Canadian Westerns - C-c-c-cold Canmore, Alberta

Holy Guacamoly. I thought Thunder Bay was the only place on Earth that got so cold you can't ski. Well, not literally but it has a reputation for being mighty cold. Apparently there was a cold snap in the West and our week leading up to Canmore was a consistent cold of -30, -33, -37. Yep, we basically didn't leave the house except to squeeze in a few little hours at the "high" of the day, which was still usually -27.

Layer count: 3 on lower body plus warm up pants; warmest wool icebreaker I own plus NorthFace Parka; 2 buffs; 1 fleece hat; 1 pair of Rudy Project Sunglasses that I couldn't wear because my breathing ventilation fogged them; 1 pair of mits; a lot of Dermatone and determination. My eye lashes defrosted by the time I took this picture. At least the sun was shining.

We traveled right from Whistler to Canmore for Canadian Westerns, the first of two mini-tours on the Canadian circuit. I had a much better weekend and felt a lot more like myself. I don't have any pictures of myself but here are a few videos of the sprints and 10km skate. They are on the SkiTrax YouTube Channel but I think they were shot by Hardwood/SOTC staffer Graham Longford because you can hear him cheering my name. Thanks!

I'm in the B-Final and on the outside. In the start I got caught up and pushed to the back, but made up a few spots into 3rd by the first downhill. All was going well until a fluke crash with another skier on the final downhill and I came in 5th, 11th overall.



The last race of a mini-tour (3 races total in a row) is a handicap start based on the results from the previous two days. I started in 13th, 1:55 from the leader and :36 seconds from 10th. I felt great and skied well but couldn't catch a pack of about 6 skiers that formed 30 seconds ahead of myself. They kept getting away on the downhills with their mass force and I could see them at the top of everyhill. Regardless it was a great race and I completed the tour in 12th overall. In this video I'm in a white jacket and pink sunglasses in the first shot. Bib number 13 in the race.


Our team had a superb day as a whole with notes of Andrea finishing 6th, Alannah 7th Junior, Michael 6th, Jack with one of the fastest Junior times and everyone moved up a bunch of spots on the overall standings. I love when we finish and intense block on a good note.  My fast teammates:

 Alannah's 1st medal of the season. 

There was a crazy cool photo of her finishing lunge that got her Silver over Bronze. Long legs will do that. 

Andrea gettin' the monies!

We are back in Thunder Bay now for a week and then head to Ottawa and Mt. Orford for more races.

Keep scrolling down because I've put up a lot of new stuff in the past week.

Enjoy!

Erin

Aren't I the Luckiest?

So after Christmas the team headed to the Whistler Olympic Park (Callaghan Valley) for the Under 23 and Junior World Championship Trials. This event is where they select team Canada to go over to Turkey at the end of February. The bottom line wasn't what I hoped it would be as it wasn't a great week of racing for me. I'll have to take last year as my last U23 World Champs experience. It was dissapointing but I have to say having my family and friends out in Whistler made it easier to move on to the rest of the season...

Brad and Barb Watts came out with my parents for a mini vacation and to cheer on the team. What's great is that no matter how hard I bonked (and I bonked hard in that skiathalon...) they were always positive and looking forward to the next race. Thanks to my cousins Sara and Michael for the foam finger haha

My Uncle Jamey came out to watch the final race on Sunday. I finally had a better race for him and his friend Jeff from PNR to watch. The sun was shining and I could hear them cheering the whole way around the course. 

Mom and Dad. Momma and Poppa Tribe. They have managed to come to so many races since my move to TBay and their support for myself and the team has been the best. My Dad even spends his "vacation" to Whistler in the wax room. Love you both!

My Aunt Sue. One of the most inspirational women in my life. She also came up from Vancouver for most of the week to cheer!

It was also great to see my Cousins Katie and Vince who just moved to Vancouver. This venue seemed to make for a convenient meeting point for everyone. I felt pretty lucky to have so many people supporting me through the good and bad races. Thank you to everyone who came out to watch!

Here are some race photos too!

Classic 10km. This was a much better race for me and at the end of the week it's what I needed. 

 SO MUCH SNOW. Sprint morning we got a massive amount of fresh snow which made for a soft day. 

Fighting for position in the quarter final.

NDC ladies! 

Andrea and I with Heidi Widmer on the first hill in the skiathalon. And then I crashed and burned. All I could do after this race was move on. It happens.

Thanks for the pics Mom!

Eeeerin