When I signed off in my last post, we were just getting into the rhythm of things in Chile. In the weeks since, that rhythm has been tested more than once — by a hard crash, by weather, and eventually by a pivot to the rest of our pre-season plans. Here’s the rest of the story.
We had two really good training days right after that last post. On the second one, fresh snow had fallen overnight, so before we could even start we had to slip the course to reveal the solid surface underneath. Once that was done, the session that followed was one of the better ones we’d had. Then, on my final run of the day, I slid out on my side and hit the pile of snow we’d pushed off while slipping the course, which sent me flipping violently through the air and landing hard on my back. I ended up with whiplash in my neck and had to take a few days off to let it calm down. I haven’t had a crash quite that violent in a while and it was a sharp reminder of how little fun it is. The one bit of good fortune was that it started snowing heavily right after, so the days I needed off were days we couldn’t have trained anyway. Sometimes the timing works out for you even when the situation doesn’t.
We spent two nights in Santiago letting our bodies recover from the altitude before shifting base from El Colorado to La Parva, right next door. On our day off we explored Mercado Urbano Tobalaba — an underground, multi-level market packed with shops and food vendors — and ate really well while we were at it. A good reset before getting back into training.
Back at La Parva, we kicked off speed training. The first two days were spent gliding on the flatter part of the slope while the snow was still soft, easing back into speed before conditions firmed up. Once they did, we moved onto the actual downhill track, and the quality of training jumped noticeably — especially once the Austrian and German teams arrived and joined our sessions. From there we pushed for a full seven days of skiing in a row while the weather cooperated. Since the track wasn’t being groomed overnight, the snow kept getting harder and the course kept getting faster with every passing day, which was exactly the kind of progression we were hoping for.
With a storm on the horizon bringing high winds and a lot of new snow, we scheduled a longer five-day break in Santiago to recover from that seven-day push. The original plan from there was to head to Portillo, but the storm dropped so much snow that the access road closed entirely. So we pivoted and went back to La Parva to finish out the camp instead — which had a nice silver lining, since it opened the door for some of us to jump into the South American Cup races in early September and chase some early FIS points ahead of the World Cup season.
We also used some of that downtime to reconnect with Henrik Von Appen, a Chilean racer who retired recently after a long career on the World Cup circuit and is something of a local legend around these resorts. Our team got together with him for a round of golf, followed by a good lunch catching up on everything since. As it turned out, Lucas Braathen happened to be arriving in Santiago that same afternoon with some time to kill, so he swung by and joined us at the restaurant too. It was one of those random, great moments you don’t plan for on a training trip.
Once we were back at La Parva, we eased in with a day of GS training in softer snow, which is always a good test of your position since soft conditions expose any weaknesses in your stance. Then it was race time — my first-ever South American Cup downhill races, and my first time racing this early in September, period. Conditions were soft, and the wind picked up hard for the second race day. I’ll be honest: I got my ass kicked in both races, and it caught me completely off guard. I’d been skiing that downhill track really well all week, and I felt like I skied just as well once the clock was running, so the results were a surprise. That gap between how a run feels and what the timing shows is one of the stranger things to process as an athlete — you second-guess your own read on things for a bit. After sitting with it, I decided to skip the super G races and put that energy into training for the final two days of camp instead.
Those last two days ended up being some of the most valuable of the whole trip. I spent real time working on shallow glide turns, which have never been a strength of mine, and paid close attention to what some of the other athletes in our session were doing on that kind of terrain. We closed the camp with a high-quality super G session on a steep, rattly, frozen, ungroomed slope — about as good a way to finish as I could have asked for. From there it was down to Santiago to kill some time before a 3am flight kicked off the long trip home.
Plans have already shifted for our next camp, too. We were originally supposed to head to Switzerland or Austria at the end of September, but with poor snow conditions across Europe right now, we’re heading back to Chile instead for two more weeks at Portillo. I’m looking forward to being back at that iconic resort which is sure to deliver one more high-quality block before the season is properly underway. In the meantime, during this break at home, I’ll also be starting to put together this year’s Helmet4Hope contest. Keep an eye out over the next few weeks — I’ll have more details soon on how to get involved.
Thanks for reading — I hope you enjoyed the update. As always, feel free to leave a comment or question below.
