I woke up this morning on our 7th consecutive day of perfect weather in Vail. Clear and cold, as it should be. We have a day off today after some excellent days of training which included 2 days of slalom on the injection. While we were unsure our Mission Ridge Ski Team athletes could handle it, they did handle it and handled it well. It is something that they have never even seen in person, let alone tried to ski on. I am sure they were nervous and intimidated about it. The first day we did sections of ten turns and the injection was still a little rough. So we had some better grip. But as it got skied on more, it got slick. This was the second time Ski Club Vail injected this section because it snowed last week. Anyway, injecting over injection with very cold temperatures can often produce skating rink type smoothness. And after skiing on it for a couple days, that is what we got yesterday. Dane Spencer and I were talking and we both felt it was similar to Flachau in January, 2005. It was a legendary injecting situation and was a very slick surface. Dane actually hurt his back on the third turn because he spun out a little on the ice. At Flachau, the organizers and FIS decided to re-inject after it had snowed and it then got extremely cold. Pretty much the same situation we have here and it showed. All of that said, we set 33 turns on the injection and the kids tried their best. They learned a lot about slalom yesterday and about themselves. They learned that their flaws will be exposed on this type of snow and they learned to fight to stay in the course on every close call. Hopefully they also understand ski tuning a little better. And they will be able to watch World Cup through much more educated eyes. I am very impressed with the group as a whole in their adjustment to the situation we put them in! Great job!
So I am sure you must be thinking that this all must have a point. The point is that the USA girls have been training here on excellent conditions. Hard injection, hard man made snow and ice. A great hill with excellent rolling terrain to train on that has been prepared with care and focus. The Austrian tech girls are here. The Swiss have made a day trip here. The Slovenian girls are doing their work here as well. They are all in good shape as far as I am concerned with their choice in venue for training. Right now they are all smiles and focus. Confidence and low stress in the feeling around here right now.
I was talking to Guenther Obkircher yesterday. He is the slalom group coach for the Austrian women and a long time friend going back to a FIS trip in 1998 I took to Austria with some Western Region athletes. He was out there on the hill for his first time yesterday and was thrilled with the hill and the preparation. He set some GS and we watched some of his girls. Kirchgasser looks pretty good on that hill.
The other thing is that the hill here in Vail has some similarity to Aspen. A steep pitch that flattens suddenly as it bends to the left as well as some rolling terrain on a moderate pitch at the bottom. It mimicks the Spring Pitch area and then the Strawpile section on the Aspen World Cup hill. On top of that, Guenther sets run 1 at the Aspen GS. He will set here all week so Zettel and Kirchgasser will get to ski his courses on a similar hill. He will get a chance to set some visually similar sections to what he will set in Aspen. I am liking their chances at this point, a week away.
Thanks again to Ski Club Vail and Vail Resort for having us here and all of their hard work!
Get well, Resi!!!!!!!!!!
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