So that means it's a 12-13 hour drive from home to the Banff area, and we wake up to a snow day in Vancouver, a relatively rare event which paralyzes the city.
We don't drive all the way to Banff and stay in Sicamous, about half way, and the drive is fine..even in avalanche country...
More snow the next day and in some places it's tricky driving...there's a road - and a truck - there somewhere...
But we do make it safely to our rented condo in Canmore, which is about a 40 minute drive to Sunshine Village Ski Area near Banff, where we will reunite with the Rocky Mountain Adaptive Ski Team.
Cory gets a chuckle when people tell him to "have fun skiing!". It's always an early start - for this camp it's a 530am alarm, and on this day - January 17 - it's chilly: -26C.
Then it's a lot of work doing a few warm up drills, working on technique, then a race course inspection and a slip to remove excess snow, before finally getting to ski the race course, maximizing the time allotted to get as many runs through gates as possible. It's fun yes, but it's a lot of hard work to improve too. And then there's all that coaching feedback telling him what he must do better!
8am at Sunshine Village...
By the time we are in the gondola, the sun is rising on a spectacular Rocky Mountain venue...
And it's terrific conditions for a Giant Slalom training day....here under the watchful eye of his coaches...Cory continues to work on more up-and-down body movement....
It's a beautiful but chilly morning so a few more runs through the course before switching to technical free skiing in the afternoon.
And it's up to the top of the mountain - above the tree line - for free skiing...where it's blustery and cold...
So it's a well-deserved soak in the hot tub for Cory to end his day...
The next day is certainly no warmer...check out that wind chill!
And due to the extreme cold, the chair lift up to the race course is frozen...but that won't stop Cory from getting in his training runs!
It's slalom on this day...
and though it doesn't look fast from this camera angle, following Cory down the course shows his speed...
Later, during the afternoon's technical free skiing, Cory's coaches work with him to improve his starts...
But shortly after, a touch of frostbite on Cory's nose means an end to his day.
And it's warmer the next day, January 19, warm enough for Cory to train only in his race suit.
The next day, January 20, gives us ideal race training conditions, cold enough for good hard snow but warm enough to train in a race suit. And as always in race training, an early start...
The coaches with Rocky Mountain Adaptive have been terrific with Cory. They understand that at this point - with about a month to go to the Nationals - that Cory's technical skill development is less important than just finding a way to higher speeds through race courses. Coaches Gavin and Kirk start to encourage Cory to attack the race course with a straighter more direct line as they believe he has the technical skill now to do that. This course is steep with hard snow at the top and Cory has difficulty making those perfect carves that add speed, but by the last couple of runs here he is clearly attacking the course more directly and hitting more of the gates.
Then it's onto Sun Peaks back in British Columbia for BC Adaptive's All-Mountain Camp. This is a much less-intensive race program with race training only in the mornings. But the head coach of the program is the head coach from Rocky Mountain Adaptive so Cory can continue working on just finding more speed.
Even in the fog...
And a first for Cory, he gets so close to a red gate near the end of this run that he has to move his head out of the way, a real indication that he is taking a much more aggressive line and shortening his race course.
No fog on the next morning, as Sun Peaks lives up to its name...
The All-Mountain Camp wraps up with Cory and Coach Jamie from Rocky Mountain Adaptive looking really pleased with Cory's progress.
Cory races at the National Games on February 26 & 27, less than a month away. He may plan to do more training but we all feel that he is ready to take on that World Champion from Quebec once again.
