Pumpkins in California...

MY PUMPKIN IS SO INTENSE THAT IT ATE ANOTHER PUMPKIN...
I CALL THIS: THE CANNIBAL

The happy pumpkin should watch his back....  the pumpkin eater is on the prowl....

GOODBYE SOLDEN...

GOODBYE SOLDEN!

Not sure where we found the energy to do these poses... But they turned out kind of sweet!!!

We just had 2 intense days of slalom training down the main pitch of the Solden Race Hill.  Icy, steep breakovers are hard!!  But it was good to train with the Austrian girls, Veronica Zuzulova and Sarka Zarobska... (dunno if I spelled that right...) Training with some of the best in the world gives us a good idea about where we stand before the race in Levi.  I think we are in a good position!  If we all ski how we have been training good things will happen!

Triple down dog has become one of our favourite poses!! haha. thank you Whistler Yoga.

Triple down with a twist!!!

We are obviously not gymnasts...but its fun to try new things! ha.

Shadows and Silhouettes in front of the SOlden Race hill...

And finally, Mitch and Mulli doing a sweet jumping pic!! YEYA

We are off to one of our many home away from homes, the Movenpick Hotel in Munich.  We always end up there before flying anywhere... we are locals now..

Then Montreal tomorrow, California Friday!! And Levi, Finland on the 9th!

The craziness of the season is just around the corner! Yay!

Hopefully we have some smooth traveling and not too many overweight bags!

Hiking around Solden...

Hiking on our day off in Solden...

Mitch and I decided to go explore a little canyon trail that followed a little river up a little valley.  It was so beautiful, but upon our arrival at this pretty spot overlooking the turquoise glacier water tumbling over the rocks surrounded my bright green moss, I realized my good camera had no battery.

It was sad, but luckily Mitch brought her small camera!  In a way it was cool to have no camera and just enjoy the scenery in the moment and not worry about making it look cool in a picture.

We spend so much time in Solden every year and I always find that there is so much to explore around this valley that I don't usually have the time or the energy to check out.  Days off are perfect for seeing the hidden beauty that surrounds the town of Solden.

This is a picture of the old water trough system with the new plastic tube system.... times have changed!

Follow the austrian flags!  All the trails around are marked with the Red-white-red austrian symbol... in case we forget what country we are in??

And of course we had to do some poses... Mitch looking up towards the glaciers.

The forests here are so pretty.  A huge green carpet of moss covers the ground upon which perfectly straight trees that seem to be perfectly spaced out grow up towards the perfect blue sky.  haha it was a really nice day for hiking....

And a nice day for posing... or attempting to pose.  I think I need to work on my flexibility...

And a lonely red bench.  These benches are scattered around the various hiking trails!! Good for breaks!!

Anyway, we tracked down the boys after our hike and gave them all high fives for their awesome race!  I know that we (the girls team) are close to breaking through like the guys did yesterday.  It's just a matter of time!  Our slalom camp has started and so far so good.  Tomorrow we are supposed to ski on the GS race hill, so that should be interesting/challenging in a good way.  Shona got on a plane today and hopefully we will hear some good news when she gets back to her hood.

I am going to nap.

More from the RACE

More from Solden race day!

Shona in the lodge before the first run.  Unfortunately she took out a gate with her hand and now it might be broken.  We are keeping our fingers crossed hoping that it might just be a bad bruise.  She is on her way back to Canada and sadly, is missing our slalom camp.  It's down to Mitch, Brigitte and I. WE MISS SHONA. get well SOON.  Who am I going to youtube with all day??

That is Shona ripping it up in black and white with a potentially broken hand.  She deserves high fives for perseverance after slamming her hand at the top, but continuing to finish despite some serious pain!

Canada eh!  My sign getting slushy in the snow...

The process of Hosp being airlifted.... the heli rescue was impressive! They got her out of there within 5 minutes of her crash, and the girls at the start didn't have a clue about what was going on! They thought there was a gate being fixed!

MP and Mitch in the finish area. I was stalking them from afar.

The american girls!! Lookin good! sarah and jess in the finish area!

Yeah sarah! nice work being top 30!

Taking stalker pics of lonely skiers on the glacier...

Where its at!

That's all for race pics.  We have been watching the guys race this morning and JP killed it!! He is sitting in 7th!! can't wait to watch 2nd run!! Bourque and Robbie are in there too! Should be exciting.

Mitch, Brigitte and I are here until Wednesday for some slalom training!  It should be tres bon.

SOLDEN LADIES RACE

SOLDEN THE RACE.... in the eyes of a spectator...

Looked nice up there, especially the fresh tracks...!!

This did not look nice. Niki Hosp getting airlifted after a crash... get well soon!

Mitch attacking thought the Finish line!

My sweet sign!! It was on TV! the Euros didnt understand the pun, even after I tried to explain it. Oh well, at least I know what it means eh!

Stefania in her corner..... haha

Representing!!!

The new style of sunglasses = no sunglasses, just a lens!

early morning austrian alps...

aurevoir, goodbye, ciao, auf wiedersehen!

More from SOLDEN...

A couple ACTION SHOTS from around the hill this morning.

It's a little stormy but training was good!

Smiley girls!

Getting ready at the start!

Britt ripping!!! Action shot from the T-bar!

And of course a dance party in our MASSIVE van/bus.  It's hilariously enormous but Steph makes it RIP!

Sunny and Snowy in Solden and Pitztal

The weather finally settled down for a few days and the glaciers have been awesome! We just got 3 great days of Giant Slalom in the sun on Solden and Pitztal Glacier....  GS training has been really fun for me to get back into, and The Girls look ready to ROCK SOLDEN!! (Mitch, MP, Shona, Gen and Britt)

I can't wait to cheer them on! My poster idea is either

G'OH CANADA

or

CANADA: THE "EH" TEAM!

Either way, I am hoping to make the big screen with my sweet sign when the girls come through the finish line after RIPPING!!

Here are some scenic shots from the last few days.

Peeking through the snowy fence at the sunrise.  All the snow that accumulated last week during the storms!!

We woke up to a cloudy day at the hotel, but as we drove to the hill we emerged through the clouds into a beautiful sunny day!  It was Tres le amazing.

Looking down on the cloudy valley from midway through our GS course.

The clouds eventually melted away and the sun shone over the whole valley of Solden.

Pitztal this morning, red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.... hmmm.... hope that isn't a sign.  Although the rumour is that the  föhn (german for Chinook) is approaching...

And finally, looking down from the Pitztal glacier in the early morning. All the different team's courses fill the whole run.... it gets crazy!! Especially trying to load the train in the morning.  Talk about can of sardines type packing of human beings in a train....

Anyway, we are back in Solden and have 2 more days of training before the RACE.   I am going onto my 4th day in a row (a record for the last few years) of GS training!  So far so good, but I can't wait to get back on the short skis and start hitting some gates!!!

A la prochaine...

INDOOR SKIING and BERLIN!!!!

After too many days of hanging out in the basement Gym without skiing...

And lots of playing in the snow, but no skiing....

Brigitte, Mark, Martin and myself headed on a little roadtrip to go indoor skiing in Hamburg, Germany.  After 9 hours in the car we finally arrived at this box-like building where the hotel, food and skiing were all in the same complex!! we never had to leave!

We joined the europa cup girls on the icy hill the same night we arrived for our first session of ICY SLALOM!

The snow was SUPER ICY and I loved it!! Skiing on ice is my favourite thing!  We got 4 sessions of 2 hours over 2 days and I feel like we accomplished a lot!  Even though skiing indoors isn't the most inspiring place to be, the training was awesome, and apparently Solden was still horrible.  I'm really happy we had the chance to train on sheer ice since most of the World Cups are similar conditions, minus the roof.

About an hour into the drive back to Solden, Mark suggested that Brigitte and I just stay in Berlin overnight.  It sounded crazy since we did not know ANYTHING about Berlin, but we jumped at the chance to see a new city and embarked on a new adventure!!! I called my dad as we approached town (since he has spent a lot of time in Berlin) and he gave us some ideas and directions and OFF WE WENT!  First stop: Checkpoint Charlie.

Checkpoint Charlie was the name given to one of the most well know Berlin Wall crossing points between West Germany and East Germany during the cold war. (thank you wikipedia....)

posers at the checkpoint... I guess you can pay them a euro and have your picture taken!

From checkpoint Charlie we headed towards Potsdamer Platz where we were staying.

This was one of the amazing sights along the way!! Brigitte and all her bags.... we were bag ladies for the day...

Me and the big L....

 This was a little church along the way.

Once we checked into our hotel we IMMEDIATELY went back into Potsdammer Platz to shop for some nicer clothes so that we would be able to get into a decent restaurant for dinner.  We arrived in Berlin with only sweats and tshirts with us since NOTHING was planned before-hand. So here are our amazing Berlin Outfits!! Thank you H & M...

What to do with brand new crazy outfits: naturally.

The streets of Berlin.... crazy.

Part of the old Berlin Wall on our way to check out the Brandenburg Gate.

We walked (and posed) through the Tiergarten on our way to Brandenburg Gate.... this was our best pose of many... ha. we love posing.  Back in our non german sweats and sweatshirts outfits!!

More pretty tiergarten sites... (other than us of course....)

ZEE BRANDENBURG GATE.

Our favourite streets to cruise....

And sadly, the crazy cool Berlin Train station.  Prepping for our 9 hour journey back to Austria and to the alps.

A minute of entertainment during the 9 hours of train riding home...

All in all, that was a sweet 4 day excursion.  Awesome training and crazy touristing in Berlin are definitely highlights of my trip so far!!!  Berlin was so much fun even though we only had about 20 hours to get everything in!  It's really cool when the coaches let us go off on our own to explore parts of Europe during the busy season.  We usually end up driving past cool cities, but we lucked out this time and I will never forget my crazy quick trip to Berlin with Bri!

Today we skied in the SUN!!! it was nice to finally feel the sun on our faces since it has been so stormy lately.

Tomorrow we are heading to Pitztal Glacier to ski on some steeper terrain!! Should be fuN! And hopefully SUNNY!!