Back to Europe....

Since my last post I hammered the books at school...and did a little skiing! I competed in my first Carnival Races with my University team. I have to say they are incredibly fun races! There is nothing like having a pretty good field of athletes...and parents that bring a load of food! It was like a mix of ski racing and soccer (remember how all the parents would bring orange slices?)! It seemed that the parents of the different schools were competing for who could bring the best spread! We ended up with sandwiches, oranges, apples, gatorade, incredible homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and wait for it....strawberry cheesecake...AT A RACE! It was very hard to hold back on the cheesecake until after our second run. Another great feature of these races is the team spirit. It was lovely to be in the finish line and have your entire team cheering for you and vis versa. UVM did incredibly well at both the Carnivals I attended. The boys swept the podium almost every day and my team mate Christina won the first GS...I was second and I won both the slaloms. It was a great experience!

After the carnival two weekends ago I received some terrible unexpected news that my Opa (my grandfather) died. It was incredibly hard to be away from my family during this time. It was also difficult because I haven't seen my Opa since July. I still cannot believe he is gone. The following Tuesday I left to compete in the NorAM series in Vail Colorado. We started out with GS. This is an event I feel I am always still having to readjust to. I ended up 11th and 10th. I had better luck in the slaloms. I ended up 3rd and then 2nd. I had an interesting experience as I really wanted to do well at these races in honour of my Opa. The first day when I finished the second run I had a serious moment of fighting back tears. Not because I was particularly unhappy with how I skied but I had wanted to win for my Opa and I felt I let him down. After a few minutes my more rational brain kicked in and I realized it was incredibly vain and selfish of me to think that way. My Opa would just be happy that I was doing something that I love. He taught me how to be an incredibly hard worker and to enjoy the small things in life. He taught me about caring and being gracious with others. These are traits I hope I never lose sight of. I will miss him incredibly but in myself and my family I know he will always be around in our actions.

After the NorAms I headed back to Burlington for a quick two days at school then this Wednesday I boarded a plane for Barcelona to compete in the World Cup slalom race in Soldeu-Grandvalira, Andorra. Yesterday the GS was cancelled due to high winds so they moved the slalom race up a day to give themselves a better chance of getting the GS off on Sunday. My bib today was 44. The hill was in great shape and the snow was grippy and hard. The terrain was flat and rolly onto the steepest/longest pitch I have skied this year. I knew that the pitch would give me trouble as I havent skied a pitch in a very long time and with the super grippy snow it is very easy to make a mistake....and starting 44 you cant make a mistake and come top 30....or not easily. Out of the gate I felt really good. I felt like I was letting my skis run and felt I was carrying speed despite the head wind. I made a big mistake coming onto the pitch which ended up costing my a second run! I came into a delay a little in the backseat and with the snow being super grippy it shot me out towards the outside gate....and I ended up crawling back into the course on the pitch. I then attacked the pitch as best I could but I am not good enough on pitches to make up for my mistake up top. My first two splits were good enough to be in the top 30...but I ended up 39th and .33 out from qualifying for second run. SO CLOSE AGAIN! I know I had a ripper up top and I know that I can make it so once again I am going to take the positives out of this race and wait impatiently for my next shot. I will be racing in Ofterschwang in Germany in the first week of March. Until then its back to school and the rest of the Carnival series.

THanks everyone for the support and I hope everyone is having a great February. I would ALSO like to put out a HUGE congratulations to fellow BC skier Ben Thompsen who came 2ND today in the World Cup Downhill in Sochi Russia. It is SO good to see someone do well who hasnt followed the traditional ski racing route!

Back to Work!

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!

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...

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

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

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!