Training in the Fog

Cory invested in three days of gate training at Whistler last weekend as he prepares for his first ever national competition in Alpine Skiing next March in Jasper, Alberta.

The plan was a good one. Train with Rob Boyd's Whistler Mountain Ski Club team of very good young racers on challenging terrain in both Giant Slalom and Slalom race courses. Get some great feedback from the Club's coaches, and get 8-10 runs through each course each day. And with still lots of snow at Whistler Blackcomb, not a bad plan at all for late May. Especially with early morning starts - 7am - with only racers having access to lifts and runs until the mountain opened to the public at 10am.

But, the weather didn't quite cooperate. Fog, fog, and even more fog limited Cory's run through the courses considerably. But he did manage to learn a few things, and with Alpine Skiing just like any other sport, where repetition is so important to skill development, and any run through a race course is a good run. So days 62,63, and 64 on snow since November 2010, and days 29, 30, and 31 of gate training.

At first it looked pretty good as Cory headed to the Wizard Express chair lift to get started on the first day:




And after the 2nd snowiest winter ever on Whistler Blackcomb,with over 50 feet snowfall, there is still plenty of snow to train on:





Cory's first warmup run shows a little bit of rust not having skied in over a month. He has lost some of the dynamic body action that he had learned a few months ago. A more dynamic upper body - more up and down movement over the skis - allows for greater pressure on the ski edges, which in turn produces a sharper turn with a cleaner carve (less sliding) and generates speed as the ski flex rebounds when weight is lifted. It's a crucial skill for ski racers to develop speed through a race course:




He improves a bit on his first training run through a Giant Slalom race course...






Whistler Mountain Ski Club offers some great training courses....lots of gates on challenging terrain. Here Cory has a look back at the course:




Then the visibility deteriorated quickly and with soft snow, so did the race course with the racers leaving large ruts by the gates. Not a good combination for racer safety, so that was the end of training for this day.


The next morning brought dense fog not far up the mountainside:



First, a quick run through a short brush course to get used to those quick slalom turns. This is a good warm-up exercise and Cory does need to learn to makes these turns by keeping his skis as close as possible to the brushes:



Then a couple of runs through a slalom course..as visibility again begins to deterioriate:



A coach suggests to Cory that he should be making much stronger pole plants in slalom for improved balance and timing:



But the deteriorating weather and course conditions once again end the day earlier than scheduled.

The next day brings more of the same as Cory tries a rather challenging race course; most racers had a lot of difficulty with that last gate, which brings forth a chuckle from me on this run:




Then after a few more runs, again the weather worsens but Cory puts down his best run of the weekend:




So not the best weekend for intensive training, but nonetheless it's a few more runs through a race course that Cory wouldn't otherwise get. So once again we thank Rob Boyd and the Whistler Mountain Ski Club for giving Cory the opportunity to train with them.



And on a visit to their clubhouse, we notice this in the their trophy case....a good omen perhaps?



After all, Korea 2013 is Cory's ultimate goal. And with that in mind, Cory is hoping to attend a 10-day race camp with Whistler Mountain Ski Club on Blackcomb Glacer in July.

We'll update about that soon. If you've visited our blog, we'd love to hear from you. Leave a comment, you can do so without a google account. Just use the anonymous option and leave your name in the comment section.