The first race of the season was steamboat, Starting off with a day of Giant Slalom then a day of Slalom. My team and I flew out two days early in order to get some training at the high altitude before we raced. We had one day riding at the actual steamboat resort which was beautiful. We were blessed with perfect weather, it was warm, the sun was shining and it made out to be a perfect day of free riding. The next day we free rode at Howelson hill, the hill that was hosting the event. It's always good to get a day of riding on the race hill before an event just to get familiar with the hill. After riding a day at Howelson I was feeling good and ready for the first race of the season. The first race started off well with my first run time putting me into a top 10 spot but then on my second qualifying run I ended my day with a big fall about 5 gates into the course (you can see the fall in the videos page). I lost balance on top of my board and this caused me to catch an edge which was unfortunate but the way she goes sometimes. Even though I fell and wasn't able to qualify I was happy with my riding during the first run and focused on this going into the next day. I was nervous going into the slalom race with the day I had had in GS. My mindset was not focused on the correct thing and as my coach would say I went into a course with a street fight attitude where I needed more of an ice dancers approach. I came into a very turny course with too much aggression trying to win the race in the first 5 gates and in a very technical course I was not able to stay up. Unfortunately I loaded my board up too much and it bucked me about 7 gates in. Because of my disqualification in run one I was not able to complete a second run due to race rules. After the races we took a day off in Steamboat which I took to reevaluate my approach to riding as well as mental state. My team and I also decided to do some fat biking to stay active on tour day off. The next day we were back at Howelson training slalom gates with the Steamboat winter sports club, I was very happy with how I rode this day. I was able to re focus my riding and get back into a groove and it was just what I needed before heading off to Buck hill to race some more slalom. The next day we took as a travel day to get back to Denver, we took the scenic route and stopped by in Boulder for lunch and then went straight to Denver where we stayed the night before we flew out to Minnesota for race two the next morning. Overall a great trip and a great experience but looking forward to some better riding and better results in Minnesota.
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