

2009-07-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

A little visitor we had for a few hours while I was home. A one day old Baby Bambi who was safely taken back to the forest after some goats milk and a careful hands off policy! If you see a baby bambi do not remove it! This is something we did not know beforehand! But now we do! No harm done! Enjoy!

Home and Calgary...again..and repeat!

2009-07-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Being home after being is Calgary for a month was like discovering paradise all over again! Mountains, lakes, Mountain Biking, Horseback riding, Hiking, Canoeing, Consistantly hot weather, my own bed, a car to drive, a free washing machine, good coffee, someone else making breakfast, sleeping in, and last but not least my family! There is alot going on in Heffley lake that I LOVE!!

It felt incredible to be able to see my friends and enjoy all of summers little pleasures! When I was home my teamate Kelly McBroom came and visited me for 5 days. I could hardly sit still! All I wanted to do was show her EVERYTHING! I have tried to describe to my team mates where I live and what I do but nothing really makes sense until it is seen with your own eyes! So having Kelly was incredible! Finally an opportunity to play show and tell!

On her first day we decided to go for a walk before dinner. We brought my two dogs Benny and Jazzy along. half way through our walk we decided to go for a canoe. It was an easy walk over to where we keep our canoe and everything was going well until we got onto the water. Benny is now 15 and quite docile so we brought her into the canoe with us. jazzy being a hyper 2 year old black lab was left out of the canoe on the shore. It didn't take her more than two seconds to decide that we were not leaving without her. As she swam after us she whined non-stop. To the house on the edge of the lake it must have looked like we were purposefully trying to drown the dog! Needless to say, feeling it necessary to avoid having our neighbours call the SPCA for dog abuse I pulled her into the canoe. For the first few mintues she seemed content to rock to canoe as she pelted from one side to the other whining after ducks and other items on the water. Through all this Kelly was taing beautiful scenic shots of Heffley Lake. As we neared the island at the last leg of our little tour we spotted a huge thing of caterpillars dangling off a branch over the water. Kelly being the photographically capable type of person she is leaned in for a good shot of this phenomenon. At this precise moment as Kelly leaned slightly over the edge of the canoe to capture nature in action jazzy decided to rush to the same side of the boat...FLIPPING the canoe!!! Now it must be understood that this particular day, it was not sunny..in fact it had rained in the early afternoon. Therefore Kelly and I were dressed appropriately in Sweaters, lululemon pants and running shoes. NOT the best swimming attire! It took us a good 15 minutes to find both paddles, empty the boat of water, negotiate the canoe away from the HUGE red and black butted water spiders and recommence our voyage across the lake...SANS Jazzy! She had to swim....

That was only one of the many adventures we had while kelly was at my place! It was incredible to have her over! Thanks Kelly!

2009-05-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So I am now two weeks into my first dryland training block back with the team! We are in Calgary and have been training at the University of Calgary, at the Olympic Oval. It is incredible how different I feel strength wise compared to just a few months ago. I actually feel strong again. It is incredible, when you are not strong you don't really notice it but when strength is returned...WOW..I feel like superwomen sometimes! So far I have been very happy with my ability to keep up with my teammates in all activities. Before arriving in Calgary I was not sure how far behind I would be and how much I would actually be able to do. I still had my "I'm injured" excuse tatooed to my face. However, now that I am here I have found my "injured" mask sliding off! I can now actually do lunges without pain, i can bike for 2 1/2 hours, I can jump...overall I feel great! With strength apparently comes peace of mind! I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful late spring!

Cheers,

Elli

Skiing

2009-04-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Since I will shortly be recommencing my ski journey I thought I would post a video of my skiing prior to my crash in Pitztal. This video was shot in the spring, summer and fall of 2008. If you watch you can see that I become a much better skier throughout the summer! I am very proud of what I accomplished with my skiing last year and can't wait to continue where I left off!

Hope you enjoy the video!

Elli

2009-04-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well it has been a long time since I have had a new post!

I have been waiting till I had a bit to write about!

Well, now I do!

In late March my team mate Kelly McBroom and I went to the carribean.

Since we are both recovering from blown ACL's etc we decided it would be a golden opportunity to use up some aeroplan miles and get away from the snow for a while! We ended up going on a 9 day cruise (the deals were too amazing to pass up) and after the cruise we ended up on a tiny island called Nevis to visit my great Aunt who lives there! The ship had 5 ports of call including the Dominican Republic, Tortola, Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia. It was an incredibly interesting experience between the individuality of each island and our fellow passengers aboard the ship! I don't believe I have ever seen such glutony as aboard our cruise. Dinner plates heaping with dessert, 24 hr buffets and bbq's that lasted all day were the daily theme! The gym aboard the Norwegian Jewel was great, especially for us gimpies who spent several hours in there daily, though in comparison to the size of the ship it was small and in comparison to the amount of passengers aboard it was empty. It had a sign out front that read "the average person gains 9-18 lbs on a 9 day cruise". Gulp. That was a bit of a shocker! Beside the sign was a scale. What a smart was to get people into the gym! Too bad the poolside sun was so appetizing! All in all it was an amazing trip! Sun, interesting people, Aquamarine coloured ocean, palm trees ahhh the life! It was great after the cruise to go and stay with my Aunt Bonnie where it was serene and the ocean was right out of her front door! Kelly and I spent our days with oceanside walks and collecting coconuts, shells and carving calabash! It was over too soon!

Now that I am home, I am concentrating on getting back to skiing! With only about a month and a half to go I am really getting excited! I have dreamed about skiing every night for the past week! I went to Whistler with my parents as moral support as they participated in a level 4 exams. I saw my trainer Craig who developed a new program for me. So all in all things are looking up!

Cheers,

Elli

2009-03-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

SO!

I am currently half way through my stay in Calgary and it is going great! It is incredible how fast the body can realign itself! At the beginning of the week my knee wobbled and shook like a leaf when doing single leg exercises NOW however I can feel my leg smoothly moving through its range of motion without..or at least...minimal shaking!! I feel stronger and more stable going down stairs AND.................................I HAVE STARTED LIGHTLY JOGGING!!! It feels incredible!! I have been dreaming of the day when I could run again since October 10th at about 9:31Am Austria time...the moment after this journey began!

Achieving little goals every day has been key to moving forward for me. So although I am in the gym, working really hard and getting really stiff in the process...I am not pushing myself too hard right now with the weights. I have decided that QUALITY is better than quantity. If I want my leg to return to top shape I need to build it correctly and efficiently. This is a lesson I learned last summer when I got up to 173lbs! Sure, I was very strong but I was no longer able to move as fast as I needed to as a technical skier. So, my new motto is quality NOT quantity....do it right the first time and be steady....the results will show in the end!

On to another very exciting topic..My teammate Kelly McBroom and I are going down to the carribean on a cruise!!! We are both recovering from knee reconstructions and both needed to get away from snow and skiing for a little while. it will hopefully be the perfect mental break for us before the summer.

Ciao for now!

2009-02-28T13:42:00.000-08:00

Well, another stage of recovery is almost over. Since my last post there has not been much "exciting" progress to report. I am currently in the slow steady recovery phase. I am working on my low cardio range as well as building general muscle strength in my legs.

However, this has finally allowed me the chance to fully reflect (in a fairly non-emotional way) on my life, where it has been, where it is going and my life right now...inbetween. As an injured athlete it seems that you have a past (when you were skiing) and a future (when you'll start skiing again)-life on the road to recovery is a black hole with no meaning but to get back to where you were before. It can become quite frustrating to realize that your life, from other people's perspective, is on hold. Someone just pressed pause. This is a sad concept as I am learning and living so much right now. It may be in a very average way, nothing spectacular, but it is still a important part of my life and my career! This is the part of my career where I am able to figure out what I am made of mentally and physically. After a break from skiing I am now able to look back and know how amazing my life has been. How good I was at my sport, how much I love it AND I can live without it and feel successful. A few weeks ago I helped organize a free community sports event that had about 5000 people show up. It was a very interesting experience. It was amazing to me how much my ability to focus and work hard translated over into this VERY foreign type of work. It was nerve racking but, just like in skiing, you have to get over your fear and just do the work. Thank you to Caroline Boomer and Sukh Heer from Pacific Sport for allowing me that amazing opportunity.

Tomorrow I am going to travel to Calgary for my first real block of training. This is the next big step for me on the road to recovery. I will be working with the Canadian team physio Kent Kobelka every day. It will be great to be in a training environment again! This will be a great way to refocus myself and slowly start the process of being a ski racer again!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Elli

Progress!

2009-01-18T14:16:00.000-08:00

Ok. Today = Big step in the right direction!

Today is the first day that I have been able to truly say I have FULL extension and flexion!

Since the last time I blogged I have been working quite hard on my physio. I have put together a program for myself that kinda goes as following:

10 minute bike

Quads: 3*10 wall squats

3*10 calf raises

3*10 side leg raises

3*10 clam curls

Hamstrings: 3*10 Hamstring curls on ball

3*10 Wall pushes

3*10 Hamstring pulls with cord

3*10 second bridge

5 single leg raises while in bridge

Core: Random pilates exercises

15 minute bike

Stretching

It feels great to have a set routine and to work on my body again!

This week has also been interesting because I did a presentation at my elementary school on how to set goals. As well I think I will get to help out Pacific Sport in the next few weeks ( as a job-sort of) which will be a nice change from being home every day!

Ciao for now!

My Second First Steps!

2009-01-11T12:23:00.000-08:00

Well Hello!

These past three days have been the happiest (and most productive) in a LONG time!

My physio went well on Friday...my physio took off my brace and asked me to bend my knee straight away. She then measured exactly how far I could bend it. I could bend it-immediately after taking off the brace-90 degrees! This apparently is an accomplishment (the first thing my physio said to me was "you cheated!"-which I didn't) which doesn't happen that often! After putting a heating pad on my knee I was able to bend it even more and was quickly told to progress to trying to spin on a bike! This I was able to do as well! Although at a snail's pace and going very carefully around the top of the spin. Tracy told me then that I would probably be able to walk by Monday, but I could use my crutches as a bit of a safeguard until I felt comfortable. So now don't have to wear my brace! I threw it in the garbage of the clinic...that thing wasn't coming home with me! As I left the clinic I had a perma-grin attached from ear to ear!

I guess you could call me a bit of a over-achiever/very impatient. When I got home I walked around a bit with my crutches but immediately started taking "1 step" without them...then it was "3 steps"...by the time my Dad got home from work I was walking across my room and trying to bend my leg more and straighten it further! My grin didn't leave the entire evening!

Now three days into walking I can spin on a bike without to much trouble and walk a little more fluidly than before. I also have really increased my ability to bend and straighten my knee! I'm now able to hug my arms around both my legs no problem while touching my hands to my elbows!

I think my favourite thing about walking is being able to carry things! I'm finally able to actually help out around the house! I can now carry my laundry to my room, tie my own shoes(with the brace I couldn't really bend my leg far enough to reach my foot), carry the milk from the fridge to the counter, put away dishes... the list is endless of the meaningless little tasks that were so difficult before! Another thing I was happy about leaving my crutches behind for was that people would stop saying "ouch" or "ohhh, that must of hurt" whenever they saw me. After three months of hearing this statement over and over I was very excited to look "normal"!However apparently this won't stop till my limp is un-noticeable. Last night I went to see my friends up at Sun Peaks for a couple of hours and as soon as I walked into Bottoms a man sitting at the bar said those exact words "ouch". What a mood killer! If only he knew how much I am not feeling the "ouch" factor right now! I feel more along the lines of euphoric!

OK, that is my update! On Monday I go in for physio again and sometime next week I will be heading to Calgary to REALLY start up the rehab! I'm finally feeling like the wheels on the train are starting to pick up speed!

Cheers!

Elli

2009-01-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

Hallo mein vriends!

So I am incredibly excited! Tomorrow...after three VERY long, boring months I will get off my crutches! I have a physio appointment at 10 50am, where I will slowly and carefully re-teach myself to walk (with the help of my physio Tracy Kelly)! I am sure that I will be working on flexing my knee first...as I haven't bent it more than 45 degrees in a month! From there, it will probably progress to walking! I will definately update again tomorrow after this VERY exciting event has actually taken place! I'm counting the minutes!

Tot ziens!

Enter at your own risk!

2008-12-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Yesterday, I was having one of my weekly chats with my teammate, Kelly McBroom, when she mentioned the fact that she was starting a blog! After a few minutes of discourse on the subject it was decided...we'd create blogs! Of course, Kelly started the trend (she is a wiz kid with computers and figuring out how to use them!) and I am quickly following suit! What better way to describe my many misadventures to everyone!

I do mean MIS adventures! I am currently sitting at home 6 days out of a full ACL reconstruction! On October 10th, 2008 I was training on the beautiful Pitztal Glacier in Austria when I unfortunately crashed! I subsequently was flown in a helicopter from the glacier to the Zams hospital (on Morphine...quite a pleasant trip I must say) where I was diagnosed with a torn ACL. I flew back to Calgary two days later, where I had an MRI to fully diagnose the damage and to work with our team physio Kent Kobelka. There I was told I had sustained a fully torn ACL, a small tear in my lateral meniscus, a bad bone bruise with a a very small fracture/indent on the bottom of my femur and maybe some articulate cartilage damage!

I couldn't believe how much damage had been inflicted by such a unimpressive fall! So, after coming home from Calgary I spent the first two weeks working through all the stagtes of grief...DENIAL, ANGER, FRUSTRATION- How could this have happened to me? Why? How can I possibly recover from missing an ENTIRE season? What does this mean for my Olympic dreams?...then ACCEPTANCE, "SORTING OUT THE MESS", MOVING FORWARD-What can I do to minimize the impact of this setback? How much activity can I do? How can I keep myself busy?

I think I can safely say that the first few weeks after coming home where the hardest of my life. I still have a hard time occasionally dealing with what a huge blow this was. I was completely ripped from my familiar surrounding. My teamates, coaches, physio and tech staff have been my constant companions for the past few years of my life. When your on a ski team you see them every day all day. They witness your triumphs, failures and life in between. They know if you talk in your sleep, brush your teeth with your right hand and can't stand mushrooms or rap music. It's like having 7 sisters and about 5 parents. This being said, I think it is easy to see how when you are suddenly removed it feels as if the world has caved in!

I think I can also say that I learned some of the most important and hard lessons of my life in those same few weeks. Think positive, do the work and stay busy-that has been my motto for this experience. When I feel down I recite all the names of my teamates, past and present, who have either had this same injury or an season ending one. I have been working with my sports psychologist, Dave Freeze, which has been monumental. We don't need to even meet very often for him to have a huge effect on what I am doing. I met with him in my first week home and only once since but I can say that without him I would be lost! He is able to put ideas in my head and then the only work I have to do is to follow them.

After two months of a seemingly endless tunnel I had surgery on December 11th, 2008. My surgeon Dr. Outerbridge was able to repair my meniscus with a stitch, instead of cutting out the damaged part, was able to use my hamstring to create a new ACL and assessed the bottom of my femur,which had healed!

So now I am in the first week post surgery...finally regaining my mental facilities after 5 head spinning, ADD-ish, forgetful, sleepy, and very sore days! Christmas shopping has commenced, albeit in a wheelchair, malls are currently above my braced-up knees capacity, physio has begun in infinitily small amounts and snow is still falling all around my home. Life goes on.

I am really looking forward to the next few weeks. I can't wait to be able to walk ( Jan. 11th), open christmas presents, experience New Years (I have been away skiing for the past four) and fully commit to the challenge ahead! I plan to be on snow...in a sit-ski in the near future ( I couldn't ACTUALLY stay away for a full season)!

This experience has given me the ability to see how great my life is, how much I love skiing and how badly I can't what to get back to it! Everything is a new learning experience and a weapon in my arsenal for my return, even this blog. Thank you for letting my share my experience with you...it feels a bit like a cleanse being able to write this all down. This is giving me closure to move on! Great! I wish everyone a merry christmas and please remember how lucky you are to be able to carry things in both hands and walk and talk at the same time! I can't wait!...(grumble grumble....darn crutches)