Farewell Canada!

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Adam Barwood

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.

Alpine Combined, Panorama

It 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.

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

Posted on December 10, 2016 by Adam Barwood

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.

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

Canada Races. Happy New Year!

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Adam Barwood

Before climbing the peak on the left. So hot! 30 degrees C and humid.

The beach was quite a different location than usual for some dryland training and the temperature change from -20 to +30 a minor shock to the system! Two weeks of heat, rest and re-energizing has been the perfect way to finish 2015 and start the new year. Also time to reflect on the racing in Canada over the past month.

We arrived into Canada with the snow so the first series of NorAm races at Lake Louise (downhill for Willis) were disrupted along with the Super G being cancelled. We headed on down to Panorama to continue the NorAms starting with Super G, GS then slalom. This series was one of those learning curves for me with expectations, pressure and goals focus instead of taking it each run at a time. While I had some good runs (3rd fastest time in the second run GS) and the second slalom run, I did not perform as well as I would have liked.

After the NorAm races we had a Tech series, also at Panorama. Unfortunately in the first GS run I was DNF (fastest time at the first interval so skiing better) but day two I put together two good runs to take out top podium spot. First day of the slalom I made a few errors both runs but managed to come in at second place. They were all long days with a large field of athletes (140 each day) and quite a few delays. We missed day two of the slalom as had a flight to catch in Calgary. I was happy to get points results for both slalom and giant slalom over the past two months with a 15 point result in each. I start the new year in Europe with 16.45 for giant slalom and 18.36 in slalom.

Panorama Podium for giant slalom (15.47 points)

Welcome 2015

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Adam Barwood

Mt Crichton track overlooking Lake Wakatipu

Thank you to everyone for a great year in 2014 – for all your support and encouragement. It has been a busy end to the year with races finishing up in Panorama before a quick trip home for Christmas the first time in many years. I am currently enjoying the warmth of Queenstown, getting well fed and battling with the volume of pollen circulating the district, as well as getting in some strength training.

The NorAm series at Panorama were a bit of a mixed lot for me with some good runs, but also too many mistakes. The snow conditions were quite icy and with the men’s giant slalom following on after 80 women, it was quite bumpy. Day 1 GS, I bumped a ski off which was frustrating as felt I was skiing well. Day 2 GS didn’t ski quite so well and made a few mistakes but finished with a result. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to finish the slalom races.

Aspen

I’ve added a few images from my last few weeks in Colorado and Canada for you to get a better picture of where I’ve been for the start of the northern hemisphere. The team and I will be heading back to Colorado to continue training and races in about a week.

Start gate – Aspen giant slalom

Lake Louise downhill course

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and all the best for the rest of the season!

Arrival and Training

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Adam Barwood

I arrived in Panorama, Canada 25th November with a mere 25 ºC drop in temperature from leaving home in New Zealand to my new, very cool home base in the Mountain Village – minus all my skis which didn’t make the plane in Auckland. Took a few days to finally get them here but in the meantime, new team mate James Morrison very kindly lent me some skis. I’m staying in a cool little apartment one minute walk to the chairlift and there’s some good training to be had which has led to a sweet start to the season. Very handy having the mountain available to just ski racers until mid December and it looks like the race hill should be a lot of fun!

Adam Barwood

Check out what I am up to, where in the World my skis take me.

Tag Archives: panorama