After Aspen, I hopped the pond to Europe. My first races were a Downhill and Super G in St. Moritz, Switzerland. I only did one training run on the downhill course because the flat landing off one of the jumps made my knee pretty sore. I was confident that I could do well in the race, however, because I’ve raced in St. Moritz several times—my first being the 2003 World Championships. Unfortunately, the downhill went down in a fashion I feel all too familiar: I skied well but was just unexplainably slow… Well, the very long flat at the top does help explain it a little bit, but doesn’t eliminate the frustration.

After a disappointing downhill, I am always excited to get on the mountain the next day for my favorite event, Super G. It is literally a relief for me to see more gates (more turns) set on the hill! The course was a fast set and had some tricky spots. I was pleased with my performance. Even though I made a couple of tactical mistakes, I attacked from top-to-bottom. I still think that my ability to “send it” in Super G—despite my very limited amount of training—is a very promising sign. If I can ski so confidently this early in the season, then I think it is inevitable for things to start falling in place in my upcoming races. Afterall, skiing is the easy part… it is the mental game that is so difficult.

Getting 24th in the Super G wasn’t by any means impressive, but it was definitely another positive step forward in my very progressive “comeback.” I was excited to head to St. Anton, Austria because I’d heard it was a technical downhill course—right down my alley. When I arrived, I wasn’t disappointed. We were racing on the men’s course from the 2001 World Championships. I have always wanted to race on a true men’s downhill course because they are always more technical and action-packed than a typical women’s course.

The St. Anton downhill is pretty insane. There are huge, sweeping turns at the top, then the course narrows as the trail funnels into the trees, eventually plunging over a “waterfall” called the Eis Falle—a very steep schuss which we skied straight down. The rest of the course is fast turns over a lot of terrain. I did all three training runs, the second of which I was 19th fastest. There were a lot of delays on the third day of training because so many girls were crashing. The light was very poor by the time I ran so my coach decided to have me pull out half-way down the course for safety reasons. It was a bummer to not have a full run, but considering one of my competitors was air-lifted to the hospital, I was glad to just be safe.

After all of the drama of the third training day, I’ll admit that I was nervous for the race. Although I have made tremendous improvements over the last few weeks, apparently I haven’t entirely overcome my fear of downhill yet. I convinced myself that the best way to handle it was to ski offensively, which worked… until the fifth-to-last gate at least. I had a really solid run going, but towards the bottom of the course where speeds are exceptionally high and the light was exceptionally poor, I got bumped around by some pretty major ruts in the snow. Instead of powering through the bumps, I panicked and wasn’t as clean as I should have been. It wasn’t pretty, BUT I came down in 25th place.

Again, placing in the mid-twenties isn’t particularly spectacular, especially when my teammates are getting such phenomenal results, but considering my struggles with downhill the past several years… I’ll take it! The Ski Team reported that it was my best downhill result in nearly four years. I had no idea it had been that long. It had been so long since I had been competitive in downhill that I started to lose faith that it was possible to even get in there and score. Scoring points with a less-than-perfect run helped instill some badly-needed confidence in my downhill.

My team had an amazing weekend in St. Anton—Lindsey and Julia won and got third place in both the Downhill and the Combined. There was a lot of excitement buzzing around the USA camp. It isn’t easy to keep perspective in such an electric atmosphere. I constantly have to remind myself that I am literally still in the healing and rehabbing phase of my knee injury. I have to force myself to stay within myself, and be patient with my goal of finding satisfaction in incremental gains.

If I look at my season to date with this goal in mind, I am right on pace. Every weekend of racing has been incrementally better than the previous weekend. I have been top-25 in all three of my disciplines, and it is only December! My results may not be getting any attention now, but I know that I am building a very solid foundation on which the rest of my season will grow. For once, I feel calm and in control of my career.

With a four-week speed block in the books, I am ready to trade in my long boards for my GS skis. My GS is really good right now and I look forward to racing in Lienz, Austria next weekend. In the meantime, I have a few days off for Christmas, which I will spend in Kirchberg, Austria. I miss being home at this time of year, but luckily I will get a whopping THREE days back in Seattle after my GS race in Lienz to catch up with my family!

I have been doing this ski racing thing for a long time.  There is no denying that ups and downs are just part of the game… It amazes me that, in my tenth year on the National Team, I feel like I am learning more now than I ever have before.

Last week I arrived at Lake Louise feeling reasonably confident after scoring in my very first race back since my injury.  I was aware of my limited amount of training, but had convinced myself that I was plenty-prepared to start racing Downhill and Super G.  The second I got onto the downhill track for inspection, fear knotted in my stomach and tears welled in my eyes.  I realized that I was horribly wrong.

While I had spent months in the gym getting physically prepared to race this season, I couldn’t ignore the reality that mental preparation to ski 70 mph comes exclusively from on-snow speed training.  The fact was, I hadn’t had much on-snow training, and what little training I’d had, was mostly in GS.  I hurt my knee in Downhill.  I was scared to go fast again.

After some reflection, I decided to take a little step back.  First, I had to recognize how huge it was for me to even be attending a World Cup downhill when just a couple months prior I wasn’t sure if I’d be skiing this season at all.  Second, my limited days of training in Austria and Colorado simply didn’t prepare me to race Downhill, despite what I thought I’d convinced myself…  So my approach to the week became very simple: treat it like training.  All I could reasonably ask of myself was to ski each day better than I had the day before.  The goal shifted from being fast, to being satisfied with incremental gains from day to day—just like I would treat an average day of training.

Given my simple goal, the week I spent in Lake Louise was a big success.  I executed good tactics every day, had great jumps, and made technical improvements.  I got 42nd in the race, but my result was beside the point—I’d built basic confidence on a fast, icy course.  My coaches were really happy with my progress and my skiing.  So was I.

I had higher expectations for the Super G since, after all, it is my event.  To be honest, I actually surprised myself at how “normal” I felt racing the Super G.  Both mentally and technically, I really didn’t feel much different than I did in any of my races last season.  I ended up 26th place, which wasn’t what I wanted, but scoring points in my first SG was still a great start to my “comeback.”  Not to mention, the wisdom and perspective I walked away with after just one week of skiing was invaluable.

I was really excited to head to Aspen after Lake Louise.  It is such a luxury to get to race in my home country for once, and the hill in Aspen is my favorite on the entire World Cup circuit because it is so technical and fun.  We had the privilege of visiting the local Aspen schools when we got into town.  Lindsey, Kaylin, and I had an hour-long question and answer session with about four hundred fourth through eighth graders.  They asked great questions and I really enjoyed the opportunity to drive home a few messages I personally believe in.  The kids were fired up to have us in town for the races, and we were barraged with autograph requests following the assembly.

Photo Credit: Zack Ornitz, Aspen Daily News
Our two days of downhill training were a blast…  Then, it started to snow.  A lot.  It snowed so much that the downhill race on Friday was cancelled and we were forced to (boo hoo!) go powder skiing.  It was definitely in my top-3 powder days, ever.  The face shots were so thick, I was choking on snow!  My true passion for my sport lies in freeskiing, so getting the chance to go out and enjoy some freshies was an absolute treat.  You can watch a funny little video clip from the epic powder day at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnRfMG9GF98

I was extremely disappointed they decided to cancel the Super G altogether, in favor of running the downhill on Saturday.  It is a shame to lose a Super G on what I believe to be the most technical and challenging course on the circuit.  Of course I am partial because Super G is my best event, but I do believe it was a mistake to try for the downhill over the Super G.  Because it continued to snow, the downhill was moved down to the Super G start anyway, plus, the slower speeds of Super G would have made for a safer race as well…

Despite the overwhelming amount of fresh snow, the Downhill race began on time on Saturday.  Conditions were questionable.  Due to excess snow on the course, two girls suffered season-ending injuries within a half hour of each other.  After a long course-hold the race was ultimately cancelled after number 37.  I never even got to go out of the start gate.  The race was scored and counted like usual even though about a third of the field never got to race.

I left Aspen with a bitter taste in my mouth.  My one opportunity to race in the U.S. turned out to be quite anticlimactic.  It was a disappointment to lose the Super G, then to top it off, I missed out on the chance to score in the Downhill on my favorite hill.  While I am now hungrier to kick butt in my European races this season, I still feel bitter that my rare opportunity to race in front of family and friends, and my one chance to gain exposure in my home country on American television, was squandered.  I am grateful, however, that I was not forced to race in what were deemed unsafe conditions.  So at least I left Aspen in one piece!

With the North American portion now behind us, the World Cup circuit resumes next weekend in Switzerland.  I will be spending the remainder of December in Europe, including Christmas.  With a Downhill and Super G coming up this weekend in St. Moritz, I look forward to building off my solid start!