European Tour 2011

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

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

Cheers, Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year!

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

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

Enjoy!

World CUPS!

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

Elli

Good News!

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

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

Nakiska...

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

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

Until then,

CIAO!

Chile

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

Elli

New Zealand Video

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

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