la Plagne Sprint

After a restless night, I really fought with my alarm clock this morning. Like when your brain just hurts that it's supposed to be awake. Just set it as late as I could, had a pro bar for breakfast and out I went.  I was about half pack for getting on hill.  

Did a warmup run and my legs just burned right away. Ugh. Nice course, felt quite Nakiska to me.  As always the jump is hard to make distance, but this one wasn't chucking you into a corner and causing havoc.  Nice loom.  Slight downhill skate.  All good. 

The loom inspection. 

I watched from a good vantage point all the women and most of the men, then did a good long warmup given how sore my legs were. 

Someone jumping, nice view!

Women's race 2nd gate. 

I actually felt good on course after the warmup. After yesterday I was less concerned about jump and more about foot space. Legs didn't burn, thought I went into tele quick enough on jump landing, didn't make the distance or stress about it, sort of got confused coming into the loom on the last tele turn gate, didn't feel too bad on the skate.  

So apparently I need to realign my depth of turn and tele landing perception totally as I had a ton of penalties.  I knew I was short on the jump (3) as I just relaxed and tried to go into tele, guess I didn't so (1) And I probably was late committing to a turn going into the loom as I thought I was at a yellow gate on the entry (1). But I had three more beyond that!? And I even thought I was focusing on good spacing on my turns.  Shoot. 

So my first run gross time was palatable in my mind for me, but horrendous with penalties.  I'm actually not embarrassed about my top to bottom times. They are acceptable all things given this year... but the penalties mean I need to refine badly, and jump. 

So I'm not really going to stress anything second run but boot spacing and see if I can alleviate my poor style for the gate judges. 

Second run I got only one gate penalty but botched the jump.  I need jumps in course practice, it's funny (sad?) that these are my first days of jumping this year. I landed flat, couldn't tele.  Simple reason is you need hips forward - like a ski jumper but obviously not as exaggerated - to tele land.  My hips weren't forward.  Need to focus on that.  Funny that of my various failures, being in the air with hips forward isn't something I have through inheritance. So I got 3+1 on the jump plus one other somewhere. Shoot. I felt acceptable on overall speed and turns and skating.  Not world beating, but palatable.  Always work to be done.  Part of me wishes I could ditch some of adult life's responsibilities and focus on tele intensely, as inside I know I can do it, and it'd be super to polish up this deficiency.   But the reality is tele for this guy has less of life's time slice applied than the real World Cup guys, and a more do it yourself approach.  

For this picture I'm sitting on the back of the loom looking at the finish. You go in left side behind me, come out on right, then cross your entry track and lead around the lake and wrap up to the finish.  Somewhere around 30 seconds skate. 

As an aside, this has a snow garden on the other side of the path the. Is 20m to the rope tow and lift.  Not a bad place to learn!

Here's what the aftermath of a ski race looks like so you don't forget anything behind.

So my tally so far is a 33 and a 47.  That sounds weak, but I'm going to relabel those to "no dnf, no crashes, no injuries, and learning". 

Tourist skiing after parallel sprint

So after my non-qualification I commuted back to the hotel, dropped off skis, stripped the ball hugging speed suit off and went out with the goal of getting up to the top lift on Bellecote.  Usually is watch the rest of the racing, but I wanted to see this mountain, and I have to do it today because yesterday lifts closed and tomorrow I drive after skiing.

It took either 7 or 8 lifts from my door, and the views blew all others away.  My mind was officially blown again.  Alps in all directions as far as the eye could see. 

Upon making it to the top of the Bellecote glacier chair, I take in the view, and hear behind me some one say "hey look, a Canadian". I turn around and its Jeff Ebbern.  I pull up my googles and he sees its me.  I ask where Tom is and he points up toward a cliff above us and says "up there on a conference call". So we take a few pictures and Tom comes down cursing that the call was delayed. He sees me and is just on fire.  Hey Jeff, take a picture of Bakke and I so we can send it to Chambers and tell him he's a sucker for not being here.  We'll pose over here, get some good scenery in (sic). 

Then he's ready to take off and is telling the other guys to hurry up, then turns to me and says "they just don't make these young bucks like they used to". Ha.  He's just on fire all the time. 

I made my way back down to lodge, it's funny that can be a several hour outing even with lifts. 

I came from back this way and skipped all this skiing. 

Heading up to first peak Roche de Mio. 

This is what you do in the Alps. Gather your peeps, find a rock, sip from the wine skin and eat cheese and sausage sliced with an Opinel on baguette at a picnic.  

Not at top of Roche de Mio yet, but endless Alps.  Courchevel is that way. 

Chalet with beautiful view and I think Plagne Soliel way in back. 

Top of Bellecote glacier with view of Courchevel in back.  This is where I bumped into Tom and Jeff. 

This is "winning". 

Looking toward the skiers direction and sort of where I came from. That's a lot of Alps. 

Tom and Erik!

Top of Roche de Mio view on way back. 

That's the Bellecote glacier and top right is where we were. 

Up the valley. Montchavin where we're staying is kind of over the left of the shoulder in the bottom left. There's of course a cable car across that valley with trees such that you can go ski the next whole set of mountains on the right. 

Parallel Sprint day

Well, I made my feet sticks really sharp so that if I slip when handling them they cut my fingers so hopefully the dig into the ice, and put on special chemicals from the pouch of chemicals so I go down the steep hill fast.  I put on the tight aerodynamic suit for more speed too, but also the pads and protectors and crash helmet in case I don't balance so good, because of course I do this with my feet only attached to the sticks a little bit. That way it wouldn't hurt too bad so I could do it again tomorrow.  Funny concept really. 

Early morning today, up about 1.5 hours earlier to commute over, and didn't sleep so well.  Did a session of work email around 1am when internet wasn't being used by 100 other hotel guests, then had bad dreams like my pets were stuck at some crime scene and I couldn't retrieve them or something weird like that. 

So we skiied over to the start which was nice, I think 5 lifts to get us there.  I'll count my wins no matter how small today - first was I didn't wipe out when carrying my race skis and break my thumb. One guy did.  Second, I carried my race skis without flailing about.  Although everyone but the Czechs and I had vans drive them over. 

Course was beautiful and sunny. Inspection was fine, then jump inspection.  I always find that one funny. You stand about talking then it's your turn to remember which building landmark you noted, tuck straight between the gates as you're not allowed to go around them, and launch for the line.  It has a bit of a lemmings feel to it.  They moved it up 2m from original as nobody but a couple guys made it. 

My first test of the loom felt ok too.  From there it was stand around and wait, watch racers, try to stay ready and limber. I struggle with that part. 

Women went first and it was finally time to go for men.  Norwegians were changing wax with roto brushes and portable stands because it was getting warmer and slushier.  I was more in the "run what you brung" mode.  

My run had the course feeling soft and choppy, felt like sheets of snow peeled off on corners and rolled into little balls. That's sub optimal but doesn't matter for me - actually that's exactly why good people go earlier. I think there was 50 men and 25 women roughly.  

So I think my absolute time wasn't awful at 47.98.  And 10 men dnf'd - crashed or missed gates. So I'm happy I finished, people who don't look sad. But my 6 seconds of penalties was not good, so really I was almost last of finishers, probably 40th or so. The fastest time which also had zero penalties was 39, so I'm 9 seconds slower than the worlds best just in snow time and I lack the grace to avoid penalties. If I was the coach of Erik, which I guess I am, I would have said:

1. You can hold an edge better than that, what gives?  I think the French is ne pas derapage - no skidding!

2. Give up on the jump distance, take 3 second penalty and do a small one land tele and take 3 seconds but not 4 (4 is 3 for coming up short and one for alpine landing it which a lot of people did).  

3. Number 2 would help avoid the other two penalties which were not enough boot space (ie deep tele turn) on the two gates after the jump where you were correcting the line and "surviving". 

So I'm not in the finals - no surprise.  My compatriots of the week said from below that my run looked smooth, but they were probably just being nice ; )

Anyway I think only those who go to next round even show up as having a result, which is the trick with the parallel as you have to make that league to even get a result.  I should know this is a "throw away" and just pull a 360 off the jump so at least I get a highlight reel ; )

At least I wasn't in a cast for a thumb, hauled off in the sled, or just wiped out.  

First gondola stairs view. 

"Commuting" over to the next valley. 

Course from bottom. 

Jump inspection. "Aim for the tall brown building".  

Panorama of valley from run above course. 

Course start. 

Training day, learning and memories

Memories are important.  I read recently that brains likely store orders of magnitude more memory than researchers had previously given credit for. I try to remember a lot. Or maybe I should say I try to go through the files, the remembering just happens. Today we have fondue. That reminds me of Thetis, Bruce Calvin, visiting Gian, riding in the rain with Ashley and Shawn and Cindy. Mostly just because Shawn showed a fondue in Les2Alpes who was boss... and unfortunately Cindy was lured into some moules and frites that smelled amazing (and were amazing to the rest of us). 

Incremental learnings: Even without falls, a kiwi won't survive skiing in a pocket for very long.  The parallel sprint is the first event, which if it's anything like Steamboat, qualifying selects a top 16 for the grids of the final race. Meaning if you're not top 16, essentially it doesn't even show a result.  So although I like optimism, I'm not convinced I'm top 16 on the planet (last year's best result was 24th in the sprint). So we'll call the parallel the "warmup" for me.  I do know I'm tops in Cindy's mind, which she reminds me of frequently.  It's nice to have a super fan.  I think the course it quite steep tomorrow.  

I had thought hard about cancelling this trip. Calgary is in bent over mode the way I've never seen it before. There's too many resilient and ingenious people there, so it will bounce back.  It's hard to do "superfluous" things like ski when it's that tough, but I already am glad I came. The scenery, the people, and the journey are worth it. Telemark skiing is just in me (perhaps literally by lineage), I'm glad I rekindled it, and it makes my life better for this experience. Everyone involved in the sport from first encounters with Mike to everyone here and Steamboat is just so positive. 

The ski hill employee whom set course today (or should I say, the course for everyone, not the ones the Swiss or Norwegians set for themselves) was a pretty easy going mid 20's guy named Thibeaut. I said Thibeaut like Thibeaut Pinot to confirm I heard it right, and he said yes but I don't bike nearly as good.  The ski hill employees all seem happy, as they should be I guess with such surroundings. 

So I spoke a bunch today to Czech racer and coach Kamil whom also spent a winter Canada including visits to SilverStar and obviously knows Shane.  Nice guy. Working on jumps today for the ladies on the team. 

So, the jump. One in training today was easy to launch.  The one in Steamboat was hard - blind approach, hill really dropped off so you just picked a reference view in town to aim for, then steep first turn. I think the parallel sprint one is reasonably steep and the sprint one is moderate as I found that course today too. Anyway, I could launch fine and make the turn.  I think the one tomorrow is on a very steep pitch. 

I wanted to get up to Bellecote top after training (mountain behind in that pic) but one lift shut down right when I got to it then my heels were sore, so I think I'll go after tomorrow. Only top 16 from seeding run do parallel sprint. Realistically I'm not top 16 on the planet in this sport ; )

The wax room is nice!

Suffice to say, the Norwegians have an intense approach to wax. I fit a variety of tuning tools, my iron, and waxes in my ski bag in a Bow Cycle plastic bag. The Norwegians seem to have brought a van full. There were 6 elaborate full tables set up, a wiring system with extension cord and giant puck for them to plug into, and huge aluminum fold out boxes of supplies and wax.  Looks to me like maybe they brought a factory to make skis?

Lunch was lovely.  Only a degree or two to cool for a t shirt. 

So there's an ongoing thread of elegance in my mind, which may at times be mixed with excellence, but it doesn't have to be. The French have elegance.  The people running the lift, the Ecole du Ski Franciase people everywhere, the old guys with aviators and sweaters (which I entirely get the logic of here).  They just have grace.  It's hard to say what it actually is.  The lifty girls aren't fat, and they seem to keep there chin a degree up, with a wistful look towards the alps.  Not snobby, just elegant.  The ESF instructors carry skis, walk, conduct themselves in line with such grace. No fumbling for poles, no slide turns, but also no hair or part of the outfit out of place.  They don't walk clumsy with their gear, it's like they do secret ski yoga to move well and keep tall posture with their ski boots on.   Literally they look like they're posing for some magazine ad all the time.  Which when the alps are your backdrop, you may as well look good. 

So I really don't have it out for the Brits, they're jovial and chatty on the lifts.  But in aggregate they're sort of ducks out of water.  A lady in front of me in a lift line crossed her skis, wiped out while standing still, and thrust her pole back into my groin all in one fell swoop at one point.  Ha. Her ESF instructor offered her a hand up like she was getting out of a limo at Cannes. There were a bunch of young guys, presumably on some party occasion weekend, whom threw elegance aside in favour of all wearing underwear over their ski pants and one was dressed in a banana outfit. When I looked over, a Norwegian coach who had his Ray Bans on and hair flowing in the wind, watching his skier go by with his hands in his pockets.  To top that off he decided to go down the side of the course to speak with his racer, he did 3 mostly standing but still tele turns and a gentle stop, hands never coming out of his pockets, with the ethereal grace of a ballerina. Some people fight the snow, some glide effortlessly. 

They sure have done a great job of hosting and opening ceremonies.  We had a flag parade, there was a torch light run, bib draws and fireworks, with hot wine and a bunch of funny mascots. I was last in the parade, but not by alphabet or apathy.  Some little kids told me they went to Canada once and wanted to talk about it, and they didn't get the overall keep moving thing, so I just talked to them and caught up.  Overall the whole welcoming ceremony was lovely. 

Olle Colberg of Sweden is my dinner partner. He's a team of one currently too. We had met in Steamboat.  It's a treat to be able to exchange life on a personal level at intervals with someone, and of course to talk skiing.  Food was something like a French spätzle with sausage after soup and salad and finished with a meringue, sorbet and creme fraiche.  They had it down pat. 

We sat adjacent to the Slovenians. Maybe it's because they're smaller country too, or just nice, but they remembered me right away and seemed impressed that I recalled half their names right away too. 

So as they say, you learn something every day.  Or are reminded of things, arguably re learning them. Human connections make life great.  Despite being a world apart, at least for me, tele is one big family. 

Savoie, Alps, La Plagne

With all these mountain roads to ride in the summer, massive and beautiful ski areas, penchant for tight handling hatchbacks, and Land Rover Defenders everywhere, I get this feeling that perhaps I was born in the wrong place!

Minds were blown today, both mine and others. First, I know this week will have ups and downs.  So let's start with an up. I'm an amazing skier when compared to some/most/all?? British vacationers.  Sorry Brits. I get they don't have a lot of vertical to work with, and they are here to enjoy themselves regardless.  One guy stopped to chat when I was enjoying a view and said that without my heels connected he was surprised I didn't just fall down the whole hill. I guess that was a backwards compliment? We departed for a ski but both stopped on the next pitch.  He said he didn't know telemark could be skied that well. I told him to watch in a few days time when the guys better than me are racing!

Second, I'm really calm, quiet and really sober compared to the average British vacationer.  It's funny actually. Or not. Guess it depends if you're within ear shot generally, or a French waitress.  Old and young are similar. 

On one of my early telecabine rides a guy gets in and says "you're Erik right"?  Uhh, yeah. But I'm not too famous so what's going on?  He saw the Canada jacket and the skis, and turns out his wife is the organizer of the event and works the tourism office so he knew the one Canadian was me.  Nice to make a connection, and I have to find his wife this afternoon to pay and get race package. 

Erik's mind is officially blown. The size of ski area is hard to comprehend.  I may have actually covered more ski terrain today than cumulatively in my life.  This greater valley is home to some of the most expansive ski areas on earth.  Meribel and the whole Trois Vallees thing are down the road, then this Paradiski thing is amazing. I'm not on the event program till tomorrow, but a lady gave me a ticket today for "only" la Plagne. I can't even guess how many kilometres away I got from where I started, but every time you take a lift to the top of some spectacular ridge, you see into the next valley and it's nothing but more lifts and more runs as far as the eye can see, complete with entire villages.  

I think that's either the Bellecote or Roche de Mio in the back.  Every time you take a lift it seems to expose the view of another bowl or valley. 

This is toward the Plagne Bellecote valley.  I didn't get one of the Plagne Centre valley, but I found the Stade Jean-Luc Cretier which is where the parallel sprint will be.  I'm a bit confused looking at the map but I think to get to the bottom of that run takes me 7 lifts and two valleys. 

I think this is toward "secteur Champagny" which my ticket didn't go to. 

So a bit on the not so good side is my heels hurt.  Shoot. It's getting a bit chronic this ski season.  I hope they don't get worse. I seem to need time out of ski boots, no pressure on them, and Advil. 

I signed in, everyone is so nice. Got my little race kit and such, they said I was first one to sign in (I guess I'm here a day early, glad I could scope out the hill) and I wanted to nap a bit today too so went early. They said 80 entries, I'm only one from across the pond, no Americans registered, and no Austrians either, she just threw that comment in too.  Next year wold championships are here so they told me to bring the family next time.  I'd like to, we'll see. 

I saw the parallel course, Sprint course and training courses all by chance today so that was worth it. Actually did a run in the training course that was set up, they were either set for public or just everyone was going as I saw it from the lift them ahead of me were 6 definite non racers trying it and a couple kids. When I got to the bottom there were a few racers standing around (alpine, not Tele) and they gave a thumbs up which I took as either "you're ok to keep using the course" or "you can actually ski it compared to all the people who just took a try at it".  Good either way. 

La Plagne arrival

I arrived pretty close to 1am, about 6h later than planned. Two late flights started it, but not so bad overall. I sat from London to Geneva next to a 6 year old boy and mom coming for treatment, he was born with a brain tumour and has ongoing issues of some sort.  Lovely people, but reminded me I was already winning in the grand draw of life.  

Rental car had a bit of shuffle that ended well, I was almost given something not preferred by me when the guy said a manual hatchback just came in to end the debate on handing me a small SUV or automatic that were known to be present. A euro road trip isn't a euro road trip without a hatchback manual. 

Drive to La Plagne was longer than expected. I did some mountain road detours so actually drove through Meribel and Courchevel.  Turns out there's a hotel of the same name in Courchevel with no relation to one I was in. Only 50k apart but after 2.5h of mountain roads in full moon at midnight it meant I had one hour to go. 

Now if there's any guy who appreciates mountain road driving when I'm wide awake at midnight under a full moon with a tight handling euro hatchback, it's this guy. I didn't hit any bunnies or weasel things even if they jumped out on apex corners.  And only one guy passed me.  So these roads are like what we bike in summers here. Narrow, steep, super twisty.  I see lights behind me then 2 mins later they're on me, so I ease up and let buddy pass. I actually tried to keep up for a bit. He was either training for local rally circuit, or the local moonshine runner ; ) I actually have a decent amount of performance driving experience, and 2h earlier I had pulled my shoes off so I could feel the pedals and toe heel.  But buddy's car was superior and he was pushing it hard. He had a reasonably new Audi turbo, and after he actually drifted a couple of linked corners and just continued to pull away I decided this wasn't for me. First I don't need to end up down the valley, but second this guy was really cooking it. Maybe about 1/6th this speed!

https://youtu.be/PKLbh5dsb_M?list=PLVyRAt2cxbxtEKxfACAhK3GeCOUq1XMKs

Got to hotel as waitress was finishing a few drunk guys leaving one table. Reception had closed 5h ago but she found an envelope with a key with my name on it.  I didn't even pay, you walk to local tourism office to pay which I'll do tomorrow. Trust is nice instead of so much paperwork.  She just said "oh you're the Canadian, we have your key for a day early arrival".  Easy. Lucky too to not be there 20 mins later when she would have been gone. 

Took me a while to find parking, everything is small. This road wasn't looking like I should squeeze it. 

Bed was pitch black and utterly and completely mountain silent.  Just what I needed. 

I got up at 7:30 for breakfast and a walk around.  A nice fellow from Quebec came to say hi.  I couldn't figure it out at first till I remembered my jacket signals I'm from Canada. He's been here two weeks and says I'll love it, it's called ParadiSki for a reason. He's also going to Les Contamines next too so we might meet up.  Ahh to be retired. 

Ham and cheese sandwiches of course. 

From breakfast room, view across valley not the ski hill side. 

From my room. 

Hotel. 

Telemark!

Tis the season

Outing for a tree.