I love the French Alps!

After training yesterday morning with the guys in Westendorf (near Kirchberg), we embarked on a long journey to FRANCE!! We arrived late last night in Courchevel after the 8-9 hour drive from Austria.  During the drive I read a book called "Room" by Emma Donoghue that Britt lent to me.  It was intense but helped pass a couple of hours! Also, I couple days ago I read the trilogy that starts with "The Hunger Games" that I thought were really good as well!! A really crazy concept dealing with the morals and politics between people of the "future" Earth....Obviously I'm into reading lately.  Now I started reading  "Reading Lolita in Tehran"....  I love reading, it's such an easy way to get transported into another person's story.

But, back to my story!!  When we finally arrived I had no clue where we really were since it was such a dark night, but I thought the CHristmas lights looked cool in the dark!

 When I woke up I saw the most unbelievable view from my window.  Hands down best view of the season!

 AND best patio!!!! Too bad we aren't participating in apres-ski!! But we lounged here all morning before going skiing.  I felt like I was at the beach!

 Christmas lights in the daytime...... hanging around like icicles.

 Eve!!! Reading on the deck!

 beautifully groomed runs right outside our door.....

 Best hotel of the year I think!!! The combination of separate beds, yummy food, yummy coffee, ski-in ski-out, sunshine on the deck and warm weather make "courcheneige" pretty unbeatable!

 Don't be messy with you skis!!!!

 fire starting on the deck....

 ahhhhh paradise!

 paradise calls for a pose!! ha.

Tomorrow we are competing in a Europa Cup here and then heading back to Austria for a few final days of training before WOrld Champs!!!  I thought the girls had a really good start today in the SG, so hopefully our team continues to carry that kind of momentum right until the last days of SLALOM!!!! yay!

Zwiesel is actually how you spell it.

So.... I don't have a lot to say about yesterday's race other than congrats to mitch and erin for pulling through and getting some really sweet results! 

I made second run and was going all out trying to break into top15-top10 overall but ended up cutting my line wayyyy tooooo tight and not finishing. Along with 11 other girls.  It was carnage on the slalom hill yesterday and whoever skied solidly got rewarded with great results.  I always try and tell myself to go all out or don't go at all, and yesterday was just one of those slalom days that didn't work out as well as I had hoped.

OK anyway, today the GS was cancelled so MP, Mitch and I went into Zweisel and checked out the town!

THIS PICTURE IS FOR SHONA!!!! We posed on this exact toy in the streets four years ago!  Time flies and I miss SHona!!!  You can see what she's up to on www.kumulife.blogspot.com 

 MP rode the horsey.

 MP et moi

 Bonjour!!

 Leiderhosen and Deirndl's for 20%off!!! What a SALE!! 

 mitch and her scarf being hippies.

 I decided to document some of the yummy food we eat when Marcel's amazing food isn't around!!

This is Hawaii-Toast!  Toast, ham, pineapple, melted cheese and euro-cranberry jam!

 This is a euro Club Sandwich!!! bacon-y.

 our favourite drink: apfelsaft gesprizt!  Apple juice in sparkling water. Amazing.

 cake!

 this thing looked amazing, but we were too full to try it in the end.

 Gelato!

 orange building!! (not for eating...ha)

 green barn building!!!

c'est tout!

Zweisel! slalom Race rescheduled for TOMORROW!

After an amazing week off at home, and then a couple days of training at our home-away-from-home in Kirchberg, we have finally arrived at our next world cup destination: Zweisel, Germany! And a pretty rainbow greeted us upon our arrival at the ski hill!

 sweeeeeet views above the clouds!

 like a sea of clouds.

 Enough with the clouds and views!! Time to TRAIN!

 happppppyyyyyyyy with my swagg that matches my moms!!! thanks MP!

 After a pretty good training session, we were all so excited to get back to the van!!!!

 erin mostly!

 Unfortunately, the weather is changing and some crazy clouds were already forming by the end of our training session....

 Over the race hill......... dark clouds rolling in.  The forecast is not promising for the next few days, they have already rescheduled the slalom for TOMORROW!!! GS is Saturday.

 But whatev!! no big deal we are ready to rip TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!

ahahahaha hehe ha ha van laughs .

we are becoming professional snowshoers... true story.

We braved the -30 weather on Monday and skied all over Tremblant! Other than the weather it was a perfect, sunny, completely un-crowded, hero-snow day!!  Best run of the day was Kandahar... Marco is the reigning winner on the Chamonix Kandahar, so it seemed fitting that it was our favourite run!

 mmmmmm birthday cake!

 We've continued our snowshoe training and hit up some crazy ice cliffs today!!

 I found a crazy ice-window and let it contort my face into funny expressions.....

 ha ha ha

 I had my face wedged between the ice and a huge rock. it was awesome.

 FREESTYLING snowshoeing!! off-roading, so hardcore!!

 made it to the lake! so i took a break from my aggressive snowshoeing and made an angel.

 Marco sat on his throne....

 And I tried to be cool but fell into a heap on the ground instead! almost.... almost.........

obviously I still need some more training to become the true snowshoer I know I have the potential to be.

Gonna hit up the gym tomorrow to work my glutes and hammy's for future snowshoe expeditions!

Quarter Century!

Yesterday I had my quarter century birthday! I can finally rent cars for cheaper!!!!And I got to celebrate up north with my parents and Marco over a yummy cornbread breakfast and a delicious raclette dinner!

Between delicious meals we ventured out into the -30 degrees Celsius weather...

 My jet-lag woke me up early so I went OUTSIDE where it was so cold that my fingers burned and my breath felt like frozen daggers in my throat, just to take this sunrise pic and draw a little diagram in the snow.

 beautiful bluebird frosty morning. 

 Snowshoeing with my dad leading the way.

 MARCO LOVES SNOWSHOEING! 

 FROSTY!!

 my mom GOT SWAGG!!!!! marco makes it look as though it's not actually -30.....

 we snowshoed up around Blueberry hill, one of my favourite places to go jogging in the summer!

 freshies!! haha.

Although its absolutely FREEZING, my californian man and I are venturing out to SKI today at Tremblant where it is currently below -30.  

I have totally become a fair-weather skier over the last few years, so today will be a test for both of us to see whether or not we can handle this weather! And yes, I just said weather 3 times.......