I spent almost four weeks in Chile last month for my team’s annual South American training camp. I continue to surprise myself with what I consider to be tremendous progress both with my knee, and on snow. I feel strong and confident, and my times in Chile usually reflected that. I was consistently competitive with my teammates, which—after a seven-month hiatus from any Downhill or Super G skiing—I was pretty proud of. I even posted the fastest time one day of Super G training in Portillo.

While we did miss a few days of training due to some stormy weather, that isn’t always necessarily a bad thing… I enjoyed a couple of amazing days of powder skiing, which never fails to bring a smile to my face (as you can see!) Unfortunately, however, during a particularly windy day of Downhill training in Chillan I crashed off a jump and got a pretty deep gash in my chin. Although I have a scar from the seven stitches, it’s healing up nicely.

Now that I have the entire month of September off, I have mostly been working my butt off in the gym. I also wrote an article about Portillo, Chile—one of my favorite places—for Ski Racing Magazine, and I attended a U.S. Ski Team fundraising event in Dallas, Texas. I even got to join my family on Vancouver Island, B.C. to celebrate my parent’s 35th anniversary! Honestly, I can’t believe how busy I have been, and I know the competition season will be here before I know it.

One day last week, after I completed five and a half hours of workouts, I came to the realization of how far I have come since my surgery in March. Everything considered, I never thought I’d be able to work out for that long ever again… And I felt great! My knee feels better than I ever really thought it could, and I am encouraged that all of the effort and discipline I’ve poured into my knee-health, is actually paying off. I think I have a lot going for me right now, and with the Solden GS qualifier coming up at the end of my next camp, it feels good to be moving forward!