Another Knee Surgery Today

Hello everyone. I am writing this post still a little messed up on the pain killers and the post surgery loopiness (so please excuse me if this is a little incoherent).

Everything was going great with my surgery in February after the Olympics, I had a pretty good summer all things considered. I really would have hoped to get some mogul training in this summer but unfortunately that was not on a recommended ACL rehab plan.

Pic of me slacklining this summer 

I was in at the US Ski Team gym in Park City Utah doing physical therapy (rehab) and strength training almost every day this summer. I was also super fortunate and rode my road bike thousands of miles this summer because the weather was so nice and it is a great activity of rehabbing athletes. I think that being able to bike made my legs equal strength faster. I got as strong as I have ever been towards the middle/end of the summer and was feeling very confident in my knee repair.

Pic of me mountain biking this fall

 For most of the summer my activities were fairly limited to gym work with the physical therapists and strength trainers but I was able to go on long road bike rides, hike sometimes, golfing, and rock climbing. Towards the end of the summer I got cleared to mountain bike, and slackline on a low line. It was really nice to have some new activities because as much as I love road biking I was getting a bit sick of it after riding the same 3-4 loops for so many of my miles. It was really fun to be able to mountain bike because there are lots of really fun mtn biking trails in the Park City area. I got strength tested a lot this summer so that we would know where I was at in terms of my recovery. I had some good results and I was able to convince the all of my coaches and medical personal to let me go to Lake Placid, New York and get at least a few days on water ramps to help increase my confidence and make sure that I could do my difficult tricks (being a backfull and cork 7) with the same ease and control as before. Water ramping felt good and really great to be on skis and in the air. I had done about 1000 jumps on the water ramps the summer before the Olympics and this year I got 35. I was super grateful for each jump that I got to take and the confidence it brought.

I also enjoyed some golfing this summer

After Lake Placid I went back to Vail in anticipation of the snow that was soon to come to Colorado and the clearance from my Dr's. and the US Ski Team to start skiing again. My knee was feeling great, I was strong and I felt like I had great control. I rarely even thought about the knee besides the constant reminder with the discomfort to some of my leg muscles that my knee brace was causing. I started skiing moguls about two weeks after I started skiing, and was able to start a jumping progression after about three plus weeks of skiing moguls and skiing full sections of moguls at a somewhat decent speed.

One of my first days on snow this year

Holding up Joe doing a cork 7

I got a few opportunities to coach some Colorado kids around Christmas while I was waiting for some more formal training from the ski team. I coached some kids in Vail before Christmas and after I coached some Aspen kids because I was over there to visit my grandparents and the rest of my family for Christmas. I really enjoy coaching the kids as long as they are willing to try and have a good attitude. I don't really have the patience for the ones that just stand there all day.
Once I was done with coaching for the Christmas camps, I headed out to Park City for some training for the World Cup that is happening tomorrow and on Saturday. I was feeling great and possibly was going to compete in the Deer Valley World Cup. I was going to compete in World Champs that are in Austria next week. I got to Park City and did a few days of training at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) and it got really cold. I was planning on throwing my first backfulls of the season during one of the training days at the UOP but didn't feel like doing it in the bitter cold. I just stuck to some layouts and was feeling very confident with those and they were looking good.
We had a day off because most of my teammates were heading to Calgary for the second World Cup of the season, and I rested that day but went and free skied at the Canyons the next day because I did not feel like taking two days off. It was still brutally cold and I could not find anyone to go skiing with so I went by myself. It was pretty fun but I felt like I was stuck on the more boring trails that were groomed and had snow making because the mountain was pretty bare. I did try to venture off to some of the runs with natural snow that looked pretty fun but I hit a lot of rocks. I think it would be fun to check that mountain out when it has a bit more snow on it.
Since I was not able to compete at Calgary, I was training on the Deer Valley course with the nor-am crew on the ski team. The course was looking pretty sweet this year, they got rid of the big water fall drop into the top air which made the top section look flatter and less intimidating. I was really excited for when the rest of the world cup skiers would get there because the course needed more depth in the turns. The volunteers had just built the course, they had done an excellent job with it but it just needed traffic on it to feel like the normal DV course to me because it is usually super deep. During the last day of unofficial training for me I took a pretty hard landing on the top air on a back flip and felt like I bruised the bone on my knee again. I skied over to the side of the course and had to take about a minute to regroup and take some breaths because that was the most my knee had hurt in a while. I did a miniature replay and self assessment and came to the conclusion that I had not heard any pops so my ACL was probably still okay but I had still had a hard landing that could have caused some problems especially bone damage. I took my skis off and hiked back up to the flat spot next to the top air. I talked with my coach, I was definitely freaked out I did not want to have hurt my knee again. I sat there for about five minutes and readjusted my knee brace and decided that it was probably not a good idea to jump anymore that day because if something was wrong it would probably make it worse, even though my knee was feeling okay when I was just standing by the jump. I put my skis back on and I checked out the landing, it did feel a little firm where I had landed, probably was one of the contributing factors to the bone bruise. I skied down about 1/2 of the middle section at a fairly mellow pace just to see how things were feeling. It felt fine, stable and did not hurt. The only time and place it hurt was when I straightened my leg all the way and fired the quad, I felt a little bit of patella tendon pain but not much more than I had been experiencing in the last few months after many days of skiing in a row. I always felt like the knee brace was pulling on my muscles funny and making the patella tendon easily aggravated.
I got to the bottom and went inside checked it out and did not see very much swelling which is usually a good sign when suspecting knee problems. I still wanted to get it checked out by the ski team medical staff. I got it examined and they thought I could have re-torn my ACL so they ordered an MRI for the next morning. I got the MRI and waiting to hear the results was pretty stressful. I was stretching and foam rolling and pacing back and fourth across the team gym for hours. Finally they tell me to go upstairs, we are going to have a conference call with my surgical doc and the mogul team doc along with all of the head mogul coaches and the medical staff at the gym. So when the doc's call in and one of the first things they say was "sorry to hear about your injury" my heart just drops, my knee feel good, injury this can't be good I didn't re-injure it, how could it feel this good and stable and be an injury! So I try to keep my composure together and listen to what they are saying. Okay bone bruise, not surprising the landing felt like that, meniscus tear possibly a bad one, I'm thinking how? It doesn't feel like that and it usually means surgery, and then they say the ACL looks like it is torn and as little as 25% might be left. My heart dropped more and I'm fighting back tears, not again, no I don't want to go through that again. Deer Valley is out for me, World Champs is out for me and depending on how the examination under anesthesia and the scope goes I could be out for the rest of the season. I was told to wait for out team doc to get to Utah on Wednesday and he would feel it and try to see how the ACL feels. I knew that they needed to go in for a scope any way so I was confused as to why I needed to wait for Dr. Goltz to come to Utah when I could drive back to Vail and have the doc who did my last surgery look at it and get to surgery sooner.
My mom flew out from Vail to drive me back to Vail, and we go the okay to just see Dr. Sterett, my surgical doctor in Vail, and he looked at it on Wednesday and thought it felt stable, I could jump single leg no problem, jog no problem and squat no problem so he wanted another MRI. I got it, it looked better but they still wanted to surgery to clean up the meniscus and scar tissue and examine the graft when I was asleep so I couldn't guard it at all with my muscles. I had surgery scheduled for Thursday morning (this morning).
I was definitely nervous and had lots of questions. Dr. Sterrit was amazing, he explained everything, answered my complicated questions and made me feel so comfortable, I trust that man so much. It was definitely a possibility that he would have had to replace the ACL graft again even if it was partially intact. I really as hoping and praying that enough of it would be there if not all of it so I could keep my current ACL. Like I said above it was feeling really good, I was skiing really well and my knee felt stable.

Finding out that I did not have to have my
ACL replaced, I may not look it but I am super excited

The surgery went as well as I possibly could have expected! Just a trim on the meniscus and clean up  of some tissue that was folded forward on the ACL causing some non-painful clicking in the knee that I had noticed for a while. It was actually probably a great thing that they caught this, as upsetting and saddening as it is that I had to get another surgery and miss more competitions. I hope that I am good for the long run now and maybe if everything goes well from here I have hope that I can ski again this year. But not sure of the recovery time yet. I am so thankful to have such a good surgeon who is also an incredibly nice guy that really cares about me.
Thank you Mom for flying to Park City just to turn around and drive back to Vail with me and thank you Dr. Sterett for squeezing me in fixing me up and going out of your way to help me so much. Also thanks to the rest of the staff back in Park City and everyone fore reading this.
I am just so thankful that this is all that it was and I hope to be back on my feet again on no time.

Heidi Kloser - a film by Liberty Mutual

Olympics

First blog about my Olympic experience.

We had an Olympic training camp in Steamboat which was very exciting. I really like the course in Steamboat, it has a good pitch and length so I was very excited to train there to make all of the final preparations before I left for Sochi. While we were in Steamboat we got our Olympic training uniforms. It was so cool to be putting them on for the first time, it started to feel real. 

After the Steamboat training camp we headed to Munich for processing. Processing was so cool, we got to walk through this huge store room in one of the Munich Olympic buildings and go to different stations and get all of our Olympic gear. We got fitted for all of ceremonies, got village wear, and got to choose our Olympic Rings.

The next day we got on a chartered fight from Munich to Sochi. We landed in Sochi, gathered all of our bags, loaded on a bus that took us to the Olympic welcome center. We then unloaded all of our stuff, went through the security, they scanned all of our bags and then they finalized our credentials. We loaded on to another bus that took us up to the Olympic Village. We arrived in a fog and could not see much.

The next morning the fog was gone and the view was beautiful. The mountains here are incredible, they start near sea level and just shoot up.

We also got a tour of the village. It is really cool, they have a game room, a movie area, a gift shop, a night club/reading room, a gym, a cafeteria and lots of buildings for the teams to stay.

For Immediate Release

Vail and Beaver Creeks’ Heidi Kloser Named to 2014 Olympic Team

Eagle County Native to Compete in Freestyle Moguls in Sochi, Russia

Boulder, Colo.- Jan. 22, 2014- As the countdown to the 2014 Olympic Opening Ceremonies is less than two weeks away, Heidi Kloser was named to the U.S. Olympic Freestyle Team on Tuesday, a first-time experience for the Vail, Colorado native.

It’s a classic story of parents that inspired their little daughter to dream big. Heidi Kloser grew up in the Vail Valley and started skiing at Beaver Creek and Vail Mountain when she was just a toddler. For most children that’s when they’re learning to walk, but not in Vail where legends are born and hometown pride is the essence of the community.

Heidi was born on a beautiful fall day in Vail while her dad was away racing in the World Mountain Bike Championships in Canada. George Gillett, the owner of Vail at the time, was one of Heidi’s first visitors while she was still in the hospital.

Kloser entered her first mogul competition at age seven, Vail’s Mogul Mania event. Following in her father’s competitive footsteps, Kloser took to the bumps and has been a fixture on the competitive world circuit since her teens. In just four seasons she has earned 14 top-15 finishes in World Cup moguls events, including four in her first season on the circuit, helping her secure the 2010 FIS World Cup women’s moguls Rookie of the Year title. When not traveling the world competing, Kloser continues to call Vail home, perfecting her bump skills while training at Vail and Beaver Creek throughout the winter season.

In the spirit of giving back to the community, Vail Mountain and Beaver Creek Resort have been devoted supporters of Heidi’s dream, by helping fund her success, endless training runs, and incorporating her into their marketing campaigns over the past few years.

“Vail and Beaver Creek Resorts are incredibly proud of Heidi for successfully earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic Freestyle team. We’re looking forward to cheering her on as she goes for the gold in the mogul competition February 6,” said Chris Jarnot, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Vail Mountain.

Heidi’s dedication, training and positive attitude has all paid off. She is currently ranked 2^nd in the U.S. and 4^th in the world going into the Olympic ladies mogul competition in Sochi.

“I am so excited to represent Team USA in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. For me personally, skiing in the Olympics is a chance to inspire so many young women that also have big dreams.” - Heidi Kloser

The ladies mogul competition will begin in Sochi on Feb. 6, with medals being awarded Feb. 8. The American women took home two medals, gold and bronze, four years ago in Vancouver, and Kloser hopes to continue that legacy in Russia next month.

You can follow Heidi Kloser’s behind the scenes experiences of the 2014 Sochi Olympics via:

Website: www.heidikloser.com
Twitter: @HeidiKloser
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heidi.kloser.9

Vail's Kloser gets first World Cup podium

Vail native, moguls skier finishes second in Kreischberg

By John LaConte
Special to the Daily
Vail, CO Colorado

ENLARGE

Heidi Kloser, of Vail, jumps during the women's freestyle World Cup dual moguls skiing competition in Kreischberg, Austria, on Saturday. Kloser placed second.

AP photo

VAIL — When Vail residents Mike and Emily Kloser get an early morning phone call from their daughter Heidi overseas, they never know what to expect.

But in Saturday's 7:30 a.m. call from Austria, they received some of the best news they've ever heard from Heidi — she'd made the podium in a World Cup event.

“This call was one you wake up to and are extremely happy to hear the news,” Mike Kloser said on Saturday afternoon. “We're incredibly excited for Heidi.”

The second-place finish — Kloser's first podium in World Cup competition — came after another top-10 finish last weekend, a seventh-place effort at the season opener in Ruka, Finland.

Kloser told her parents that her outstanding qualifying run, and the Kreischberg course itself (one of the flatter on the circuit), had her feeling good about her chances going into the finals. 

“I qualified second, which is the highest I've ever qualified, so I went into finals really excited,” she said.

Dual moguls World Cup competition pits athletes against each other in a head-to-head format on a jump-and-bump course, with judges scoring the athletes on technical turns, speed and aeriel maneuvers to determine a winner. Some formats have mogul skiers side-by-side only in the final rounds, with a seeding system used to determine those finals, but the format used at Kreischberg on Saturday was similar to NCAA basketball, where competitors were seeded down to a field of 16, followed by four rounds of duals.

Kloser went head-to-head against her teammate Eliza Outtrim in the round of 16, besting her to make it to the round of eight where she defeated the Canadian Chloe Dufour-Lapointe. In the final four, Kloser knocked out Austrian Brittney Cox to qualify second into the final round against teammate Heather McPhie. 

“I had a bit of a sloppy run against Heather, but I'm really happy with my second-place finish,” she said.

McPhie is undefeated in dual moguls so far this season, winning every matchup in Ruka, as well, where she defeated Kloser in the round of eight.

“It was great going into finals with Heidi,” McPhie said after the event. “When I saw her coming up the cat, I couldn't have been more excited for her.”

Moguls coach Garth Hager said the finish was one of the best he's ever seen.

“Both Heather and Heidi were very consistent today in trusting their speed into the bottom jump where they were able to make up ground,” he said. “They trusted their skiing and didn't worry about what anyone else was doing. In doing that they were able to make the bottom as clean and fast as they could.”

McPhie knew that for Kloser, qualifying for finals with a guaranteed podium was a milestone accomplishment for the young skier. McPhie, 28, has eight years seniority on Kloser, who just turned 20 in September. In Ruka, McPhie defeated Kloser in the round of eight

“As soon as I saw her, I told her ‘I'm going to be competitive in about five minutes, but right now I'm so stoked for you,” McPhie said. “The U.S. is killing it right now, and this was a great Christmas present for all of us!”

Kloser, McPhie and the rest of the Americans will get to spend Christmas at home in the U.S., with the European wing of moguls competition over for now.

“We're so excited that Heidi will be here for Christmas,” Mike Kloser said. “She'll work with the Ski Club Vail coaches here during the break and also help coach some of the young athletes.”

Kloser will return to competition Jan. 17 with a World Cup moguls event in Lake Placid, N.Y. 

Thanks to the Vail Daily for the article. 

http://www.vaildaily.com/ARTICLE/20121222/SPORTS/121229943/-1/RSS

Fall Training

After we got back from Switzerland we got a few snow storms and I thought that it would just continue to snow, but it did not. We played a waiting game for a while, got to ski some flats at A-basin for a few days, then Ski and Snowboard Club Vail blew snow on Golden Peak for clubs to train on. They built a short mogul lane with a jump for the mogul skiers, and it was great to have that to train on. I was able to concentrate on a few things that I need to work on in the moguls and jumps as well. It was pretty nice to be at home and get ready for the season, continue strength training and skiing without having to drive all over the place. I also got to bounce tramp at the new acrobatics center at the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy. It is so cool that they have an acrobatics center in a public school! I really wish that they had that room when I went to school there, but fortunately I still get to train there. 

I was hoping that we would get to train on a full course at Wolf Creek ski resort but unfortunately they did not get the kind of snow that they got last year and we had to cancel our camp there. I trained a few more days on Vail before Thanksgiving. I headed over to Aspen on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with my family. We stayed at my grandparents cabin on the backside of Aspen mountain, there was not a much snow there as there normally is this time of year, so we did not get to do all of the activities that we wanted to do. We stayed in Aspen for a few days, and I got to watch the women's alpine world cup. It was great to be there to support my friends on the alpine team and watch them race. I had never been to the women's alpine world cup before, I had seen the men at Birds of Prey, so I was happy that it worked out well and I got to watch them race. 

After Thanksgiving I went back to Vail for a few days, did some more training and decided to head out to Utah for a little team camp that was taking place of the Wolf Creek camp. I got a lot of jumping in at Snowbird and the Utah Olympic Park. It was nice to work with the team coaches and see some of my friends in Utah again. 

I have had great training this fall, and I am really looking forward to the first world cup in Ruka Finland. 

Skiing again

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. 

Injury and Rehab

Getting hurt is always hard, it is hard to stay positive and understand why things like this happen. Sport is rewarding at times and incredibly frustrating at other times. People say that everything happens for a reason but it is hard to see a reason why such hard things have to happen.  In the end my best guess it to make us stronger, and the good things that much better.

The first couple weeks after surgery were a challenge, lots of pain in my knee and a hard time doing anything.  Once the pain and swelling went away it was pretty much the same ting until I could walk again. I would do some aqua jogging and upper body workouts.  Figuring out how to carry the equipment around was always a challenge. I got pretty good at hopping on one leg. After I started to be able to walk my muscle started to come back.

 I went on vacation with my family and it was nice, it has been a while since we went to a beach and it was really fun. We got to do some snorkeling and paddling.  The place we went was really nice, not to many people, it was very pretty and the water was a really comfortable temperature.

After the family vacation I went back to Vail for a little while, did some more upper body workouts and more physical therapy.  I headed out to Utah shortly after. In Utah I worked with the Physical Therapists and the strength coaches at the Center of Excellence.  It took a while but I worked hard and built my muscle back to a good strength.  After I passed my strength tests I was able to water ramp and it was great to put skis on my feet and hit some jumps. 

The Seasion

Skiing this year was awesome. I had such a great time competing, training and hanging out all over the world. I had some of my best results this season and some of my worst.

Going into the season I felt strong and really excited. I got 6th place in Ruka and was super happy with that start to the season and the excitement continued. While we were in Finland we were worried about the lack of snow all around the world. There was much less snow in Finland than there was last year and there was almost no snow in France. We were worried about the event in Meribel begin canceled. Thankfully it got cold enough and a big storm hit the mountains. The first day of training was canceled but we got some good training in. On the comp day it dumped on the course. It was really fun having soft snow there as opposed to last years ice.

Since the event at Meribel was late at night the lifts were closed and we had to take the bus back up to the hotel. Everyone that watched the event wanted to take the bus back up too. I had to wait a couple of buses and they were all super packed. I got jammed up against a seat and my arm was between my ski and the seat and my sirculation was getting cut off. I was in a horizontal position because people were leaning against me and my feet were stuck up agains the stairs so I could not bring my self to a normal standing position. I was relieved when it was finally our stop. After the event in Meribel we headed home for a couple weeks around Christmas. It was nice to spend some time with my family then. I also coached the Vail kids at their Christmas camp. After Christmas we headed off to Canada, Lake Placid and Deer Valley.

Deer Valley was great this year! I was so happy to put down a good run in qualifying. It had been a while since I had a good one and it felt great to finally feel happy with my run. Training for the finals was not exactly what I had expected. I went out of the gate first since no one else wanted to go and I got the jumps with a ton of snow in them. I came up short on a full for the first time and hiked back up to do it again. On the hike up I nearly got run over by one of the boys that was out of control. He took my ski with him so I had to hike back down and get it, then take it back up. The second full was better since there was less snow in the transition and I could carry my speed better. In the gate I was ready to go. My run was great, I had so much fun skiing down that course. The judges rewarded me with third place and I headed back up for the super final. I went a little too big off of top air and could not control my exit and fell. I skied down the rest of the run but it was not what I was hoping for. I ended up 4th and was really happy with the way I skied that night. We had drug testing after the event and it took me so long to get out of there. It was 11:30 by the time I was finally heading back to the condo. I went to physical therapy after that and had my back worked on since I popped a rib out when I fell in training. I can't believe that out PT actually treated me at midnight thanks Doug!

Duals at Deer Valley did not go so well. I caught my edge going into the top air and barely made it off the jump. Did a huge layout and did not land it cause of the unusual takeoff. I fell on bottom air too since I caught my edge on top and just was not having a good day. We headed off to China and Japan a few days later.

We were all trying to be optimistic that China might have been better than last year but I don't know why. It was the same gross hotel and polluted air, lady bugs crawling all over the place spring boards as beds, toilets that don't work. Food that I had no interest in eating and a super long lap time for the course.

Lets just say that we were all relieved to get to Japan. We stayed in Tokyo for a day in-between and It was really cool to see the city. I descided to go with the rest of the girls hoping that we would go see things around the city. But they went shopping ug, I hate shopping. I was at least hopeful that they would only shop for a little while but they took forever. I decided to sit down by the escalator so they would hopefully see me as they walked by. That was short lived cause one of the Japanese security guards came up to me and tried to explain to me that he did not want me sitting there. I could not understand what he was saying at all and he was just smiling and laughing at me and putting his hands in an x. One of my teammates saw this and was just cracking up and taking pictures of me and the security guard.

Finally they are ready to eat lunch and I try to make plans to meat up with the guys since I am so sick of shopping. My phone does not work there so I have to have one of my teammates who has a working phone call the coaches and they tell me to go to the information booth at the train station. They would meat me there but there are tons of information booths the train station. I stood at one for about 25min tried to see if my phone worked but it did not so I went back upstairs. Thankfully I found the girls and they helped me find the others. I was really not even close to them in the huge train station so I was super lucky I ran into the girls again. Once I found the boys we went and saw the Tokyo Tower and it was cool but the top was closed and it was foggy so we could not see that much. We took the train back to the hotel and then we went to dinner at a ninja sushi place. It was cool they had ninjas as waiters and they even had a ninja magician.

The mountain in Japan was cool. They had a huge hotel at the bottom, it was like 1/4 of a mile long and really tall. They got a ton of snow while we were there so the course changed a lot every day. The snow was great but it made it really hard for every one to see athletes, coaches, judges and spectators included.

Summer

This summer has been great! It started with a super fun trip to Europe for mountain biking. Coached by Olympic gold medalist Connie Carpenter. I learned so much from that trip and became a much better biker. It is super cool to be able to see another sport at such a high level. I was surprised at how fast some of those girls are and how technical the courses are. I also got to meet some more awesome people on that trip and learn more about summer sports since I usually participate in winter sports.

After biking in Europe I went out to Park City for physical testing and some water ramping. I left for Lake Placid shortly after that. I worked with another Olympic gold medalist Eric Bergoust. He was a very helpful coach and my jumps were improving a lot with his help. His technical advice helped me to fix some of my problems. I love being in Lake Placid it is a great place to train. The OTC is so convenient, the athletes there are so fun to be around! I feel like I fit in with when I am there. I also love how close everything is. It is easy to focus and get productive training there. The fourth of July was really fun there too! I treaded water for about 45 minutes watching fireworks from the middle of Mirror Lake so fun!

I went back out to Park City after Lake Placid for some more ramping before we took a trip to Mt. Hood. I got my tricks ready to throw on snow again. I also did an aerials water ramp comp. It was a lot different than mogul skiing but it was fun to try out.

Mt. Hood was great. It is nice to ski a bit on a flatter course in the middle of summer just to slow things down and really work on technique. Jumping there was also really good. I figured out what things I still needed to work on when I got back to water ramps. We went on a really pretty hike behind a waterfall there. I also got to ski in my T-shirt and spandex there

which was really nice because it was so hot. It was also really funny to be skiing moguls and jumping with tight clothes. Some extra incentive to do it correctly.

I came back to Park City for some more training. Water ramping, trampoline and strength and conditioning. It has been really good here so far getting a lot of work done on my jumps and getting stronger. I have also been slackling here a lot. It is so much fun! I am defiantly obsessed. Thanks to Gibbon for giving me a line. I love to learn and throw new tricks on and off of my slackline. It is a great way to spend my spare time and my friends really like it too.

I did the show in Park City last week and it was really fun to jump in front of all of those people. The energy in the crowd is great. I love it when people want to come watch what I love to do. It is great to inspire others to try water ramping and skiing. I am doing the show again this week so if any one is in town they should come watch it is really fun.

Over all this summer had been great. I have gotten to be around lots of really inspiring people. I am so happy that I get to call my favorite thing my "job".

Heidi Kloser

New Skills

Thursday morning started out with attempting to do wheelies in the grass. It was fun, I am not very good at doing wheelies but I got up a couple of times and fell shortly after that. When the boys arrived we headed out for a relay ride. After we got warmed up we started the relays, it was a fun way to do interval training. Then we rode around the Black Forest on some cool trails. We headed to the bike park again and played on the obstacles for a while. I have learned how to do so much new stuff this trip. I learned how to ride over logs, teeter-totters and how to jump off of drops. It would have been nice to know how to do this stuff before the Offenburg World Cup but at least I know how to do it now. I still have a lot to learn but hopefully some of my new skills will come in handy on my ride tomorrow. The bike park is fun and by the end of our time there we were pushing our skill levels. Shortly before we left and on our way out we had a couple of crashes. I saw Wesley go off a drop almost had it and her bike jut toppled over her; she got up a little shaken and beaten up and rode down the hill. At the bottom of the hill Alisha and I both fell in the same spot, I rolled out of it but she scraped her knee up. It was hard to stop there with all of the people standing in the way. We took a break ate lunch and then headed out for a second ride in the afternoon. It was a nice easy ride into Freiburg on the bike path and then we turned around. It is crazy here you have watch out for cars on the bike path because they drive on it. They have little roads everywhere; you can just ride up the mountain on the road and then find a super sweet down hill on the way down.

Yesterday we went up a mountain road for about an hour and then found a hut and a field. The hut was closed this time of year but I bet it is packed in the summer. We rode up the field a little ways and found a really cool down hill. My hands started to cramp towards the bottom. The very bottom of the trail had crazy tight switchbacks. We came back changed and headed in to Freiberg. We walked around the city for a while. It was absolutely packed in there because it is a holiday weekend. We went in this really big old church. It was really big and had some cool paintings in it. Out side of the Church was a crape stand. We stopped and got some delicious crapes! We walked back to our meeting spot and then we left some of the girls in Freiberg to get their haircut and take the train back. They said it was a unique experience getting their haircut in a foreign country.

Today we went for a little pre-race ride. Rode some on the single track and then did some short efforts on the road. We rode to the boys house and practiced wheel changes. After that we changed out of our bike clothes we went to the Waffle house and got delicious waffles. Mine had applesauce on it and it was delicious. Most of the others got wild berries and ice cream, it looked really good and I might have to try it tomorrow if we go back. I chopped some potatoes with flimsy knives, seems like my designated job.

Post Race

The race was the hardest mountain bike race I have ever raced in as expected. These girls are so fast. I raced hard, but had some difficulty. My start was not very good, I could not get my foot in my pedal for a couple hundred meters and I had to avoid a pileup at the first corner. So I was pretty far off the back at the hill and I had some catching up to do if I wanted to stay in the race. I passed a girl on the climb and was pretty close to another right before the down hill. I made it over the drops no problem, jut take it at a comfortable speed. I was pushing the speed on some of the other stuff and crashed quite a few times (not to hard, just slow). I got passed back when I was running down one of the technical spots after I crashed. I kept crashing and lost a lot of time, I raced hard but got pulled at 80% on my second lap. I was bummed that I could not finish all of the laps, but also happy that I did not have to run down the technical spots any more. I think that I learned a lot from the race, about how to ride technical stuff and that I race better at the end of the summer when I am in better shape. It was really cool to watch the pro men race and see how fast they were and how they handled the technical stuff.

The next day we went for a nice ride up in the Black Forest (Schwartzwald) we found some fun single track to ride down, it was dry and loose. The down hill was fun and I defiantly think that riding the Offenburg course helped my technical skills and I feel like I am improving each day. We found a little practice park in the forest with some logs, drops and other boards to practice on. It was fun to go there and just practice on that equipment and learn how to handel the stuff in a controlled environment. I think that it helps to be able to practice skill where you feel comfortable. It was nice we also had Heather there to give us some pointers too.

We went out for a pretty long ride with the boys yesterday and got to ride an awesome section of single track up past St. Petersburg along a ridge and by some giant windmills. They may not look that big from far a way and like they are moving slow but they are huge and generating a lot of power. The down hill was loose, turny and dropy. It felt like I was riding stuff similar to the rides in Colorado. I definitely have gotten a lot beter at riding sine I have gotten to Europe and ridden one of the toughest mountain biking courses in the world. I would not have wanted to ride that section if it was in Colorado before I came here. I only fell once on it and it was a silly little mistake. This trip has made me better at riding my bike. We also got to see the skills of Wayne the mechanic when Wesley broke her brake and he fixed it with a camera cord and electrical tape. Very Cool! After the ride it started to rain, which was nice because it has given me some relief from my allergies which have just been killing me this trip. We took some short naps, I stretched and we went to dinner at a pizzeria to celebrate Heathers birthday. I love European pizza!

Today we went for a rainy ride! It is fun to ride in the rain. It looked so cool up in the mountains with all of the mist and the green trees. The trails are not dry any more. On the way up the mountain we saw a black and yellow salamander just standing in the same spot, we rode by and took pictures and it did not move. Our whole group saw it in the same spot just chilling in the middle of the fire road. We also saw lots of huge slugs on the trail, they were really grows if you accidentally rode over them, they exploded and left slug guts all over your wheel. There were also some really big snails on the road too. On the sides of the roads are the cows, sheep, goats, and horses of corse. After our nice rainy ride I hopped in the shower and warned up a bit. We wanted to do some laundry so we drove in the town and tried to find a Laundromat. Apparently the everyone that does not have a washer and drier must do their laundry on Friday from 12-2 because the lady told us that that was the only time they were open for laundry. I walked around in the town after that and tried to find the playground that I had my 3rd birthday at, I had no luck. It was a while ago so some things may have changed. I guess that I cannot rely on my memory from when I was 3 to help me find the playground. I walked around the town a bit more then headed home to stretch and have some dinner.

Check out the other blogs at http://eurocamp2011.wordpress.com

Mountain Biking

I got to pre-ride the world cup course the past couple of days, it is completely different than anything I have aver ridden in my life. It is also way harder. I got to the course and started riding, we came up to the technical sections and stopped to take a look at the stuff. I got pretty scared. They told me to prepare for drops so I went out and rode some drops but nothing like this. I rode down the drops that are pretty big and skinny with multipul drops, just need to keep my hands off the front brakes. The roots here are also really slippery, but not the hardest part. I have to walk some of the course because I am not prepared for this at all. Vail has been a little snowy lately preventing me from doing the training I wanted to do. When I first got out on the coure yesterday I felt like I have never ridden my bike before in my life. I felt a bit more confident today, after I knew what some of the stuff was like, and I knew what I was going to walk down and just needed to find the best way down it. I though I was alright at bike riding until I got here. The other competitors all fly down this stuff with ease, and are super fast. I am just hoping to be able to ride it better than I have been in training, race the best I can and hope that my knee is not hurting to bad. I was really glad that I got to see the juniors race today and see how things were going in the race, and that I was not the only one running down stuff. I have never see a race this big. I am racing tomorrow, no more pre-riding on the course.

Checkout the blog Wesley Geer put together for the trip. http://eurocamp2011.wordpress.com

Start to Summer

After the skiing competitions ended I went back home for a week with Ashley Caldwell. We were lucky and got some nice skiing in that week. The weather was different every day so we got almost every type of snow condition. We even decided to try snowboarding. We probably fell about 20 times getting to the lift from the parking structure. After a few more runs of falling constantly we started to get the hang of it. Snowboarding was fun but I am defiantly a skier. Vail got hit by a huge storm and it was time to hit some huge cornices and rip some powder.

We headed to Charleston to visit Ashley's family and go the beach. It was nice to get some sun this spring since it has been stuck in winter mode in Colorado. We hit the beach and got some pretty awesome sunburns. You need a lot more sunscreen than you think when you used to winter weather. The warm weather was nice but the 85 degree days definitely put a hurt on me. We had some fun slacklining on the beach, playing in the sand and painting our selves with mud.

I came back home, back to winter. Skied some more while the mountain was still open. I went with my family to the desert and we did lots of biking and hiking. I finished up high school and started to train for biking. I got selected to go to Germany with USA cycling to train and race with the U23 team. I get to do a world cup and a racer cup durring my trip. I trained in the gym, on the bike and skinned up Vail mtn some. The amount of snow around this time of year is incredible. It is nearing the end of May and the mountain looks a lot like it does on closing day some years (other than the fact they plowed the roads). The trip to Europe this time should be different and hopefully exciting, it has been a while since I have been to Europe in the Summer. I am excited to race bikes and hopefully get stronger for skiing.

Skiing

I had a good competition in China ending up 10th. I was certainly ready to head home. The travel home was very long and the trip in Europe and China was getting long too. The travel home ended up being 56:30 hours +. That is a record and I hope I never break it. We went from China to Europe to U.S.A. it would have been much niceer to just fly direct from Beijing to the U.S.. I made it home in time for Christmas which was very good because I did not want to be stuck in Europe for Christmas with all of the snow storms. Christmas was nice we stayed at home for the morning, then we drove over to Aspen to see the rest of the family. We went sledding up at my Grandparents cabin.

I coached the kids at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV) for their Christmas Camp. I had a good time working with them. It is great to coach the kids because it reminds you how far you have come and what a little hard work can do. It was also really fun to coach them because I skied some places I had not skied in a couple of years. Skiing the trees and moguls with the kids was really fun.

After I was done coaching I trained on the courses at Vail. I also got the opportunity to work on the airbag. The airbag was great because it is a good way to learn new tricks without having to wait for the summer and water ramps. I got some good training durring the break. I was also happy because I had consistent axes to the gym at SSCV (Center Of Awesomeness). It is really important to go to the gym because strength is a huge part of our sport.

I headed up to Mont Gabrial for a World Cup up here. Unfortunately it did not go very well. I fell after the top air and did not make the finals. I still have a couple of World Cups left over here so hopefully they go better. I am headed to Lake Placid tomorrow and I am really excited to go there. I had a great time at the OTC this summer and I really like it there. After Lake Placid I go to Calgary and I will see where I go from there.

Heidi Kloser

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.