Perfect skiing: hard snow with blue bird skies and fun people to be with. Not too cold, the perfect temperature to keep the snow icy. This is not the conditions we have been having. We have been in Zermatt, Switzerland for the past 9 days and have only gotten to ski 3 days. We skied the first day in super soft snow, then missed 3 strait days, then had one day where the T-Bar was broken, and then skied yesterday. It has obviously not been the most successful camp so far. However, we have made the most of our time here so far. We have skied in very soft snow each of the three days here. Normally, that is not the conditions that ski racers hope for. We want super hard ice that doesn’t leave a dent after hours of skiing on it. However, the soft snow can be very beneficial. It doesn’t let you get away with anything, if you move inside in a turn or don’t pressure your outside you’re going to fall. If you don’t stand strong and have strong fundamentals, you’re going to have a very hard day ahead of you. I was very rusty the first day, a lot better the second day, and I feel that I made some huge strides this last day. When you have so many days off, you get a chance to really analyze your skiing. I have watched A LOT of video this past week. Video of all my races last season, the may free skiing, and the few days that we’ve had on snow here in Europe. Out of the blue while watching some of my GS runs from last year, something clicked. I suddenly had a realization of what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. I went out to training the next day and made a significant change in my skiing. It isn’t perfect yet, but I can notice the change right away. I’m super excited with the steps I’m taking, and I look forward to the rest of the camp and towards New Zealand in a few weeks.
I have been skiing on the new FIS regulation 195 GS skis. The world cup skiers skied on some prototypes last season, and I heard some horror stories. Ted Ligety and Warner Nickerson both tried out the new skis last year and wrote blogs about their experiences. I even got to watch some video of Warner and it didn’t look pretty. I was a little scared when I got them, but when I took them out on the glacier I was amazed! They felt amazing to me, far better than my old GS skis. I feel really stable on them and can commit to the turn better than I could on the old skis. If you have solid fundamentals, they really work in your favor. The weather is looking better for the final 5 days of skiing, so keep your fingers crossed that we can get some good training!
Unfortunately, we have had a lot of time off with all the canceled days. We have made the most out of them though, and gotten a lot better at soccer! We have played a lot of soccer with the other national teams that are here. There is a really nice turf field that we have been using to try to stay active while being stuck off the mountain. We have spent hours on the field playing against ourselves and anyone else who will challenge us! We have a pretty solid group of players, it’s a lot of fun playing with this group of guys. We have also been extremely lazy, watching plenty of movies and vegging on the computers. All of this time off is driving us closer to insanity, so for our minds sake we need to get on the snow! Thanks for reading this week’s blog, come back soon and invite your friends too!
Thanks for the support, Alex.
.)) Alex Leever
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