Finland 2010

The competition in Finland went really well for me. I got my first top ten at a World Cup event! The course was a difficult course and the first day of training did not really go how I wanted it to. I got a couple of bruises but the second day was much better. I was able to do some top to bottoms with tricks and push through the difficult parts of the course. Comp day was really good for me. It was my first time competing in the dark and it was a really cool experience, I hope it get to do it more. The lighting is much more consistent at night. Getting out of the top air was still difficult during the competition but the rest of my run was solid. I was really excited to be in tenth place after qualifying. I had a better final’s run and stayed in tenth place. The competition was really tight and it was really fun.

Finland is a cool country, the sunrise/sunset was beautiful the day that the clouds cleared out. It was defiantly cold there. The mountain was pretty small and you had to put the bar down on the chair lifts otherwise they would stop the chairlift and yell at you over an intercom on the chairlift tower. The food was a classical European breakfast and they served us some different things at dinner. The fried reindeer was not as good as the grilled reindeer fillet that I had in Åre Sweden last year. I can defiantly say that I tried some interesting combinations with my food and made most of my team question me. I was just trying to eat enough food. The set up in Finland was really nice because there was a gym right next to our rooms so we do some exercises without freezing because it was really cold outside.

Heidi Kloser

Austria 2010

Training in Austria went well. I felt like I was making improvements in with my skiing. I feel so much stronger this year and I am really excited for this first comp in a few days. My comp season starts December 11^th with a World Cup in Ruca Finland.

The mogul course in Austria was fun when we could see it. The course was also really fast! And was good jump training. I was able to do lots of backlayouts, backfulls, and 360’s. All of the strength training from this summer is really paying off.

The View from the mountain was amazing when we could see it. Some days the clouds prohibited us from seeing very much. The course never got much sun because there was a peak blocking the sun from us. It was probability just preparing us for Finland.

While in Austria I also got to experience a bit of their culture. Our team was there during the Krampus day holiday (a day where men dress up in super scary costumes and go around beating people with sticks and other weapons). It is very different than any other holiday I have ever seen but it was a really cool experience.

We decided to go to the parade, where most of the ceremonies take place, and see what it was all about. When we got there, we walked up to the end of the parade and saw an ambulance there just in case. That made it a bit more frightening; then we start to see the creatures walking out of the path and hit people with horsetail whips and sticks. I back up against the wall and try to be unnoticed. We make out way into the crowd and I feel safer behind a line of people. Some of the masked men seem to be relentless with the whipping and some of the others were not as harsh. My teammate Dave DiGravio (the only one wearing a helmet) decided to tease some of them, some times he hot a high-five and other times he got beaten with a stick. I posted a video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/HeidiKloser. We went back to the hotel and later that night I heard some screaming. It was really cool to get to experience their culture like that.

Headed to Europe and China

Im on my way to Europe and China right now and I am super excited. Fall training has been going great. I am really glad that I got knee surgery because my knee feels so much better now. I went out to Park City for a little while after surgery and worked on strength and conditioning. I got a chance to work with Michael my new strength and conditioning coach before I would do my workouts on my own back at home. I got to focus on trampoline and strength before the snow came. I was very bussy with my school work, which is now down to one class. I also got to do some highschool mountain biking and I ended up doing really well and won States. I was really glad that I got the opportunity to do the highschool mountain biking league because I love to compete and ride my bike.

When the snow came and I got to start skiing again. It is always really fun to go skiing! Vail opened up the Golden Peak race arena for ski clubs to train on for the early season, so I was very fortunate to have a mogul lane and a jump to work with. I continued to do my workouts, school work and skiing, which made for a very bussy day. I would come home eat and then want to go to bed. I can feel a difference in my skiing from all of my work over the sumer with the water ramps, trampolines, and all of the strength and conditioning. My summer and fall were great and I hope the winter is too.

Heidi Kloser

Rookie of Year Kloser Travels to Train

Heidi Kloser soars off the second air at the Killington NorAm in February.

PARK CITY, UT (Aug. 18) – 2010 Rookie of the Year, Heidi Kloser (Vail, CO) has been busy this summer, splitting her time between Lake Placid, NY and Park City. Kloser has dedicated her summer to flying high at the Lake Placid and Utah Olympic Park water ramps.

Kloser was named to the U.S. Moguls Team in December 2009 after qualifying at the 2010 selection events. Kloser kept the momentum going, earning four World Cup starts in the 2009-10 season. She made her mark on the circuit, qualifying for the finals in three out of the four World Cup starts. Kloser's impressive first season paid off when she was recognized as the 2010 Rookie of the Year recipient in March at the World Cup in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

"I found out that I had won the award when I was lying in bed. I just had the stomach flu for a day," said Kloser. "That was pretty exciting and not expected at all. It made me feel like I can do really well in the World Cups and working hard will pay off."

Kloser made a three week move to Lake Placid to train with Wes Preston, a member of the notable moguls and aerials Preston family. Preston also worked with Kloser's teammate, Olympic gold medalist Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT). While on the east coast, she focused on perfecting her take-off and dialing in on tricks such as back lay outs and back Fulls.

"She has a bright future and has worked really hard to get to this point," said Head Coach Scott Rawles. "She went out to Lake Placid and worked with Wes Preston, who helps Hannah [Kearney] when she's jumping there. She trained with him in between camps in Park City, so she's had a really busy summer."

"At Lake Placid there weren't as many average skiers that come to just jump for the day or two, and the workout facilities are a little bit different," said Kloser. "The Utah Olympic Park has a lot more water ramps and Lake Placid's ramps were nice because there weren't many people there."

While in Park City, Kloser took full advantage of the Utah Olympic Park, spending a lot of time jumping with teammates. She has also been packing on the miles at the Center of Excellence's trampolines, as well as utilizing the state-of-the-art weights and gym equipment.

Although her summer has been jam-packed, Kloser still found time to squeeze in a family vacation in between her trips to Lake Placid and Park City.

"I went to Lake Powell this summer for a couple days with my family," said Kloser. We swam and kayaked."

Kloser joined the Team down under in Australia for an on-snow camp at Perisher in August.

http://www.usskiteam.com/freestyle/news?storyId=2887

Summer

So far this summer I have been doing a lot of training. First I went out to Park City Utah, and did some on snow and strength training. I went home for a couple of days and then headed back out to Utah. I went out to Park City to do some water ramping at a U.S. Ski Team water ramping camp. I also went out to the Center of Excellence and did lots of strength training while I was out there. I had a U.S. Ski Team rookie camp in Park City the next week so I stayed out there and continued water ramping and strength training until the rookie camp started. After that was over I flew out to Lake Placid and I am going to be training at the water ramps here for a while. I did a bunch of water ramping today and worked on mostly layouts and 360's it was a good day of training. I also got my bike today and just put it together. It will be nice to have a bike here for transportation.

World Cup Finals

I just got back from Europe. I had a really successful trip. I got 13th at both events in Sweden and another 13th in Spain. The day before the comp in Sierra Nevada I got the stomach flu. I was really weak and had not eaten more than a piece of bread for breakfast. It was really difficult to find the energy to compete, but I really wanted to. The conditions went really bad that morning and you could not see anything. When I was standing up top of the course right before my run I had to do a double take to make sure I was in the right line. I talked to other competitors and they said they also had a hard time making sure they were in the right line. I landed the top air and made a couple of turns and could not see any thing, I dug my tip into a mogul and went flying over my head. I finished my run and made it to finals since the conditions were so bad enough other skiers had bad runs too. Finals went a little better, I made some mistakes on my airs, but I skied really fast. I made some big turns out of top air and I came into bottom faster than I had in training an went really big on my Back flip and almost fell. I got FIS Rookie of the Year for the World Cup. I got this huge crystal trophy. Thankfully, I also got a metal suitcase with it to bring it home. This season was a great season for me. I made the US ski team at US selections with a 4th and a 2nd place. I got 8th at the Gold Cup in Steamboat, I got 3rd, 2nd, and two 1st at Nor-Am's this year which gave me the over all Nor-Am title. I got 16th at my first world cup, and 13th at four of the others. I made the finals 5/6 times at world cups. This year has been my best year ever for skiing so far. Thanks for following me and cheering me on.

Spain, Sierra Nevada

Yesterday was a travel day to Spain. It was a long day for not traveling that far. My bags did not arrive when I did, but one of my teammates was coming in later that evening so I ended up getting them by the end of the day. While I was waiting I got to go to the beach of Malaga. It was cool to be able to go the the beach and the mountains in the same day. Spain is really pretty, the roads in Malaga all have tall palm trees on the sides and then the crazy Europeans driving. The roundabouts here are kind of funny, because they have stop lights in them. (I thought that the roundabouts worked because you don't have to stop in the middle, guess I was wrong). We walked along the beach for a little while, and came to this outdoor exercise area. It was like play ground equipment for exercise. I tried everything out, it was really funny because people were seriously using it, even though there was hardly any resistance on it. We went to a little Pizzeria on the side of the road and ate some good pizza. European pizzas are delicious. So far the food in Spain is really good. After we walked around Malaga we headed back to the airport. It was a little tricky finding the right roads around there, because the road system is crazy. We went to the air port picked up my bags, and my teammate. We headed out for Sierra Nevada. I got some pretty cool pictures of Spain.
Today we trained at Sierra Nevada. It is really nice and sunny here, there was not a cloud in the sky today, so we could see really far. It is beautiful up here you can see forever. The top of the mountain is really windy, so the snow is not slushy. It is actually pretty dry here. The course was really hard underneath all of the wind blown snow that softened it up. The turns are really abrupt, and the jumps have lots of drop. It feels like you are going really slow into them, but you actually get a lot of air. I took a back flip to my back today, because I thought I was going to small. The course should be better tomorrow, because they are going to shape the jumps better and it usually gets better after the course gets skied.

Traveling to Europe

Yesterday was a long day of traveling. I got a bout three hours of sleep in 24hours. The worst part of that is waiting till it is a reasionable time to go to bed. The flight was filled with lots of crying babies, and I was in the middle on a full airplane from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. I got to go through a lot of places I have never been before.
The mountain is pretty cool, the snow is not great here because it is raining right now. Today there was a bit of fresh snow on top of some icy snow. It got pretty warm up so the snow got sticky today. The jumps on the course are pretty flat coming into them, but the middle is a descent pitch. The turns are really close together, and you have to go straight for a while if you want to get off the airs with good air. The jumps are pretty flat so hopefully they will put more up on them. I am really happy/excited to be here right now.

VICTORY !

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Vail freestyle skier Heidi Kloser, 17, is making this moguls thing look easy. It isn't that easy in reality. The state of Kloser's ribs is a testament to that fact.

Kloser, a Ski and Snowboard Club athlete, overcame a rib-rattling crash Thursday to win Friday's Nor-Am dual moguls in Steamboat Springs. With the win, she captured the 2009-10 Nor-Am overall moguls crown and a spot on the World Cup tour for its final three events of the season.

“I didn't know at first. I figured I was first or second in the standings,” Kloser said. “I wasn't completely sure until we were waiting for awards. Scott Rawles told me.”

Rawles is the head moguls coach of the U.S. Ski Team, and when he delivered the news, Kloser's reaction was rather matter-of-fact.

“I guess I wasn't really surprised,” she said. “I had good results. I was really happy.”

In fairness, Kloser has had a matter-of-fact approach to this season, which has been made up of a lot of firsts. In December, she made the U.S. Freestyle C-Team by finishing second in a FIS race in Winter Park.

While the tour was in the United States, Kloser competed on the World Cup level, making the finals — top 16 — in two of her three starts. As the World Cup went back to Europe and took a break for the Olympics, Kloser returned to Nor-Am competition. All she did there was rattle off six top-10 finishes including a win in individual moguls in Apex, British Columbia, last Saturday.

She took the Nor-Am moguls lead into the Thursday's event, but a mistake on Top Air, the jump on the upper half of Steamboat's mogul course, put her prospects in severe danger.

“I just got a little caught out, and stepped on my skis coming down,” Kloser said. “I crashed pretty hard. I had to finish the run. Once I finished the run, I realized what happened.”

She finished 24th Thursday, dropping down to fourth in the Nor-Am points. More importantly, Kloser had dislodged some of her ribs. She went to physical therapy, became one with the ice pack and took two Advils.

Kloser got her ribs taped up Friday morning and went straight to qualifications for the dual moguls — there was no time for a regular run to see how she would react.

“I was excited and ready to race today,” Kloser said. “It still hurt, but it was all right.”

Kloser breezed through qualifying and then worked her way through the 16-racer bracket. She met up with Canada's Chelsea Hentituk in the finals, and it was revenge time. Hentituk had beaten Kloser in the dual-moguls semifinals in Apex on Sunday.

Kloser got through Top Air cleanly against Hentituk, but still trailed. Kloser passed the Canadian in the middle section of the course and never looked back.

“I didn't want her to get anything on me,” Kloser said. “I was just trying to have clean air and have a clean exit, and was just keeping my feet together through the moguls and had my eyes up.”

With the win, Kloser has a spot in next week's moguls and dual moguls events in Are Sweden, with a stop in Sierra Nevada, Spain, on March 18. After that, it's off to nationals in Squaw Valley Calif.

Kloser said her goal for the World Cup events is to make the finals out of qualifying and see what points she can accumulate. She sits at No. 32 in the world after her three previous World Cup events.

The U.S. Freeskiing Team will make decisions later this year as far as reorganizing its ranks, but the Nor-Am overall moguls win as well as future World Cup and nationals finishes could help Kloser make her case.

“Moving up is always nice,” Kloser said. “I don't know if it will happen this year, but you always hope.”

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.

Kloser 13th at Lake Placid

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. Friday Jan. 22nd — The United States women went 1-2-3-4 in Thursday's World Cup moguls event Thursday in Lake Placid, N.Y.

“And seventh and 13th,” added Vail's Heidi Kloser.

Right you are, young lady. Kloser, 17 years old , finished 13th, making a trip to the finals of a World Cup event for the second time in her third career start Thursday. After taking 16th in Deer Valley, Utah, last week, 13th is new best in a very short, but successful career for Kloser.

“I don't know. I felt I was skiing well enough,” she said. “I'm not really surprised. I'm just happy.”

Not only was it exciting that Kloser was in the points again for the second time in as many weeks, but that she did so in Lake Placid. Teams are required to submit their Olympic rosters on Monday for Vancouver, British Columbia, and while the 2010 Games are not on the radar for Kloser, she was skiing against fellow racers trying to pile on to their point totals.

“You could tell people were stressed out,” Kloser said. “There were people trying to make their Olympic teams. I was treating it as just another competition.”

It was just another competition for Kloser, but the course and the snow were different — flatter and icier than she was used to — so she had to adjust. Getting speed going into her opening back full (a back flip with a full twist) was a little harder.

“It was a lot flatter and kind of icy hard. It was a challenge,” Kloser said. “The flatter run made the moguls drop off a little more.”

She ended her first run with her traditional back flip- X (crossing her skis while inverted) , finishing the first round in 14th, with two spots to spare for moving on to the finals. Each skier skis a qualifying run and the top 16 women and men advance on in there respective categories. In Freestyle skiing the women ski the same course as the men. The course has several lane options that the skiers choose from, they are typically 200 plus meters in length with a slope pitch of 25 degrees or more and include two aerial jumps in the length of the course. Having a little help perhaps from skiing third in the finals, the skiers start the finals in reverse order of how they qualified, Kloser's second run was 2 seconds faster that her first, and that helped her execute her game plan better. In her qualifying round, she was the last skier on the start list to ski and the course had deteriorated as skier after skier came down.

While Hannah Kearney, Shannon Barhrke, Heather McPhie stormed the podium, Kloser in just her third World Cup competition, nudged herself up two spots from 34th to 32nd in the world.

World Cup moguls are done until after the Olympics. The next stop is Inawshiro, Japan, in March. Kloser, as a younger skier on the national team, will understandably not likely make that trip. She'll be working on her international points in Nor-Am races in both the US and Canada.

Kloser will be skiing at this year's first two Nor-Am competitions, back in Lake Placid on Jan. 28, and then heads to Killington, Vt., in early February.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or via cfreud@vaildaily.com. Photo by Dan Campbell http://www.dancampbellphotography.com/.

VAIL DAILY REPORT 1-15-10

DEER VALLEY, Utah — Welcome to The Big Show, kid.

Yet Vail's Heidi Kloser, 17, didn't exactly seemed fazed by her first World Cup start. The moguls skier made the finals in her debut, finishing 16th out of 44 of the world's best, and earning her first World Cup points in Deer Valley, Utah, on Thursday.

“It was really super exciting. I was super happy because not that many people do that (their first time),” Kloser said. “I just tried to stay focused and keep doing what I know how to do.”

Skiing 28th in the preliminaries, she pulled a back full, which is back flip with a twist on the end. She said she had good speed during the middle portion of the course and finished with her traditional backwards iron cross.

Surprisingly, Kloser said she didn't feel too nervous. She knew her new teammates on the U.S. Team and wasn't overly-awed to see other skiers from around the world. Her focus before the race was to go through her normal routine “to get my muscles working.”

Kloser performed the same routine in the finals and she felt that she was going with more air and speed, but she was a little behind on her skis coming out of the back full and fell on the mogul in the middle of the course. Nevertheless, it was not only a great experience, but she picked 15 points and now has a world ranking (No. 34) in moguls.

American Heather McPhee won the women's event, while Australia's Dale Begg-Smith was tops for the men.

Kloser competes again in Deer Valley on Saturday and then head to Lake Placid, N.Y., as her young World Cup Career continues.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com. Photo by Dan Campbell http://www.dancampbellphotography.com/.

Fan Report from Deer Valley, Utah

Heidi grabbed 15 World Cup Points in the first of two individual bumps events this week at Deer Valley. She threw a full twisting back flip and an Iron Cross back flip during her run. The next event is Saturday afternoon, with an evening final, so we'll give you updates ASAP. On the same day brother Christian and dad Mike are competing at the USAT Winter Triathlon Championships just 20 minutes away at Soldier Hollow so good luck to all and thanks to Emily for keeping track of all the logistics! Special thanks to Dan Campbell for his great photos - visit his site at http://www.dancampbellphotography.com/. More soon!

Heidi gets a spot on the US Freestyle Ski Team

Heidi at the US Ski Team selection event at Winter Park. This is the run that won her a spot on the team.