Saturday: Lake Louise World Cup Men's DH

Today's winner Didier Cuche 

Today was a blast!  Sleeping in a little was very nice; the race started at 11:30 AM.  Lake Louise was a covered by a light fog all during the race, but the weather definitely wasn't bad.  One of my favorite downhillers, Didier Cuche from Switzerland won the DH today.  Bode had a very solid run, and ended up in 9th.  Other top American racers including Marco Sullivan, Travis Ganong, Erik Fischer, and Andrew Weibrecht placed mostly in the 20's and 30's.   The top ten of today's race seemed to be dominated by the Swiss and Austrians--a prediction Jacques Eve and I made before the race!

To view the entire album of today's photos, follow this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/117383304685644049304/LakeLouiseWorldCup2011

Whitefish Head Coach Roy Loman,
Jacques Eve and I at the race today

Bode Miller in finish arena

The distinctive Rundle1 that towers over Banff

Base Lodge at Lake Louise

This 6x6 bull elk was munching down in the middle of
a campground this afternoon

Friday

The 2011 ARC Thanksgiving Camp is over!  All the racers really made the best of their four-and-a-half days on snow, and they should be very proud of their progress.

Skier of the Day: Ruby
Honorable Mentions: Hunter and Gardner
Overall Male: Nevada
Overall Female: Sylvie
GS Rippers: Matt & Stella
Slalom Shredders: Braxton & Ava
Most Improved:  Rylan & Jessica 
Major Breakthroughs: Georgia, Mable, Sylvie, Ruby, Stella, and Sam
Team Captains: Max & Ruby 


Addie Elm wins the "Psych-up Award" for powering through the difficulties involved with recovering from a knee injury.  Last season,  Addie tore her ACL during a race and had to undergo physical rehab and surgery.  She has stayed strong and pushed through her fears of re-injuring her knee, which is extremely difficult to do!  Go Addie!  



videos of today's slalom training will be posted here ASAP...

Tomorrow we are going to spectate the Lake Louise World Cup Downhill.  It's always a blast there; cowbells are ringing, people are cheering, and the racers are awing to the crowd.  Americans Bode Miller and Ted Ligety will be there also.  The great thing about this race is that you can walk right up to the competitors and talk to them, and if you're lucky they will give you their bib!  To the right is a picture of Bode being interviewed last year...

Thursday

"Half the skiing; twice the warmup!"  --Coaches Logan and Roy

Matt Roberts asked this morning if since we were only skiing a half a day, would we only do half the warm-up; Peter quickly threw back: “No”!  Logan and Roy suggested the amount of warm-up ought to vary inversely with the skiing time…half the skiing; twice the warm-up!

Coaches Peter and Logan planning the next day

We trained slalom stubbies from 8 AM to noon today, then headed down after lunch to go for a hike.  The hike took us up Johnston Canyon, a beautiful gorge with high cliffs and frozen ice falls.  Later tonight I will post pictures of the annual Thanksgiving dinner at Elk and Oarsmen in Banff.  Also, if the link to my Picasa web album didn't work on yesterday's post, please give this one a try.

Wednesday

                              "Five minutes early is the new on time"
                                                                            --Sam Kok
Skier of the day:  Sylvie Coston
Honorable Mention skier of the day: Jessica Cassens








view the rest of the videos on youtube here 

About 5 inches of fresh fell overnight on Mt. Norquay and the town of Banff, however it was very wet, and soaked us all morning.  By the afternoon, the weather was much drier, and we ran a full gate GS course.  Everybody got tons of laps in, so with only about 45 minutes left in the day, head coach Peter let us build a jump!  We all got some good air, and Max Haller took quite the spill, which he survived unscathed.  My Dad, Richard Kramer took some in-course photos of all the racers which you can view here on this Picasa web album.

Tuesday

"The best performing athletes have learned to keep their emotions at a very steady level.  When performing well, they control their emotions to keep themselves on an even keel and when their performance is not at their anticipated level they still keep that emotional state positive and working in their favor."    --Peter Maxwell

Skier of the day: Rylan Wilcox

Today, again the group made great progress in their skiing.  In the morning, we broke into groups and did drills, and in the afternoon we ran a stubby GS course.  Tomorrow we will be running a full-gates GS course, and I will have some video clips posted of these rippers slaying the course.

Peter's group in video session

SHOT OF THE DAY:  MATT ROBERTS SHRALPING THE COURSE

The sky was dumping out big snowflakes all day long, and by the time we got on the bus we were all soaked.  

Monday

"What matters is not if you fall down, but how quickly you get up and how hard you try!"
                                                                                               --Alexandra Swoboda

Skier of the day: Braxton Wilcox

The first day of the camp went very well; everybody had smiles on their faces while shredding down the hill.  Weather conditions were clear and beautiful this morning, and after lunch we got a little bit of snow.  Everybody is making great improvements in their skiing so far.  Today we were on slalom skis doing drills, and tomorrow we are moving onto giant slalom skis.  The bus ride up and down the hill are plenty exciting; we saw a huge mule deer buck this morning, and heading down, the road was blocked by a family of mountain sheep.  Also, we have decided to choose a quote of the day for every day of the camp!  Here are some pictures of the first day of camp:
                                                                 

Morning warm-up

Family of mountain sheep

Apres-ski tuning session

Rylan getting a tuning lesson

Morning bus ride

Welcome!

Hello racing families,


Welcome to the Alpine Race Camps blog site!  Roy and I will be keeping you posted here throughout the 2011 Thanksgiving Camp in Banff, Alberta.  Here are some pictures from last year's camp:

Left: Bode Miller at the Lake Louise World Cup Downhill (takes place after the camp).
Right: The finish arena of the Lake Louise World Cup.







Training hill at Norquay.





By Monday, when most of you will be arriving, the temperatures will be in the 20's; very good skiing weather--last year Norquay and Banff were in the -20's: not so nice skiing weather.  Other ski resorts in the area, like Sunshine and Lake Louise are open--so parents that are coming will have the option to ski while the kids are training.

To join the ARC blog mailing list, please submit your email address into the white bar at the top of the page.  the blog will be updated daily including pictures.

Thanks for reading,

Nevada Kramer