Tag Archives: ski

Mid Season Adventures

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Oh hello there! Wow what a busy season it’s been. After the first two World Cup races in Italy I headed back to Canada for Christmas with my family and friends. Whistler Blackcomb had some great skiing so I was a happy girl! After Christmas we flew back to Europe for more racing. The first race was in St. Johann, Austria. It’s a really fun place to race because so many people come out to support and cheer us on as well as it being a night race… people tend to party it up and get a little wild. Austrians sure do love ski racing! I had an okay race making it to the small finals, but ended up 8th due to a tangle up off the first jump.

View from the bottom of St Johann, Austria. Night racing is fun!

Kelsey and I prior to racing in St Johann, Austria

After St. Johann we drove to Alpe d’Huez, France. The course in Alpe d’Huez was super fun with lots of speed and many features. It made for a great race! I was skiing really well on race day and made it to the finals. I finished 2nd behind Switzerland’s Sanna Luedi!! It was an awesome feeling being on the podium again so early in the season! Unfortunately my teammate Kelsey Serwa had a bad crash off a jump in the final and tore her knee and is now out for the remainder of the season. Get well soon Kels!

Yay! 2nd place! Here with teammate Mariannick and our team massage therapist Cathy.

From Alpe d’Huez we drove across France to Les Contamines with a quick McDonald’s stop on the way (McDonald’s in France is probably better than North America I recommend it!) The course in Les Contamines was fairly similar to last year with one addition… ICE!! The course workers water injected several of the turns so the course would stay in good shape for the race day and first day of training I was like Bambi on ice. I got my act together for the qualifying and had a career best of third! The race didn’t go as well as it could’ve. I made small finals, but unfortunately my ski popped off when I was leading the heat going into the first turn so I finished 8th! From Les Contamines we flew home for a quick break before the North Amercian leg of the season.

Bib Draw - 10th Anniversary of Les Contamines Ski Cross

X Games is an amazing event with a great course and huge features held in Aspen, Colorado. The builders spend many hours pushing around snow to make it perfect. It’s much longer than our World Cup courses clocking in around a minute thirty seconds… very tiring on the legs! X games is different than World Cup, instead of 4 people on course it is made more exciting with 6! On the day of the race I was skiing well and was confident with the course. I won the semi-finals and made it to the finals. In the finals I was in second going into a jump and the Norwegian girl in front of me lost some speed from missing her landing so I was able to make a pass. While I was in front I came into a bank turn and got compressed by the G forces and had a crash and got passed. I ended up 5th, but was definitely disappointed with my result.

The X Games start taken on my GoPro

Tristan Tafel showing his X for X Games on the chair. See the X in the sky too?

From Aspen drove to Denver to fly to Toronto for the next World Cup at Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ontario. Since I didn’t get to participate last year I was really excited to race in front of the Canadian crowd! Before we began racing we (my teammates and I) went and visited elementary schools in Collingwood. It was an awesome experience having all of those kids so excited to meet us and wanting autographs. At Blue I qualified 2nd (BEST EVER!) so I had a good spot heading into the heats. On the day of the finals I sailed through all three heats to take my first World Cup WIN!! It was a great feeling heading over the last jump and hearing the home crowd cheering for Canada! Chris Del Bosco won the men’s and Brady Leman was second. Overall it was a great day for Canada!

Chris, Brady, and I with our team mascot "Helmut" after the great day at Blue!

From Blue Mountain a slightly diminished team headed to Park City, Utah to compete in the US Grand Prix Ski Cross at the Canyons Resort. The course had a very technical start which several of the girls were unable to do, but my teammate Georgia and I made it up no problem! The rest of the course was really fun with a BIG hip jump halfway down the course and lots of other features. In the semifinals my teammate Georgia had a big crash and ended up breaking bones in her thoracic spine and neck. Get well soon Georgia!! In the finals of the race I was winning heading into the hip jump, but got pushed too far left to hit it so I ended up taking the alternate route. Katrin Mueller the Swiss girl who was second didn’t hit the jump well so I ended up staying in front and winning the race!!

My teammate Mariannick and I at the finish at Blue Mountain Photo: Ken Edwards

Overall it has been an amazing season and I hope to keep the ball rolling heading back to Europe next week. For now though it’s time to kick back and relax here in Whistler.

Later gators!

Marielle

 

 

 

 

Great Snow in Switzerland

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Whew! What a camp! The past few weeks have flown by training here in Saas Fee, Switzerland. The course the Swiss team built to train on has everything we need; bank turns, jumps, rollers, and more. It’s been great to get back in a course and I’ve found the hard work in the gym this summer has paid off. I’ve been feeling strong and fast on snow We have one more day of training, then it’s back to Canada!

Packing up for Saas Fee with my new Volkl skis!

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Time for another camp! This time we’re heading over to Switzerland to the land of cows, cheese, and chocolate… sure to make you come home a few pounds heavier than when you left. We are going to be skiing in Saas Fee up on the glacier. The swiss have built a course and we’ll be having a joint camp. It’ll be good to have some friendly competition to get back into the swing of racing. Last year there was a pretty epic game of soccer between the two teams with Canada coming out victorious… maybe again this year? I’m excited to be switching to super fast Volkl skis for this season and to be getting back on snow! Time to get back to packing…. Happy Thanksgiving!

Switzerland and Scandinavia

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During a long three weeks in Europe I did two races in Switzerland, one in Sweden, and World Cup Finals in Norway.

Grindelwald: The top of Europe! Picturesque mountains surround Grindelwald. The ski cross course was lower on the mountain winding it’s way around farmhouses and snow covered pastures. The course was a speedway with a couple big swooping turns, several long straight-aways, and lots of jumps. The course officials decided to have inspection the first day and 2 runs of training before qualifying the next day since there were spring-like conditions in Switzerland while we were there. In my qualifying run I didn’t give one of the jumps enough direction going into  it so upon landing I went super wide and lost lots of speed. Any mistakes on the Grindelwald track were unforgiveable as there was nowhere to make up time for mistakes made. I finished pretty close to qualifying, finishing 18th.

Meiringen: Around an hour drive from Grindelwald, the town of Meiringen is much lower in elevation. To get up the mountain you have to take a big tram where you are crammed in like sardines. From the tram you then you have to fight your way to the gondola to head to the top. Upon arrival at the top you are faced with a wall of glacier and the ski cross track below you. This course had an interesting first feature, the course builders made a wutang that had to be snow-plowed up to make the landing on the backside. The rest of the course was really fun, with lots of jumps and turns you had to be looking ahead the whole time! In qualifying I was 12th which made me pretty happy since I didn’t qualify at the last race. In the race I was lined up with teammate Kelsey, Anna Holmlund (SWE), and Andrea Limbacher (AUT). Off the landing of the wutang Limbacher’s ski took me out causing me to crash beside her and from there there was no way I was catching the others unless there was a crash ahead. I ended up 12th, the same number I qualified.

After the two races in Switzerland we had a couple days off to get to Scandinavia. During one of these days off prior to getting on the plane to Oslo we went into the city of Zurich to the zoo. At the zoo the monkeys and the lions were the highlight for me, overall it was a fun day!

Scandinavia: The first race in Scandinavia was in Branas, Sweden. Prior to the first day of training in Branas, Willy Raine (one of our fabulous coaches), my teammate Danie, and I ripped around Branas straight-lining and tucking down the entire mountain (we were working on passing and staying close to each other). The Branas track had lots of air, a couple double sets of rollers, and a speedway at the bottom straight to the finish. I qualified 12th after making a few little mistakes. In the race I was lined up next to fellow 18 year old Fanny Smith (SUI), Heidi Zacher (GER), and Julie Brendengen Jensen (NOR). I knew coming into the racing that the start would be integral to success. Out of the start Fanny, Heidi, and I were pretty close together coming into the first turn and my ski got caught on Heidi’s ski and I did a bit of a hip-slider and Fanny got caught up with me. I was able to get up pretty quickly so I made a pass on the Norwegian and held it to move on to the semi-finals. In semi-finals I was close to moving on, but in end I just couldn’t make a pass on the bottom so I went on to the small finals. In the small finals I made a few mistakes off a couple of the jumps and I ended up 3rd. I was happy with this result as it was the best result of my season (7th).

The last World Cup race of the season was World Cup Finals in Myrkdalen Voss, Norway. Since it was WC Finals we didn’t have to have qualifications because for women only the top 16 on the World Cup Standings qualify to come to the race. Not having qualifications gave us two days of training which helped to get the course dialled. On the second day of training there was fresh snowfall the night before so we just trained the start. The start was a wutang, so the practice was helpful so I could work on my technique.  ”Myrkdalen” which apparently translates to “Dark Valley” is not known for getting too much sunshine throughout the day, but on race day it was luckily sunny all day. On the race day in quarter-finals I was lined up with Katrin Ofner (AUT), Katrin Mueller (SUI), and my teammate Kelsey. Out of the start I was in forth, but I made a pass on Ofner coming out of the first turn. From third I went to pass Mueller, but she ended up passing me again soon after. From there I got caught in some fresh snow and couldn’t make up the ground on Mueller so I ended up in 3rd which left me in 14th. This was an exciting race to end up the World Cup season.

The next stop for racing is Canadian Championships in Lake Louise April second and third.

 

 

X Games and Deer Valley World Champs

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First of All, X GAMES Recap:
X Games, where the sport of ski cross began. It was a huge event with gigantic jumps and fast paced course. I was really excited when I got my invitation and just as excited when I flew into Aspen. From the little Aspen airport I could see the lights from the event streaming through the night sky. On my first day of training on the course I was a bit intimidated, but by the end of the two hour training session I was getting the hang of things (minus three features I decided not to since there were a few big crashes in the early stages of training that day). On day two of training, on my first crack at the butter box I overshot the landing and hit the roller on top of the box and had a bit of a yard sale (losing my one pole and one ski). In that crash I tore ligaments in both of my thumbs, the left one worse than then the right. I ended up going first to the X Games medical tents where there were was a very experienced orthopedic surgeon and he then sent me away from Buttermilk Mountain five minutes away into Aspen. In the little Aspen Hospital I was x-rayed and told I needed surgery within three weeks. So for the rest of X my mom and I got the full tourist experience of Aspen. Thanks for coming Mom! I ended my stay watching the Ski Cross finals and watched my teammate Kelsey win gold after a big crash on the finish line. Exciting stuff!

Now World Championships:
Wow! What a blast! My team mates Kelsey Serwa, Julia Murray (first and second respectively) and Chris Del Bosco first in the Men’s category! World Championships has been really fun. In qualifying yesterday I ended up 13th after a run with lots of mistakes. Today my first heat was with Kelsey and a Russian girl. I managed to be first out of the gate into the first turn, but ended up going a bit too wide on the second to let both past me…. oops! Throughout the whole run I was looking for places where I could pass the Russian girl. In the end I ended up taking a big risk and passing on the inside over the second last jump (a hip jump where we had to turn off the take off in order to make the landing). It ended well for me because I ended up second and moved onto quarter finals. In the quarter finals there was a stacked field with Fanny Smith (Switzerland), Jenny Owens (Australia), and Kelsey again. In this round I got the hole shot again! I was first going into the first turn again and then Jenny passed me out of the second. I stayed in second until I overshot a double in the first flat section where I got slightly tangeled with Fanny and Kelsey got a clean line through to second. Going into the last turn Fanny crashed and I managed to make it by without any trouble, but still ended up 3rd therefore ending my day. In the end once everything was over I was 15th. Not a bad showing for my first appearance at Freestyle World Championships. It’s now time to head back to the west coast for surgery on my thumb while my teammates head out to Blue Mountain (Collingwood, Ontario). Time for the team to light it up at home…. GOOOOO CANADA!