Bariloche and The Frey

After 2 long bus rides we arrived in Bariloche to pouring rain. Bariloche is a very cool hip city along a large lake called Lago Nahuel Huapi. Looking at the weather forecast the only clear day looked like the next day. It poured rain the entire evening, which meant it could be snowing up high. The next morning we boarded a crowded bus up to the ski area of Cerro Catedral. The ski area itself was very crowded and did not have a ton of terrain, we were able to find some good powder though! The mountains that lay in back all around Catedral were a different story. Huge peaks with beautiful spires lay all around. We had a fun ski day in the sun and then headed back to Bariloche, our main goal with coming to this area was hopefully to ski near those peaks and spires by going to stay at Refugio Frey. The weather again did not look promising and we were stuck hanging around the city for 3 days hoping the weather would break before we had to head back to Santiago.

After 4 days we received our window, we were a little concerned about all the precipitation in the past three days that we decided to take the hiking trail to reach the hut. We strapped our skis to our packs just bringing a sleeping bag and some pesos and set out on an adventure. We walked through mud and rivers that had been created by all the rain. Eventually after 3 hours of hiking with our skis and boots on our backs we were able to put our skis on and start skiinning. After only a few minutes of skiinning the trail become very thick with some type of bushes that later I came to know a little to well. I lost the trail and spent the next 2 hours battling my way up through the thickest trees and bushes I had ever seen. Finally arriving at the Frey I was welcomed by Basco the hut caretaker, Emilio the cat and Morgan who thankfully had found the trail.

The Frey looks out onto an amazing lake with tons of little couloirs and spires in the background. It was so nice to have a cold beer and a hot meal in the middle of this beautiful place! The next day the weather was beautiful and we set out to check the snow condtions and ski some couloirs. The snow was a little interesting, but we were able to ski some fun lines before it heated up. We met up with a canadian couple that were super fun to ski with and skied 3 really fun lines that day, two of them being couloirs. We arrived back at the hut after an awesome day and besides two other peoople that came to the hut that night we had the place to ourselves. The next morning we had to get back Bariloche so we skied one last couloir early before breakfast. It was my favorite one of the trip, it had all kinds of snow conditions, it was steep and had a small crux in the middle. We then made the 2/1/2 hour skin out to the ski area and back to Bariloche. What an amazing trip and cant wait to go back and explore more in that area!

Portillo

Today was my second day skiing in Portillo and it has been awesome to ski without pain. This place is so beautiful and you just feel at home in the mountains being here. I have been taking a few photos with Jonathan Selkowitz, who is an amazing photographer and just working on getting back onto my feet again. The womens US Ski Team is here training, including Lindsey Vonn and this being her debut back on snow since her injury. It is very motivating for me to be skiing around with the girls I grew up racing with even though we are on an entire different level now, their skiing and hard work are inspiring to me. I can still feel my leg on hardapack, but this is the first time I feel like I have skied without pain in a few years. The last couple years have been tough from my broken fibula to my shoudler dislocating when I wave to someone to the worst injury I have ever had which was my broken tib/fib. Last season I thought I was healed, but now that I am skiing since the first time since March 1st I realize wow, this is what it feels like to have no pain! It is amazing how the mind can trick you into thinking that you are okay. Now I am working on gaining back my confidence in my skiing thatI felt I lost last season. This is the first ski trip I have ever done without competing or racing and it feels so good not to have the pressures of having to perform. I simply get to ski for myself and it feels great. Thanks to Rob at Mountain Athlete again for making me feel strong again. Also Arcteryx, Head, Gu, Scott, Probar and JHMR for supporting me in my skiing endeavers! Next stop Bariloche, Argentina!

2012/2013 Season of fun, travel and injuries!

My first comp back! Revelstoke!

This winter has been full of challenges for me with skiing to running my own business to injuries. I have not really been able to ski like myself the entire season, but ever since I broke my tib/fib mountain biking it has been a goal of mine  to compete on the first unified Freeride World Tour. Coming off of winning the 2012 Freeskiing World Tour, I felt that I had a lot of  pressure to withold my reputation as a world champion. The only problem was that in the past 8 months since I won the world tour I had broken my Tibula and Fibula about as bad as I could break it. I have a bunch of screws and a rod in my leg. I then had to have shoulder surgery for a dislocation problem that has been haunting me for a couple years. Since enduring all these injuries my only goal was to be able to compete again and hopefully ski in the championships in Verbier. The year proved to be more challenging than I thought, my leg constantly ached and I would get shin bang very easily. I could feel the rod move every once in a while and all of this obviously played with my confidence. At the same time I decided to open my own gym, which opened Dec 3rd. This was very exciting but took up all my time and energy when I was home and it made it hard to focus 100% on my skiing and when I was traveling to ski I was always worried about the gym. Overall I had a very amazing year of skiing and competing, I did not do as well as I would have liked but ended up 6th on the Freeride World Tour.  I did not get to ski in Verbier due to injuring my leg again in a fall in Fieberbrunn. I am hoping it will recover quickly and it was pretty heartbreaking not to be able to ski in the chamionships. This year was a great learning experience and I am still hoping my fire in my skiing will return, because this year everytime I left the start gate I had a hard time skiing aggressively. I am looking forward to hopefully doing some skiing in the Tetons this spring and focusing on the gym! 

Good Friends met through the season! Eva and I, she is recovering from torn ACL

My leg after the fall in Austria, no broken bones so that is good! Probably just was not quite ready for impact!

Fieberbrunn Austria FWT!!

After being in Austria for a week, the weather finally cooperated and it went blue. The venue looked beautiful with the new snow and the morning light looked gorgeous. I had the top of my line pretty dialed, but was not totally sure about my lower section. The guides had said that the snow was very deep, but not a lot of snow in certain sections. As I left the start gate I felt confident and felt that my normal self had finally returned and I was ready to ski aggressively. My mom, her friends and Brian were here for support which helped my confidence. My top section was deep powder and I think I even got a few faceshots. I then entered into the bottom section and as soon as I was in the air I could see that the ending was going to be like landing in a parking lot. I could not believe that the snow was so different and not even an inch of snow lay in my landing. As soon as I hit felt my poor right leg jam forward and then back, it felt as though it had exploded again. I got up and skied to the finish as soon as I could but my leg was killing me. I do not think it is anything serious, but at the moment I have a huge bump and I can barely walk. I am hoping for the best, but the pain is tough to handle. I am so bummed, because I was just starting to finally feel strong again. I am still hoping that it could heal by Verbier, but now I just want to be able to ski the rest of the season. It was a fun day of competing and only a few injuries. The women skied incredibly strong again and it is really awesome to see the ladies uping the game!

Austria!

Austria so far has been a blast, I love trying all the food and seeing the sights. We arrived last Thursday and we were supposed to compete on Saturday. The weather and the conditions have put us on standby. When we went to the venue it was incredibly punchy and icy snow, which we all agreed is the worst for hitting airs and trying to ski to our potential. Fieberbrunn has some really fun terrain and is a very quiet town in Austria. The people are very nice and very excited to have our event. My mom and her two friends have been here so we did some exploring we went to Salzburg and visited the castle, a beautiful church and had a very traditional Austrian meal. Monday we skied Kitzbuel which is a great town and very impressive ski area. The last run of the day we skied the run where the Hahnenkamm is held and that was amazing to see! Just imagining it as a downhill course gave me goosebumps. There is ton of terrain changes and it is a very long downhill. I am now back in Fieberbrunn awaiting the competition. It gives me some time to get some work done for the gym and just ski! Hopefully are competition will happen Saturday!

Moving on up, but not quite enough!

This season has been a little rough for me just trying to get my confidence back, but that is not an excuse I am skiing the best that I can ski right now. Today I had a lot of fun with my line and I thought it was solid. Last year I won the competition here and thought it would be really fun to ski my same line, but try and do it better. The conditions this year were less than ideal and I knew I needed to ski accordingly, but I felt confident and ready! Then people in front of me started to crash so I figured I would take it just a tad slower. I entered into the top a bit hot and got knocked off my edges and skied slower than I wanted to, after that I thought I brought it back. I was happy with my skiing and my speed on the bottom, but it was only good enough for 4th, which I am happy with, but not what I would like!! The girls skied well today and I am stoked for every single one of them! I just feel that I have taken a step back in my skiing not a step forward. I am not giving up and hopefully I will get it in one of the next 2 competitions! Next week is the Austrian stop so I am looking forward to that competition. I love the freesking family and pushing myself and I have to realize why I do this and hold onto that! Going out of the start gate is already a true feat. So psyched for Lars winning the boys as well! A fun day of competing.

Save a Horse Ride a Cowgirl!

skinning in front of Lone Peak

I recently was asked to film with Warren Miller for the Montana segment. I could not believe that I  was being invited to ski with a company that I had been watching their movies for years! The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind, I flew home from Europe Sunday worked all day at the gym on Monday and arrived in Bozeman late Monday night. ( need to take advantage of all opportunities!) Tuesday started the next succession of early mornings and long days of filming. The first day we skied at Bridger and just milked some of the trees and tighter lines, because the weather and light was not ideal for shooting. The next two days we spent in Beehive Basin, which is a beautiful touring area near Big Sky. On the first day of Beehive  I woke up still fighting a small cold, which makes it hard to have  the full energy to ski and skin. I forgot my transceiver and had to come back to the hotel and get it and try to catch up with the rest of the team. I could not believe it I was already blowing it on my first shoot! We did not communicate very well and I came back and started skinning up into the wrong area. After and hour of touring I could not find the group and the photographer Pascal had to come meet me so I could get to where everyone was skiing. This was not a good start for me, junk show! We filmed in the trees, which made for beautiful artistic shots in the powder, but it was hard to get the exact shot that they wanted. We filmed two full days in the trees and I think out of 10 shots, I maybe got one right. I was not sure what I was doing so wrong, I have not done a lot of filming so this has been a great learning experience, but also very challenging for me. It is amazing to see how hard the the director Chris Patterson, his camera man Logan and Pascal the photographer work. They are incredibly hard workers and their attitudes match. As athletes our typical day involved taking our skins on and off probably 6 to 7 times and skinning back up and skiing a few turns.

Elyse getting some air time!

Chris doing what he does best!

Today we did a lifestyle shot, which involved a bit of acting, or should I say singing. We used Keely's dads old truck a 1974 Dodge and loaded all of our stuff up into it and Chris shot us driving up and down the road singing the Big and Rich song Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy. Since we were three ladies we changed the lyrics to save a horse ride a cowgirl! This was very fun to see the production that goes into shooting a small segment like this. Chris a few times was hanging out of the back of the truck as we drove behind another shot involved mounting 125,000 dollars worth of camera gear on the hood of the truck. We had to sing the Big and Rich song over and over, the good thing is that our voices will not be used just our lip movements! We tried to sing the song the best we could but we are skiers not singers. We changed the lyrics a bit, but here is what we sang over and over. It was an incredibly fun day and it is so fun to work with people that are such professionals! Tomorrow some more skiing at Big Sky! We are hoping for sun!

"I am a thourougbred that is what he said in the back of my truck bed getting buzzed on suds on some back country roads we were flying high fine as wine having ourselves a big n rich time and I was going just as far as he would let me go but his evaluation of my cowgirl reputation had me begging for salvation all night long so I took him out, sang him every Willie Nelson song and we made love and I saddle up my horse and I ride into the city and i make a lot of noise because the boys are so pretty riding up and down broadway on my own my old stud Leroy the boys say save a horse ride a cowgirl!"

Everything is loaded up ready to go!

Play time in Chamonix!

So Surreal!

Silas skiing the Rectilegne!

Looking back up at the waterfall under the Chapeu.

With competition happening on the first day, it gave us a few days to enjoy skiing Chamonix before flying home. Last spring I spent three weeks in Chamonix and had very bad luck with weather and only was able to actually ski  in the high alpine three days. I was hoping for a little better luck in my 4 days, but did not expect much. I ended up having 3 fun days and then the weather decided to come in on the 4th day. I never made it up the Agui di Midi this trip, tried a few times but was closed due to high wind. You definitely need to spend some time in Cham to ski the routes you want!  The mountains have a mind of their own, but when you are able to get up into them they are pretty amazing and you forget that you were shut down for three days. I was able to ski two fun couloirs that I had never skied, the first day we skied at Le Tour and then skied the Chapeau off of the Grand Montet and the next day I skied the Rectilegne with my friend Liz Daley who lives in Chamonix. The Rectilegne was a beautiful couloir about 1000 feet long with a perfect pitch. The couloir dumped us out onto the Mer de Glace and we skied all the way down to Chamonix. It is pretty amazing in Cham when you can ski all the way down, because it is a 7000 foot run. I had a great week met some amazing people and thank you to Shaun Cooke and is amazing family for the hospitality and letting me stay with them!
It has been challenging to run my gym while traveling, but I am so lucky to have some great girls working with me. I realize now that having your own business is not easy and even when traveling it is constant work!! I also just found out I get to film with Warren Miller starting this Tuesday in Big Sky Montana! I am so excited for this opportunity it is something I have always wanted to do since I was a little kid! Next competition Kirkwood, CA on the 27th of February!

Chamonix stop #2

The competition did not pan out the way I wanted it to, but I did receive 5th place which is good to have for points. I was having a very hard time choosing which line I was going to ski and I did not choose between the 2 lines until the start. Usually I know what I want to ski the night before so this was a little different than the normal routine. After Revelstoke, crashing and having tough conditions my confidence had taken a big dive. It is amazing how mental this sport it! This has already been a tough start to the year coming back from 2 injuries and trying pick up where I left off at the end of the season last year. The decision was to go with my plan A, which was a steep chute with only one air with a very fast landing. I knew that one air was not going to be enough unless I skied it with no hesitation. I have fealt a lot of pressure as well being one of the reigning world tour champions and Christine who is the champion from the Europe tour is having an amazing season winning the first 2 stops thus far. It is very hard to not let all that get into your mind!
As I left the start gate my nerves were far to high and I was not my normal charging self from the gate. I entered into my section and it was very steep, tight and chopped up! I tried to ski fluidly thorough, but got caught up more than I thought and hesitated a bit to much for only having one small air. Choosing this line and not skiing it well definitely cost me chance at the podium. It does give me some fire and motivation for the next event, which is in Kirkwood Ca at the end of February. I still had a really good time on my run and competing in Chamonix is a pretty amazing opportunity!

Chamonix stop #2 tomorrow!!!

After being home for just 10 days working at the gym and coaching the womens camp in Jackson I flew to Chamonix yesterday for the second stop on the Freeride World and we are competing tomorrow! I love Chamonix and the energy, everyone in this town loves skiing and they are so supportive of our event. The face we are skiing has a few options, but the ladies once again have to compete last so that makes it tough for line choices. There are a lot of options though and I am just excited to ski! The bib draw was tonight in the center of Chamonix, I am running 7th for the ladies and am happy with my start position. After my crash in Revelstoke I am not sure if my confidence is great, but getting a crash out of the way definitely helps! Tomorrow the competition will be live at 9 am Euro time, girls are set to go at 1230 pm, which will be 430am mountain USA. Thank you Head, Scott, Mountain Athlete ,JHMR and all my sponsors for your support! Also thank you to all my family, friends and clients!

Sometimes things do not go as planned!

Beautiful viewing area!!

The "Mac Daddy evil"

The ladies scoping their line

watch out we are mean fighting machines!

Eva and I

This morning the light shown over the Mac Daddy and it looked like the most perfect conditions one could ask for! That was until 50 competitors skied in front of you! I was only able to see the mens snowboarding and everything looked awesome, I saw the men ski my air and it looked like an amazing powder landing. I had toned my line down a little from last year and felt confident about the air, but should have realized that the snow had setup over the last couple of hours. I am not sure why the ski girls had to ski in the worst possible conditions and when there was only a handful of us that would not leave much of a mark on the venue. I would much rather deal with slough management then what all the ladies had to deal with today. This was my first time back skiing in competition since 2 injuries the big one being my leg. I was psyched with how I skied, even though the conditions were variable. I thought the landing in my air would be soft, but it was like hitting a concrete trenched out hole. The good thing was that I was okay and my body could take the crash. That was a big thing for me, even though disappointing. I am excited for the next stop Chamonix in 2 weeks! I just continue to learn no matter how many times I go out of the start gate. This was an amazing week of skiing and maybe someday I will get to ski that face in the sun! I so appreciate all the support from my sponsors, my family, my boyfriend and all my friends. Lots of love to everyone.

Live at 920 pst, women around 1 pm pst!

Competition is a go it is bluebird and cold! Tune into freerideworldtour.com. I am dropping 4th for the ski ladies! Thank you everyone for all your support!

Revelstoke competition update!

2013 view of Mac Daddy!

Nat and I inspecting!

The ladies!

I arrived in Revelstoke on Friday after a small detour to do some ice climbing with my boyfriend Brian, which is always a good way to get your mind off the competition! As soon as we arrived here it started to snow and looking at the weather forecast it may not give way to many sunny days. The venue "Mac Daddy" that we are competing on looks good, but needs some light to ski. It is an amazing Alaska style face and once again I am so excited to compete! We are making history in Revelstoke with the first unified tour and I am really excited to be part of this competition. Tonight we had the bib draw and it was really awesome to see the North American riders and the European riders all coming together for the first time and being one team! We all still need to get to know each other even though some of us have competed together for a while. I had an amazing day today skiing at Rogers Pass and doing a bit of filming for our all woman film Hecuba. The competition is on hold, which is tough mentally but I just have to try and relax and enjoy the skiing in the meantime. Thank you to Arcteryx, Head, Mountain Athlete, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and Scott for making it possible for me to be here! Also thank you to my friends, family and all my clients/friends that support Wright Training and myself.

Revelstoke and the tour!

The "Mac Daddy"

The past 6 months have been some of the best, but some of the hardest for me mentally and physically. In early May I broke my tibula in two spots and my fibula in one in a freak mountain bike accident. I was in the hospital for a week and had to have two surgeries and now have a 12 inch rod and some screws in my leg. It made me realize how fast life can change and I feel lucky that is all I had to endure. I was not able to put weight on my leg for over two months and as someone that thrives off outdoor and physical activity it was so tough. I started training at the gym immediately and thanks to robs help I was able to stay as strong as I possibly could for my injury. During this time I decided to focus on my training business and work on building up my clientele. Thanks to my clients, boyfriend, family and friends I was able to stay positive! About a week after my injury I received a phone call from Brian Barlow one of the heads of the Freeride World Tour asking me if I wanted to committ to competing on the first unified tour! This is what I had always wanted , but  here I was sitting with a mangled leg. I could not have even imagine walking down my driveway let alone skiing in a competition. I said yes and that started my recovery and drive to be good to compete by winter!

The top of Mac Daddy!

Jess and I last year waiting for our Heli to the top of the face!

Here I am about 8 months later getting ready to travel to Revelstoke to compete in a couple days! I have been training for this through my leg injury and shoulder surgery, but now that it is here I am  a little nervous. I have been skiing and trying to build up my confidence again, but it has been difficult getting used to this new leg and trusting my body. I will be competing at exactly 8 months since I broke my leg! I just want to go and ski and push myself and enjoy this sport that I love so much! The competition is set for Monday January 7th and will be live.