December Recap

I’m sitting in the Boston airport right now and realized I haven’t updated this in a while so I thought I would…

Last time I wrote I talked about the Nor-Ams, since racing those I raced two Slaloms in Canada, raced three races in Maine, and the Dolphins have a legitimate shot at the playoffs with one week left in the season.

The Nor-Ams were a good learning experience. First of all they were changed from 2 Slalom and 2 GS to four slaloms because of the lack of hard snow at Winter Park. That was fine with me because I was feeling better in slalom anyway. They were good because everyday I became more comfortable around some of the best skiers in the world and realized what it takes to be competitive at that level. I can’t boast about my results time-wise, and I won’t go into too much detail but I had some good turns in there and more importantly I realized that in order to ski at that level I’m going have to ski out of my comfort zone. The 2nd run of the last day I said screw and just went all out. It felt completely different then all of my other runs. It was not even close to being a clean run but it was the first time that I actually felt fast in the course, I just happened to have lots of mistakes. The snow was very soft for the races, which combined with my high bib numbers meant big ruts. I’ve always struggled in ruts. While they are physically harder to ski in I think my biggest problem is that when I ski in a course with big ruts, I’m usually not “in it to win it,” instead I’m trying to move up a long ways. For whatever reason I thrive in the “in it to win it” atmosphere much more than in the trying to move up position. This mentality has proved a valuable asset in previous championship races, and I’m working on applying it to races like the Nor-Ams. Long story short I know what it takes to ski at the Nor-Am level and I’m excited to ski the next Nor-Ams I race with that confidence.

After the Nor-Ams I went back to school for a whole week before hitting the road and driving Val St. Come for two slaloms. Val St. Come is in Canada and about a 4 hour drive from Burke. It is a cool little hill, we only rode one lift and you can see all of the trails from the base. It’s not somewhere I’d want to spend and extended period of time but it made for a great slalom racing atmosphere. The first day I skied pretty conservatively on the top half of my first run but then realized what I was doing and let it run out on the bottom part of the course. My time was OK, and I was in a pretty good position after making the “flip” (top 30) to pin it second run. For whatever reason I just held back a little second run. My line was ok, but instead of really arcing the top of the turn and generating energy from the ski I skidded most of the tops of my turns which is not fast. Never the less I skied solidly and still scored, so I couldn’t complain too much. With the first score of the season under my belt I was ready to go fast on the 2nd day. I started off the very top of my 1st run like how I skied the day before: sliding the top of turn. I quickly realized what I was doing and really started attacking. I starting to ski well until about 20 gates from the bottom I started one turn just a tiny bit too early and hooked a tip and just like that I was done. Frustrated with my straddle, but happy with how I could ski we set off back to Burke.
Just four days later it was time to hit the road again for Sugarloaf for the first “Eastern Cups.” Ill keep the description brief but basically the first day was Slalom and I scored the best result of my life and was totally physced because I skied far from a perfect run and still scored big and got 5th which meant I scored East Cup points. The next day was GS and I was skiing OK, nothing great but I got a little late on a tricky section of the course and ended up missing a gate. I was bummed I didn’t keep my good skiing going but I was ready for the next day. The next day I skied about how I did in Val St. Come, perfectly fine but just not ripping, and throw a hip check in there and I didn’t personally think I skied too well. But I scored by over 10 points so I can’t complain.

After the month of December I lowered my points and had some good scores and I didn’t have an awesome race which makes me feel even better because I know I have room for improvement. I will hopefully be racing some more Nor-Ams in early January, but I’m not sure yet. Now its time for Christmas back home and hopefully some fresh powder..

Kieffer

Colorado and Turkey Day

I have not written on here in a while and today is Thanksgiving so I thought I would give a little update. I have been in Colorado now for about ten days. I just finished an 8 day National Development System camp in Keystone. I ended up getting 4 days of slalom and 3 of GS at this camp. The camp was a labeled a “Nor-Am Prep Camp” which basically meant lots of timing and little coaching feed-back. Video was done everyday but not in depth and the coaches were usually busy repairing the course or videoing to give detailed feed back on an every run basis. The volume was also very very low due to the NDS philosophy and the long lift lines at Keystone. The snow was fairly soft too, but despite the problems I just listed the camp was a general success. One day in Slalom I posted the 1st and 2nd fastest slalom runs out of 4 runs. I am feeling good about my slalom skiing, as long as I stay forward, roll the top of the turn with my knees and ankles first instead of just drifting into the top of the turn and make sure that the top of the turn is in the right place I think I can ski fast. GS did not go quite as well, I’m not positive of my time placing but I think it was more middle of the pack, and not everyone at this camp is racing the Nor-Ams so I was nearer the end of the guys racing the Nor-Ams. Fortunately for me the GS Nor-Ams were recently cancelled and changed to Slaloms. In GS I am working on rolling into the turn well while being forward and that comes from having a good end of the turn before which means getting off the ski early and projecting myself forward towards the next gate instead of just re-centering upwards. It is funny how in Mt. Hood where we basically only skied Slalom I was not feeling very good and in Chile where we basically only skied GS I was feeling pretty good. Then I get to Colorado and somehow they flip flop and I feel good better in Slalom. Now I am on my second day off before I start training for the Nor-Ams again. The Nor-Ams start in three days with 2 Slaloms at Loveland before a day off and finish with 2 more Slalom’s at Winter Park. I think I’ll be starting dead last in all the races but I’m excited. I’m coming into these races with no expectations of placing well but at the same time giving it everything I have and looking to ski as fast as possible. I have nothing to lose from going all out or close to it and if I don’t I know I won’t have any results. My goal is to at least make the second run which at a Nor-Am means placing in the top 60 after first run. I’ll give another update after the Nor-Ams. For now its time for me to get ready for Thanksgiving and start my world famous sweet potato recipe that actually has no recipe and is different every year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kieffer

Chile Recap

I’m actually now on the plane back to America. Here is a little recap on the Chile camp. We were scheduled to ski 12 days on snow; skiing four days on, one day off, three times. The first two days were free skiing and a chance to get my skis back underneath me. We only skied one day of GS in Mt. Hood so it was nice to rip around GS skis, and the ripping was great. Each of the last couple years I have gone to Europe in the fall to train. This was my first time going to the Southern Hemisphere to ski. I was pretty impressed by Valle Nevado; in Europe you’ll find a glacier with 20 courses next to each other, there is usually little terrain and little opportunity to free ski. When I say you can free ski at Valle Nevado I mean there is plenty of open runs (not lanes) that are open for free skiing on great snow; but what was probably cooler was our opportunity to actually free ski after training. Valle Nevado is pretty big resort that is basically a gigantic snowfield with lots of terrain, random bits of the resort have groomed runs where most of the skiing is done. However I would say at least 75% of the mountain is ungroomed, and by about 12 o’clock that means there is plenty off-piste that is soft enough to rip on GS skis. It was great to just take laps of non-stop free skiing. Last season I dearly missed just going out and actually skiing. Between my knees bothering (especially in crud) and the orientation of my team I can rarely think of the times when I just went out to ski. I don’t think can describe the love I have for free skiing at places like Valle Nevado. Every bump, every piece of terrain keeps you on your feet and is something new. Besides the fun, (most important) and the obvious physical help that free skiing can do for you, it helps to keep you balanced and forces you to be in a strong position, I find that free skiing on inconsistent terrain can be invaluable in the course. When courses have a lot of terrain or especially when the weather is bad, the split second decision you have to make free skiing, to absorb or depending on your mood to pop a bump comes into play in the course. While I did see the point in the drill, I found it pretty funny that we practiced our “edge control” by sliding down the hills sideways then abruptly stopping, and repeating the process. In my opinion a balanced position and edge control is not learned by going 3 mph during a drill, but ripping GS turns through crud. As I mentioned before there is “more than one way to get to Rome.” There are some world cup racers who I’ve seen free ski, and it is nothing to write home about. Unfortunately they grew up skiing in the east, it was pretty amusing after training when the coaches told is that we free to free ski my buddy from Colorado and I immediately starting scoping lines in the off-trail and deciding where the best snow would be that time of day for shredding. Subconsciously I guess I assumed that everyone else was doing the same. After taking a few runs I realized that in fact no one else was skiing off-trail. Instead, most had either gone in or were making nice pretty GS turns down the groomed run. Don’t get me wrong I love skiing groomers I just found it odd when given the opportunity to do some pretty sick free skiing they opted to stay to the groomers. Every time I find myself in a situation like that I can’t thank god enough that a) I grew up in Alaska, and b) I was instilled with a gene for loving free skiing. I can remember as a 10-year old free skiing every weekend with one of my friends from when 3:30 after training until 5:30 when the mountain closed for night skiing, and sometimes we would night ski too. I’m also thankful I grew up a little before the twin tip fad, even though now I free ski on twin tips I’m glad I started on race skis. Race skis are not forgiving, if you can rip a turn through crud on GS skis you can do about anything. Often times in the course when I feel static on the ski I imagine I’m free skiing and that helps me work the ski to get energy out of it. Sometimes when I give the same suggestion to other’s I wonder whether they even know what I’m talking about. Anyway, I’ve gone off on a tangent about free skiing but back to the Valle Nevado camp. The first two days of GS were on fairly easy trails. I was pretty pleased with my skiing though, I was really focusing on putting as much pressure as I could on the ski above the gate, while still running a direct line and then just releasing below the gate. In order to be able to pull that off I had to be pretty technically sound. For me that meant having good ankle flexion, having my hips forward but straight up in the transition and really getting on the new outside ski early. Every day we skied on a new GS hill, which was pretty cool. As the days progressed each trail got a little more terrain and a little steeper, thus making it more challenging to accomplish my goals. As the trails got more difficult and I fatigued my skiing regressed a little but things were going ok. We began to move into Super G on a different trail, that was longer and had more flats. Super G has historically been worst event because I have always had problems finding the balance between turning and riding a flat ski. One of my strengths in tech has always been my ability to work the ski and create energy from ski, for whatever reason I have always struggled to trust the radius of the longer ski, instead I tend to “ride” the edge. These problems continued as well as poor aerodynamics and lack of ankle flexion. However, after the 3rd day of Super G I felt more comfortable and home on Super G skis, an event I just have not trained very much over my life. The lowpoint of the camp came on the last run of Super G when I leaned in, my skis caught up, I flew through the air, landed on my back and slid down the rest of the pitch on my back. Somehow along the way I managed to completely crack the back 4 or 5 inches of my helmet (somehow my head was fine,)
Sprain my MCL and land on my ski and cut my leg open. When I first got up I was panicking a little because my knee felt weird but I didn’t know what was wrong. When my coach rolled up my suit and my long John’s were stained red it was obvious what happened. It was a bummer because I missed 3 sessions of Slalom and 2 of GS, which were supposed to be 5 of the most intense sessions to end the camp. Hurting myself meant that I didn’t get any slalom training in Chile and won’t have any before I head to Keystone in November for an NDS camp but luckily we skied a lot of Slalom in Mt. Hood.

I am now finishing this blog in the Philadelphia airport after a week break in California before heading back to school. My cut is fine, my MCL still sprained but it is getting better so things are looking up. Now I have 4 weeks of intense dryland and school until Keystone and then the season begins!

Kieffer

Clubs vs. Academies...and going to school

I’m sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Chile right now. Today was the last day of our camp here at Valle Nevado. It has been a while since my last blog so ill do a little recap on the six weeks or so between getting to school and now. Originally I was going to write this and the next blog as one long on but since they basically are two completely different topics I decided to make them into two bogs.

After hood we had 4 weeks of school before coming here for two weeks. The first four weeks were defiantly a little bit of a change from my normal life. The biggest underling difference was that I was actually going to school. While I feel like I have done pretty component home school classes in terms of difficulty they have been to my timetable. If I had a 4-page paper to write in home school I could work at it, take a break, work on it a couple days later a finish it whenever. For the first time I had to sit down a write a 4-page paper in one sitting. The first week I was on top of my game and school was fairly easy. As the weeks passed the school got harder I got lazy. By my last week of school I found myself behind in a few of my classes. I quickly realized (and was informed for numerous staff members) that can’t happen during the season if I want to ski a competitive calendar. Aside from going to school there have been some other pretty drastic changes in my way of life. The next biggest difference besides schoolwork is the size and diversity in kids. You might expect that going to a ski academy with 50 other ski racers would be about the farthest thing from diversity. While that argument can certainly be made I have been surprised how untrue it has proven. Last year I skied on a team with only 3 other kids, all of us had like goals of being the best skiers in the world and all pushed each other pretty hard. That tight of peer group is something that can’t be found…anywhere except for maybe the U.S. Ski Team. Before last year I came from a club that was fairly small, I had some close friends there that I grew up skiing with there. The level of competivness was not there, but between my coach at home and my parents giving me opportunities to train outside [the lower 48 (not Alaska)] I was able to train and compete at a high level. This year at an academy has been a different experience. Last may I went to a ski camp and had an interesting conversation with a Squaw Valley coach. Squaw Valley is famous for having a huge program that produces a lot of good skiers. Most kids there barely train, especially when they’re younger, instead they free ski. Its good proof that skiing gnarly terrain and skiing all day because it’s fun can lead to skiing fast in the course. The coach there said how he alone is supposed keep track of a 100 different kids. Obviously this is impossible; at most he can keep his eye on 10. If those 10 kids want to get better and get coached they have to make the effort to get noticed, they have to be driven from within. There are obvious downsides to a place like Squaw Valley. The schooling isn’t very good, as you get older when more training and attention is necessary it is not usually there. That is where academies shine. Here at Burke every kid is looked at and carefully watched. All of the staff know (or think they do) exactly want your every need is. There is a full-time trainer that travels with the kids to camps and is in charge of all of the injured kids. Granted, he is a huge asset and just two days ago helped me when I injures my leg (which ill talk about later.) While of these things can be great if you are willing to work hard I also feel they can ruin some kids. I see situations every day in which a kid is faced with situation and instead of having to figure it and deal without “Burke” takes care of it. The Squaw coach mentioned how often times when kids who have been at academies and have had everything spoon-fed to them make the U.S. Team they cannot function. Their coaches have been there to hold their hand every step of the way and suddenly when they are forced to think and act for themselves their skiing falls apart. I like to think about the difference between clubs and academies like the difference between old school rappers and most of the noise the call rap now. Old school rappers were usually legitimately gangsters, they sold drugs, killed people, or at least grew up in the “hood.” A lot of rappers now a days only talk about how much money they have, they never endured any hardship to get there. For that reason old school rap has a more pure sound, instead of the “hip-pop” that might have a catchy beat but doesn’t exhibit any kind of passion. Old School rappers had to work for what they got while new schoolers get everything handed to them. I feel in general the same can be said for clubs and academies. If you make out of a club (the hood) then you will probably go far, where as if you come from an academy you better have the drive within yourself or else you will never make it far (and go triple platinum.) Keep in mind there are new rappers that make good music, it is obviously possible to ski fast have a successful career ski racing coming from an academy (I think a few people have done it.) I’m glad I’m at Burke, I think that it has the necessary steps in place to succeed and I can’t think if a place I’d rather be.

First Day Of School And Life As a Burkie

I just got finished taking a shower in what I can only best describe as half-squat-crouch. I guess it’s part of the price for going for to a ski academy and living away from home. As some of you may know I’m going to Burke Mountain Academy. Burke is considered a small ski academy located in rural Vermont. It’s considered small because of the 60 some-odd students who all ski race (a few nordic’s, but us Alpiner’s refrain from associating ourselves with them.) There are about 20 fis-age (15-and older) boys. Last year I raced on a team with 3 other kids and have home schooled the last two years so Burke hardly feels small to me.

Anyway I’m back at Burke and just had my first day of school in over two years. I thought I would do a little recap of last year…

Last season I skied on a team that you can hardly call standard. It was myself and three other kids and two other coaches. There were certainly ups and downs but overall I still regard it as the most competitive program in the country (if not the world.) We usually skied 6 or 7 days in a row and still do very hard dry land. At first this can seem overkill and tiring, however once I got used to it I found I would make huge leaps in my skiing during what would have been an off-day. On the other side at times it was emotionally draining and I sometimes found myself wanting to be done skiing early in the day, something I had never really felt before in my life. I also suffered from Osgood Shlatters, which is a condition that young and active boys are prone to. It can be caused from a growth spurt or in my case working my muscles too hard. “Too hard” is not exactly the right saying because the high amounts of skiing and dry land led to me being very fit and strong, and after our two fall ski camps I was skiing very well coming into November. The first day back in Colorado after taking a week of and going to Mexico my knees starting hurting a little bit. A week later I was in tears for the first time in… a long time, because of the pain. My skiing quickly regressed and I suddenly starting taking frequent rest days and went from little to no dryland. I was supposed to go to a National Development System camp that took place right after the Beaver Creek World Cup, to utilize the world-class training venue but I opted to take a week of skiing and try to get me knees better. I came back right before our first races of the year in Loveland. I skied all right but nothing spectacular. Over the next few weeks my knees continued to hurt and I was heavily relying on the power of Aleve and scored no results I was proud of. Going home for Christmas was a relief in more than one way. It was nice to relax my body and mind, see my family, friends and most importantly my dog, and even got ski a little powder (something they don’t get anywhere in the world except for maybe California or maybe a few times in Utah.) Anyway I’m not going to go in depth about the rest of my season, if anyone out there wants to know more tell me. All in all it was not what I was hoping for but I had a few good results I already feel more knowledgeable from it coming into this season…I must be a sixteen year old.

More about Burke, I just finished a ski camp at Mt. Hood with Burke. We were scheduled to ski 9 days on snow; skiing three days on, then taking one day off and doing that three times. This is the standard time table followed by most teams and academies at summer and fall camps because the high level of volume and often strenuous workout’s. This is a different approach from last year. I have mixed feelings about the less amount of skiing but looking at it positively I will be hungrier and my knees will be healthier (knock on wood.) The main focus of the camp was on Slalom and more specifically on technique rather than going fast, although we were ski racing so going fast is always in the back of your mind. The first seven days on snow were a general success minus the blazing heat. In Hood River, which is about 1 hour or so from Mt. Hood, it topped 100 degrees so that mean soft snow and lots of sweat but thanks to gracious amounts of salt applied to our “lane” semi-hard snow could be found. The last two days were cancelled because of bad weather at Mt. Hood but there was nothing we could do it about. So at the end of the camp I got 6 days of slalom and one day of GS. In slalom I was working on keeping ankle flexion and really starting my turns on my outside ski and bending the ski above the gate. Last year I had a tendency to skiing straight at the gate and skiing most of it on my inside ski, which is the opposite of what you want to do. In addition I worked on having a basic pole plant and having discipline hands. I switched to a shorter pair or slalom poles and the change was pretty amazing. The longer poles didn’t allow me to get forward and caused me to sink with the hips instead of keeping a long outside leg. I only skied one day of GS and the snow was very soft but I worked on having ankle flexion and pressuring my outside ski, while having pressure that was primarily in the fall line and skiing a deep line (even though we weren’t doing gates.) We leave for Chile in just under a month and I’m looking forward to using the basic tools I visited in Hood and apply them to my skiing in Chile.

We had a few days after Hood to get to Burke and get ready for school. It was nice to have at least one day of not having much to do except doing a little shopping and relaxing. Yesterday was the first day at Burke and that meant Physical testing. In the past testing has taken place of two days but this year it combined into one long…long, day of testing. The first component started at 6:30 AM (2:30 Alaska Time) and we were not finished until almost exactly 12 hours later. We did the 1.75 mile run, pushups, pull-ups, core, flexibility, height, weight, box jumps, single legs jumps, agility shuttle run and finally infamous knee touch squats with dumb bells in each hand. The knee touch squat was a rare experience, a rope was placed above you so that between each lunge you had to hit your head on the rope. For a 100 seconds you pounded out as many you could do with every other Burkie literally yelling as loud as they could all around you cheering you on. When your finished it’s standard to not be able to walk, instead you lean on someone near by and they help you walk around until you can support yourself. I didn’t do as well I hoped in Physical testing but that just means I need to work hard this fall and yelling at someone who is stumbling to the ground in pain and fatigue is always a good way to make friends.

So tonight is the first night we have had homework and I have spent almost all my study time to this blog. All well, it was nice to get my thoughts down on paper. It was my first one so I will be refining my blogging skills of the next couple months and will be updating this through out year for whoever on the Internet wants to read it. I gotta go do homework…wow I haven’t said that in a while.



I want to give thanks to Volkl and Scotty Kennison, Mark Betancourt, and Todd Rash for all doing their part in getting me skis for Mt. Hood. Thanks Guys.



Kieffer