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Leave it to Leever: In the shadow of the Matterhorn!

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

Passing Lane: Trip to South Africa

Hi SRD hope everyone is having a great summer! I haven’t blogged in a while, because I have been very busy lately. In late May after finishing up the year with school, I headed with a group of 34 people from my church to South Africa. We spent two weeks helping with several projects near Cape Town. While there we also went on lots of fun excursions such as shark diving, and a safari. The trip was very eye opening, and helped me realize how fortunate we are in the United States, and how we should never take for granted simple pleasures in life. After returning back home I worked really hard to complete my summer class online, ran and hiked a lot and spent time with friends.

Then my family and I went to Seattle for our annual family reunion at Foul Weather Bluff. We enjoyed lots of sun, crabbing, hiking and the beach. Now I am in the DFW airport waiting for my flight to Santiago, Chile. I am returning to my old school and ski team at Valle Nevado. I plan on doing a few FIS races, and getting lots of time on the snow.

My big news is that next winter I will be moving to Sun Valley. I will be living in the dorm and be skiing for the Sun Valley Ski Academy. I will miss the gang at Alyeska, but look forward to living close to the mountain, and great training.

See you on the slopes soon!

.)) Jordan Lane

In the Swing: Mt. Hood Training Week

Hey SRD fans, I have been very busy for the past couple of weeks. First I finished the end of school, finals and lots of training. Once I finished that week of finals I started a three week program offered at GMVS. It is when you take either math or english class, so you don't have to to it in the second semester. This is very helpful because it is right when the most important time of ski racing is and you don't have to take finals. One I finished my math from the three week I had one day before I went to Mt. Hood. That was very stressful, but I knew the outcome of being in Oregon would pay off instantly.

After flying on Southwest airlines for five hours, I was in the West. The first day I skied SL and everything felt really awkward, but by the end of the day I felt comfortable and excited for the racing season to begin. The next couple of days were free skiing and drills to improve my technique. The fourth day was a big breakthrough in my skiing. This is because Fisher " vacuumed" my boots and in this process made only 1 degree of abdication, instead of I believe 20 degrees. With my new boots my turn is much faster, making myself able to keep a straighter line and build more pressure throughout my turn.

After five days of skiing we took a break day. Everyone at the camp had the choice of Mt. biking, rock climbing, hiking and soccer. I chose to go biking and I was very happy with my decision. The trails were all good, but the only problem was with mine and a couple other kids. Almost everyone got a Giant Trance but the shock had no air in it so it was a very bumpy ride.

After that day was done we had a few more days of skiing GS. We did gates the last two days before our next break. Those days were very nice and sunny and the course was iced down to keep the snow hard. I had a rough day the last day before our next break. This is because I kept going too straight and getting late. By the end of the day I had a better line but it still needs improving. For this break day I did biking again because of the fun I had the first time. The bikes were fixed and everything went well.

The last three days of the camp were GS. Then two days of SL. The GS was gates and drills. By the end of the day I was tired of GS and ready for two good days of SL. The first day of SL were drills, and free skiing. The next day were gates and a panel SL course. This day went very well and I skied with a good line in the gates. Overall this Camp went very well and I wish it was longer. Throughout this Summer I will just be training and Mt. biking. Hope everyone has a great relaxing summer but will still getting ready for the next ski season!

.)) Eli Swing

Burcin's Blog: Summer Training

Hey Guys,

I am only 11 days into my summer and I have already done a lot.

I graduated my sophomore year of high school on June 22nd and was on a plane to Mt. Hood Oregon the next day. It was a huge relief when I finally got on the plane after a long week of finals along with the last cram of school. I went out to Mt. Hood for a little over a week with my Killington Mountain School team. The main focus of the beginning of the camp was fundamentals with free skiing and drills while the end of the camp we ended with some Super G and GS training. It was a very productive camp with a small group of kids and some great training. The only snag of the trip was some sub-par weather with some rain, and fog, however it didn’t prevent us from having a very productive camp.

I flew back on the 2nd and am now enjoying a week on Cape Cod (not without conditioning!) The following week I have a conditioning camp at Killington with my team and then have one more week before we head to La Parva, Chile for around 3 weeks.

In Chile, we will be have a separate training block for each Slalom, GS, and Super G. I made some great improvements to my skiing in Mt. Hood that I am excited to hone into my skiing for next season. In between camps I will be focusing on my conditioning plan, getting stronger and more powerful for next year.

Hope everyone else is having a great summer as well! Already looking forward to next season!

.)) Kyle Burcin

Leave it to Leever: Summer in Europe - Domes to Glaciers.

Welcome to Europe! I am currently in Zermatt, Switzerland on a 3-week ski trip. I had originally planned to write this blog only for the Youth Olympics, but after some coaxing by my fellow athletes and my dad I will try to be updating it more frequently. I will cover my adventures across the world in my pursuit of the ski racing dream, from home in Vail to across the world in New Zealand. For now, willkommen in Europa!

While I am currently in Zermatt, let’s backtrack a week back to our arrival in Munich. Let’s just say that things didn’t exactly go quite as smoothly as planned. I arrived with Taylor Shiffrin on a United flight at around 7:00 am. We picked up our bags, and went to meet my coach Peter Lange who had a car waiting for us outside. We got all the bags out to the car, until Taylor realized he had forgotten one of his bags in the baggage claim. In Europe, once you leave the baggage claim area you aren’t allowed back inside. Taylor had to go up to a Lufthansa representative to get a temporary boarding pass that would allow him to get through security. After a long wait, Taylor comes out with his bag. No big deal, we’re going to pick up Chris Acosta, Andreas Haug, and my new assistant coach Tyler Johnson at the Delta terminal. We pull up to meet them, only to have them tell us that Delta lost all 9 of Chris and Tyler’s bags. The Delta representative informed them that they would have to wait at least 24 hours to get their bags, and we had to get to Wittenberg, the site of our first block of our training camp. We loaded up our less than full car and headed on an 8 hour drive to Wittenberg, Germany.

Wittenberg is the location of an indoor ski dome located in the middle of a cow patty. It has a grand total of about 200 vertical feet, totaling around an 18 second slalom course. However, the snow there is perfectly injected and an awesome place to test skis and get back on snow. There, I got my new skis for the year, and they look sick! I also got two pairs of the new 195 GS ski, which for those of you who don’t follow skiing closely is a major change from the previous GS ski. FIS (the governing body of ski racing) had determined that the speeds and angles the current world cup skiers were getting was too dangerous and wanted to slow them down. Hence, they came out with this longer, higher radius, narrower ski that is supposed to be slower and harder to ski on. FIS is forcing all World Cup and Europa Cup (one step below world cup) skiers to ski on this ski while implementing the new ski to the lower levels next near. I am not technically required to ski on this ski this coming year, but I feel like I want to get ahead of the game and get prepared for the future to have an edge on my competitors. However, we were in Wittenberg to ski slalom, not GS.

We got some really great skiing in and I feel great on my new skis. Joining me on my adventure was the aforementioned Chris, Andreas, Taylor, and Colby Lange (Peter’s son and a little ripper). I also was joined by Nick Cohee, one of the fastest GS skiers in the world. He had a big adventure on his way to Wittenberg, which you can read on his blog at www.sicknickcohee.blogspot.com. After a 3 day block in Wittenberg, we drove down to Altenmarkt, Austria. This was a SUPER LONG drive of about 13 hours from northern Germany to Eastern Austria. At about 3:00 in the afternoon after having lunch, we stopped to fill up the cars before heading through to Altenmarkt. After pulling out of the gas station, my coach Tyler suddenly realized that he had filled up gas in our diesel car. The van started to sputter and gave out, and we pulled off to the side of the road. Gasoline and Diesel are too very different fuels and do not mix together. If gas gets into the fuel pumps of a car, it can ruin it for good. We pulled off the road, turned the car off, and called the German ADAC, which is their tow truck/repair service. We waited for about 2 hours until the guy showed up. He was really nice and spoke English, and told us that there was a 50-50 chance that we could save the engine. So we got towed to his shop and we had to hand pump all of the gas out of the engine and the fuel pumps. Then we had to tow it back to the gas station to fill it up and pray that it started. And…. Hooray! We got the engine started and we were on our way! We had a serious bump but managed to get into Altenmarkt at around 3 a.m.

The next morning, I went to get my boots made by the Fischer boot guy Hannes. Hannes is a great guy and has helped us out with gear for the past three years; he has been super helpful with my boots. After I got my boots at Fischer and Taylor got his made at Atomic, we headed out on another long drive to Zurich, Switzerland. On our way, we picked up the final member of our new team, Seppi Stieglar. This was about a 7 hour drive across two countries to the capital of Switzerland. After holing up there for the night, we made our last stretch to beautiful Zermatt, Switzerland. We will be staying here for 15 days of skiing, and I’m really excited to get on my new skis and boots and get in the course. The Internet is pretty slow here, but I’ll try to get some pictures and movies up if it allows. Thanks for reading, and have a great summer!

.)) Alex Leever

Molly Leavens attends Western Flight School

I have spent the last week at Mount Bachelor with the Western Region Flight School. I qualified for this camp from my results at Western Region juniors Champs (commonly known as JOs).

We spent the six days of camp on our Super G skis going over jumps and learning to move over terrain. We started off with ‘phantom jumps’. Phantom jumps are set up like a jump but there is not actually a jump. This helped us get comfortable with our movement patterns and timing before getting any air. We also did a lot of work with rollers to learn how to absorb terrain with our legs while keeping our upper bodies quiet.

It was snowing one of the days but other then that, it was great weather with good snow conditions. By going to this camp, I am invited to a speed camp in Copper Mountain late next fall.

.)) Molly Leavens

The Swede Feed: Martina on the mend!

Hey! Almost done with rehab!! I don’t know if you remember but I tore my acl in November last year. I got surgery right before Christmas and now I’ve been doing lots of rehab. I’ve spent hours at the gym and at my physiotherapist’s – who has been the best and helped me tons! The only thing I’m careful with is the running-part. I run short runs, work out at the gym 4 times a week, bike a lot and I’m doing a thing called wet vest. Wet vest is like running in a swimming pool. Hard but super fun!

I’ve also done some tests lately which has shown that my right knee (the hurt one) is as strong as my left one now, so I am soon back on skis again. So happy!

I am planning on going to Saas Fee in Switzerland in July just for freeskiing. I feel like I need to find the ”feeling” on skis before the season starts again. Bye from Sweden!!

.)) Martina Hörwing

Morse Code: The snow is gone but the rivers are full!

It has been raining non stop for what feels like a week now. Luckily with my new found passion in whitewater kayaking, I don't mind when it rains. Here is a video of me running Lower Cascades Creek, it was a ton of fun!

I recently returned from Mammoth where I was attending a National Development System Camp focusing on GS and Super G. It was a really fun time, TJ Lanning was my group coach and I learned a lot of speed technique from him.

We got a ton of early morning Super G training when the snow was rock hard and we got to go off jumps and through rollers. Then later each morning we got to train a bunch of GS with brush drills in the gates like the wall drill and blue flat line drill. This camp was focused on developing the top of turn with pressure, I felt like I made some big strides with this especially in GS and am super glad I got the opportunity to go to Mammoth.

But now it is kayaking and dry land season! Saw the new SRD suits, they look awesome, can't wait to get one next year!

.)) Sam Morse

SRD and Keely's Ski Camp For Girls!

SRD is proud to be a new partner with Keely Kelleher and her Ski Camp for Girls! We have been hearing rave reviews from athletes, parents and coaches alike for this program, including SRD Squadra athlete Sofia Yubero. Once again SRD is excited to be a part of future Ski Racing Development!

Keely Kelleher from Big Sky, MT, is the founder and director of Keely’s Ski Camp for Girls. She has twenty-two years of ski racing experience; a nine-year member of the U.S. Ski Team, racing competitively on the World Cup and was the 2010 National Super G Champion. She is currently a coach for the Junior Rowmark Race Program and a student at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT.

Why I started a ski camp for girls: 

When I was eight years old I remember watching Diane Roffe and Picabo Street win Olympic medals. My two pet bunnies instantly had their names changed, to Diane and Picabo. Professional women athletes, such as myself, are given an opportunity to reflect a positive and healthy image to young girls in sports. In 2011 I couldn’t think of a better way to accomplish this then by starting the first ever ski racing camp for girls. 

This camp provides the unique opportunity to be coached by not only the best females in the sport of skiing, but the best role models. I recognize that skiing has given me incredible opportunities and shaped who I am today. The staff and myself are dedicated to sharing our wisdom, knowledge and experience with the next generation of female skiers. 

As we enter our 2nd year of ski camps for girls, we are as motivated as ever in providing young girls with the best possible ski camp experience.

.)) SRD

Countdown to Summer!

It seemed as though the warm weather would bring some nice spring conditions, but lately it has been far from that. We have pretty much experienced rain, snow, hail, anything you could think of for the past couple of weeks. It has been straight rain for the last 3 days and hopefully we get to see the sun soon.

The amount of schoolwork to catch up on just makes it all the more depressing. But, everything else has been great along with some great dryland conditioning and most importantly, the countdown to summer begins!

.)) Kazui Kusumi

SRD on the Haute Route!

SRD's Barry Levinson, his 21 year old son Stefan and several freinds completed the famed Haute Route ski tour this past March. The Haute Route is a 6 day alpine tour that crosses the Alps from Chamonix France to Zermatt Switzerland a length of around 120 miles with nearly 25,000+ feet of climbing.

The trip was led by famed Swiss guide Martin Volken from Pro Guiding Service in Seattle and K2's Mike Hattrup, star of the Blizzard of Ahhhs and License to Thrill as well as the more recent Edge of Never ski films.

Before the tour our group spent 3 days skiing in Chamonix and Courmayeur Italy with another legendary guide, Stephane "Fan Fan" Dan.

Pictured above at the top of the final Col with the Matterhorn in view is our group from L to R: Stefan and Barry Levinson, Mike Hattrup, Jon Goss, Martin Volken, Mike Folwell and Peter Adamco.

If you ever get the opportunity, as a skier this tour is a must! Here is a link to some pictures.

.)) Barry Levinson