Olympics!

The Olympics were an experience I will never forget.  There is so much going on beyond your own participation but at the same time it is each individual athletes participation that makes it matter.  I learned so much about myself, about sport, about winning and definitely about defeat during my time in Sochi. 

The Olympics are so much more than the few medals that are handed out.  It is about each athlete putting out their best performance for the world to see...even if their best on that day is a 20th place.  It is the act of competing that makes it so special.  Not just the winning.  In fact, on my way home I wore my olympic garb and was asked several times if I was bringing back a medal.  When I said I hadn't brought one home the people often looked discouraged and turned away.  To me, the act of participating in the Olympics was a big deal!!!  I had a great personal performance....which did not lead me to success but I cannot leave feeling like I didn't give it my absolute all.  There were so many other athletes who had great inspiring performances but didn't land on the top step of the podium.  In many ways its the stories of how people got to the Olympics that was interesting to me.  Each athletes story of success and determination is unique.  

Personally, my olympic experience will make me a stronger person.  I feel my journey to this point has been more defined by what I have overcome than my "incredible" success....and my trip to the Olympics was no different.  Coming back from a concussion...I trained extremely hard prior to the Olympics to get back into shape and to feel comfortable on my skis.  The day of my Olympic race was my first day where I felt super confident on my skis again.  In this way I am so happy with the prep that I was able to do beforehand.  Hitting my head was not ideal, but come race day I felt prepared to have my best performance.  The conditions on race day were challenging.  I felt prepared to meet the challenge and ski my best.  In slalom the margin of error is extremely small.  We get as close to the gate as possible because that is the fastest route down the hill.  Both skis always need to pass around the outside of the gate.  Halfway down the course the tip of my inside ski caught on some  grippy snow and I straddled the gate.  I was disqualified from the race.  At the time it didn't feel fair.  It felt like a cruel joke to make it all the way to the Olympics then to not even get to finish the race.  Some athletes were joking that failure in a cross country race is like dying a slow painful death but in slalom (or skiing in general) its like a bullet to the heart.  Failure happens so quickly it is hard to process.  But process it you must (after a damn good cry)....I am definitely not alone in not finishing the slalom race.  At the end of the race there were 49 finishers and 36 women who were unable to complete both runs.  Many of the ladies who didn't finish were on their way to amazing performances such as my team mate Erin Mielzynski and Austrian Bernadette Schild.  When I arrived back in the Olympic Village it was sobering to realize each sport has their own challenges.  There were many other Canadian competitors that had had their dreams a little dashed in Sochi, but they kept their heads up shrugged it off and moved on.  I did the same.  

Another very cool aspect of the Olympics was the camaraderie and friendships built between different sports as we came together in the athlete lounge to watch our fellow Canadians compete day after day.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching Kaillie Humphreys deliver an amazing performance while the men's bobsled team explained terminology and the sport to those of us watching.  We were also lucky enough to be able to watch several other events live including women's snowboard cross, mens super g (where Canadian Jan Hudec was 3rd!!!), mens 4 man bobsled and I was extremely excited to get tickets to watch the mens gold medal hockey game!

I also feel extremely lucky that my family was able to come watch me race.  This journey has been not just my own.  My family has picked me up after my bad crashes and celebrated with me during times of success.  I could not have made it even close to making it to the Olympics without the support of my entire family.  For putting me on skis, encouraging and supporting me to work hard and for believing and allowing me to be the best athlete I can be.  My parents basically allowed me to move out as a teenager to pursue this crazy sport.  I felt their support even through my extreme absense from our family life.  To be able to share this experience with them meant the world to me.  My mom, dad, brother and my boyfriend all came to see me.  After my race they once again helped pick me up.  I could not have been more happy to be with my family after my race.  There is no one better to be with than those whom you love when you feel like the floor has dropped out from beneath you.  Thank you to everyone who helped my brother fundraise to pay for the trip!  I VERY much appreciated having him there!

Below are some photos I took during my experience at the games!

Chilling with the Canadian Womens Olympic Team in the rings!

The Canadian Moose mascot! (Yes, it was that warm!)

The view from the gondola...looking down on the downhill course.  The terrain and size of the mountain reminded me of either Whistler or Kicking Horse Resort. 

They had a ton of different activities you could do in the Olympic Village....I painted this doll!

We found some powder at the top of the mountain!

My boyfriend and I with the Olympic flame in the background.

I found the Canadian Molson fridge in Sochi!

 My team mate Britt and I about to watch the Mens Gold Medal Hockey Game!

Watching the game!

Ski Cross champions Kelsey Serwa & Mariel Thompson (and many other excited Canadian athletes!)

Georgia Simmerling, Kelsey Serwa and I...we were all on the BC Development/ Canadian Devo Team together!  It was fun to be reunited at the games!  We raced together from the time we were 11 to 18 years old!

Mitch, Britt, MP and myself just before walking into the closing ceremonies!

It was an awesome experience-in the true sense of the word- to walk into the closing ceremonies.  Goosebumps, giggles and exclamations of awe from all around about the magnitude of people and space as we entered the Fisht stadium!

A moment of being star struck after talking to the extremely amazing and nice Hayley Wickenheiser!

I would definitely never trade my Olympic experience for anything.  It meant so much to me to be representing our beautiful country.  It gave me such a feeling of pride and appreciation to be competing for Canada.  There were so many amazing athletes from our country and so many interesting people that I was able to meet during my trip.  To young athletes aspiring to be Olympians.  It is so worth the struggles you will face to get here.  It is those exact struggles that will make it so special....no matter your result.

December and January Madness-Shaken not stirred.

It has been a long time since I wrote a blog.  It was not on purpose!  After Colorado I went home to Burlington and had an excellent visit there.  I then boarded back onto a plane and left for Europe once again.  We did three days of training in Veysonnez, Switzerland on some seriously intense ice!  It was great training and I was really looking forward to our next race in Courchevel, France.  The morning of the race was sunny and beautiful.  I did inspection and felt ready to race.  I decided to do one more run in the warm up courses to be as prepped as possible for the race.  Half way through the run my skis got caught in a rut created by the gate hitting the icy slope.  I didnt even have time to put my hands up and I  smacked down on the ice quickly and hard!  I felt my helmet hit the ice.  My immediate thought was "well Im glad I didn't hit my head any harder because it would be terrible to get a concussion right now".  I was more worried about how sore my thumb was.  After pulling myself together and talking to our physio I skied to the bottom of the hill.  I had about 15 minutes to calm down before my race.  I decided to keep my crash to myself until after the race because I figured making a big deal of it won't help me at all.

I felt race ready when I left the start gate that morning.  I left my crash behind me and went for it.  I made a large mistake before the flats that cost me a lot of time.  I ended up 31st by 0.01 seconds.  So close!  After I got to the bottom I started to feel nauseous and strange.  I headed back to the hotel and rested in the darkness of my room for the rest of the day.  The next day, a day off,  I displayed no concussion symptoms.  The following morning we woke up very early to travel to a race one hour away.  I was not able to sleep that night...maybe totalling about 3 hours.  I felt extremely groggy, nauseous and headachy but I blamed it on my lack of sleep.  After an hour car ride in the dark on winding roads I felt worse.  I tried to shake it off and did the warm up and inspection for the race.  I knew something wasn't right when I couldn't remember the section I had just inspected.   It was really difficult but I decided not to race.  This is when we started to consider that I had a small concussion.  I took the rest of the week off.  On Christmas day I freeskied and I did light training the next two days.  I REALLY wanted to race Lienz.  Though I felt better I was spending an awful lot of time ignoring the fact that I was still feeling a lot of "pressure" in my head and small instant headaches.  I wanted to be better so much that I was ignoring the small signs that I wasn't.  I raced Lienz.  But it was a waste on time.  I felt slow and unable to work my skis.  When I got through the finish line I immediately felt extremely nauseous and got a huge headache on the left side of my head.  This is when I knew I wasn't going to be an "easy ride" with this concussion.  It was 10 days post crash and I wasn't better.  At this time I really took it easy.  I stopped doing everything!  No more light yoga, no more light bikerides, no skiing and lots of physic.  All I could do was knit (a good thing since I have so many toques to make for my fundraiser supporters!)  It was one of the hardest decisions to not race Bormio.  Instead I stood at the finish in the pouring rain cheering on my teammates.  I wanted to be racing.  After Bormio I still wasn't better.  I was having trouble with headaches still and I knew the travel schedule we keep in Europe (we travelled almost every 36 hours while we were there) wasn't helping me at all.  I spent all of my days alone in hotel rooms without access to internet, and thus family and friends back home (as well as entertainment!)  I knew I needed to go home to get better.  I left on the 9th of January and returned to Burlington to rest.

After a week of sleeping, eating and resting I felt much better.  My only issue was small headaches I was still getting.  I went and saw the athletic trainer at UVM who was able to treat me with myofascial release on my neck.  Within a few days my headaches were all gone!  After getting cleared by the Alpine Canada docs, I went to visit my teammate Britt Phelan in Mont Tremblant.  We freeskied all day with her parents, my mom and my boyfriend.  It was a great easy way to get back on skis.  The next week I trained in the gym and got one day of training on snow with the UVM ski team before they headed to their weekend carnival.  It felt amazing to be able to ski, workout and watch entertainment on my computer and tv!

I tried to leave for Europe on Saturday the 25th.  I arrived at the Burlington airport to see that the only flight cancelled on the board was my own.  I was rebooked for the following day.  The next morning I woke up to an email again saying my flight had been cancelled!  I luckily was able to call and get rerouted!  I finally arrived in Tarvisio Italy!  As soon as we arrived my computer died!  Its amazing how annoying it is to not be able to use my computer once again!  In Tarvisio we did three days of training there before heading to Kranska Gora.  It was incredible to get to train!  It felt like it had been forever since Id been able to just ski gates.  I didn't feel particularly fast but at least I was skiing.  At this time we were also told we had made the Olympic team.  I felt humbled and excited.  I am so lucky to have performed at the first race of the season given the injury troubles I have had afterwards.  I qualified under the 3rd criteria of two top 20 results.    I feel humbled because this has been my dream since I was 4 years old.  At this point in my career (and in this sport) I feel it is not attending the Olympics that makes an athlete an "Olympian"...its the journey to this point and the luck and timing of your results that got you here.  There are many other Canadian skiers who may not be going to the Olympics this year but are extremely deserving of the recognition of talent that comes with going to the games.  The only thing that held them back from going was bad timing and injuries.  For this reason I am honoured and humbled to go.

Kranska Gora was a bit of a mess.  It snowed over 2 metres in the three days leading up to the race.  The organizing committee did a great job to get the race off as well as they did.  Because I did not qualify and did not race so many World Cups I lost enough World Cup points to no longer be starting in the 20s and 30s.  I had bib 52.  A real disadvantage with the snow conditions we had.  When I pushed out of the start gate I felt ready to race.  Then my body seemed to stop obeying my signals.  The snow felt better than I had expected but after so long off skis my body was not feeling as "sharp" and I simply didn't have to subtle touch on my skis I needed to be fast.  I felt sluggish and not agile.  I did not make second run.

We are now training in Austria before we head to the Olympic Games on the 14th.  I will be watching the opening ceremonies on tv like everyone else.  I feel very lucky to have this time to get my body and skiing re-tuned!  Each run I take I feel a little better on my skis.  We are also doing a great job of dryland in the afternoons and I can already feel my body responding to the activity.  I cant wait to continue training and getting faster.  I also CAN'T WAIT to represent Canada at the Olympics!  There aren't many things that can compare to the experience of the games and I cant wait to get there!  Thank you to everyone for your support and I will definitely be posting pictures etc soon!

Colorado and Levi

Well!  Since starting my fundraiser I have been ABSOLUTELY amazed by the outpouring of support that I have received!  It has been a very humbling experience!  I have a VERY LARGE amount of earrings and toques to make!  I can't wait to start!  This fundraising has meant that my family is finally no longer paying for my very expensive team fees.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  That is a HUGE burden lifted off of our shoulders.

On Oct. 31st I headed to Calgary for a little testing before heading down for a last little training block of slalom before our first race.  We did 6 amazing days of slalom at Loveland Pass.  The conditions were amazing, which led to absolutely great training.  By the time we finished our camp we all felt very well prepared to race.  Talk about a great team!  As a group this is such an amazing team to train and live with.  We push each other in training and are great friends off hill.  Its a great environment for fostering support and success.

After Colorado we headed to Levi, Finland for our first World Cup Slalom race of the season.

 Training in the morning before the race

 Levi....4pm

My reindeer friend

We did two days of training on the training slope as we adjusted to the time change.  Race day was my first day not feeling super groggy when I woke up.  We did a great warm up on hill.  Our coaches shuttled us around in our Volvo rental cars as we pumped "mad tunes" and did four runs on great terrain.  By the end of our training session I felt sharp and clear about what I had to do on my skis.

The race hill conditions were amazing and the first course was an absolute ripper.  There was an uphill wind so I felt it was pretty important to really "crush" the flats from the very first gate.  There are pretty abrupt rollers on the Levi course but after the training we did this summer in New Zealand where we did a slalom course through a terrain park-I felt very confident about my approach for them.  I ended up skiing the way I have been in training.

First run...coming over the break over onto the pitch.

When I came through the finish on the first run and I saw that I was in 4th I was ecstatic!  What felt amazing about it that I felt I could very easily replicate my skiing for the next run.  I felt calm and tried not to focus on the result of the first run...I still had another run to do!

Second run the course was more turny on the pitch.  I felt I could still rip the flats up top but I wanted to be a little more smart on the pitch.  As I came over the pitch on my second run I hit my forearm very hard on a gate.  My arm went instantly numb!  Not the best feeling in the world but I refocused and continued to fight down the pitch.  I felt I didn't really risk it as much as I had the first run but it was still very consistent.  As I came into the finish I was a little disappointed to see how far I had moved back.  I was 6th with 6 more racers to go.  In my mind I thought I had moved into 13th position (the qualifying criteria for the Olympics is top 12)

Thinking I had just missed coming top 12.

When I realized I had come 11th I was super excited.  I am now half way through qualifying for the Olympics, this is my BEST EVER result and I felt like I skied very normally for me.  It was not a "super human" effort.  It came naturally.  It feels nice to know the training I did this summer was great.  I am also EXTREMELY happy for my teammate Marie-Michele Gagnon who ended up 5th overall.  It was great to see her smiling at awards and I know that our team has the potential to be up there every race!  I can't wait till Courcheval!

Next, we head back to Colorado where I will be competing in the GS and SL Norams that will be taking place in Loveland pass.  I am excited to strap on the "big boards" (GS skis are much longer than slalom....though downhillers have total permission to roll their eyes at my statement)

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me this summer.  It has felt amazing to have such a great result right after all this fundraising!  A weight off my shoulders!

Till next time!

ONLINE FUNDRAISER!!!

I created two new videos I'd like to share with everyone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30m1NwTb9hw&feature=youtu.be

The first is a video I made of my skiing from this summer in New Zealand.

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

This one is a video I made of some of my runs on World Cup this past season.

I would also LOVE it if everyone could check out my link to my online fundraiser.  I am currently trying to raise $10,000 towards my $15,000 team fees for this year alone!  Every dollar donated alleviates a ton of financial stress on my dear parents who are currently footing the bill for my skiing.  As an NCAA athlete I cannot accept prize money or sponsorships so I am really trying to do my part for my career by fundraising!  Any donation amount is acceptable and as I mentioned above, every dollar helps out a huge amount!  I am currently skiing the best I ever have and I BELIEVE I CAN make the Olympics.  I just need the funds now to get me there!

Thank you to everyone who can donate and thank you for reading my blog!  Enjoy the videos!

MY ONLINE FUNDRAISER LINK BELOW

ONLINE FUNDRAISER FOR ELLI TERWIEL

Summertime

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spring

I found a few photos of this spring to add!  After the busy schedule I have been keeping for the past two years my life seems to have finally hit slow motion for a little while.  I actually have had a little time to sit and think!  

I ended the season off with a third at Canadian Championships.  After coming 4th twice it was nice to finally step onto the podium.  After Whistler I headed straight back to Vermont to finish up my year of school.  As per usual I loved it!  I cannot believe how much I enjoy learning about dynamics, statistics, differential equations etc.   I am happy to say I am through my second year of civil engineering!  I cannot wait to get back into classes....however that will have to wait.  In what was one of the toughest decision I've had to make in a long time, I have decided to take the next year off of school to pursue the Olympic Games.  This may seem like a no-brainer to everyone but me....I still wanted to do both!  However, I am extremely aware of how amazing both options are....there was no bad option just different consequences.  

After I finished my exams in May my boyfriend and I headed back across the country with my car fully loaded!  This time around I decided to take the route through the states-wow was gas cheaper!  I must say that it was a gorgeous drive.  In comparison to last year through Canada where it was about 8 degrees and raining most of the way, this year it reached a soaring 40 degrees as we crossed the American Prairies!  I thoroughly enjoyed the drive across South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Washington.  The incredible change from the Badlands to the Black Hills to the rolling grasslands of Wyoming and Montana were stunning.  I cant wait to go back! 

I arrived home to a flurry of different activities.  I had an amazing week biking, hiking, catching up with my best friends and visiting with my amazing family.  It never seems long enough though.  As I departed there where still so many things I wanted to do and see at home!  However, it was time to fully get down to my job-training!  I drove to Canmore and am now onto week two of our intense summer training.  Despite not great weather (again about 10 degrees and raining) the training has been excellent.  Without school, I have had way to much time on my hands.  It took me this first week to get used to it.  I always feel like I am forgetting that I need to be doing something!  This "quiet" time has really allowed me to do some reflecting, organization and catch up on what feels like a year of missed sleep!  

Here are a few photos taken March-May!

 Arriving home in March for the first time since July and being greeted with a bouquet of flowers from my brother!  Best Brother EVER!

 Skiing 26 cm of fresh powder at my home mountain SUN PEAKS RESORT in March.

 Being thwarted from studying by my roommates hilarious fat cat Meeu.

My amazing boyfriend bought me golf clubs for my birthday!  A total rookie, but I am loving golfing!

Hiking with my best friends near the airport in Kamloops.

The seasons end...

Since my last post, once again, a lot has happened!  I competed in World Championships, tore my quad, attended school, raced NCAA championships, raced in Ofterschwang, raced NorAm finals, went home and now I am in Whistler at Canadian Nationals.

I will start with a little recap of World Championships.  They were in Schladming, Austria this year.  It was an incredible experience in general with massive crowds, lots of pressure, incredible performances and a ton of amazing course work done by the organizers and volunteers.  It was an amazing show.  45,000 people at the finish line cheering.  My performance however was a little lacking,  I was incredibly excited to race.  We spent a week preparing specifically for this race.  I had a better start number than usual and felt ready to rip!  However on the 6th gate or so of my first run I made a small recovery move and felt a very strange sensation in my right quad.  When I got to the finish I was in a very large amount of pain and could barely walk in my ski boots over to the hospitality tent.  I tore my quad.  After some taping by our physio Jenny, some pain killers and gritted teeth I went out and skied my second run.  I ended up 28th.  I was pretty disappointed with this result given that I had just come off of my best result ever in Maribor.  I ended up not being able to ski for the next two weeks because of my quad...very disappointingly I had to miss a University carnival race as I could not put pressure on my leg.

After some rest I got ready to race NCAA Championships in Middlebury Vermont, a mere hour away from Burlington.  It was a great event.  I got some good training in beforehand in both GS and Slalom and felt confident our team was as strong as last year.  Our first race was the GS.  I was happy with my first run and went into the second run vying to move into the top 5!  This was not to be.  On the long flat section in the middle of the course I lost my outside ski to some soft snow and got pulled onto a late line.  I ended the day 11th.  Our Nordics had a great day the next day as well and we went into day 3-the slalom day in the lead!  I was feeling very ready to race!  I was excited to ski my best event and I felt I needed to redeem myself after coming 11th in the GS.  Once again, it was not to be.  Upon coming onto the pitch I slid out of the course on my side and had to hike a gate.  Unfortunately there are different hiking rules for different types of slaloms (single pole, or ones with an outside gate)....and I hiked the wrong way!  I was disqualifed from the race.  I was extremely upset.  Less for myself....blowing out of the course is not that uncommon in slalom-but for my team.  I really felt (and still feel) like I let them down!  It is a much different experience to race as part of a team. You neither win nor lose based on just one performance but a good performance can inspire and a bad performance can dampen the effect of the team as a whole.  We have an undeniably great team.  I just wish I could have helped out more!  After the second run of the slalom I quickly packed up all my stuff and drove 3 hours to Montreal to board a flight to Europe.  I arrived in Europe on saturday and raced the Ofterschwang Slalom World Cup on Sunday.  I could feel immediately that my legs were extremely tired.  I tried to push through and go for it but at the end of the day you need your mind and your body to cooperate.  I ended up 37th after the first run.  I watched from the sidelines second run as two of my teammates put in amazing performance.  Anna Goodman came out of retirement to end up 15th overall and win the second run!  Mitch Gagnon ended up 4th...her best slalom result of the year.

I flew back to Burlington on Monday and wrote a midterm on Tuesday.  I flew back out again Wednesday morning to head to Squaw Valley for the NorAm finals.  Sometimes it is amazing what you can accomplish!  The first day of racing I ended up winning!  I was very happy and content to have a good result after so much travelling.  The next day I dnf'd in the second run but it was very hard to be in a bad mood in the Tahoe area as the weather was incredible!!!  I ended up 3rd overall in the NorAm slalom standings.  Something I was very happy with considering I skipped a norAm series in February to go to school.  The GS races were personally not very good performances but again worthy to note the amazing weather and the great course prep by the race organizers and volunteers!

From Tahoe I got to fly home (to BC) for the first time since last July.  I got a little teary when the plane landed and I saw all the places I had been missing so much!  It is amazing how many small changes can happen in 7 months!  Needless to say it was incredible to be home with family and great friends for the past week!  We got an amazing 26cm powder day as well which was my first day of free skiing all year!  Loved it!

I arrived in Whistler yesterday and tomorrow will be the Canadian National Slalom race.  Looking forward to it!