World Cup in Rinn/Patscherkofel, Austria
Jan 09
2010
I just finished the first World Cup stop of the season at Patscherkofel, Austria. We raced on the same hill that held the downhill for the 1964 and 1976 Olympics, but we instead ran a slalom and giant slalom. The track was mostly boiler-plate ice which has proved exceedingly difficult for me to manage. I have not been able to hold an edge reliably at all which has caused me to have disappointing results in both races (second to last in GS, 8th in SL). Each run has had me sliding all over the place with very little control and has even involved a few instances where I slid out completely, slid down the course a ways, pop up again when my edge caught, and continue down the run, having to re-generate all the speed I was carrying. Since these races I have been trying to trouble-shoot the problem without much success. My edges are extremely sharp and my technique is good enough (when I am not sliding out of control) to be able to grip on the ice, yet I still can’t do it. Every coach I talk to seems to be telling me something different about how to correct my problem, but nothing yet has helped.
The base area of Patscherkofel.
Betty-Lynn, the guide dog of Danielle Umstead, one of my teammates. Betty-Lynn and I share a bench seat every day when we go to the hill.
We are staying in the town of Rum, about 3 miles from the center of Innsbruck. This is a view of the Olympic ski jumps above the city.
My roommate, Chris Devlin-Young, aka Captain World Cup.
Tomorrow we are off to Abtenau, Austria for another series of races. Should be fun.
Tags: abtenau, adaptive skiing, austria, giant slalom, gs, ipc, ipc world cup, monoskiing, patscherkofel, race results, results, ski racing, skiing, slalom, tyler walker, world cup
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Wow!!! It is amazing to read what you wrote about skiing on ice.
Years ago, I tried my hand at skiing. I was never much good. But the ice was the real problem. I never knew how to handle it. Everyone told me something different and no matter what I tried, I was always totally out of control. The more ice there was on the slope, the more out of control I was. After a couple of years of frustration, an inability to figure out how to manage the ice problem and no real progress in my skiing technique, I just gave up on it.
Now, many years later, I read the same thing from somoene who knows that they are doing. How come it seemed like I was the only one who didn’t know how to handle the ice? I wonder what it might have been like if I had read that many years ago.