USA – Beaver Creek December 2017

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Adam Barwood

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

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

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

US Bound!

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Adam Barwood

Many thanks Blowie! Just Dig It – Awesome Team, thanks for your support. Final moments packing bags and trying to get everything I need into as small as possible excess luggage but still looking at 90kgs! On my way to Denver to arrive 2nd Nov ready to hit the slopes for the northern hemisphere season. I’ve just finished off a couple of weeks of intensive dryland training building on my fitness and happy with progress.

Had a bit of fun with the Lululemon team tackling the MuleNZ course out at Moke Lake with team mate Willis and physio Robbie Moore – rather exhausting morning but a lot of fun diving through mud, running up rivers and over mountainous obstacles to complete the course.

Thanks also to continued support from Avoca with more awesome mid layer merino tops, beanies and socks. Looking forward to getting some mileage out of them in the States.

For the first four weeks I’ll be based in Dillon just outside Denver, with the first races in Vail, 20th November so I’ll have a little time to get used to the altitude.

World Ski Champs 2015

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Adam Barwood

Many thanks to Community Trust of Southland for their continued support of my racing career – CTOS are an amazing team who support a wide range of activities across the community, including Sport. This year they have helped towards one of my goals of racing at the World Ski Championships held at Beaver Creek, Colorado 2nd to 15th February.

Following on from my previous post, after leaving Eldora we were lucky enough to stay with a kiwi family in Edwards (many thanks to Kathy & Brett Derwin for your hospitality) for a week of training at Vail before moving into our accommodation at Beaver Creek for the World Ski Championships.

Super G postponed due to bad weather

It was a very intense couple of weeks starting with the men’s super g which was postponed a day due to bad weather. This was my first experience racing Super G at this level and on the “Birds of Prey” course which is considered one of the toughest race hills in the world but I really enjoyed it. The start was a really steep drop into the course on a slick surface. My skiing was fairly solid for the most part. Over skied it a little bit but my goals for the race were more about technique and experience than anything. Starting bib 57, I was pleased to finish and place 44.

It was quite draining having to race the qualification races with the high intensity of needing to qualify, on top of the high altitude and long courses and then race again the following day in the main event. Four days in a row starting with the Giant Slalom. For the slalom qualifying race, I had the fastest second time which I was pretty happy about after a slow first run. In the last race of the WSC I was skiing well but had a DNF in the first run of the slalom – super tough course, 73 gates of steep and icy and the snow started to fall fairly heavily. Before the snow, the weather had been particularly warm with almost spring like conditions. It was a tough WSC set of races, but I will take away some valuable experiences as we continue with our training and races in Europe. Enjoy a few images from the races.

Opening Ceremony with the kiwi flag. Qualification GS course at Golden Peak

Course set by Nils Coberger. Course inspection on Birds of Prey

Looking down into the stadium at Red Tail, Beaver Creek

Waiting in the finish area for the top 25 athletes – qualification criteria

Training in Vail

Took a little time out from training while we were at Vail to do a bit of a photo shoot for Dirty Dog Sunglasses – had a lot of fun with some great weather and snow conditions.

And this was our ride while in Colorado

Races have begun

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Adam Barwood

Aspen GS Course

After some good training at both Copper Mountain and Vail to kick off the season, and finally some snow, races have begun. With snow conditions in Europe not the best and World Cup races in the States, there is a large number of Europeans training and racing here, so the first at Echo Mountain (a night slalom) was a stacked field. These races were quickly followed by the first of the NorAm series, again with an incredible field of top athletes. Snow conditions were rough and icy for the giant slalom at Aspen. I started bib 57 and couldn’t quite find my rhythm on a very tiring course. Unfortunately, I didn’t complete both runs. We then travelled back to Dillon for the slalom races at Copper Mountain where the chalky snow conditions created challenging grooves and fell apart quickly. I was really pleased to have won the yellow bib from the ANC series as it meant a 31 start in a world cup field of athletes including Sweden’s Mattias Hargin on 2.8 points and ranked 4th in the World! Day one didn’t go quite as hoped with a few mistakes which cost me dearly however I had a better second run. Day two was a much better day and I had the 3rd fastest time in the second run; I was happy to finish 15th overall.

The Team. Fresh snow at Copper 26 November 2014

Just arrived in Canada for some more races with the first for me being a slalom at Norquay (6th Dec) where I took out first place. Several more races and then the NorAm circuit continues to Panorama, Canada, from Dec. 13 – 20 where there will be one super combined, two slalom, two GS, and two super G races.

Adam Barwood

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

Tag Archives: Vail