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To the New Year

After a week of resting and recovering (e.g. skiing) in Whistler for the holidays I am now back on the road for the next month and a half. My break was quick, as it always is, but better than nothing! After the races in St.

After a week of resting and recovering (e.g. skiing) in Whistler for the holidays I am now back on the road for the next month and a half. My break was quick, as it always is, but better than nothing!

After the races in St. Anton late December I returned from Europe to spend a few days in Collingwood, then traveled out to Whistler on Christmas Day. It was so great to come home for Christmas and to be able to do a little skiing… and on my fat skis!

When my teammates and I are away on the road racing we really don’t get much time to go skiing just for fun. It’s important to go out freeskiing — I didn’t start racing at the age of two, after all, I started skiing. Racing is an added bonus that came along later. For me, and for many of my teammates, it is still about freeskiing!

Thankfully it snowed a little while I was home and I got to make good use of my new fat skis in the powder. I also took the opportunity to go out and make some turns down the newly completed women’s downhill track. The next time I’m back in Whistler it will be for the World Cup events in February, so this was my last chance to freeski the hill and look at things before we make our first training runs.

I took my super G skis up a few early mornings and had a good look at the terrain while skiing it at a fairly decent speed. Shh! — don’t tell the speed control crew about that!

The hill looks awesome, and I am very excited to get back here in February for the World Cup. The hill is going to look great when the gates and safety fencing are in place.

Over the holidays some of my teammates were over in Europe for a few World Cup events. I usually stay for the women’s events but decided this year that a Christmas at home was needed. The men were racing in Bormio, Italy and the women in Lienz, Austria. Some of you may have heard the results because one of the guys stepped onto the podium in downhill, and two others skied into the top 10. I guess that means the guys are now one podium closer to the girls.

Also, in the giant slalom and slalom in Austria, Anna Goodman earned her first World Cup points in the slalom. In the giant slalom race Christina Lustenberger didn’t finish in the first run and Denise Karbon of Italy won the race, making it her third straight GS victory of the season. Denise has been a good friend of mine on the circuit, we are the same age, and she has also been through some tough injuries — and she is a very nice girl! Seeing her come through everything and to now be dominating in her event is just amazing to watch. Nice girls finish first!

This coming weekend Emily Brydon and I will be joining the tech team to start in a giant slalom race in the Czech Republic. Both Emily and I have over 400 World Cup points which means that we can start after the top 30. I am really excited to put my GS skis on for a little bit — I’m with the speed team now but it is still one of my favorite events. I started the giant slalom race back in Panorama in November with bib 64 and I said to myself that the next time I started a GS it would be with 400 points so that I wouldn’t have to start in the 60s again! I did enough of that when I was 20. And here I am!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve. I really enjoyed being in Whistler for New Year’s, which was a first in many years. As many Whistler locals know, it’s all about staying away from the busy village and sharing the night with close friends and family. Being at home for the holidays this year I was reminded of just how busy and crazy Whistler gets — but I was also reminded of how tight the community is and how it is one of the best ski towns in the world.