Unexpected Bro Trip III (continued)

What I looked like right after my ski popped off

The lodge was nothing extraordinary, it had a lower level with food and a seating area and the same thing on the upper level.  We (my ski team) started putting on our ski stuff on and grabbed some breakfast burritos for the lift.  I was one of the last people to get on the hill because I take my time getting ready.  Who am I kidding, I am just overall slow at starting my day.  Once the process of getting ready was over I grabbed my pack and started my way up the lift.

15 Minutes Later…

After the ride up the chairlift and a ten minute cat track (a flat road used to get around a ski mountain) I had finally made it to the next chair lift which was what took me to the top of the race hill.  When I was sitting on the padded seat of the chairlift I was thinking to myself if I was still capable of winning a speed race.  I was at that time the younger generation of the U16’s I was fourteen while most everyone else was fifteen.  A majority of them had four inches and most likely twenty to thirty pounds on me.  After that thought passed through my head it dropped my confidence a little bit which is a grave mistake in ski racing.  I was then nearing the top of the lift with hesitation on my mental.

Left, right, left, right, delay, left right, jump, this was me memorizing the course.  Ski racers do this so they know exactly what is coming at them and to be ready for anything the hill throws at them.  It also helps me keep my head clear and focused because if I am not thinking about the course then I am usually getting side tracked or goofing off with my friends.  So it helps me mentally and physically in the sport.  The boy were running first today and i was bib fourteen so I had to lap around quick to get warmed up and strip down to my speed suit (the women usually run first in ski racing but this wasn’t the case today).

What a tuck looks like

Racer Ready? Ten seconds…. Five, Four, Three out I go from the start gate.  I drop straight into my tuck to gain some speed before the first pitch (a tuck is when you get low to the ground and put your elbows in-between your knees to stay aerodynamic.  A couple seconds later I was making turns down the pitch.  Left, right, Outside ski pressure! I told myself every turn.  Here comes the money gate (money gate is the most important gate in the course).  I started rolling my ski up onto edge and put all of my body weight on my outside ski.  A couple tenths later I hit a giant hole and my ski popped off.  I was going around fifty miles an hour and I was holding on for dear life so I wouldn’t go into the safety netting that lines the side of the runs.  It is supposed to keep you safe but sometimes I wonder if hitting a tree would hurt less than hitting the safety netting.  Thankfully I stayed on my feet and safely came to stop with anger in my veins.  I let out a f-bomb that all of the spectators could hear.  Once I cooled down a little a went down to my coach to tell him how much BS it is that my ski is popping off under those circumstances.

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 III

I was laying on the ground next to a couple of my other ski racer friends listening to some music to pump me up before my start.  Everyone around me was singing along and having a great time.  Number forty was in the start gate and I was getting stoked to send it!!  I stripped down to my speed suit from all of my warm up clothes that I had on.  I boot skied down to the start to cheer on some of my team mates before my run.  Scottie was in the gate “Go Scooch!!” all of us yelled as he pulled out of the start.  This went on for around ten more racers until I had to go click in for my run.

Thump Thump went my boots as my coach Cam knocked the snow off of the bottoms of them.  Cam said to me, “Alright Ben when you pull out of the start gate you want to put your foot in the groove and ride it out.  The track is getting a little sketchy and the ruts are deep.  All you got to do is ski athletically and do what you do.  Have fun Ben Good luck.”  I told him thanks and slid down to the beginning of the start gate.  There was around five racers in front of me so I was going through the course in my head trying to remember where I need to nail the course.

Before I knew I was in the start gate with the gate keep saying, “Racer Ready? Go!”  I pulled as hard as I could out of the gate towards the first gate.  The visibility was terrible and I could barely see seven gates in front of me.  Not only that but the ruts in the course were so deep I was basically jumping to each turn.  I was around half way down the course and I got flung from a rut to one side and ended up skiing backwards for five feet or so and managed to make the gate and turn my skis back around.  The best part about this run for me was not the quality of my skiing but how much fun I was having going down the course.  It was on of the most thrilling courses that I have ever skied so thrilling I was laughing through part of it and if you know me you know that is not usual for a ski race.

Jackson Hole II

Jackson Hole Tram

Click.. Click… go my skis as I push towards to first lift to get up near the race course.  Everyone is treating this race as a sort of training race so to speak so all of the racers are having a lot of fun in the lift line.  My friend had his speaker in his backpack playing some pump up music all of the people were hootin’ and hollerin’.  The lift ride was around five minutes long which led us to another lift which was about the same.  Like I said in the earlier post right as I got off of the chairlift I saw the run that we were racing on that I know so well.  Seeing the start gate and all of the officials and coaches gave me the jitters but not the scared jitters more of the excited jitters.  Everyone took one or two inspections and then they were left with a couple hours of free time while the hill was prepped.  I bet you can guess what I am going to go do, yah that right go ski the fresh foot of powder that fell the night before for us.

Aydon, Trey, Cassidy and I (ski racer friends) walked up to the tram which always has powder full fun all the way down no matter what.  Although we were all stoked we had to stop at the notorious waffle shack at the top of the tram.  After a quick pit stop we were off shredding down, face shot after face shot and cliff after cliff having the time of our lives.  One thing that I really like about the tram is that after you finish one amazing run it leads down the cat track to another assortment of terrain to choose from.  At the end of a tram lap you have skied at least four or five runs all together and you have that sweet burn deep inside of your legs.  That is what I feel skiing should be like, whatever you want right in front of you and endless fun to experience.

Once the exhilaration and excitement left our bodies we realized that we had to go race!  Jumped on the two four seater chairlifts and got in the mental zone for our runs that have yet to come.  Although this race did not have a lot on the line I still like to practice getting in the right state of mind before a race run.  It was only half an hour away and the energy in the start gate was unreal…

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…..

Bro Trip II

Shane Carlos and I (original)

My dad had just recently bought a place in the one and only Solana Beach, California and wanted me to come down to the beach with him and bring along a friend.  Since my other friend Shane already was going to Solana that weekend (to his house that I visited a couple months before and wrote about in my second blog post) I brought my other very close friend named Carlos.  We have known each other since sixth grade due to mutual friends and sports and have spent a lot of time together since then.  I asked him at the very last minute to come to California with me and to my surprise his parents allowed him to accompany me on “Bro” Trip number two!

Half of Park City, Utah seemed to be around our whereabouts when we were in Cali.  Shane, Livi, Cameron, Raeah, Lance, and Finn were all in about a 2 hour drive to us.  So maybe I exaggerated a little bit not half of Park City but six of our friends were near us.  This added some excitement to the trip because if we didn’t find any girls or friends that I met from the trip before we could hang out with some of the Park City kids that were also visiting Cali.  We hopped on the plane the next day and flew for about two hours and landed only about 15 minutes outside of Solana.

We then found ourselves fifteen minutes later right on the beach in a very cool condo and within walking distance of my other close friend.  Carlos and I immediately put our swim trunks on and went for a short swim in the ocean.  It was very refreshing to get back into the ocean after being away from it for so long.  Although it was revitalizing it tired both of us out so we walked over to the famous local burrito shop named Robertos.  To our surprise we found Shane there with his two younger sisters.  Although we were both planning on seeing each other there it was out of complete chance that we saw him at that time.  We then made plans with shane for the night and went back to the house to shower and go to they gym (which we never actually got around to).  The night ended up to be a bust and we just stayed at shames neighbors house and watched a movie bu the next day was going to be full of adventure.

We woke up around 8 o’clock that next morning and felt compelled to go jump into the ocean for a couple of hours.  Equipped with boogie boards and skim boards we marched down to the beach for some fun.  Carlos and I are both not very educated in the ocean area and we ended up floating out in a rip tide.  Being blind from what was happening for around an hour we realized we were very far out and couldn't get back in.  I knew some about this and starting swimming diagonally out of the rip tide which thankfully got me back onto shore.  Although I was back on the beach Carlos was stuck out there for another good half an hour and we got it all on film!!  This trip was short lived but filled with fun and adrenaline!

Turning Point III

Super-G Fall

The big run was only an hour away.  I was taking laps on Eagle inspecting my course for the next run.  The course seemed like a great set but there was one slight problem.  First of all I had the jitters and second, the weather was getting very hot and was melting the snow making it very soft and this could cause some big ruts.  This started to get into my head and I kept thinking more and more about what would happen if I were to fall.  I decided to take my mind away from my run by taking some runs on my own just free skiing; this seemed to do the trick because my mind was cleared and my confidence was back.

Only minutes before the run I am taking off my warm up pants and jacket getting ready to jump into the start gate.  I am in the pit getting the snow clicked off the bottom of my boots so my ski doesn’t eject while I am going down the hill.  All that I am thinking to myself is,”I am going to win, I am going to win.”  I was more nervous than all of my other runs which worried me but I shook it off and skied down to the start.  Ten more racers ahead of me getting ready for their chance at the win and I looked at them all deciding their fate.  Three racers ahead of me didn't finish it worried me and my coach also gave me the heads up that the snow was really soft and easy to loose edging on.  All of my observations were getting into my head and taking my mind off of what I actually was supposed to do.

I got into the gate my mind was wandering, I was thinking all of the wrong thoughts at the absolute wrong time.  “Racer Ready?” said the gate keeper, “3… 2… 1… GO!”  I pushed out of the gate as hard as I could trying to build up as much speed as possible for the first gate.  I was around 5 or 6 gates in and the snow under my ski gave and I leaned in; my butt was on the ground and I was sliding out of the course to wrap up my first loss for that race.  I was very disappointed and was hitting my poles on the ground on the side of the run.  Well you can’t win em all can ya.