Welcome back to a new World Cup, and World Championship season.
Every year I wonder how the summer goes by so quickly, because sooner than you
know it the new winter season is upon us again. Maybe we just have too much fun
in the summertime but then again I have a pretty good time in the winter too!
Anyways, I am definitely not complaining that the new winter season is here.
This past summer has definitely been a busy one. From dryland
training camps in Calgary and Mont Tremblant to ski camps down in Chile our
off-season has been jam-packed. And, somewhere in that time we found some room
for friends and family.
Dryland training started way back in May with our first camp in
Calgary, which included the dreaded physical testing. Okay, well maybe not so
dreaded but it’s always a little hard to do your tests after you have just had
three to four weeks off. We trained eight weeks hard in the gym to build and
prepare for the new season, which brought us to our first on snow camp in Chile.
This summer I was training with the women’s national speed
team, whereas in the past I have been with the technical team. Our first camp
was two weeks long in Valle Nevado, Chile, while the tech team traveled to
Ushuia in Argentina, on the southernmost tip of the country.
The camp in Chile was great, we had good conditions, we skied
every day and definitely accomplished a lot. While I was there I was also
testing new equipment. I have been on Salomon for my whole career and it was
time for a change. By the end of the camp I had made my decision, based on
timed runs in the course, and this season you will see me on Lange boots and
Völkl skis.
I think it is very important to take time when you are testing
new equipment and making your decision. It was good to have two full weeks to
really go through the process and at the end I was 100 per cent confident with
my choice. At this level your equipment plays a very big part in the whole
picture of things. You need to trust and have full confidence in the equipment
that’s on your feet when you are going 120 kilometres an hour downhill.
Our second on-snow camp this summer was also in Chile but this
time it was three weeks and we were in La Parva and Portillo. It was my first
visit to either place and both are great ski areas. We did some South America
Cup races in La Parva where we all placed well. It also increased the intensity
in our training and we started to push each other some more.
The men’s team was also in Portillo during our stay there, so
we were able to train with them in downhill and super G. We even got a little
close to some of the guys — we pushed them and they pushed us to go
faster!
After the second camp in Chile we came home for three weeks and
now we are back in Europe. Soon we will be back in the start gate for the first
World Cup giant slalom races in Solden on Oct. 28.
We came here early hoping to get onto the race run for a couple
of days but right now there isn’t enough snow.
I am sure everything will be fine and in a little over one
week’s time we will be starting the 2006-07 season.
Things are looking great for the team, so I encourage you to keep reading and watching for our results. And let the snow fall.
