Hello my Ski Community!

I’m Avery Lebsack, I am one of eight female athletes on the Alberta Women’s Ski Team, and this is my second season with AST. The past six months have been a grind in the gym but our recent trip to Europe has me so excited for the season to begin. 

This summer was one of the most mentally challenging off snow training blocks I have endured, with no time on snow and all our focus in the gym or on the track.  It was challenging at times to stay motivated to work out not knowing what the on-snow future held. I, like all of my teammates, worked a full-time job this summer (to try and help with the costs of this sport), which also made it difficult to focus solely on training with time commitments for both being intense. There were, however, benefits from a strong dryland program and not being on snow for that long, because I am currently in the best shape of my life and have never felt stronger going into the 2021-22 season. The time in the gym allowed me to exceed my physical goals for the dryland programming and be able to work on my mental ski training with a sports psychologist.  

After a long summer, this September brought our team to an on-snow training camp in Europe where we trained in Stelvio Italy, Hintertux, Austria and finally to an indoor training facility in Belgium. Stelvio was the perfect place to begin as the terrain was gentle and made the transition from five months off, painless. Stelvio was a beautiful place to train, and I won’t forget the homemade pasta and gelato we had to refuel, but too soon we were off to Austria.

Our first day in Hintertux was an adventure, a storm rolled in bringing with it snow and fog so thick, it was an effort to find the lifts. 40cm of fresh snow left the training runs in rough shape but for the next week, these conditions motivated us to finish and be aggressive each run because the alternative of getting bucked out of the course was much scarier than skiing tentative. The snow did get better, and the GS and SL training was amazing and everything I have been working on started to come together. We then made our way to Belgium for SL training. 

The indoor training facility in Belgium was unlike any ski hill I have ever been to before. I would describe it as a hockey rink on stilts. The ice was very challenging to get used to and exposed my every SL flaw! I had to be adaptable and use ice technique in order to stay on my feet which was both demanding and humbling. It was fun for the first two days until I had collected enough bruises on my arms and legs from the gates whipping back. The fact that my whole body hurt inspired me to alter my technique fast and the bruises acted as immediate feedback as to whether I was truly changing or not. Overall, I thought it was a really good experience and now I can say I’ve skied indoors.

After Belgium both the Men’s and Women’s Alberta Team had the privilege of going to the Solden

Women’s World Cup to watch the competition and cheer on former Alberta Team member (and BFF) Cassidy Gray and Britt Richardson. The energy of the crowd was electric, and it was inspiring to be able to see world class skiing in person as these events are such a rarity in Canada. Seeing such talented female athletes competing reminded me of where I want to go in skiing and has further motivated me to work hard to reach that goal.

Since being back in Canada, I have been in the gym, doing one last push before I focus on maintaining strength for the season and my team has been at Norquay, technical free skiing, and will soon move to Nakiska. The next few weeks are going to ramp up in intensity as we will be training at Nakiska and then

Panorama to prepare for all the races yet to come. I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded by such a strong support system and would like to thank my amazing team, including my two coaches Jim and Gavin, trainer Nate, and my parents for making the best of the last year, for pushing me, holding me accountable and being there for me through it all. I cannot wait to see what the season has in store and am ready to move forward and start racing again! 

Avery Lebsack

I have the honours of kicking off this year’s round of athlete/coach journals! The last 4 weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind for the teams, and I have the pleasure of leading the Alberta Ski Cross Team this year.

The Alberta Ski Cross Team (ASXT) has just returned from 4 weeks overseas training in Stelvio Italy, Hintertux Austria, and Saas-Fee Switzerland, and it was a great opportunity to get back on snow, refresh the fundamentals, work into some Alpine GS and finally get onto the ski cross track at Saas-Fee with National Teams. We are all looking forward to our next block on snow, and the preparation towards competition again after a year off. The team has made serious gains in the gym over the summer, and this translated to a quick progression on snow. There is also an increased understanding with the team and the correlation between the type of lifting that we are doing with CSI and how those movements benefit their skiing.

The ASXT is a new group for me to work with, and I am very excited about the progress we have made, the team environment we are creating and the plans we are discussing regarding competition, additional training opportunities, and TRAVEL now that we are able to again.

The memory of the trip that sticks with me the best, was our days at Saas-Fee when we got up to the top of the Ski Cross track. The weather was always blue bird, the track was in amazing shape, and just to feel the buzz, excitement and energy from everyone there (The Swiss, Canadian, French, Australian, Swedish, Chinese, Great Britain, Italian, and Austrian National Ski Cross Teams) it just made the training environment so positive, and then when the heats started to run, WOW talk about a training environment!  

Camp recap

Stelvio

The ASXT was fortunate to get the opportunity to start the camp with the alpine teams. Our focus was to get the fundamentals back as the team had been off snow since May, and we worked through technical free skiing drills and exercises to get the body and mind realigned after a long period of time off snow. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate as much as we would have liked at Stelvio, but we made the best of it, then off to Hintertux!

Hintertux

We were greeted on our first day at Hintertux with 40cm of fresh snow, and even though we were on GS skis we ripped up as much of it as we could! This brought many smiles and a few hoots and hollers and Europeans looking on with amazement. It was nice to let loose and have some fun. We then maximized our time at Hintertux with GS sessions, working into line, aerodynamics, changing where to pressure the ski in varying snow conditions, and to get comfortable at higher speeds.

Saas-Fee

The training venue at Saas-Fee is a playground, with the ability to utilize 2 different starts, multiple features, tracks and features that can be changed/utilized differently daily, and training partners that are the best in the world, it was an amazing opportunity for the team. The ability to watch, train on the same track and run heats with current Crystal Globe winners, Olympic medallists and World Cup medallists help to elevate the training environment, and help our athletes maximize their training sessions.

During our travel days, and off days we had the chance to also see a bit of Europe and got to wander around Innsbruck, Liechtenstein, Lucerne, and Munich. For the athletes, understanding the history in the areas they are in, is becoming part of their training as well. It will help with travel, movement from competition to competition and the ability to relax, refocus and recharge during long trips in the future. 

The ASXT is very fortunate this year as Nakiska and ACA are working to build a world class Ski Cross track and training venue at Nakiska this year, which will become our primary training centre. This will allow for increased time on track, the balance of school and life, and being able to be in their own bed after training will help us maximize this opportunity. A big Thank you to Nakiska and ACA for putting this together to help to continue to develop Ski Cross in Alberta and Canada.

Thank you to the Team sponsors Nakiska, Sporting Life, Karbon and Silvertip for coming together and continuing to support Alpine sports in Alberta. Also, a big thank you to the parents and personal sponsors who help the athletes get back on snow in Europe and push forward with their training and preparations for competition. We look forward to showing how this training translates to results!

Finally, a big thank you to the office staff at Alberta Alpine (Pat, Alied, Josh and Sanne) for helping the teams get back to travelling for training and laying the groundwork for our return to competition.

See you on the slopes!

Shayne

Rather than a recap of the season, I think it is time we look to the future. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and the belief that we will have a “normal season” is really motivating for our group and hope it is for everyone.

Ski racing will be back in Canada this winter and I am as stoked about this upcoming season as I have ever been. We all dealt with various curveballs that no one could predict but we all learned to adapt and not let the unknowns rattle us. Add in the amount of training we have under our belts and we will be in for a great season.

The AST has been in the gym since mid May and are looking at a late summer/early fall return snow. The group has some lofty dryland goals we hope to achieve so that when the time comes, everyone will be stronger, healthier and ready to make it count when it comes time to arc some turns.  

I hope everyone can play outside as much as possible and has a great summer!

Gavin

Hello everyone!

I hope you are reading this while enjoying some summer heat as we gear up for what might be a “normal” summer!

What a season. Thank you to everyone who supported the AST this past year. The AST was lucky enough to get some racing outside of Canada which definitely kept the guys motivated and working hard. The season had its fair share of ups and downs but, ultimately, saw all the guys make improvements and get some solid results. Although we did not see any racing here in Alberta, we know the families were still out there doing what they could to make sure we could have some semblance of a season. Thank you to everyone that followed COVID protocols and kept the athletes safe and able to ski. Not just the AST but all athletes across the province. As we all know, this season was a whirlwind of emotions, itineraries and unknowns. I believe the hard work and dedication to training our province put in this season will pay off in the future as we hopefully start to return to normal.

The past season for the AST definitely took a joint team effort from the athletes and the staff to keep energies and morals high. Everyone stepped up and pushed through and I am very excited to take this momentum into the new season. The group had a couple weeks off in early May before some dryland testing kicked off the new dryland season. The group has been back at it 5 days a week for the past 3 weeks. The program currently consists of 2 gym sessions at CSI as well as a mixture of field and individualized sessions the other days. As COVID restrictions start to lift, the team will look to increase the time the gym; but for now the group is meshing and working hard. It has been great to get the guys together early this off season to start team building and really step up the competitiveness of the dryland program in anticipation of our fall on snow camp.

Thanks again to our supporters, families and athletes for pushing through this past season. I am excited for some normalcy and what the future has to offer! I hope to see you all again soon on the slopes.

Cheers,

Jonas

Hey guys!

Zac checking in here for the last athlete journal of the season. This season has been quite an interesting one. With limited training environments, lack of a race schedule, Covid-19 restrictions and injuries, it has had many speed bumps along the way yet thankfully I’ve been able to overcome them without fail.

I just finished my last week of training at Sunshine Village and boy was it awesome! My team and I were lucky enough to secure an exemption from COVID-19 restrictions in order to continue training, this also led to the best training environment of the season! The National Ski Cross team have also been training at Sunshine and they built an amazing couple ski cross tracks and start sections which we were allowed to use.

One of the speed bumps this season was learning how to embrace each and every training session no matter the quality. With Covid-19 restrictions we were very limited so making the best of what we have was the name of the game this season and learning to do so made training so much more fun! My other speed bump was an unfortunate partial MCL tear in my knee in January putting me on the bench for a total of 2 months. Luckily, I was able the recover quickly with full strength thanks to our trainer Nate Morris and the whole team at Group 23! Based on the work I put in and the support I received, I was able to complete my return to snow program and was fully cleared for a few final weeks of great training.

All in all, although it was a strange season, it definitely was a good one! I have attached a video of my team and I training at Sunshine that was put together by Shannon Abeda. Definitely check it out!

Lastly, I’d like to thank our coaching staff, Kya, JM, I know this season has been tough, but it definitely would not have been possible without you guys. Thank you for everything!

Signing off, see you again next season!

Hello Alberta Alpine followers! It’s Tora Hoshizaki here with another athlete journal. I hope everyone is enjoying the last of spring skiing and preparing for the summer time. With our two week break I decided to go back to Edmonton and spend some much needed time with my family. It’s been really nice being back at home after being away for so long.

Recently I was looking around the house and happened to find our old video camera. I decided to plug it into the tv and see what I could find. There were hundreds of videos of various celebrations, vacations and family endeavors. Although reliving those memories was entertaining, I was really intrigued by the old videos of my sister and I skiing as kids. This reminded me of times spent with past friends, coaches and families. It brought me back to a time when ski racing was simply about having fun. Watching these videos was the inspiration behind my athlete journal. So I have made this video recapping my fifteen year ski racing journey. I hope you guys enjoy it!

I would also like to thank my sponsors Sporting Life and Sync Performance! As well as my teammates, coaches, board members and most importantly my parents and sister! Thank you for making the 2020/2021 season happen during these difficult times.

Cheers,
Tora Hoshizaki

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Hi Everyone we just finished up an amazing block at sunshine village which was unfortunately cut short by new restrictions, but the environments we got to train on have been amazing to put to snow some of the skills we’ve been working on this season.

Thanks for watching! 

Ryan.

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The season is over and I already miss the cold Naksiska wind. Despite the lack of races and the fight to stay motivated there were some positives. 

It was my first year at the University of Calgary with the Dinos and my first year on the Alberta ski team. It feels like I did most of my sleeping while my coaches drove the truck up to the hill.

Athletes can be difficult people, stubborn and opinionated. Over the years I’ve been lucky to have some coaches that stood by me and believed that I was worthy of their time. I am very grateful for that. Sometimes we don’t show enough of our gratitude to coaches, parents, sponsors and all the people we depend on throughout our skiing years. To them I am dedicating this movie.

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Hey there!

My name is Reece Ralph, and this is my second year on the Alberta Alpine Ski cross team. I hope you enjoy a little behind-the-scenes look at our crazy covid season!

Coming into this year I had no idea what to expect. I knew that this season was going to be different with races getting postponed or moved around the country/calendar and the likelihood of there being a Nor Am series quickly went south. With restrictions changing at what seemed to be a weekly basis, and the option of going to Europe to race in the Europa cup unavailable, my coaches, teammates and I had to make our own training plan for this winter.

Our plan started off strong with a couple weeks of pre-season training at Panorama with an emphasis on going back to the basics. Developing our technical skiing skills and making the most out of the start section they set up for us was key. As then we moved into January, we moved to our next training venue at Pass Powderkeg (PPK) for what was to be our home for the winter.

Our time spent training at PPK was less than ideal. A severe lack of snowfall and other daily challenges made it impossible to plan for more than 1 day in advance. Athletes and coaches were forced to adapt to sometimes negative daily changes with little to no notice. However, our fantastic coaches JM, Kya and Matt rallied and quickly adapted to the conditions of the day to make the most of the situation and provided value every day we were there. These challenges lead to a personal highlight for me. I was fortunate to get the chance to use some of the skills I learned through my college education. I was invited to assist the operations crew by making some models of these new features and assisted in the rebuild with a focus on making the track more challenging and safer.

The cloud of Covid-19 hit close to home in the pre-season. Personally, I have followed the Covid-19 rules mandated by Alberta Alpine and the Alberta Government and have been Covid free.  The 2 weeks my team spent in isolation is difficult for anyone let alone high-level athletes who spend the majority of our time either on snow or in the gym.

After our stint at PPK we decided to shift our focus a little closer to home. The team and I have spent the past couple of weeks at Nakiska where we have been training GS and SL with some excellent snow in a professional training environment. Having Nakiska open to us this season has been hugely beneficial to us. By providing consistently good snow, challenging terrain, and most importantly, they closed down the run to the public so the team’s training could do so safely.  

This season has also given us the rare gift of lots of powder days. Skiing around Castle Mountain with the team and our assistant coach Matt Carss has been an unbelievable experience. Free skiing has added a new dimension to our training. Ski cross and Free skiing have a lot of similarities and transferrable skills. Line choice plays a HUGE part in both disciplines.

When you look at a ski cross track or a line on a mountain, you need to be able to make mental targets that you need to hit in order to make it through the course or down your line safely.

Balance also plays a huge role in landing in both powder and off a jump. Being able to spot my landing and get my body at the perfect angle to match the transition can make or break my race. To be able to put my skiing into auto pilot and make my way through traffic on the track is an integral part of ski cross.

In the weeks ahead, the team and I are shifting our focus once again. We are now full speed ahead preparing for our end of season Spring Camp at Sunshine with Canada Ski Cross. I am excited to get back on snow with the National team and get back to racing 4 wide and full tilt. I feel like this season of training GS and Slalom has given me time to catch up with my technical skiing and has helped close the speed gap with some of my teammates.

I have been very fortunate to be able to pursue my dreams in these crazy times. I am looking forward to some bluebird sunny days in the next couple of weeks as we prepare for Spring Camp.

Thank you to all of our team sponsors for helping us make this season the best it can be and to my personal sponsors for fuelling my dream.

Ski Safe,
Reece Ralph

Hey Alberta ski racing fans!

I’m Phil Tremblay and I’m a second year athlete on the ASXT for 2020/21. After an awesome season last year which included my first World Cup start, this season has been a wild ride for a different reason. With COVID-19 restrictions not allowing us to travel between provinces as a team we’ve doubled down on our training here at home! We’ve spent a crazy amount of time on GS courses, which has proved useful and everyone on the team has shown some huge progress. Every day we’ve been trying to remind ourselves how lucky we are to be able to still be training as much as we are. A huge shout out is warranted to our three coaches Kya Fairley, J.M. Martel & Matt Carss as well as our S&C Coach Nate Morris who have all been working hard to keep us up and running.

Through these continuing trying times I thought everyone could use a little bit of humor! Please enjoy a few clips from the past little bit of training, put together A-La Pixar et. Owen Wilson!

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Hello, fellow ski enthusiasts!

I’m Mara Bishop and I am one of four ladies on the Alberta Ski Cross team. This is my second-year skiing with Alberta Alpine and these past 12 months have been challenging, to say the least. Despite the pandemic’s unknown hurdles, the team has made big strides in our skiing this season.

The 2020/2021 season has been a significant test of my personal mental strength. At the beginning of the season, I got two days on snow before having to go into the first of many 14-day quarantines. After being released into the public for three days, I got a cold and had to isolate myself once again. November was a month spent almost entirely in my apartment; I couldn’t wait to join the team and get on snow again.

In December I got to start training gates again and pick up where I had left off last season. A couple weeks training gates in beautiful Panorama made my heart and soul happy; Panorama is one of my favorite places to train. The resort is extraordinarily accommodating and built a fantastic start section with Canada Snowboard Cross that ASXT was able to use while we were there. At the end of December, I hit my hand against a boulder free skiing at Lake Louise and I regressed back to technical free skiing once again. As the New Year rolled in, I was keen to get back into training gates and on the track built at Pass Powder Keg.

Boom. On January 1 Alberta Health Services called to advise I must self-isolate once again. My heart was breaking; I had to quarantine again and miss out on another training camp. I was hopeful that I was covid free, but I did end up contracting the virus and was in isolation for 20 days total.

I rejoined the team at the end of January; I had a few days of technical free skiing before I was able to get into gates and on the track. February was fabulous (despite the cold snap we had). I saw improvement in all aspects of my skiing and was excited to get on with the rest of my season with no more hiccups. March rolled around, we got some fantastic super-g, GS, and slalom training at Nakiska during the first week. Bam. March 5, my ski got caught in some funky snow, I high sided myself, and smacked my noggin real hard on the ground. I sustained my fourth concussion. The month of March, I spent entirely in my basement recovering from my crash, but I did get to enjoy the beautiful early spring weather Calgary had to offer. On April 7, I finally was cleared to return to snow, and I got to rejoin the team at Sunshine, hoping to get a good day of TFS in, but we were snowed out by mother nature. Despite my first day on snow being cut short, my spirits are high, and I am eager to return to training once again.

I have skied maaaybe 20-30 days this season. I have taken hit after hit this year; it feels as though the world doesn’t want me to ski.  I looked back in my journal from last March and the beginning of the ski season. I was afraid of how my mental health would handle this pandemic and a ski season with no competitions. Looking back on this season thus far, I have taken care of myself far better than I thought I would. I believe the most significant stride I have made this season is in my mental performance, I have been put down almost every month this season, and I come back with a smile on my face and eagerness to train. I am so proud of myself.

As most sports have been shut down this year, we are fortunate to train in the mountains and have a couple gym sessions each week in the city. Even though we’ve had no competitions, we have been able to push one another on and off snow to become better athletes and competitors. I am so proud of my team and the significant improvements in everyone’s skiing this season.

I wish that you, the reader, are taking care of yourself, mentally and emotionally. Everyone is fighting their own battles and finding ways to survive these trying times. Remember to be kind to one another and focus on the silver linings in your day; there are good things in each day, even if they are small.

Stay positive and test negative, my dudes.

Love,
Mara 🙂

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Hi everyone! Welcome to my Athlete Journal. This was my first year on the Alberta Ski Team and it was a great one! Despite all the COVID restrictions, the team was able to stay focused and had some great training blocks and opportunities. Between our trip to Europe in the fall and our training camps in Panorama and Nakiska, all the boys grew close to each other and developed a long-lasting friendship. Having Jonas and Pete as our coaches this season was amazing. They offered a professional and hard-working environment to all the boys which allowed us to improve at a great rate while having a blast! I look forward to a new season starting with pre-season training on snow next week and a hard-working summer in the gym!

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