Special Olympics Ski Racing - Putting the Plan into Action

So now it's March 2007 and we have a plan - weight training, better coaching, better equipment, and more race experience - but it's near the end of the ski season.

Time for a couple of trips to Whistler-Blackcomb on one of our favourite runs - the Dave Murray Downhill. This run will be used for the men's downhill and Super G races at the 2010 Winter Olympics, so we both think it's pretty cool to be able to ski it. It's named after one of the original "Crazy Canucks" - the Canadian ski team in the 1980's - who has since passed away. Apparently, it does have the reputation of being a fast and challenging course - and it certainly is fast and challenging for us. I'm usually ahead of Cory at the top, but by the end of the run, he is well ahead of me - he has a lot more stamina for speed skiing than I do!

Here's Cory by the signpost leading to the Dave Murray downhill:

And then on a different day, at the top of it:

And a few more pics from different visits to Whistler-Blackcomb:

Beautiful sunny day after a heavy snowfall,

with Whistler Peak in the background

The

"Inukshuk"

the symbol of the 2010

Olympic Games

almost covered in

snow at the top of Whistler

Hut and cell phone tower at top of Whistler
And for one very special day, Cory's mum joined us - using the sno-limo that allows non-skiers to enjoy a great time on the mountain:

So a few fun days on Whistler, then back to the Plan. Need to find better coaching...so we get in touch with a local ski club - the Vancouver Ski Team. We met with their manager to explain the situation and he was very sympathetic - he would try to come up with a plan to accomodate Cory's needs but it would all cost close to $3000 per year. We gulped a bit - but if that's what it would take then so be it.

The Vancouver Ski Team was planning to do some summer training camps, on Mount Hood in Oregon in July 2007, and on Whistler in August 2007. We hoped Cory would get the opportunity to attend at least one of those.

So we waited a few weeks and heard nothing back from the Vancouver Ski Team. Eventually we heard back from the person we had spoken with - he had moved to Scotland (!) and was no longer involved with the Vancouver Ski Team, but he had spoken with a couple of other people on the Team about Cory and I should contact them. Well, after leaving a couple of phone messages and sending a couple of emails with no response, it was clear that we were getting nowhere with the Vancouver Ski Team.

So we had to start again looking for better coaching for Cory. Onto the internet then, and since we had learned that there were ski racing camps on Mount Hood, we did an internet search and discovered a number of different ski racing camps that were to take place there throughout June and July.

So we picked one that looked good - Hurricane Ski Racing - and sent an email to the person who runs it - Bob Vial. Sure enough, we got an encouraging response the next day from Bob. One big concern was the cost - $1200 for Cory to attend for one week, but since I would have to go as well, if I had to pay $1200 too, then that would be an expensive week. Bob graciously offered to let me attend at no charge, so we just had to iron out a few details, and it was a go - Cory was to attend his first ever ski-racing camp on Mount Hood in Oregon, from July 6 to July 12!

I still find it ironic that we received such a positive and helpful response from someone in a different country, and yet could get no one at the Vancouver Ski Team - in our own backyard so to speak - to help us out all.

And what a week of training it turned out to be!

Next up, preparing for Mount Hood and a lot of hard work...