Lake Louise and Aspen... here we come!

We are 5 days from the GS free ski on the race hill in Aspen for the girls. The boys arrive in Lake Louise on Tuesday. A lot is about to happen here in the ski racing world in North America.
World Cup DH staff and skiers are making their way to Lake Louise from their training venues in order to arrive there before the first Team Captain's Meeting on Tuesday evening. The World Cup DH boys are headed to Lake Louise Tuesday to start the first training run on Wednesday. Three training runs are scheduled for Lake Louise, primarily because it is early season and everyone can use a few extra DH runs to figure out skis and other equipment issues. Not to mention figure out the line on the downhill. The boys and staff will settle in quickly on Tuesday afternoon, do some recovery work and start watching video almost immediately. Putting together archived video of previous races so the guys can see how they executed in the past and who executed better and what they might have done differently. Also, serious discussion happens, lead by the most experienced downhillers to help educate the younger guys and to analyze with the coaches what led to certain difficulties the previous season. The athletes at that level are the best analysts of their problems and successes. Of why results or lack of them happened. Along with the extra pairs of eyes the coaches provide, it ends up being a collaborative experience. As long as everyone is as objective as possible and set ego and feelings aside.
Lake Louise is considered a downhiller's downhill. Very fast in spots, a lot of tucking and tuck turns and the technical sections are still at high speed. Guts has it's role here for sure. But there are a few little glitches along the way that can cause consternation. The Fishnet and C turns always pack a little G force and the Gunbarrel coming off a steep pitch to a flat, narrow section has a nice compression. The trail then bends to the left and crosses under the chair before making the turn to the right in Claire's Corner. Then it rolls and glides to the finish. But Claire's can be tricky and guys can blow the race there by going in too straight, or even worse, applying left ski pressure too late. As one of my favorite cliches goes, "You can't win it here, but you definitely can lose it."
There are 3 training runs in Lake Louise which seems like a ton of time to figure things out. But teams work hard to get the line right on day one. At least as close to perfect as possible to try to adjust for the next day. With 7 cameras on the hill during training, the US Ski Team staff will be knitting video camera views together to watch full runs of each athlete as well as everyone else who was top 3 in any split. Or run winners. So after everyone gets back to the hotel, eats lunch (late) and does their dryland and recovery, they sit down to another hour or 2 of video to make a plan for the next day's attempt.
One of the cooler things about Lake Louise is that the girls race on the same track the following week. The FIS and race organizer do some things to change it. They attempt to soften the surface (usually without success) and they set some different gates that control speed in different places on the hill. Maybe they lower the start a little. But it is essentially the same track and Lake Louise is the only place that happens in DH.
I am in Colorado and most of the women's teams are here in Vail. They are here getting ready for the tech starts in Aspen. We had the good fortune to share the hill with Lindsey Vonn, Tanja Poutiainen(FIN), Tina Maze(FIN), Michaela Kirchgasser(AUT) and Kathrin Zettel(AUT) today among other solid World Cuppers. Lindsey had her own space and was fine tuning for the Aspen GS. Maybe testing some skis, ramp angles or mounting points.
Tina trained GS next to us with Sanni Leinonen(FIN), Ana Drev(SLO) and a few others. Tine Maze looked great on the hill. I have seen her ski a lot over the last 8 years and she looked very strong today. Physically as well as technically.
Kirchgasser and Zettel trained slalom and were very solid and relaxed. If they take that kind of skiing into the slalom at Aspen, they will be highly competitive.
And last, Tanja Poutiainen was free skiing on both sets of equipment.
And I want to make a few points about what I saw.
1. She was definitely trying to feel out some canting and ramp issues. The good thing about her is that her service guy speaks German and she speaks Finnish, so they speak English to each other. Much easier for me to understand.
2. When she skied GS she skied in her GS stuff. GS boots, GS poles, GS helmet, etc. When she skied on slalom skis it was the same deal. Slalom boots, slalom helmet, slalom poles. Attention to detail, over and over and over again.
3. She is in a great mood after her good start early but is keeping it all in perspective. Saying things like: "It's a long season." " I only think about the next race." All one day at a time type stuff. Watch out, she is skiing very well, making a very strong weight transfer when free skiing to create bend in the new turning ski with total control of the where and when.
So here we are, 3 days from the first training run of the first DH of the season and 6 days from the Aspen GS. A lot going on to get ready. I am sure the equipment adjustment game is on. The high and dry Colorado snow, even when injected, is totally different from the it's European cousin. Much drier, more easily carvable, better grip. So edges can be less aggressive, cants can be adjusted, ramp angles can change, or even pick a different pair of skis. To adjust for the .01 that gets you the win or into the flip.
More coming! Ladies' Aspen preview should be up by Thursday and the Lake Louise DH should get a preview after training run 2 or 3. Thanks for reading!