My first trip back on snow (after
my injury) was in Chile. It was so
great to be back on snow! I skied
flats only for the first couple of days to make sure that everything was
feeling solid. I was very happy to
be back on snow, skiing again. It snowed quite a bit in Chile so I got so ski
some powder before I was allowed to head into the moguls. I always love a good powder day so it
was great to just get to float around before I stared mogul training
again. I got to ski moguls without
airs, on the fourth through sixth days. It was great to have some days with out
jumping and really just work on turn shape and pole plants. On the seventh day
of skiing, I was allowed to hit the jumps again! It was so fun to be soaring
through the air over snow with skis on my feet again. I was not expecting to be
aloud to do any real tricks the first day of jumping but my coach told me I
could do some 360’s again. It felt
like I was really back after I did that fist 360.
I knew that my knee was feeling
good and I could really start to train hard on the snow again. I was able to do
more each day. I was skiing faster, jumping higher and throwing harder
tricks. I was not expecting to be
throwing my back full in Chile but everything was going really well and my coach
let me throw it on the second to last day of training. It was really great to throw that trick
and get the first one out of the way.
After I got hurt, I was a little scared when I was thinking about
throwing my back full on snow again. I just did not want to be afraid or have
any apprehension when I got to a mogul course to throw full again. Despite my
fear of being afraid, I was not. I was actually less afraid to throw my back
full in the moguls than I was to throw my back layout. I was very pleased with the way my
Chile camp went.
After the Chile camp I headed back
to Park City, UT for some more water ramping and strength training. Then I
headed back to Vail for a couple of days before I headed to Italy to do some
biking.
I had been wanting to go to Italy
for a while, especially since I missed Junior Worlds in Italy this season, so
my parents had planned a nice biking trip to Italy before I would go to
Zermatt. Unfortunately my mom broke her ankle a few weeks before we were going.
It sounded really brutal, she had to be rescued from a really steep hiking
trail and carried down when it was possible. She had a homemade splint made of
newspaper, sticks and duct tape wrapped around her ankle for support. When the
trail was too narrow and steep to carry her she had to hobble down it on one
leg. It did not sound like a fun experience at all. She ended up getting
surgery and was not able to make it on our trip.
My dad and I still headed over to
do some biking, since we already had plane tickets booked. It was a great time but we really missed
my mom. My dad and I rode to a lot of really cool places. We climbed Passo de Stelvio (pictured on right),
it was a long and steep one. We rode around several lakes and over more
mountains. We also did a via
feratta (climbing) course on the Dolomites. It was a great trip.
