OS VIDEO 2009/2010

COMING SOON!!

it's been way too long

I've been back in my not so new hometown of Melbourne for some months now and the amazing winter of 2009/10 is unfortunately not so much at the forefront of my mind. However, I have been keeping busy and still with lots of things cold and white. Well that could describe me after yesterday's hail and having not seen a summer in about a decade but I have been skiing and spending not so much time in the big smoke.

Firstly there was The Age race at Falls Creek. With some extremely sparse early season cover a few days of frivolity was had including some skiing. After of the non snow precipitation that skiers in Australia are all to familiar with Pip and I retreated home after our second day to find the last slope to the lodge had washed away since the previous day and a a few giggles with the question of why we do this..



By the end of the weekend and slalom and giant slalom race later I'm proud to be associated with the company that won the overall team event, ladies team and even an individual podium in there too. What a weekend!! I have to say that I am also personally proud of what I consider a perfected gluwein recipie of which I am happy to prepare for sampling upon request. Until next year Let's Go.. (hmm.. well it was a funny joke on a new slogan..)

Leaving Åre.

Dear winter – please be considerate, you’ve had your turn, it’s mid March so please let Spring come play!

I woke to the first sunshine I’ve seen in weeks and it was gorgeous!


Not only that but the stomach virus that had debilitated me for the previous 24 hours was gone and I felt great! It’s a travel day. Farewell to Åre – I will be back. It is such a beautiful town and the rest of the resort is begging to be skied so it will go on my “to ski” list.

To finalise some travel arrangements this morning I had to poach internet from a closed restaurant sitting outside on a seat with a foot of fresh snow in a balmy -5C. With my fingers freezing and butt melting ice accumulation on the seat I check into today’s flight to Stockholm, confirm accommodation details and email a friend I’m meeting tomorrow in Spain to bring a spare pair of shorts. I can not believe that when I land in the south of Spain tomorrow it could be 15C!!! OMG HOW exciting!! I don’t think I have ever been this shade of moon tan that I am currently!!

Four seasons in one day

So with less than 10 hours in transfer I opted to stay a night close to the airport. So close I was on the tarmac in an old Boeing 747!! Hilarious. At 5am I reluctantly drag my luggage out into blustering winds and on the icy pathway (Stockholm has had a record winter of snowfall) and head back to the airport. The landscape changes dramatically during the course of my flights today. From Scandinavian whiteness to the green hills of southern Spain I feel that spring has finally fought winter off. The blue waters off Barcelona make me smile just seeing the ocean (without ice bergs) and remind me that back home you are just coming out of summer. Twinges of jealousy float up…


Killing time in Malaga we kill a couple of hours in the sun, and a visit to the beach. It definitely aint Bondi but for now it’ll do because tomorrow we are back on snow training.

Not happy as a clam...

3.30am morning of the second competition. I woke up dreaming that I was drunk and needed to puke. No, this wasn’t a dream, I am awake, but wait - I still need to puke?? Irony or premonition? It was only at dinner the night before I was wondering how catastrophic it would be if something in the meal (all the athletes were eating at the same restaurant) created everyone to be sick!

So after painfully losing some much needed dinner in the early hours of the morning I retreated sorrowfully to the couch. When my alarm buzzed and I came to – I felt awful! Almost hungover without any good memories from the night before!! Over breakfast, a slowly consumed glass of OJ my coach questioned if I should compete but that was a no brainer and I contemplated a new game plan for today’s competition. Luckily one of the girls on the US offered to introduce me to their team doctor where I had a few words, given some good advice for getting through the day and felt lucky for having such a considerate friend around. Training was painful. The nerves of competition were gone however a fear of throwing up somewhere untimely (like in the start gate) was present instead. One run in training and I was shattered. The aches had set in like the flu and everything hurt. I was utterly miserable. With plans of increasing the aggression in yesterday’s performance still there but a body refusing to participate there was a huge battle of tensions.

The result was the same – another 18th place, but much of my skiing was a huge step on yesterday’s. My jump scores were much higher, time faster but there was a pretty big boo boo half way down which was very disappointing. Interesting placing the same as yesterday but having such different feelings about it. Late afternoon and solids are back on the menu. By dinner salad and tea seems appealing but unfortunately the party of the circuit will not be attended by KT. Everyone heads off to the live band and famous after party in Åre, and I home. And so another World Cup came to a close.

Sweden

Land of the beautiful people. What a race these Swedes are! Amazing.

Following in the weather of the last few weeks I arrived to wind, rain then heavy snow. I think I won't see sun till Sydney... My arms are a shade of moon that I haven't seen before and I think Vitamin D deficiency is imminent.

Inawashiro was a bit of a wash out. Even though it was my first World Cup and the steepest course on tour it was a bit of a let down. Fog delays, cancelled competitions and performance below training levels were disappointing. Mixed emotions. Åre was a mixed bag as well.


Not particularly pleased with sharing a room with a dude I didn’t know, promised didn’t snore (and did) and a couple of other not so accommodating persons of general interest I try to settle in for a long few days in odd and unknown company.

Training was under rainy skies and incredibly soft slushy spring snow. Completely the opposite to what we inspected on competition morning at the top of the course by the ungodly hour of 7.40am. -7C and everything had frozen solid. Kind of scary and completely different to the last two days of competition preparation.

The first event I skied a clean complete run and was happy to put one down. Some incredibly creative judging was displayed here so even though I may have been particularly happy with specific parts of my run I honestly think the judges were distracted by bird in the sky because the scored did not reflect the performance in front of them. Now to step up the game for tomorrow, I’m so ready!!

Getting recognised

So the trip from Japan to Sweden was pleasantly uneventful. I did have an entertaining incident entering Helsinki's customs. With no visible ski paraphanelia as I handed my passport to customs the guy looked at me and asked if I was a skier.. obviously answering yes he proceeded to tell me that he knew as he recognised my name!! Random! I have no idea who he thought I was!! Entertaining non the less!

Inawashiro, Japan to Åre Sweden

FOG FOG FOG. End of story.

Inawashiro was a bit of a wash out. Even though it was my first World Cup and the steepest course on tour it was a bit of a let down. Fog delays, cancelled competitions and performance below training levels were disappointing. Mixed emotions.

Åre was a mixed bag as well.

Not particularly pleased with sharing a room with a dude I did’t know, promised didn’t snore (and did) and a couple of other not so accommodating persons of general interest I tried to settle in for a long few days in odd and unknown company.

Training was under rainy skies and incredibly soft slushy spring snow. Completely the opposite to what we inspected on competition morning at the top of the course by the ungodly hour of 7.40am. -7C and everything had frozen solid. Kind of scary and completely different to the last two days of competition preparation.

The first event I skied a clean complete run and was happy to put one down. Some incredibly creative judging was displayed here so even though I may have been particularly happy with specific parts of my run I honestly think the judges were distracted by bird in the sky because the scored did not reflect the performance in front of them. Now to step up the game for tomorrow, I’m so ready!!

KT's year starts in Tokyo

TOKYO

A birthday during ski season means I could end up anywhere. Last year I was on route back to the US from Spain, so breakfast was in Malaga, lunch in Paris and dinner in New York. This year year it's Tokyo on route to Inawashiro in the afternoon. Luckily one of my best friends was there to keep my company. An incredibly appreciated Starbucks coffee later and we were on the road for a sneaky trip to the Imperial Palace before I had to head off to the airport. All good, just another day on the road really, but with better than normal company :)

Imperial Palace and Bec encountering some vending machine confusion..

Where will I be next year....

Europa Cup minus the team

Gorgeous day but negative something silly!!

As I mentioned before it's really hard being on the road by yourself. Enhanced with language barriers and visiting places you haven't been to before and then there's the competing. No coach, no support it's not easy, and sometimes quite hard. No one to talk with about the exciting experiences or take your photo at a prize giving and no one to talk to when things just aren’t going so well.

Watching the Men’s Olympic finals was a little sad as it was only me, my alarm having just gone off at 2.30am and no one to celebrate / commentate/ discuss scores and performances and overall enjoy watching many of our friends and team mates compete.
But that is what I've chosen so time to take a cup of concrete and toughen up :)

After my last Europa Cup in Himos Finland I had two nights staying with Isabella in Helsinki. The first day after a couple days of competing if one is not travelling the best thing to do is – nothing. Sleeping in and everytime it’s surprising how tired one can be. Lounging around the house, napping and quick trip into Helsinki whilst Issie was in class was a totally exhausting day! The next day prior to flying out I managed to do what I had hoped to do the last two times here – ice swimming!! It’s great recovery for muscles and after a busy competition schedule this sounded like just thing to help prepare for a long haul flight. Never mind it was -6, snowing and blowing a gale but we bit the bullet and crazily stripped down to not much and took turns pretending we were enjoying ourselves whilst splashing surrounded by ice and blustering snow in our faces.







- note the facial expressions of enjoyment

Oslo

Huge thumbs up to my stop over in Copenhagen!! Clean, modern, available seating and eating areas and the most surprisingly a huge duty free shopping center!! Tres cool! I may have bought what was described by the assistant as a traditional Danish dress.. hmmm :) Watch casual Friday I'm coming in!!!

On the left as I flew out of Denmark, Oslo bound, and on the right a fabulous coat in the duty free shopping area!!

I had a bad feeling at check in. My luggage tags didn't have OSL as I would have expected for Oslo but instead TRP. I asked at check in if there was more than one airport in Oslo and was assured there wasn't. I still didn't feel quite right prior to boarding when I saw I was flying on a tiny prop plane to the country's capital (only 11 rows!!) but alas my ticket from a major airline, said Copenhagen - Oslo so I had a vague sense that everything was going to be OK. As we descended into landing my fears quickly rose as I saw no immediate harbour, city and only a meagre regional airport and my heart rate increased rapidly. Upon landing, with no information desk I found transport to Oslo with a bus transporting passengers to the train station so I felt better. I was still confused when arriving at the train station with NO other passengers to see the station, no ticket machine, no shelter from the snow and cold and definitely not what I had expected! Seeing the humour in the situation - that I had arrived at the low cost airport and as I discovered later now one of Oslo's three airports and in total isolation I soaked up the wintry peace and quiet and waited for the train ... Brr..



















OSLO
Once again I found myself with a day layover in a new city so tourist central it was! After some of the most wonderful hospitality and amazing cooking from a couple who are friends of my parents I headed to Akker Brygger down by the harbour. It was gorgeous with the ice freezing right alongside the docks, seagulls swooping past and sunshine. Even though I spend my entire life in winter and are usually super prepared (just ask the boys at work who tease me for wearing so many winter accessories!!) I sometimes drop the ball. When in the mountains I prepare for the cold but when I head into a city one can be falsely lead to believe that it will be warmer than in the mountain especially since it's sunny. WRONG. I was shockingly caught out cruising around Oslo in negative something silly (-12 at least) without gloves or a hat. Silly silly KT!

One of the highlights of the day was visiting the Nobel Peace Prize Museum. Did you know that Norway awards the Peace Prize and Sweden awards the other four prizes? I had no idea. It is also interesting to realise that the Nobel, the man responsible for the endowment creating these prizes including Peace, was also the inventor of dynamite. The irony.

Scandinavian Cup in Norway

Scandinavian Cup was a prelude and training in effect for the two days following of Europa Cups. The moguls sections were quite a flat with the jump landings with a bit more pitch. A fairly nice way to ease back into moguls after more than ten days off snow. Whilst I very keen to get back on snow it's still kind of daunting turning up to a new resort having never been to the country before and compete without any support. Whilst moguls is an individual sport it's the team support and usually friendly competition that makes it much more attractive. Luckily I have many other friendly athletes to help me feel comfortable on the road alone!

To the left we have a couple of Swedes, Veronica and Sofia getting into the swing of it at Hemsedal!


Singles day I finished 3rd and Duals I stepped up the pace to claim 2nd.

I have also been spending a fair bit of time with the Germans being room mates for a couple of nights with Laura, then there is Daan and Carla from the Netherlands who I have spent some time traveling with last year which resulted in some entertaining tales.












Please refer to the photo on the left for the result of last minute accommodation bookings. Being a weekend and school holidays in Norway one had to take what one could find!! -
Summer huts without water!! ha ha.. errrrr...

We had to walk to the shower block to brush our teeth or get water to make tea!! HILARIOUS.. Luckily this only had to be endured for two nights but at least I had good company!



This is really a fantastic opportunity to meet some amazing people from around the world. Many of these athletes are just as incredible in what they do off the slopes as they do on. Some have full time careers to balance, some have made a living out of skiing professionally and others have families waiting for them at home.

Aussie and German bonding - KT & Laura

Carla, Laura and Daan..

Sitting down for dinner last was entertaining after competing all day and avoiding most Valentine's Day hype I was not so gently reminded by candlelight what day it was!! Ha ha
A romantic evening... for one!! I thought back to where I was last year... again in another strange country with even more strange company... but that's an entirely different story involving a Russian and France!

Zurich

Time out, peacing out and getting ready for the next bout of whiteness. After so many days on the road competing through Switzerland, France and Germany and recovery from Kitz some quite time in Zurich was perfect. It was also the perfect reason to visit Nici who skis on the Swiss Team and has just had surgery on her knee after the Deer Valley World Cup and now, like the majority of us watch Vancouver from afar.

Nici trying to explain the main destinations of Zurich using her makeup drawer.... hmm questionable accuracy Nic!!

We were lucky enough to catch an amazing exhibition in town of the human body preserved with a plastination treatment showing muschles, skin, bones and even ACL's!! A bit cool for a couple of mogul skiers who may have lost theirs years ago!!



Doing some of the tourist thing through Zurich.














The irony of my first day in town was rain. It was only the night before I had mentioned how I missed hearing the rain after a few months away. I usually don't hear that familiar sound till I arrive back in Australia late spring but of course this said the day I arrive in Zurich I had rain!!!





Trying to not loose all my fitness I went for a ride one morning up to the forest above Zurich. Yes I can confirm a couple of things, 1. it was every bit of the -2C the news reported and freezing 2. riding without gloves does not make for a pleasant ride and 3. trying to ride up snow covered paths ie ice does not work..

Birthdays with bubbles

Luckily a couple of friends from home were only a train ride away to help me relax and recover!! The first morning in Kitzbuhel was my very good friends birthday so we may have a bubbly toast to help him celebrate followed by heading up the mountain for fresh track on a powder day!

The birthday boy getting down to serious business first thing!! Followed by finding our way to the base of the mountain through the village

Heavy snow proved to be perfect conditions for the group's first day on the mountain but slightly treacherous for myself who wasn't skiing but had to walk in blizzard conditions to the Hutte for lunch.




Of course more serious business followed with a long lunch on the mountain in a local Hutte.










Fortunately, or unfortunately as some other patrons may have reviewed, but the owners of the Hutte realised this was birthday lunch. Not only was strudel served "mit Kerze" (with candles) but they played on repeat several versions of happy birthday in various languages for over an hour!!! Hmm...

Thinking about the amazing audio being played . . .

Kitzbuhel and a sigh of relief

Arghh.. a sigh of relief as I finished the last of 6 events in 3 countries in 2 weeks!

The rest of the Aussie team departed either for home or luckily enough, Vancouver and I to Kitzbuhel in Austria for a good mates birthday and some recovery time. The event in Russia that I had planned on competing in was not confirmed till too later, very inaccessible and unfortunately my body just needed a break. (I don't think I've ever had to deal with so much lactic acid build up! Aaaghh.. aging.. )

The view of Kitzbuhel from our balcony :)

Of the four days I spent here most were chilling out in the hotel relaxing, stretching some very tight muscles and exploring the gorgeous old village. Fresh snow blanketed the village and even sunshine made a celebratory appearance on what could only be described as an idyllic Austrian mountain day!

Kitzbuhel by night

There is an interesting mix of local mountain Austrian wares and fashions mixed in with Louis Vuitton, Bogner and the usual kitch souvenirs. Of course being Austria schnitzle, schnapps, sausage and gluwien were on the cards for sampling!

Getting Euro'd up for dinner!

Getting a bit swish in front of Booogner...

botox anyone?


I'm soo not posing here.. haha hah

You don't always have to win to be a winner

Whilst that the title totally sounds like something you mother tells you when you're ten, sometimes you don't have to win or make the podium to have won. Just as the journey is sometimes more important than the destination. (cough cough.. no really!!) You can place so much importance on the final outcome that if it doesn't arise for what ever reason if you haven't enjoyed the process in getting there then you are likely to be let down.

Today was duals in Oberjoch and I whilst I finished 4th after moving up from 6th in qualifications the outcome was not as good as I had expected after the last run. Being a judged sport one has to take decisions that are subjective and therefore of course often up for debate. There are also lessons to be learned from not achieving ones expectations. It is these times that I have found over the years have been the most informative to why how to succeed, in knowing why we fail. It's how we apply these lessons in the future that makes the less successful times worthwhile.

Anyway, today I was able to apply some unsuccessful dual lessons to use and it worked out so I feel today was a success. I also skied well and consistently and under tough conditions of being so utterly shattered so whilst I'm pleased with how I skied, I am very glad it's over!!

Getting some mogul action before the top air

Peacing out before one of the dual competitions

I'll try and get some video up soon!! Technical difficulties preventing me here!!!

You gotta to be in it to win it!

'winning taste good'

KT & Marina from Germany after presentation ceremony

I am devastatingly tired, about to have a personal meltdown as I have not had a recovery day in two weeks and heading out to compete is taking every inch of strength I have.

I awoke this morning at 6.55 to Britty's alarm and I'll paraphrase here but the muscles in my body were telling me 'don't you even think about getting out of bed!!'. Not the best start..

During warm up this morning I was even considering not competing as I wouldn't normally train in the condition that I was in let alone competing but the stubborness in me came through. During qualifications I held on like my life depended on it and finished 6th. The weather had rolled in with fog, it was dumping snow and already the competition was running extremely late so finals looked unlikely and I was happy. Fortunately they decided finals would be held. I decided if I was to compete finals I had to conserve energy taking a page out of Dale's book I did not train before final merely looking at the course would have to do as my preparation!

I know this probably sounds a little melodramatic but to head out to compete took so much inner strength I'm proud I even made it out of the cafe at the bottom of the hill! During finals my top section was not as good as qualifications but bottom air which was a back lay was huge and I knocked some time off my first run so I was more than happy. As I watched the top qualifiers come down after me I held onto the highest score till the last two finalists where I ended up 3rd. A huge effort considering that I almost didn't even compete!!

Now to find some energy for one last event!! But as they say, you have to be in to win it!!

Getting all psyched up for one more run . .

Medal ceremony

On the road

We've been on the road in Europe for ten days without one day off. We have had either official competition training days, competition or travelling across country in the vans (13 of us in two vans). Yesterday my legs honestly felt like they were made out of lead!! The 6+ hours on the road from France through Switzerland, Austria and into Germany was the standard road trip.. Grey skies, snow, rain, cramped conditions, toilet jokes from the boys, bad radio reception, one Macdonald stop, GPS sending us astray, mad drifting on the icy roads by our professional driver Pete and arriving into the village of our next hotel just by dusk. Fairly standard really. With two more competitions to go everyone on the team is looking forward to home and me just to having some days off and booking a massage! Putting those thoughts aside for a couple more days we are about to head up to the course in Oberjoch for the official training day.

Fingers crossed we don't have to put on chains on the vans with the new snow overnight!!

Training

Training as I see it has three ways of progressing.

You do the same the thing over and over with no improvements. This comes around for various reasons including fatigue, distraction, apathy and frustration.

Secondly you can make small changes that are barely recognisable, though over time show up as improvements and progress.

Thirdly there’s the step change. This is when you make actively make a change to ones skiing in a small space of time and thus easily recognisable. This is the most exciting as it’s like option two on fast forward so easily seen and felt. This can be the result of trivial things like a coach saying the same thing (for the hundreth time) but for some reason it translates into a change in technique or just saying it in a different way or it’s just the way sometimes skill acquisition occurs. Anyway over the last two weeks I had a couple of these and I feel great. Small technical changes in skiing can have large results and now I’m seeing them – Very exciting and I’m very grateful to my coaches at Steamboat, who for five years have put up with me and helped make this journey.

Fly Fishing with Colin Tizzle

One of the many benefits of being based out of Steamboat for training is what one can do in one's leisure time. Today I had the pleasure of being invited to go fly fishing with one of Steamboat's best local guides with Bucking Rainbow Outfitters. This was an absolute treat! Whilst I have lived with another mogul skier two years ago who was a keen fisher and enlightened me to some extent I still had no idea what to expect. It was a beautifully sunny day, even though it was only -17F at midday we set off to get my fishing licence and some supplies for a day on the Yampa river. With Luna in tow (Colin's black lab) a group of five us sled to the river at Blacktail behind Stagecoach.
A quick technical lesson under my belt and I was away. A little whiles later I snagged my first rainbow trout!! Very exciting! Colin grabbed a net and helped bring it in for a photo.


Unfortunately as I endeavoured to pick up this slippery little sucker the rainbow trout escaped back to the Yampa leaving me in state of slight disappointment for not managing to get a photo but in laughter none the less.

Where'd he go?? ha ha

As the sun set behind the canyon, a gorgeous day on the river concluded and with belly full of elk snags and a new passion to pursue it was good day! Thanks Colin T!

Fly fishing extraordinaire and Luna (and yes she's in dog camo..)