The Last Supper

Until Next time....

Today was officially our last day on snow. The athletes have been busy packing after enjoying their last supper here in El Colorado. Christen cooked up another mean BBQ (beef ribs, chicken, wings, steak and pork loin). Joey toasted the group to a great camp and upcoming season.

We had a U16 Showdown with SkiBec and Estrie on one of the training lanes we had 5 different Slalom type courses setup. A dual on the top section, 2x 35 second SL courses (1 with timing and 1 with a lot of combinations) as well at the bottom of the run we had setup a stubby slalom corridor. There were a lot of environments for the athletes to play around in. We ended the day with a competition inspired by Hunter. "Hey Kat, can we have a hip touching the ground competition". At that point in time we were on a fairly long steep piece of real estate. So Hunter brought the idea to the gang and the girls accepted his challenge. I know I have said this a few times, I am very impressed at how the athletes managed their fatigue so that they were able to ski all the way through the camp making big improvements.

Tomorrow they will have a bit of a sleep in. I told them we could go out for breakfast at one of the local restaurants (The Montanes). We will go into Santiago with a bit of time so they can shop for some souvenirs and then we will hit the airport. It is a long day of travelling for the gang. We check in around 4pm, board at 6pm, land in Toronto around 5:30am and then take off again to MTL landing at 9:15am. After this athletes will travel back home to Ottawa. From our departure in Farallones the trip will take an entire day.

A big thanks to JP Roy for tagging along with us the last 5 days in our block of GS. He will join up with the FIS group again as they finish off their camp. They are around until August 31st and then they travel to Europe. Gab Bouffard has started a blog for the FIS gang to update their following: Check out his blog at: ncofis.blogspot.com

More updates to come on our dryland season as athletes prepare for fall camps and the racing season.

CIAO for now, next stop O-Town.

All good things must come to an end...

Our few days on Lane 14 are over... Back to slalom for what may only be 1 more day of skiing - fingers crossed we can hit some powder from the system moving in on Thursday night.

Top of Lane 14

Similar to the last few days we have been using lane 14 for GS - nothing changed today. Lane 14 has a fairly significant pitch that is about 8-10 gates long through the transition onto the flats. It has a sidehill that pulls to the left making the left footers slightly difficult. This was excellent for our group to negotiate because often you see athletes strong off their dominant foot and slightly weaker on their non-dominant side. For all the athletes here that would be their left. And they were tested.

JP and I are VERY happy with how the athletes have been progressing. They have had very long mornings with a ton of mileage. This has been very productive and they are all improving nicely. Not surprising in GS considering we struggled to train on good terrain or on good snow consistently last season.

The U16 Gang at the top of the SG track in ElColorado

Tomorrow we are heading back into SL. Eric Prefontaine is here because all of Quebec Elite are currently here. Estrie FIS & U16, Skibec FIS & U16, DLS FIS and NCO FIS & U16. We have a fun showdown planned for tomorrow in the flatter lane on 16 - where we will do a panelled dual slalom and have two full slalom gate sets that shadow each other on the bottom of the run. We will have some timing setup in one course for those who are interested and or they can battle it out head to head as the courses will be mirrored. I'm really looking forward to seeing the gang back on slalom skis after having been on GS for the last 4 days.

The view inside the snow cave

The view outside the cave. :)

I am very proud of the gang, we have taken no days off and tomorrow will be day 11 for most of them. This is definitely a testament to their ability to recover, thanks to their training regiments before attending the camp. Also, my ability to recover (or to just push through to keep up with them).  The coaches were chatting at the end of the day meeting tonight and we calculated that the athletes glide approximately 70-85km/day on their skis (uphill & downhill). That is an outrageous amount of mileage. Not comparable anywhere else we will ski this season.

Because the athletes skied so well the last few days in the afternoon today we explored the mountain again and went to the furthest point of ElColorado which is very close to both Valle Nevado and La Parva. They skied in some bumps on some really steep terrain as well as ripping down the SuperG track after the FIS athletes were finished their morning training.

I was talking with my mom on skype last night and she asked me a question that I did not have the answer to. She asked me if I thought the athletes were excited to be going home. My original logic was -- I have left my dog, my friends, my routine (food and exercise), football (the other love of my life) back at home. So I can safely say I miss home. I went up the T-Bar with each of the athletes today and asked them if they missed home: And despite the food being very eclectic, our living quarters being very small with minimal personal space, everything is uphill, Oxygen is limited, heat is also fairly minimal and I tire them out physically and mentally all day- They all said that if they had the option to stay longer they would. Kids!

After skiing today the U16s went on a trail hike for some photo opportunities. I think they were pretty successful:

Photo Credits: Mike Power

The journey continues for a few more days. I am very impressed with the facilities, the training and the terrain available. The camp has been very successful - I am looking forward to a return :D

Change is a process - find the positive in everything!

The sun is setting quickly on our camp in Chile

 “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

Another beautiful sunset here in Chile. Not too many of these left until we journey home.

Rebecca Cook & JP debriefing after an awesome day of
pushing her comfort zone.

Not too much new to say about today. Exact same day as yesterday, and we will train again tomorrow in lane 14 in GS. Athletes have individual focuses with regards to their tactics. They are also working on some technical adjustments that will help their tactics and decision making skills in the course. We are also talking a lot about trusting their equipment and that making mistakes is part of the process of learning. As long as the athlete can be reflective and learn from the error - they are making progress.

There is some weather that is moving in on Thursday afternoon. This may make skiing on Friday before our departure challenging - depending on the clouding. If it is too cloudy/foggy to ski, we will go into Santiago with sometime to kill so the athletes can experience the city.









This puppy (pictured on the Left) has a story: I was skiing by the lane that the Waterville Valley Ski team occupied and mentioned to them that I had noticed this dog following them around. I asked if they adopted the dog or if the dog adopted them. They are staying in Farallones like many teams and this stray dog gets fed by the owners of the house that they live in, but the dog does not live there. So this pup is at least 7 years old and every year when Waterville Valley comes to El Colorado this dog runs up the mountain with the athletes, hangs out with them at the top of the lane and then runs down at the end of the day.

*If you can't tell from the dog stories, the parents of my athletes may miss their children. I miss my chocolate lab who I left at home with my parents - pictured below*

Ciao for now!

feliz cumpleaños Joey!

Daily Schedule:

6:45am: Wake-up Breakfast

7:20am: walk to 1st T-Bar

7:55am: Arrive at the top of our lane - dynamic warmup 

* I had an interesting experience carrying gates up the T-bar this morning while carrying a at minimum 60lb bag. Successful, yet very sweaty.

8:10 - 11am: Morning session in GS gates on Lane 14

11am-12pm: Lunch

12 - 2:30: Afternoon session in GS gates on Lane 14

2:30: shuttle home

*It is now too sparse to ski into Farallones, The T-bar track is fine however snow is deteriorating on the lower section of the mountain rapidly. Athletes will shuttle down daily after skiing. 

3pm: Coaches meeting for lane allocation for the next day. 

This morning the U16 ladies cycled around with JP and the boys with me. In the afternoon the guys went off with JP and did some free skiing in an attempt to control their upper body movements while skiing. And the girls stayed with me and skied some more gates to build on the successes they were having from the morning. We just completed a video session with the athletes and they each have a focus moving into tomorrow as we are on the exact same plan as today.

Today was Joey's Birthday. After skiing Gab and I went on a hunt to find him a Birthday cake. Not only were we successful but we found a 'dulce de leche' cake. Joey's favourite topping for his toast in the morning. Joey also got 'jello-d' by the FIS gang which in my opinion was less successful then the cake Gab and I found. 

Early to bed tonight, the athletes are getting tired and starting to go to sleep on their own. We have 2 more days of GS planned and we will ski 2 days of SL before our return home. 

BBQ-ing, Sandals, Tans & Ski Boots?!

Hola Amigos!

Abby Thomas: Morning warm up 7:45am

Athletes today were excited to get on the longer skis and pickup the speed. We spent the day free-skiing on lane 14, where we will set tomorrow. It was a chilly morning and the athletes had to stop often to do some active stretching to warm up. We start skiing at ~ 745am and the sun does not make its way to the top of our lane until 10:15am.

JP and Mike discussing the top of the turn
 vs. the position exiting the gate

JP Roy joined our group in the 2nd half of our day. He will continue to ski with us Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday until we head back into 2 days of SL before heading home. It is so great to have his knowledge of the sport and specifically the discipline while coaching the athletes. I think after today the athletes are even more fired up to run some reds & blues with the Nations best in their corner.

PORK, STEAK & CHICKEN WINGS

It's very unusual to be in a place where I start in winter gear in the morning, spring skiing as the day progresses and after skiing down to our starting point (t-bar #1 in Farallones) I can take my ski boots off and walk home in sandals and a t-shirt. Keeping that theme we came home to a delicious summer BBQ feast that our cook Christen made up for us. Stock piled high were chicken wings, pork ribs and steak, accompanying this was traditional Chilean salad (lettuce, corn, tomatoes). The athletes are at that point in the camp where they are
starting to compare their 'goggle tans' with each other. So far Nick Caves has taken the lead (pictured on the left).

Our dining area

There is a little bug going around the town we are staying in. Athletes from all teams apparently are dropping like flies. I may have been the first culprit of this 24 hour flu. Because we are living in such close quarters as well it is very easy for germs to spread. Rest assured the athletes are reminded to rest when it's time, wash their hands constantly, go to bed at curfew, & drink lots of fluids. My small but mighty first aid kit has been put to great use, not only for tuning injuries but headaches, fevers and muscle pains.

Buenas noches -
A demain..
More tomorrow :)

día de descanso (DAY OFF)

BUENAS TARDES!

El equipo en Chile

The girls looking into the Andes

Wake up this morning was at the latest 9am. Most of the athletes woke up on their own before then and made their way to our dining room. The U16s did 1-on-1 video this morning to wrap up their slalom skiing. For the next bit we are heading into GS. Today we started at 10:15am very late start. We decided to ski because we would have had to put our gear on to go eat lunch. As well the athletes were talking about doing other activities and I figured if they had the energy for that we might as well hit the slopes for a few. The plan was to just take it easy and get use to the long boards again. We did about 6 runs before the athletes got hungry for lunch (12:30). They ate, and then we called it a day. Tomorrow we are going to have lots of fun in GS free-skiing interpreting the GS turn shape as I noticed some fairly large turns today.

Nick and Abby in the relaxation part of our yoga session

The FIS group also had a low key day today, they ate lunch at a local restaurant here in Farallones and while they were out we did some yoga in our small common area. I associated the practice of yoga for the new boys to the team as an aid to help limit distractions. Yoga is often practiced in small spaces with minimal space between people. It take a strong mind to focus internally on their physical practice and minimize the distractions of what others can and can't do during the yoga session. At the start of a race we often see athletes that are consumed with others and their surroundings. If they are confident in their pre-race routine and can focus on the task at hand  what those around them are doing is of no concern to the athlete who is strong in mind.

Tonight we look forward to some homemade pizza from our Cook and Housekeeper Christen. Some athletes are doing laundry and catching up on summer courses others are exploring the village and most just laying low and relaxing.

Tomorrow the U16's will start a little later compared to our start time when we have lane space and we will free-ski in GS until the late afternoon.

“To uncover your true potential you must 
first find your own limits and then you have to have 
the courage to blow past them.” – Picabo Street

Careful what you wish for ...

 

The athletes were up for a challenge today so challenge they were given. I setup an environment that was relatively turny on a flatter section of real estate. They also had a brushy course set on the steeper part of our lane where the did some lower performance turns working on upper body and lower body separation but with the focus that if they release the ski as early as possible they will have more time at the top of the next turn - stressing the urgency to release the ski as early as possible in the transition.

They were challenged with multiple upper body exercises in the stubby course as we have been talking a lot about how our upper body stability affects our balanced powerful position of the lower body.

Athlete: Hey Kat, Can I have my poles back? Kat: Hmmmmmm...Is it possible that doing something you may not be entirely good at - yet -, and doing something that challenges you may make having your poles back seem like a walk in the park. Athlete: I guess so (not completely sold). One hour later, Athlete with poles: "MAN, that was so much easier with my poles".

Mike Power hit the slopes with me at 7:20am to help me set.
He was the last athlete off the hill today at 4pm. Lots of miles
on the tires today Mike!

I often wonder that if we challenge our athletes beyond what they think is possible, what may have not been the greatest skiing in an environment immediately becomes very easy because they are A. inclined to perform well and prove to themselves that they can have good sensations and, B. It is just easier with their poles, but much easier after having struggled through exercises they don't often appreciate until later on in their careers.

My apologies for the lack of action shots as promised today. I had some camera photo function failure and opted for about 12-15 segments of each athlete on video today so they could see their improvement of performance as the day went on. We had a long day starting out at 7:45 and ending at 3:45 and only a 30 minute lunch break. Way to grind it out again U16s!

The plan tomorrow is no longer to go to Santiago. The switchbacks open very early for only downhill travel and then not again until later on in the day for uphill travel. This would make our day off a very early start and a potentially late finish. The athletes have decided that they want to do a late start and ski some GS for a few hours before lunch and end after they eat. We are moving into our GS block where JP Roy will join us for a few days as the FIS group is moving into Super-G. The athletes are pumped to have him and change up the tempo.

Buenas Noches mi amigos.

DAY 4: Words from the U16 Gang

After skiing I thought it would be a good idea asking the athletes contribute to this blog. I thought this was excellent considering the athletes are journaling on a regular basis practicing their reflection skills. Its a great way to observe the information that sticks and what is meaningful to them in the day. I would also like to mention that the athletes are getting along famously. This can sometimes be a challenge when new team members join. They all stick together through the day and watch group movies eating popcorn and granola bars in their downtime. I also missed the last bit of the day today fighting off some bug that had my stomach turning. 

Meet Oliver. He has been at the top of our training lane
the last few sessions.There are a few stray dogs around that
are humanized and very friendly.

"Today was magical as the sun rose over the mountains casting a pink glow and making the snow sparkle like diamonds in the sky. We rode the five T-bars to our final destination, which was lane 16. We skied two courses this morning; one a brushy course and the other an apex drill course with stubbies. The whole time we kept in mind to stay over the outside ski and keeping our upper bodies stable (no tipping or hipping).

We did a lot of video during the ski session so that at the end of the day we could see what improvements we had made. Throughout the days we've been free skiing really well and now we're trying to work our awesome skills into the gates. In the afternoon Kat was feeling under the weather because of the sausage burgers the other day so we skied the last 1/4 of the day with Gab. He is the new FIS coach and was working the FIS team until we went to get him. He continued to shoot some video of us in our drills and we ended the day free-skiing where we do our morning warmup. That concludes our ski day today hope we have another great day tomorrow!"

- BECCA, MIKE, ABBY, HUNTER, NORA, & NICHOLAS

If I was to summarize the importance of today:

1. The view is undoubtly incredible.

2. The athletes feet hurt and are cold upon arrival after 5 T-bars.

3. Regardless of how scenic and sore their feet are they will still set out to work and can focus on their goals for the day.

4. My health is a concern to them because while fighting off my 24 hour flu bug (or sausage burger bug) they brought me bread and water from the lunch I missed.

5. They forgot to include the video session post-ski where we compared vantage points in the different drills and in free-skiing. Tomorrow we are going to do a 1-on-1 session for video and take a look at how they are progressing in reflecting on their days on snow. 

I am feeling much better after bread, rice and bananas and we are set to go for a long day tomorrow. Please look forward to some action shots of your athletes to be posted tomorrow to round out our SL session.

The sun sets on another wonderful day here in El Colorado, Chile and we are set for clear skies and sunshine tomorrow

Dia Tres

A panorama of the top of our training lane

Day 3 here in Chile proved to be no different then day 2. Mother Nature is making up for her short comings on day one. Blue bird and beautiful it was. Crispy in the shade right off the bat this morning but it warmed up nicely throughout the day. I had an interesting adventure transporting stubbies and brushes to the top of the mountain. This is where I say "Marty you are greatly missed for many reasons but the main one being - setting alone really sucks. Even if it's SL." The only saving grace I had today were the fabulous group of athletes I work with - well, And the mountains, the sunshine.. nice snow - The athletes really were amazing.

Nora Fripp in one of her personal "shredding" shots

They were the first up the mountain after having warmed up on the lower section, coming out on their own because I started my trek at 7:15am. We skied on a moderate hill today sharing lane space with the U16 Estrie group. The athletes skied in drill courses from 8am-12pm with a 15 minute break at the top of our lane at 10. We lunched for about 40 minutes and then set out again in the afternoon until 3:45pm. Our afternoon session continued in stubby/brush courses and finished with a free-ski session to really ingrain the good feelings everyone was getting.

The group worked very hard today, and fingers crossed, will hit the hay hard tonight. The plan tomorrow is very similar. Our day will likely be shortened as it is a Chilean holiday tomorrow. We will extend our morning and end after a late lunch. Looking ahead we have 2 more days of SL. We will take a day off and travel with the FIS group into Santiago and then phase into some GS.

Tipsters & Hipsters

Fresh groomed snow
-10 overnight
Bluebird morning
...Doesn't get much better then that.
We finally saw Chile after being here for 72hours - let me say it was well worth the wait.

Our goal for the morning session was to maintain outside ski pressure as much as possible in freeskiing(FS) and technical FS drills. This involved a lot of stem and javeline turns on moderate terrain and varying turn shapes. The title tipster and hipster is very fitting because as coaches we often find that young athletes engage the shoulder in the turn or drop their inside hand (tipsters) or rotate and lock their hip in the turn very early cutting off potential edge angle (hipsters). All of this tipping and hipping pulls away from our goal of the day which was to be in a balanced stance while maintaing outside ski pressure.

After a video session Rebecca Cook found a nice strip of real estate that a groomer had just passed by. She was the last athlete down and I decided to "Figure-Eight" her turns

Midway up on our journey around the mountain

After lunch (which Hunter and Nick were already talking about at 9:30am) we explored the mountain. You can ski around the whole entire glacier circling back to where you started. A very cool experience as the terrain on each side of the glacier varies and the athletes had no problem finding some of the "pow" and steeper terrain. To end off the day we circled back to where we spent the morning and focused back on outside ski pressure. The gentle terrain we had been working on all morning quickly became very flat after what we were exposed to on the other side of the mountain.


Tomorrow we have lane space with Estrie. They will be training GS and we will be doing some SL drill courses, maintaining focus on outside ski pressure. We will be on 16 (if anyone has access to a virtual trail map). From farallones where we will start at 8am tomorrow it will take them 6 T-bar rides to get to our lane.

Hasta Luego!

DAY ONE

When we talk about skiing in various corners of the world we often find ourselves discussing the weather. Today was no different. We wouldn’t be challenged as much as we are in what we do if Mother Nature wasn’t such a huge ----- from time to time.

To get to the lunch lodge “La Parador” which was the base of what we skied today we had to venture through some thick fog on 2 T-Bars and a short hand tow. We we’re keeping our fingers crossed that when we arrived to La Parador we would enter a beautiful land of blue bird. Not so much the case. Clouds encased everything. The upper mountain was closed today and we skied on come gentle terrain that was serviced by a triple chair on the lower portion of the mountain. Athletes focused on mileage following each other working with “the stem drill” extending the leg early in the turn to obtain early outside ski pressure – as the day progressed with this they phased in a longer (15m) turn on their slalom skis.

This little puppy adopted us after our first T-Bar ride. Running uphill
the duration of the 2nd ride. He hung out at the base of the Mountain
with us and then joined us again for a siesta at lunch time.

At first the visibility proved to be difficult and then a system of some pretty hefty snow moved in.  Making our last few runs boot top powder. All-in-all a productive day. I reminded the athletes it’s days like these that make us appreciate the rock star snow days and that toughing out these challenges makes us stronger skiers. Negotiating weather is part of the task in this sport and they all handled it wonderfully.

IN CHILE!

Buenas Tardes!

We have arrived at our destination in Farallones. Athletes are setting up their rooms and settling in. Expect some contact shortly as the WiFi password is being sent around. Flights from Montreal through to Santiago were very smooth and shorter then expected. We took off late from Toronto and landed early in Santiago. Athletes slept about an average 4 hours through the long flight. We were served a late dinner and breakfast while travelling - after landing we stopped at the superMarket for some snacks for lunch. After travelling 5000 or so miles, 37 switchbacks we are looking at lots of snow and a temperature of -5 degrees Celsius. There has been substantial snowfall here so we will likely be able to take a lift up to ElColorado opposed to a shuttle, and for the time being skiing down to our little 'casa tinto' is possible.

Plan tomorrow is to freeski for both FIS and U16, dust off the spring/summer cobwebs get use to new equipment, boots and find our balance also scope out the area and some terrain to setup our drill courses on for the proceeding sessions.



Ciao for now

Our travels to find snow are long.... and beautiful.

Countdown is ON!

Please find attached the packing list for our groups trip to Chile. It is my hope that all athletes are working hard in the gym, especially those that will be leaving this weekend. As they will be on a strict maintenance program in Chile that is intensified by the elevation. Countdown is on folks. This time next week we will have finished our first day on snow. Let the 2013-2014 season begin.