Journal Entries

Journal entry: August 3, 2005

The women’s team is currently in Zermatt, Switzerland for a ski camp. We have been here since the 24th of July and have a few more days of skiing to go. We have so far had 6 days on snow and are looking to get four more.

Both the women’s national development team and senior team are here training for our fist on snow camp of the summer. From here the senior team will travel back to Canada on the 8th and then go down to Chile on the 20th for a two-week camp. I will be staying in Switzerland and am going to Saas Fee to train some Giant Slalom and Slalom until the 25th of August.

Prior to our ski camp we had spent twelve weeks training in the gym. The western athlete’s got together for a total of four weeks in Calgary and the eastern athlete’s did the same but met in Mt. Tremblant. So we are now strong and ready to get at it on snow. The training here in Zermatt has been great but weather has been restricting our abilities to go up on the glacier. Rainy and stormy weather has been around for the last few days, which hasn’t allowed the gondola’s to open to get us up on the glacier. We have had some great days though, and I’m sure we will have more still. There are many other team’s here training as well, the Austrians, the Italians, the Croatians, the Slovenians and the Swiss.

On the 1st of August was the celebration of Swiss national day. The town was busy and the firecrackers were going off all day long, and all night too. We need to get up at 5:30 every morning for training and so are in bed by 9 p.m and didn’t really appreciate the noise!

I hope that everyone is having a great summer wherever you may be and be sure to think of the national team as we travel on the gondola’s and train on the glaciers, putting our feet in ski boots and our skis on snow all so that we can win come winter.

Journal entry: 10-05-04

This Friday, October 8th marks the departure for Austria and the final lead up to the first race of the season. The first World Cup is scheduled for October 23rd in Solden, Austria. It will be a giant slalom, and is sure to be exciting.

Over the past few weeks I have been training in the gym and have been making the final preparations and wrap ups before I leave for life on the road! I have been busy but it has been fun. Between training in the gym, catching up with family and friends and jetting off to New York City for a weekend it has been more than busy. One event ot note would be the great dinner gala which was put on by Pontiac GMC to support Alpine Canada. It was held in Vancouver at the Fairmont Waterfront hotel. It was a great event which saw the annoucement of Telus as a new sponsor. As a team member it was really exciting to see the Telus representatives show such excitement and enthusiasm towards being a part of the teams goals and vision. I think it will be a great partnership and that the company fits.

I will leave you with that and finish by saying thanks for listening and be sure to keep coming back to find out more about life on the road and with the team.

Summer Training wrap up:

This past summer was exciting and fun. The team worked hard to get into shape as we prepared for this upcoming winter race season. Our twelve week block of fitness training in the middle of the summer was tough to say the least. But, now I am feeling the benefits from all that hard work and I know that it will help me win races this season.

In August the women’s team went to Chile and trained at Valle Nevado. It’s a couple hour drive from Santiago and sits way way up in the clouds. It was a great camp. I had 19 days on snow which included giant slalom training, slalom, downhill and super g. Also training in Chile were the German women’s team and Anja Pearson from the Swedish team. Anja is the current overall leader in giant slalom and slalom. We trained in Chile for a total of three and a half weeks and had excellent weather. A mixture of cold, crisp weather with a little snow at the beginnning of the camp and it ended off with beautiful sunshine with cold mornings and warm afternoons.

Upon my return from Chile I got a little rest but then was quickly back to training in the gym to build some more strength up before the race season begins.

Besides all the training on snow and in the snow my summer was filled with time spend with friends and family and in lake and on my bike. I spend a lot of the winter away on the road so I really like to spend my summers trying to catch up with friends and to relax at home.

All the best,
Britt