Hunting for more than wins....

I hope everyone's thanksgiving was great! I have been super busy between training camps and catching up on school again. I returned home from Copper Mountain on Wednesday after a long 10 day training camp with NDS. It was extremely beneficial for this upcoming season because it was the first training I've had since July. We trained on the new USST venue which I love! While I was there, the US Ski Team races were also going on, and I got the privilege of fore-running for the women for the GS and SL. For the GS, Ted Ligety also fore-ran which probably made me look like a beginner skier, but I have fun none the less!

In my last blog I said I was having fun hanging out in the valley and hunting...well I got a deer this year! I shot a 4x5 Black Tail on Friday Oct 28th (4x5 refers to the number of antlers the deer has on its head). It was my mom's birthday deer because the 28th is her birthday. It was really exciting because it is the biggest deer our family has gotten in awhile, and I was the one to shoot! (Sorry for you animal lovers out there, getting a deer for my family means there is meat on the table!)

My first race this season will be a tech NorAm in Panorama, Canada. Until then I will be skiing the early season snow and hopefully hitting some gates. Yesterday (Friday the 25th), my best friend and I Karina Schwartznau skied her Mountain, Crystal Mountain, with 11 new inches of powder! We put on our powder skis and had a great time skiing from 9-4 in the backcountry of Crystal. Two days ago I was informed I will be going to Europe with Western Region from December 30th-January 17th. I can hardly wait to go, and am ready for this new challenge. Have fun in the snow everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving :)

.)) Anna Mounsey

Thanksgiving: Time for Racing!

Well snow is on the ground in Salt Lake and it is about time too. The resorts are opening up and the general public has officially given up their dreams of forever summer. Not that any ski racer ever wanted that but I know tons of people who did.

Thanksgiving is next week and for me that means that I just finished one final and I have three more to come. So in case you were wondering, yes, this blog is a procrastination tactic. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It represents that time in between fall conditioning and right before the ski season. It also represents that cheerful spirit before Christmas—my favorite time of year.

So as I sit here getting ready to play some indoor tennis I though I would tell people about that nervous excitement that precedes the season. The nerves are building as races go from a month to weeks away. Rowmark finished their Loveland camp last week during which I had a ton of fun and made some really good improvements. I saw tons of kids from Whistler Cup and Pokal Loka as well as from the general ski racing community and it was great to catch up.

My first race is in December and I’m getting nervous about now. Don’t get me wrong; this is one of my favorite times of year. I think I just want the season to start already! So sit back and eat some turkey, drink some cocoa, go skiing, the season is here and my first race is just around the corner!

.)) Breezy Johnson

Back from the UK!

Molly and Lindsey Vonn

It has been a busy month. I am writing this from England, where I am visiting my British grand parents over Thanksgiving break. I returned from the Junior Champs Camp at Copper Mountain Colorado at the beginning of the week and have spent the last few days trying to catch up at school after two weeks of being away.

Park City Mountain opened this weekend but I will not hit snow again till I get back. At the end of October, I went to the Western Region Fall Conditioning Camp. The camp was at the Center of Excellence (COE) in Park City and was three days long. The COE is such an incredible place! It really has everything a skier or snowboarder needs to succeed off the snow. Some of the coolest things were the hot and cold contrast baths. We were able to use them and it was surprising how much they helped relieve soreness! An aspect of my skiing that needs improvement is my mental approach, so I enjoyed the sports psychology talk. I also enjoyed the Olympic lifting technique practice. Before the camp, I was afraid to lift because I was unsure of my technique. We also went to the National Ability Center to do the rope courses and team building activities. Those were a blast as well!

This fall, I went to two camps at Copper and both were incredible. The first was a five-day slalom camp with my team. The weather was great and the snow was superb for early November. I had new boots so they reignited my injury from last season on my left shin. It was not as bad as last spring, but it certainly limited my on-snow time. I placed pads wherever it did not hurt so those areas would take more pressure and relieve the painful areas. My coach was a genius to come up with this idea because I would probably not have been able to ski without the pads. Besides my shin, I had a fantastic time. It took me a few days to get back into it but once I found my rhythm, nothing felt better than shredding sick turns; a feeling I have certainly missed.

When I returned to Park City I only had a few days till I flew back to Copper. This time, it was a six-day (three days GS and three days SL) camp with the National Development System (NDS) called ‘Camp for Champs’. The mountain had just opened to the public so more of the mountain was open than the week before. We skied long days and I got lots of miles. I brought last years boots to this camp to help relieve my shin and with plenty of icing and pads, my shin held up really well.

I was also fortunate that this camp had a main focus of one skiing which allowed me to greatly favor my right leg. I loved the one skiing because of the challenge. It gave me instant feedback on whether I was in balance and flaws found in normal skiing are brought out. Once I was back on two skis, I felt I had more control of my skis and I was able to generate more angles. I am definitely going to incorporate one skiing into my warm-up routine! With a few weeks of rest, my shin should be recovered and I can start preparing for my first race. Eric Hays is just four weeks away and I could not be more excited

.)) Molly Leavens

Nick of Time: Off to the Nor Am's

The season has started!  I have been training in either Loveland, Copper or Vail for the past three weeks.  I did the FASST program with the SSWSC for two weeks; I got to ski Wednesday thru Saturday.  The other week I did the Podium Project camp at Vail.  This camp was only for people who got top three at the Junior Olympics in the past two years.  It was extremely good training because I was training with most of the guys who I was going to race with at the next race, which was only two weeks away.

It was cool to see how they were skiing and how I compared to them.  Next was the race!  One my first run I started 69th, another SRD racer Alex Barounos started 66th and while I was getting ready there was a course hold because he had gone into the B-net.  This got me a little nervous because I didn’t think that it was a tricky course.  After a few minutes they said it was clear and he was ok.  Soon enough I was on the course.  I had a few troubles on afterthought (main pitch) but it wasn’t bad until I hit a gate and my goggles broke off!  I couldn’t see but I continued, the course swung a lot at the bottom and I got thrown way off but still finished. 

The second run I started 67th and almost had a perfect run.  I was only three seconds off the leader compared to nine on the first run.  Overall it was a really good start to the year! 

Last week was finals and so I did a bunch of studying and not as much skiing.  I came out strong and now I get to drop two classes for the winter.  Next stop is the Aspen NorAms next Monday and Tuesday!

.)) Nick Veth