My Austrian Christmas...

Christmas in Kirchberg!!

Marco visited our "canadian" home-base in Kirchberg for Christmas!! Despite the super foggy weather yesterday on Christmas Eve, we decided to head up Kitzbuhel and check out the Hannenkamm-Rennen, and some of the other ski areas that are all connected.

 This is marco expressing how AMAZED and perplexed and ASTONISHED he is by the heated seats on the chairlifts in Kitzbuhel!!!!! Truly amazing.

 Unfortunately it wasn't the most beautiful day, but we still put in a solid 4 hours of exploring and skiing and mountain-hut-visiting!

 We checked out the start of the race!

 SCARY!! Especially when you can't see anything!

 And then we found one of 50 mountain huts on the hill!! It was a good lunch stop with some tomaten-suppe and some apfel strudel.  YUMMY

After four hours of skiing, we came back to the Canadian Hotel in Kirchberg and chilled with the rest of the girls over a PUZZEL!

 It is surprisingly addictive!!!

 Marco super focused in the corner!

 After some very entertaining puzzling times, Marcel, our amazing chef, brought out a HUGE turkey and carved it up for Christmas dinner!!!

 Before.... looks sooo tasty!!

 after....mmmm so fulll but so delicious!! haha

 To help digestion, we went on an evening stroll around Kirchberg!! Here's the river with a looooong exposure!

We woke up this morning (christmas morning) to another not-so-beautiful day and our training was cancelled due to terrible snow conditions!! 

SO WHAT BETTER TO DO THAN RODEL???

EXtreme Rodelling in Kirchberg!!

 READY TO RODEL!

 The Canadian Rodelling Team. (with an american cheerleader)

 It's hard to capture how ridiculous this sport is, but picture flying down a mountain on an old-school sled with no steering!!! While passing people and negotiating sharp turns!!!!

 It was really fun!!!!!!!  I think Eve was CARVING this turn!!!

 And then my rodel went for a swim in the creek.....

It's been an amazing Christmas thanks to the girls, Marcel's cooking and Marco visiting!!

Back to work tomorrow!! NExt race is only four days away!!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

Spending the holidays in Kirchberg with the girls and Marco!  Today Marco and I are planning on heading up Kitzbuhel to check out the Hannenkam and the famous Streif.  And later we are all going to decorate a Christmas tree!!!  We also planned a "dress party" for tonight!

I never blogged after Courchevel due to lack of internet and time, but I straddled!! Something that's super common in slalom... The speed was there and I was going for it, it's just a matter of time until it all comes together.

Happy Holidays to everybody!!! Hope you enjoy our funny photoshoot card!!!!

 Mitch, Eve, Erin and I got Christmas inspired in Courchevel!

Courchevel!

Today we free skied on the race hill in Courcheval!

This is what it looks like right before they "open" the free-skiing!  ALl the girls crowding around trying to get down FIRST!

 We were chilling at the back of the line....

 After a good free-ski and short training session, we headed down the mountain for an afternoon volleyball session with the americans!!

Me, Mitch and Resi played around on the poma-horse thing...

And then we played USA vs. Canada volleyball and we lost... again.  (I think they train for these games in the summer....competitive edge!!)

 And this picture turned out cool! Eve and Erin JUMPING.

When we left the gym it was already dark out and a full moon was shining just above the mountains!!!

 And so we posed!!!!!! Eve and I!

 It was so pretty, I took these with my small panasonic camera and they turned out pretty cool!

ANyway the raee is TOMORROW! I am number 27! yeehaw!

Kirchberg, Austria- Taufers, Italy-Courchevel, France.

A couple of NON INTERNET days have passed and now that I'm back in INTERNET-LAND (aka courchevel, France) it's time to upload some pics!!!

The day before we left Kirchberg the sun was shining n that far peak and a storm was brewing! This is the view from our start!

 Britt's got moves!  she's leaving her mark on the freshly groomed carpet snow. 

 I WILL do this at some point this winter!!! hahaha

 These are the slightly hilarious and ridiculous rules.... grammar and spelling are optional.

 Britt warming up with a sweet backdrop...

 We went to Italy for a race!!!!! First run went well, second run DNF (did not finish).... but the attacking and the effort were there!!!  We were actually in Jeff Frisch's hometown and home hill Spiekboden!!
And I ran into his sister and his dad!! SUch a small world!  :)

 Another start in a different country with a whole different backdrop.

Travelling is cool!

ANyway....

Now we're in Courchevel for a World Cup race on Tuesday!  It's a really cool chic town up in the french mountains!! Kind of like the Aspen of Europe, women clad in fur are EVERYWHERE!

Tomorrow we get to free-ski on the race hill and hopefully check out some of this beautiful mountain!! 

A bientot!

Life in the Berg of Kirch (Church Mountain?)

We're back training on the "Gaisberg" in Kirchberg!

It's been pretty chilly over the last two days, so there have been moments like this: where we are all huddled around the little fire in the lodge!

 :)

 strike a pose!

 ICY icicles........looming over Kirchberg

 And our start! 

 I had to warm my ruined-by-nakiska feet.... I was pretty much in the fire along with my boots trying to thaw my toes.

looking up at the roof of the Gaisberg-stubl (the name of the lodge)

EVEN Jenny was cold!!! mmmmmm coffeeeeeeee

And then, after skiing and some afternoon yoga, Erin and I made DINKEL BROT!! a.k.a. spelt bread!

With only a few ingredients!!

Spelt Flour (as much as needed for the perfect texture), 500ml warm water, tbsp of salt, 2 tbsp of olive oil, tbsp of Yeast, 1/2 tbsp of sugar, and some olives combined with AGGRESSIVE KNEADING! sooo delicious and totally worth the bicep workout!

Thanks to Marcel's teaching and patience!! Delicious loaves we're had by all.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm i love bread.

KIRCHBERG! the beginning.....

We arrived in Europe 2 days ago but our bags did NOT.

It's slightly frustrating not to have any clothes, let alone any clothes to SKI in, and despite having carried our boots onto the airplane (which makes our carry-on's weigh A MILLION POUNDS...) we still could not ski since 3/4 of us had no gear.

So, keeping up with the Christmas spirit, Eve, Britt and I hit town yesterday in our beautiful XL Lufthansa exclusive white t-shirts,  and bought a do-it-yourself Christmas Village!

 While Erin was skiing and Britt was drinking coffee and nursing her forever damaged thumbs, Eve and I got some glue and built this beautiful MASTERPIECE! We are super proud of it!!! haha!  And it was an amazing way to kill some time and forget that we were wearing ugly t-shirts and had no clean clothes!

Our bags did eventually arrive, and today we headed over to Maria-Alm and skied at Hinterreit with the Americans!  It felt good to get back on skis and feel some ICE under my feet!

 North America/Austria.  Here's what the training hill looks like with a north american course beside an austrian course!  Good times.  It's actually a decently steep and icy pitch, although it's hard to tell from this picture.

 Tim was teaching us something!  And I was posing! haha.  too cool for school!

Just joking, he was actually drawing some crazy map and we were all confused.

At one point I was like, I'm gonna take a picture of one of the Austrians, as my camera was pointed up the hill at one of the racer girls, but Jay or Tim (both SO "HILARIOUS"....) we're like "there's one right in front of you!!!" pointing at my technician Martin.

ha.

So, here's an Austrian mountain in maria-alm, and an Austrian human from maria alm.

such crazy amazing connections.

 Anyway, that's enough blabbing for now....

The day ended after a successful and funny-at-times training session! Here are my skis!  GO HEAD!

and my teammates! GO TEAM!

The coaches ICED Kirchberg so it should be nice and ICY for some more training tomorrow!