Our first races of the 2009/2010 World Cup Ski Cross season began in a small Italian village named San Candido. The mountain lies in the heart of the Dolomites, a vast range of jagged peaks and steep terrain.

Much to our dismay, the course resembled the typical “European Ski Cross” course, which is more of an alpine track than anything else. Jumps were minimal, and the few jumps that did exist contained no landings. Think of how it might feel to drop from a ten foot ledge bare foot onto a concrete floor.

We had two races on back to back days, each with separate qualification runs. On the first day of qualification I made a hefty mistake near the bottom of the course, which reasoned for my poor result. My misfortune continued through the race as I did not make it past the quarter final round. Passing on the course proved to be difficult as there were very few opportunities to do so.

The second day of qualification and race had almost the same result. I managed to qualify one position better than the previous day and was out after the very first round. This was not my proudest accomplishment to say the least.

Thankfully the first two races are over with and the jitters have dissipated. It is now time to make some finals and take home some hardware.

I am now off to Switzerland for Christmas.

Ciao