2020 A ContinuationWe find ourselves in the fourth quarter of what has turned into possibly the least funny year on record. Since tip off, the world has put the coals to us and its who in that metaphor.But heck, sports! Am I right? It was a long hiatus of watching full game replays and pretending everything else in life was a competition. World champion nap taker, div 3 bread maker, Pro-bowl Netflix watcher, 0-16 versus procrastination, World record holder in fizzy bubbly drinking, all to pass the time until we can FINALLY get back to work.Enter the VBCST, our Virtual BC Ski Team. Brought to you by Zoom and streaming live on your Smart Phone, tablet, or Laptop. A whole bunch of heads in boxes trying to keep connected during the early days of shutdown (yes, thatOn March 103rd those plans came to fruition and at long last the team was on the eve of being reunited for in person training. Up to this point our crew were sweating alone with begged, borrowed, and stolen equipment in garages and on driveways around the province. Doing what they could to keep fit and get a leg up on those who were quaranteating themselves into oblivion. Arrive the 104th and its time for us to tackle both team activity in the new covid landscape and the potentially longer than usual summer grind.Lets never perfect, but it was an admirable effort by all. They pushed each other to be better, and also started to learn there is a time to put the plates on with the numbers facing in.Usually the cyclical sequencing of ski racing dictates that we go Big fitness, train skiing, smaller fitness, Train skiing, race skiing, Train skiing, then back around to the beginning. Since the beginning of time itve never tried some, I would definitely recommend. Our guys though, they are not training to be the best in the world at fitness.When it was all said and done, the break between skiing and skiing would be the longest ever for a healthy athlete at this level, half a year. To add on to things, it was not possible to say with one hundred percent certainty when we would ski again. I dont open. And so it went for months. Plans are made and unmade and made again just to be changed by the unforeseen circumstances of the covid world.Each summer in the past has had a finish line thatll try to sum up the idea of not having a growing speck on the horizon.You set out for a short run, its your house though so you kind of have to make it back. But do you shut it down and walk? Do you keep pushing and possibly explode then never make it? Maybe you crush it no problem?Thank goodness a plan came together, courtesy of our very own Nicklaus Cooper, logistics expert and also professional logistics juggler. Foreshadowing? Of course not, when have things never not gone exactly as we planned?... From my perspective this news came just in time as the team had reached a fork in the road. One path lead straight back to the gym and what I think would have been an eventual off snow induced depression and insanity. The other path resembled one we had travelled many times before, although after the first step we realised it would be a different kind of journey than nay time before.Mask up yt have the one gallon of sanitizer necessary, you can always use steel wool to scrub off a layer of skin.s quieter everywhere. You can still buy overpriced gum and water from the little shops. People still walk super slow, none of the general public understand how the zone numbers work when boarding the plane, and when you select a seat in an empty row on an empty plane some asshat will still book the seat right next to you. Except now you can actually get mad at them for being an irresponsible piece of trash.The team was reunited during our small layover in Toronto and then it was off to Munich for our first Covid test of the trip. Land, collect the bags, get to the hotel, burn all of your travel clothes and take a shower. We then grouped up and headed back to the airport where our tests would be done. Even though the consensus among the crew was that they were all covid free, it still gave everyone a little bit of nerves. This negative test would after all, be our ticket to travel Europe. A positive test would mean a nice quarantine followed potentially by a return flight home. On top of that, no one was overly excited about having a Q-tip shoved into their brains. We filled out the paperwork and then waited while the clinic would buzz one of us inside at a time. Once inside, you would fill out a little more paperwork and then be handed a sealed tube with a novelty sized Q-tip inside and told to take a seat. While waiting again, this time with the Q-tip in hand, you had the opportunity to measure it up against the side of your head to try and workout just how far into your brain this thing was going to go. To me, it didnt look like it was going to fit.As it turns out, the Germans are not so high on the through the nose technique *collective sigh of relief*. Instead they stab you in the back of the throats favourite Austrian glacier, Hintertux.In reality I dons obnoxious gondola lines, demanding tech lanes, and occasionally extremely icy conditions.It was finally happening, the team was one sleep away from being back on snow. Its go time.Remembering that the crew had been so long off snow, the first few days were spent hammering out a big bout of return to basics. Find position/learn a proper position then keep on doing it. High volume and skiing like when you were little, which could either mean sking until the lifts stop turning or it could mean skiing until Marcus finds a river leading into a hole in the glacier in the middle of the lane, decides to drink from it and then test the depth with his pole until it disappearsEventually it was time for a mix of friendly sets and more free ski. Through osmosis perhaps or some other hard to explain phenomenon a few of the guys were skiing about as good as they ever have right off the bat. Process, progression, patience, strides are starting to be made by all. Then, no less than one hundred centimeters of snow fell over two days. Hooray Ok so sure the glacier looked like river ridden elephant skin and it could really use the snow and sure there were about as many crevasses as there was skiable surface but wow, is a hundred CMs of packed powder hard to ski on. Sunny skies and summer conditions exit stage left.Annoying fall storms have entered the chat. And so it began, the worlds most exasperating stretch of fall weather in recent memory. Now for those of you who have been chasing snow in Europe in the fall, you know its almost never going to be a blue bird camp. The expectation is to miss a couple of days but the good outweighs the bad and the training you do get is still the best October option. For sure the ski racing deprivation we had all been experiencing over the last six months magnified the situation, but still, a team can only take so many card games and courtesy gondola rides before it begins to rust your soul.Camps are rarely, if ever just t let waking up to rain dictate the outcome of your day and most importantly, when the fog does clear or the hurricane winds quiet down, be the persons most primed to take advantage of that brief window to improve.And so it went. Some days not possible to ski, some days only possible to slide, some days perfect viz and bomb holes. As ugly as the music was, we were establishing a rhythm. When it came time to take a day off, we wanted to keep up that ski racing rhythm by heading to the biggest little town in ski racing. Kitzbuhel! A first time experience for all the guys and a chance to step on the track by hiking it finish to start house. I didnt believe any of the crew did.It you know it, we happened to have been near their coaches over the past few days. I have never seen a group of people spread two meters apart so fast. Okay, so no stress but rules are rules and three degrees of separation or not, we are officially grounded until we can get negative tests.So that was the second time I got deep throated by a Q-tipd think finding rona testing would be a breeze. But in a time crunch the options are limited. Our best chance was to get to a mobile testing centre.This testing facility was located at the Olympic areas a couple minutes off the highways. We arrive and pull into the massive parking lot where we have to zig and zag the van though cue made of metal barriers. We are the only people in this whole place. When we get through the maze we arrive at what amounts to the Zamboni entrance to the rink. Here we are greeted by a fireman who sign language directs us to drive into the building. Its go to the friendly testing facility, please.With the toxic waste disposal people in the rear view we pull into our correct parking lot and behold, a RV sized spaceship van that looked like a collaboration between Elon Musk and the Oscar Myer wiener people. From the depths of this automotive catastrophe comes a somewhat haggard Austrian man with a lit cigarette coming out the top of his mask. Cash changes hands and laughs were had as everyone tried and failed keep from gagging. Check a parking lot covid test off the list. (To be clear, regardless of my distaste for the design of the testing truck. It has a complete and state of the art laboratory inside.) *insert photo of this truck thing*The results were very positive. Everyone was negative. (Every old persons favourite Corona test joke Wittenberg and what used to be our favourite indoor ski hill being one of those regions. Tux had given all it had to give and it was high time we GotTFO.Where do you go when you are black listed from half the places in Europe? Who can you rely on when you are coming from a t perish from carsickness as you wind your way from the valley floor up the 48 switchbacks.This place is not the Ritz. Itll enjoy your stay at 10,000 feet.Super-G was on the menu and we were to be guests with the Slovenian National team. Great day of training and well earned by the crew after enduring the temperamental weather in Tirol. Its hard not to smile after a day of going fast under clear skies along side World Cup medalists.By design, Stelvio was to be only a short stay, a quick in and out for three days before heading to indoors site B. Site B referring to Belgium and the indoor ski halls of Snow Valley. All that stood in our way was the entire longitude of Europe and as the boys will tell you, a European kilometer is a lot longer than a Canadian one. So fill the vans with as many European liters of diesel as they will fit and we get on the road.Our journey would take us through Garmish where we would spend the night and then continue with the second leg the following day. So far crossing borders had been a non-issue. We knew the rules to each country and stayed well within the guidelines. About twenty minutes into Germany a small Citroen POS hauls ass past us and pulls in ahead of our van. Not an out of the ordinary move on country roads in Europe. Then this things lights up like a Christmas tree with all the LEDt realize were even in the car. If we were ever to be murdered on the side of the road, now was the time. They take all the passports, ask a few questions and then have a conversation amongst themselves. I assume about if there is a lake nearby to sink the van in. Passports are returned and we are given the all clear to continue, and keep continuing until we are through Germany.Arrive the BC in the land of bricks, bikes, and big people. Nestled in the North eastern corner of Belgium is the small town of Peer. The only buildings not made of red brick were the gas stations and the ski slope. The town felt sleepy and happy to have one foot firmly planted in simpler times. It was not at all a place you would expect to ski, it was more of a place you would expect to play chess in the park or feed geese or maybe meet up with the gang for some shuffle board. The ski slope though looked to have potential and we set off to scope it out as soon as we arrived. By and far the most modern building in town, it looked plenty big enough from the outside. A friendly woman greeted us when we entered and she gave us the grand tour. She seemed very proud of what they had to offer and soon we realized it was for good reason. They had recently watered down what would be our lane for the week and it had set up into incredible conditions. The slope was steep enough, there were pieces of terrain, it was longer than it had looked during our research, and it would essentially be all ours. We knew the team would be excited and heck, we were excited! It was time for thousands of gates and a week of perfect weather.This year, insanity did not set in. For a variety of reasons, the two biggest being the guys didnt in season.Two two-hour sessions is the standard for indoors, a schedule that Snow Valley did not deviate from. The change from previous indoor experiences was that we had only two hours between training times. Wake up, drive to the hill, ski, tune, video, lunch, finish tuning, ski, tune, video, drive to the melon, dryland, shower, drive to the dome, finish tuning, dinner, drive back to the melon, sleeeeeeeeep. Repeat. The variations came only in the course setting and the times at which we skied. Gates shattered, edges dulled, some profanity was muttered during the short magic carpet ride back to the top of the course, and everyone looked a hell of a lot like slalom skiers. I could not think of a better place to be to finish our first camp back in the covid world. After a trying trip, with its share of frustrations and firsts, the crew made the absolute most out of all Europe could throw at them. It was time at last to head west, not for home, but for quarantine. Another first that the guys decided they would like to share together as a team.PS ~ Morgan Pridy, BC Ski Team CoachPhotos above: #1. Montana Molyneux, Morgan Pridy #2. Head Coach Nick Cooper at Kitz #3. Toronto Airport social distancing #4. Covid test #5. Kitzbuhel hike #6. Kitzbuhel start gate #7. Stelvio morning training #8. Stelvio luggage transport #9. Indoor skiing
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