Championship Weekend I

Start house of a ski race

The weekend has finally come, the weekend that I have been working my butt off the entire season for. It is Championship weekend and I was confidently stoked because of how good the ski season had been going in the technical area (GS and Slalom).  It was about five thirty in the morning when I woke up to hop in the van and take a ten hour long road trip to Bachelor ski area in Bend, Oregon where the race was being held.  It was a long haul but the drive didn’t seem any worse than all of my other ski trips which were only about five or six hour road trips.  It did help that I slept half the way and that it was Championships!  This Championship was different than all of my other ones that I have attended in earlier years.  Instead of just my region  at the race the entire west coast was there including Alaska.  This meant more competition and also with more competition comes more stress, and pressure.

The team was staying at a hotel in Bend called “The Red Lion”.  It was a semi nice hotel with a terrible location and no where to eat but the restaurant that was smack dab in the middle of the parking lot.  In other words we ate at the same restaurant every single night we were there.  It was two to a room and I was so lucky to room with my close friend Shane that I have been skiing with my entire life basically and also our other ski friends two doors down.  Once we got there we took a dip in the pool and went straight to dinner.  It was a pretty mellow night, after our meeting we just went straight to bed to get prepared for the next day.

Next Day…

It was around six fifteen when I got up and threw on my long johns, sweats, and sweatshirt so I could load the van with my ski equipment and head over the the breakfast place.  I left the room a couple minutes later and Shane also did a couple minutes after me.  I sat eating breakfast and talking to new faces for about a half an hour until we had to jump in the vans and head off to the first day of racing.  The first event we were skiing in is a Super-G which is the fastest of all the events and in my mind one of the hardest due to the mental aspect you have to also bring to the table.  The drive was half an hour and I was asleep the majority of that half an hour with my headphones in my head on full blast.  I’m not really sure how I do it but I some how can fall asleep with rock blasting in my ears.

To Be Continued…

Unexpected Bro Trip III (continued 2)

Where I should have been (original)

Due to complications the day before we had two races that day.  Super-g is only a one run which makes it harder than all of the other tech events such as GS and Slalom that have two runs each.  I was relived to find that out because that meant that I had another crack at the course.  This time I am going to destroy it and win the run by a second and get back what I deserve, which was what I was telling myself riding up the lift to lap around and cheer on the girls on my team.

One Hour Later….

I sat at the start for a good hour before the boys were getting in the gate.  I was still bib number fourteen and was completely ready for the run.  I had my coaches crank down my dins (what determines how tight your binding is on your boot)  and I was stoked to get out of the gate.  Number one was in the gate and I started getting warmed up and peeled off all of my clothed downy to my trusty speed suit.  I brought my ski over to the pit to get clicked in and cheered on a couple of my older team mates coming out of the gate.  I was finally back in the gate ready to tear the course up!

The start gate worker started the famous phrase, Racer Ready? Ten Seconds…  Five.. Four.. Three I pull out with determination in my eyes and dropped back into my tuck once again.  I passed the first gate, the second, the third.  Bam!  I am on my ass sliding down the flats at the top.  My ski popped off again same foot and everything, I was fuming from the ears and I started hitting my poles on the ground in frustration.  I was so close to the start house that I decided to hike back to the start house.  I yelled at my coach because they did not get my bindings right again, then I stormed off to be alone and clear my head.  My ski season means everything to me and I can’t afford to be popping out of my skis for no apparent reason.

That concluded my disappointing race day and I was left to watch the people that I was planning to beat stand on the top of the podium.  I made my way down all of the cat tracks and runs and ended up at the upper lodge where we were having the awards.  I went inside to get out of my equipment and sat around talking to the other kids on my team about their race day.  The thing about ski racing is that it only takes one mistake to ruin an entire run and we (ski racers) spend so much tie perfecting the sport that it is so devastating to fall in a race scene.  A couple minutes later I had to stand around and watch people get medals.

During the awards my friend Shane surprised me with some great news.  He asked me out of no where if I wanted to go to California with him for the weekend.  How could I not deny such a request!  This lightened my mood and I was from then on stoked to get some sun on my pale white ski racer skin.

To Be Continued…..

Unexpected Bro Trip III

Super-G Jump

It was around 11:30 in the afternoon when I packed up all of my ski stuff to load it on the van with a destination of Bogus Basin.  It was my first Super-G race of the year and I was stoked to actually get some real speed and get my adrenaline pumpin'.  The drive was about five or six hours through flat, boring, cattle filled plains.  Our team took a grey hound bus there and it smelled like a porta-potty the entire way there.  All of the older kids on the bus were saying how badly put together the race was and how there is always course holds.  Despite some empty doubts I was still so excited to get on my skis in a town other than my own (Park City, Utah).

We finally arrived at the hotel after a couple naps, headaches, and a terrible stench in my nose the entire way.  The hotel was very spread out and big and I could already tell that it was going to be a pain in the butt to get to my room.  I picked up both of my pairs of skis and my backpacks and starting walking up to my room.  It was on the second story and as far away from the stairs I come up then any other room in the hall.  The upside was that the beds were so damn comfortable that I never really wanted to get out of them.  I was rooming with my buddies Shane, and Charlie who I have known for basically my whole life.  Once we got settled in we had to go buff out our skis for the next day and put on all the necessary wax to get our skis as fast as possible.

Next Day

Beep... Beep... Beep.. went our alarm at around 6:30 in the morning and we all groaned in unison.  I stayed in bed for another five minutes while Charlie and Shane went back to the waxing room to scrape their skis that they didn't finish the night before.  I finally got up and took a quick shower to get woken up and started throwing on my ski clothes so I could make breakfast in time.  I had fifteen minutes to get all of skis, poles, and backpacks in the van and get something in my stomach.  I ran out with two skis on my shoulder and a backpack hanging from my arm.  I threw everything into the van and sprinted to breakfast.  Got there with just enough time to sit down for a couple of minutes and eat a couple bites before I had to make my way back to the van.  I got to the van with two minutes to spare and shortness of breath.  Now I had to sit through an hour long, windy road up to the ski resort. I put in my headphone and closed my eyes...

About an Hour and a Half later

I opened my eyes and looked out the window to see what was supposed to be a ski resort.  There was barely any snow to cover the trails.  This took away all of my excitement for the race and I was all of a sudden in not so good of a mood.  Coming from a dry season in Park City right back to another resort with a snow shortage.  After emptying the vans I headed up to the lodge and put on my ski clothes and decided to make the best with what I have...

To Be Continued....

Jackson Hole

Corbet's Couloir (famous run)

Recently, I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for my frist ski race fo the year!  The race was originally supposed to be held in Park City (my home town) but we did not have enough snow on the race hill to host this race.  Which is why i had to travel to Jackson Hole.  I was very excited at this news because Jackson Hole is my favorite ski resort I have ever been to due to all of the challenging terrain and endless powder every time I go there.  It was around seen in the morning and I loaded up the ski gear and settled in for the long six hour long drive to the big Jackson Hole!

Due to my restlessness the drive felt like three days!  After a couple naps and a lot of junk food later I was at the parking lot of the Jackson Hole ski resort.  We had to train right as we got there so we had absolutely no time to unpack our clothes or anything just straight up to the slopes.  After entering the lodge I was flooded from memories from the races from the years before which raised my mood even more and got me pumped to get on my skis!

20 minutes later

I reached the top of the apres vous lift and saw the run that we were going to be racing on that weekend.  There was a couple other teams that were also training on that run at the time and we set our course right next to theirs.  The temperature was around ten degrees and we had to strip down into only our speed suits which was completely and utterly freezing (one of the down sides about ski racing).  After a few training runs we were packing up and heading to the hotel rooms to get unpacked and prep our skis for the upcoming race the next day.

12 hours later

It was around six fifteen in the morning when our alarm went off and my roommates and I (Shane and Charlie) struggled to get out of bed and get ready for the day before us.  We were supposed to go on an early morning run and warmup for the race but we decided that would nt be beneficial (we were wrong)….  Moping around slowly getting our ski clothes on eating as much food as we could fit in us before it was time to leave which was only in around half an hour at that time.  Of course we were the last kids out to the van and the only kids that didn’t go on the morning run so our coaches were not to happy with us at that time.  We hopped in the van and were on our way back to the legendary mountain for some real skiing and racing!

To Be Continued…..