Tag Archives: giant slalom

2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics

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Stunning experiences in Korea but the journey is not over. Back to Austria now and I will be racing again next week in Kranjska Gora! Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and support!! It was unbelievable to walk into the opening ceremony with team NZ and all the other great nations.

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Our first race was scheduled for the 15th so we were able to get in some great training prior to the races, as well as getting used to the time zone and conditions.

Training at Yongpyong
Checking out the start gate
Training
Freezing -20 not to mention chill factor
Awesome Shred!

A number of races were rescheduled due to strong winds with our first race postponed a day. First up was an amazing day for the Super G at Jeongseon – unfortunately made a pit stop near the top and lost my speed.  Managed to save it but unable to pick up those lost seconds.  Giant slalom on the 18th – while I had some great sections I just had too many time costing mistakes to put me in the top 30 which meant I missed the valuable advantage of making the flip.  I was happy with my slalom however was not able to finish my run.

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And the closing ceremony – a few images although we missed it as had to leave early to be back to our base in Austria to continue training for the next world cup race in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

A few images of my experiences in South Korea – with a number of interviews, family visits, trips to the beach to explore the Fire Art Festa at Gyeongpo Beach, food people and places

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After a real roller coaster ride, it is farewell to South Korea with another incredible experience to add to my journey and I now need to work hard to regroup and re-energize for the next World Cup.

Pyeongchang 2018

Farewell 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics!!

Austria 2018 28th Feb

Back in Austria now in time for the “Beast from the East” big Chill for Europe

USA – Beaver Creek December 2017

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Time has flown with November gone and December well and truly started.  The training at Copper Mountain and Vail continued with some excellent progression in my giant slalom with speed increasing.  In no time at all the NorAm races were done and dusted, unfortunately with not the results I was aiming for.  Fresh snow the night before the first races didn’t help and I had 2 x DNF for the GS races.  With just two days of slalom training before the NorAm SL race, I was quite pleased with how I went in the second run but not so much overall.  Had a day trip to Denver and Boulder for a bit of much needed down time and then concentrated on more training getting ready for the Birds of Prey World Cup giant slalom at Beaver Creek on the 3rd December.

Day off, Boulder
Day off, Boulder
thanks Pete

The atmosphere at Beaver Creek was amazing, perfect weather and good slope conditions, started bib 51.  Felt a bit slow out of the gate but had some good times lower down, unfortunately missing top 30 qualifying by 0.64 second.  A little time to hang out and watch second run before the mad rush to pack and head to the airport for our flight to Europe.  Thank you to all the volunteers, athletes, race officials, parents, mountains – all involved in these amazing races.

WC GS Beaver Creek
World Cup GS course
Fans – not much snow
Finish
Young fans
Leaving USA

We are now in France heading for our first taste of training at Val d’Isere where the next world cup giant slalom race will be.

Quiet moment at Lake Annecy, France

Europe October 2017

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We arrived to a very spring looking Europe with a lot of green!  First race of the season on our programme listed as World Cup GS, Sölden Austria.  Training got under way and we got time on the race piste which was invaluable.  Starts with a bit of a flatter section then most of the course goes to a pitch around 65 degrees then flattens out again at the finish.  As described on the official Sölden website: – the superb slope features a different shape every year. It’s easy to explain: the race track is built on glacier ice which moves permanently. Especially in its lower part, the slope has become steeper and steeper over the last years – as if a 65% gradient wasn’t enough!

We also trained on the piste beside the race area (called The Icebox – with good reason!) and got some more great training.  The World Cup race was cancelled due to blizzard conditions so we packed up and got ready to head on to Colorado for the next training block.  Was great to pick up some new skis from HEAD as well.

Soelden training
Soelden with Willis
Solden wind

Blizzard conditions race day at Soelden

After a few delays with flights (mechanical problems, re-routing) we finally arrived into Denver start of November on to home base for the next month in Dillon.  Training has started at Copper Mountain and it’s incredibly tiring at the moment getting into the new time zone as well as coping with the high altitude (approx 12,300ft – 3,750m)

Big thank you to Skeggs Foundation for their funding support, always appreciated! Now we will concentrate on the next training block before the NorAm races at Copper Mountain and Vail followed by the World Cup at Beaver Creek.

Farewell NZ – Hello NH!

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Final round-up to the season came with the Snow Sports Awards at Wanaka where I picked up the Alpine Athlete of the Year award and my coach Nils Coberger picked up the Coach of the Year. (below with Corey Peters Adaptive Athlete of the year)

Coach of the year
Alpine Athlete of the Year
Award Winners

The last couple of weeks of my brief taste of summer at home went far too quickly but managed to get in some quality strength and conditioning sessions with Ben Griffin and the team.   Also had time for the odd bike ride and a few Pilates sessions.  One Studio  organized a really interesting session for us at the Auckland University wind tunnel where we worked on finding our best tuck positions.

Seven Mile
Wilson Bay
Wind Tunnel

We headed over to Europe a little earlier this year as we get ready to start training on the World Cup piste at Sölden, Austria and arrived into Munich on the 16th October to a pleasant 20º C  blue skies and looking very green!  It will take a few days to get used to the time zone but after that long series of flights we were pretty exhausted.  We then made our way south of Innsbruck, Austria towards our base for the next couple of weeks where we will be training before the first World Cup at the famous Sölden!

Many thanks again to all my sponsors, supporters, friends and family.  It is going to be a big season and I’ll do my best to keep you up to date.

Racing Underway

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Racing is now well under way with the Cardrona FIS Series and Coronet Peak National Champs completed.  Bit of a mixed bag with weather and snow conditions making for some tough and long days.  One and a half giant slalom races before blizzard conditions cancelled the second day of racing at Cardrona. Bit frustrating as day one with errors of the flats in soft snow cost too much time for me, but day two produced a good run before gale force winds closed lifts.  Had a 45 minute wait at the bottom of Valley View waiting for bus ride back to base buildings and more waiting before race called off some time later from continued winds and fresh snow. Racing at Coronet Peak was also a mixed bag of results and snow conditions.  Too much warm and wet weather saw one of the slalom race days cancelled and tricky conditions for the remainder.  I was a bit frustrated with my giant slalom being a bit slow in the National Champs – congratulations to team mate Willis Feasey for taking out the title again.  Day two with a good clean fast run but a mistake at the bottom second to last gate cost me a DQ which was disappointing.   First day of slalom was cancelled after a night of heavy rain but we were lucky the following night with conditions freezing allowing the National Champs slalom race to go ahead.  I was frustrated after the first run with mistakes and no timing board but put a strong second run down.  I retained the National Slalom title and managed to score my best result in a slalom race (14.08).  Placed 5th overall with just 0.28 sec off the winner .

A little time now for some more training before we head over to Australia for the first of the ANC series which run 21st – 25th August.

Slalom title
GS title
Slalom Course
Slalom Course
Coronet Peak

Early morning start at Rocky Gully, Coronet Peak.

Many thanks again to all the volunteers, Coronet Peak and Race Department, coaches, athletes, parents and all the amazing sponsors and supporters for all your time and contributions to my sport!

February 2017, Europe

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February has been a busy month with racing  World Ski Championships in St Moritz and World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.  It has been a mixed bag of results, highs and lows and some very challenging conditions with snow and weather.  A number of races have been cancelled with the lack of snow and the weather has been particularly warm.  The World Ski Champs in St Moritz were a great experience with a large field of high calibre athletes.  The team was based just outside of St Moritz at Hotel Edelweiss, Sils Maria. Our first race was the Super G and the lighting really made things tough! Very fun course though with 5 built up jumps. I was skiing well on the top half but came into a turn offline and lost all my speed.

St Moritz race hill
Fans
In the Start
Super G
On Course
Approaching finish
Adam & Willis

We headed back to our base in Austria for a couple of days training before the GS race on the 17th where I started bib 48 having qualified in top 50.  I was really happy with the second run of GS which put me into 31st.(28th on the run) just need to do that first run now! Lighting got really flat for the second run with snow falling heavily.

Finish Area
Course Inspection, St Moritz
2nd run Inspection
1st run GS
GS
Storm coming 2nd run
Finished 31

We had to qualify for the slalom with a race at Zuoz on the day before the WSC race where I finished 4th, then had to attend prize giving at Kulm Plaza that evening for the top 6 finishers.  A massive crowd who were also gathering for the prize giving of the Women’s slalom followed by bib drawer for the men’s slalom created an amazing atmosphere. The sun came out for the last couple of days in St Moritz and the track was perfect for slalom. Unfortunately I went inside on the steep which wasn’t great, but think the skiing was going well. It’s nice to see how much closer I am than at Beaver Creek World Champs!

Slalom at Zuoz
Prize Giving
Kulm Plaza
Slalom
Start gate
Course maintenance

After St Moritz we had some races at Leogang, Austria and Golte, Slovenia with races cancelled at both due to poor snow conditions.  Super warm some days and raining others meant the snow conditions were difficult so I struggled putting those two runs together again.

Kranjska Gora race hill
Going well
Not so well
Thanks Oli – Work Room
GS Course
Green light after heavy rain
On course

From Golte, we headed to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia for World Cup races in a stacked field.  Bib 65 for GS and 71 slalom with soft wet snow meant the conditions were pretty rough with it raining heavily the night before the slalom race.

Fans in all shapes…
Thanks Cool Hard Hats
Autograph time!
Thanks Oli
with Tanja Frei-Pieren
Live music!

Time now for a day off before we continue on with some FIS races in the region, weather and snow permitting!

South Korea

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A quick overview of South Korea in some pictures.  Racing started in Yongpyong on the Olympic hill with some Far East Cup races – very icy injected course.  It has been a long time since we’ve been on anything as icy as this so while I had some good skiing, I did struggle a little.

adambarwoodalpinefecpresidentcup2017blvmjipmhxdx

South Korea

We enjoyed sampling the wide variety of food.

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From Yongpyong, we moved five minutes down the road to Alpensia for a couple more Far East Cup races.  For most of our stay in Korea, the temperatures were around the -12°C

Alpensia

alpensia

I will update a little more when the schedule is not so busy.  We are now back in Austria racing and training before the World Ski Champs in St Moritz.

Farewell Canada!

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pano

Toby Creek, Panorama

The Panorama NorAm series are over and now it’s time for a quick break. For the most part, the weather stayed clear for the week however it was incredibly cold with a couple of days approaching -30°C.  The snow-making clouds were more of a problem creating some poor visibility at times.  My toes suffered a little with the extreme cold but hopefully the numbness will disappear over the break.

pano-noram-racing

Alpine Combined, Panorama

sg-panorama-13dec16It has been an exciting week of racing for me with some great results and PB’s.  Starting with Super G and bib 47, I moved into 22nd spot and made a good points result.  Day two, still bib 47 I had an amazing run and finished on the podium in 3rd position and made a points result of 19.36 (currently on 53.48) surprising quite a few people as well as myself!  Day 3 was super combined and I had bib start 61 as I haven’t raced a combined for a while to get any results.  In the super g portion I came 12th, also a points result 21.95 and skied the slalom portion a little conservatively finishing 17th, scoring 39.73 (currently 155)

Moving on to the giant slalom, I made a mistake on day one and came out on a fall-away turn.  Day two I started 21 and skied into 9th, couple of mistakes but pretty happy with the way my skiing is improving.  In the slalom from bib 18 I moved into 4th place, a frustrating 0.19 sec off the podium.  Final day, also slalom I moved into 4th spot missing the podium again by a small margin.

sg-gs-start-panorama-dec-2016

Race start for Super G and GS

On the morning we packed up to head out of Panorama, the temperature warmed up by almost 20 degrees to a balmy -7°C and snowing.  After a successful NorAm series and the long trip home, I’m looking forward to a few days of warmth and leisure before the next  section of training and races in Europe.

Many thanks to all the volunteers and workers who braved those cold temperatures for us, putting on an excellent series. Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and all the best in the new year.

Panorama, Canada

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We have arrived in Panorama after some great training on man made snow in Colorado and wrapping up the Copper Mountain race series.  It finally snowed the day before the first race so the first super g of the season had some soft snow to contend with along with some still falling.  The two super g days were good, more of a training tool for me but team mate Willis did well, picking up 3rd. I was happy with my skiing in the gs, just needed to cut out a couple mistakes from day one, then in the second race I got caught in some soft snow and didn’t make it unfortunately. We had cold mornings around -15° C (5° F) but warming for second run. Just one day of training at Vail, however conditions were too lean so took a day off and tried out the Oxygen Bar at the hotel we were staying in before heading north to Panorama, Canada.

Sunset at Dillon
Testing new skis, Copper
Vail
Heading to the Oxy Bar
Oxygen bar, Vail
Oxygen Bar

We are currently in Panorama having arrived a few days ago and have had some good training days.  Super cold after Colorado though, we were greeted with -20º C at Calgary airport when we arrived late evening.

drive-to-panorama

On the road to Panorama

Training at Panorama has also been particularly cold, around -20º C which takes a few more layers to get used to and the feet start to suffer.  Still not the best snow cover here in Panorama either so it is a bit of a mission some training days to get many runs in with the turn-around time being close to half an hour – catching lifts and traversing back around to the training course. Only managed three slalom runs before the course was pulled yesterday.  We have today off so it’s time to do a grocery shop which is approx half hour drive down the road to Invermere, so it’s good idea not to forget anything!  The whole team has been a bit crook with a bad cough which coach picked up a month ago and generously gave out, so hopefully it’s not so bad when races start again in a couple of days.  The NorAm series starts on the 11th Dec with super g followed by a couple of GS and slalom.

panorama

Panorama

Training At Copper Mountain

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Training is now well under way in Colorado and we have had some excellent conditions in spite of the lack of snow and training space.  We arrived 4th November into Dillon, CO and did out best getting into the new time zone and altitude by starting on snow the following day.  With so many teams going for the limited spots, we have had many early morning starts with the 6.00am – 9.00am time slot being a regular.  The snow conditions have been first class and the weather perfect – no good for fresh snow and a little warm, but great for training.  Luckily it has been cold enough for snow making.

Picked up some new skis for the season so have been getting used to the stiffer model and so far pretty happy with their performance.

copper-mountain-7-nov-2016

It is quite different seeing the mountain on the chairlift ride up than the usual winter scenery but on the upper slopes conditions are producing plenty of good runs for working on improving technique.

copper-mt-early-start-9-sept-16

Thanks Blowie and Just Dig It for your support – awesome!