GS Debut!

GS NORAMS!!

My first Giant Slalom race in almost 2 years!! It was fun! I started 62nd and ended up 11th! It felt good to be back on long skis and having a mellow race where I knew I would improve no matter what.

Here's a view from the chair of ASPEN!

There is barely any snow on the ground, but some hardcore skiers scoped out this "pow" anyway!

MP WON the race by a LOT!!! NICE WORK! she won both runs! impressive!

This could be a team motto??? haha

Mad arcing skillz. He knows what's up

And to finish the day on an even better note, Brigitte, Meg and I went for Brigitte's BIRTHDAY dinner with her parents! The big 24... Almost at a quarter century!!!
 P.S. It was an amazing meal at Elevation in Aspen.

The 3 of us at dinner!! 3 Blondes who know how to have fun!!!

Thanks again Gord!!

Tomorrow is the last Giant Slalom race of this series and since I did well today, I start 14 tomorrow!!! I pretty much improved my bib by 50! ha!  Good old nor-am points! Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well as today!
Bonne Nuit!

ASPEN!

Today was race day!

There were tons of canadians in Aspen cheering us on.  It's a fun place to catch up with tons of people who are part of the ski community and feel like we are close to home!

Brigitte's parents and friends were around so she was happily greeting them!! Meg and MP had my super zoom lens in the stands and were stalking her. ha.   Unfortunately Brigitte went out in the first run, but after Levi 2 weeks ago, I know that if we all finished good runs we would have a solid Canadian showing for second runs.

I waved to Meg and MP in the stands after first run!! I was sitting in 11th!

It was Britt Phelan's first world cup and she put down a pretty awesome run, just short of qualifying in 33rd place. So close!!!

And it was also Erin's first world cup ever and she totally attacked and qualified for 2nd run! Amazing!

Everyone was super stoked for her!! There she is smiling at Kevin and I am smiling at her, and Zoe is smiling with all of us!. Smiley smiley smiles after 1st run....

After second run I decided to try to do the "robot" in the finish.... Stef (our physio) was making me practice the "mr. roboto" dance at the start.... and I am still having issues trying to perfect it... maybe next race!

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with 13th, although it is one position short of the Olympic Criteria (top 12).
The guys SLAYED today in Lake Louise! Awesome for Manny, Robbie, Erik, Bourque and Jan all getting points and dominating as a nation.  Sadly Johnny is out for the season with a broken leg.  I am sending healing vibes his way for a quick recovery.
 BUT, in happier news, I'm pumped that Marco and I both made the front page of standings today!   I guess Benni Raich and Marlies Schild beat us as a couple today....but we are getting closer!! haha!

We are staying here in Aspen for 2 GS norams (my first GS races in more than a YEAR!!!!) And then off to LOveland, Colorado for 2 Slalom norams.  Should be some good opportunities to work on having 2 fast and consistent runs.

more baggage drama....

Not too much to blog about today since I totally spaced and FORGOT to bring my camera to the hill. BUT a HUGE congrats to MPP (marie-pier prefontaine) and her first world cup points!! She attacked her way down the ICY slopes of aspen and finally broke into the top 30. YAY!

In older news, I have some of the amazing baggage pictures that delayed Brigitte and I from getting to Aspen by a day. Here's what we had to deal with:

These are the bags that Brigitte, Martin and I lugged off the baggage belt, onto carts, and down 2 stories.  not fun.

Dilly-dallying after all the hard work and enjoying the view from the parking lot....

Being "one" with the baggage. Embracing the moment...
We bonded.

Anyway, race is tomorrow! woo

NOT IN ASPEN YET... In CALGARY with 30 bags...

The crazy Chinook (FOHN in german) cloud rolling into Calgary yesterday as we approached the city...

I couldn't quite capture the epicness of this cloud, but it was DAUNTING!!

A huge dark blanket-like cloud covering the city.

.....warm weather coming in.

TO distract ourselves from the crazy FOHN Chinook cloud, a bunch of us headed out for a nice dinner before leaving the country.... or so we thought...

Me, Chemmy, Larisa, Em, and Bri at a cool spot on 4th Street in Cowtown.

Em, Brigitte and Ingrid posing with the sweet art.

Me and the CHAIR. lonely.

sweet! I have friends!!

MOTORBOAT!!! (when you blow air through your lips and they flap in a funny way...??? and then you take a really ugly picture of it....?)

After the fun of last night, we had to pack up around 50 bags this morning and attempt to check in to our Denver flight.

Apparently the plane was too small for 20 ski bags and 30 duffel bags.  Therefore, Brigitte, Craig, Jay, Martin and I had to stay behind with the bulk of the baggage (30 bags) and let the GS racer girls head to Aspen while we wait in Calgary for another day to re-check everything tomorrow.  Hopefully it works out tomorrow and we will be in Aspen where we belong!!!  No worries though since training only really starts Saturday after the GS race.

GOOD NIGHT!! Gotta get up at 4, so signing off early!

BEAUTIFUL CRAZY COLOURFUL MORNING!

Checked out beautiful Lake Louise yesterday!

But got back on snow in Nakiska EARLY this morning!! And the clouds were going CRAZY!!!

Sunrise plus clouds made for an amazingly colourful morning!

The pic below is blurry, but it gives and idea of how WINDY it was!!! Clouds were flying by, snow was making little snow tornadoes all over the hill! it was cool!

Speed girls early dark inspection!

a gate.

cool clearing in the clouds on the top right hand corner!

from the new GOLD CHAIR! ha

And the first rays of sunshine hitting one of the opposite peaks.

Another amazing morning in Nakiska and good training!
Now off to ASPEN tomorrow!!
BUt first, sushi dinner with the Ladies!! Brigitte and I are going to meet up with our speed ladies Larisa and Em.... should be entertaining!!

Training in NAKISKA!

We arrived in Nakiska last night and found that MANY other teams are already here! The Swiss, Norwegians, some Swedes, some Croatians and some Slovenians...  It was a busy morning on the hill, but with the new high speed quad, everything ran quickly and smoothly!

The snowguns were blasting air and water so crazily that it made snow.

And we were up on the chairlift before the sunshine.

This picture is cool.  You can see the wind blowing the snow off the mountain as the girls warm up.

THe sun finally came out and we were ready to go!! Slalom in the Morning, GS in the later morning...

Once I got back to the hotel, I jumped on a bike and spun for half and hour to get rid of the lactic-acid build up in my legs.

Baking Spelt Bread on our day off...

Today Brigitte and I had a day off, so naturally, we decided to bake some spelt bread!  Marcel cooks everything organic and uses spelt flour instead of normal flour, its healthier and it tastes really good!

MARCEL'S SPELT BREAD RECIPE:

• Add 2 cups of luke-warm water.
• 1 heaping tbsp of salt
• 1 tsp. sugar

• 1 1/2 tbsp Yeast

• 1 tbsp of oil

• A handful of flax seed (or anything for extra taste,Brigitte added sundried tomato instead)...

• Mix it all up a bit with a CLAW HAND!

• ADD FLOUR.  Approx 3-4 cups, but add slowly until the texture is not too sticky, but not too dry.  
• KNEAD KNEAD KNEAD.  Dig your palm in, scrunch your fingers in, repeat.

• Once you have the perfect textured dough, cut it into 2 or 3 parts and roll into "Titties" (interesting expression for the right sized dough ball).  We had the dough on the cutting board and made circular motions with our hands on top of it to roll it into the ball-like form. (confusing to try to explain, but simple in real life...)

• VOILA!  Place the dough on the cookie sheet with some flour underneath to avoid sticking.  
• Place in a warm-ish area with a tea towel on top of the dough-balls until they rise. (1 hour-ish)

• CLEAN up the dishes!!!

• Bake at 475 for about half an hour, or until done.

******WARNING*******
do not put too much flour on the cookie sheet while baking... IT BURNS.... Anne-marie Lefrancois kindly notified me about this hazard after she baked the bread.  BUT she said it was GOOD... so there.

THERE IT IS! The amazing spelt recipe!  Yum yum yummy.

Days off can be slightly boring, but with Marcel's help, we were entertained all morning!! THANKS!