Special Olympics Ski Racing - A Heart- & Foot-Warming Story Part Two

In my last post, I talked about the generosity of Greg and Kim at Snowcovers in Vancouver, when they provided Cory with one of the Therm-ic Liion boot warming systems.



We skied on our local mountain - Cypress Mountain on Vancouver's North Shore - just a couple of nights ago. It was about -5 degrees C (say, 25 degrees F), and we started the system at level 2. There are 9 settings on this system, 1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest (warmest). Cory's feet started getting a bit cold after about one hour of skiing, so we moved the setting up to 3, and that was better. We took a supper break a bit later and moved the setting up to 4. This time, Cory's feet stayed nice and warm for the rest of the evening. So it sure did the trick - we may have to move the setting up to 5 or 6 when it's colder, but there's no doubt the system does what it's supposed to do.



I also decided to have my boots fitted by Greg, and after Greg put in at least a couple of hours working on my boots, they feel really good on my feet - nice even fit all around, no pressure points, and very little movement of my feet inside the boots. So now I'm anxious to get on snow to give them a try. That will probably be just after Christmas - we're planning to spend 2-3 days on Whistler Blackcomb then.



So all I can say is, if you are looking for any ski equipment in the Vancouver area - skis, boots, poles, gloves, clothing, helmets, goggles, etc - or you'd just like your boots to fit properly - you gotta go to Snowcovers on 3rd Avenue West, corner of Pine. Tell Greg I sent you, OK? Guaranteed he'll take very good care of you.



Last week, Cory also spent a day at Gatebusters on Whistler Blackcomb. Tom Prozchaka was out of the country, so we'll meet up with him another time. A Giant Slalom course had been set up and Cory skied it about 8 or 10 times. He enjoyed it a lot - by 2pm I was exhausted trying to keep up with him, but he wanted to keep going. So I let him go and work his way back to the top of the run on his own (we had done it several times together during the day so he would know where to go). It worked out fine.

The coach for the day at Gatebusters - Kim - told Cory to look further down the mountain as he skied through the course, but that overall, Cory looked pretty good, using a good line through the course. So a good first day of the year for Cory skiing a race course.

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