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 11th 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.
