Hello and greetings to all!

For those who may not know me, my name is Liam Wallace and I am on the Alberta Ski Team for the 2020-21 season.

I first want to say that I hope you are all safe and staying healthy during these uncertain times. This year has been one of the most challenging situations of our lives and for me, skiing has provided an escape from all the chaos. The team and I feel extremely fortunate to say the least. At the end last year, all kinds of uncertainty came to light for me. I desperately needed a place to ski for this season and Alberta Alpine worked hard to get a crew of athletes together and on snow in November. We have been going strong since.

I am now 21 years old and have ski raced since I was five. I am currently completing my sixth season in FIS where I compete in Slalom, GS, and Super-G. Something you may not know about me is that I was once on the Alberta Ski Team back in 2017. My time spent on the team led me to ski for the University of Alaska Anchorage, and also found myself alongside the Alpine Canada Development and C-team for the past couple years. My early days in ski racing were spent up at Sunshine Village, where I learned to race and challenge my skills all over the mountain.

During the past 120 days on snow, almost all of our training has been in the Bow Valley area and Panorama. Our men’s team consists of six great guys and two coaches who have been an absolute blast to learn from and progress with. Jonas Haehlen and Peter Rybarik have given us maximum opportunity to progress despite the restrictions and shortened season. In years past I was always one of the youngest athletes on the team. So being the oldest this year definitely feels different. I think it has been a nice change from what I am used to, and I have developed some great new friendships on the team.

My highlight this season was my trip out to Europe back in January with Jonas. Our trip took us through many beautiful resorts across Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. We raced in many new resorts and ski towns that each hosted high intensity races. As always, I am blown away by how many athletes there are who are pushing to do whatever it takes to get to the next level. I am excited to try and close the gaps to these guys in the future.

I am also happy to have had some solid results in both Panorama and Europe. I am currently training at home in Alberta before one final push of racing down in Steamboat Springs and Aspen in early April. I think my goal for the short term is to finish up this year with a couple slalom results and re-qualify for the Canadian team criteria at the end of this season and get back to skiing with that team.

I can’t thank my parents and family enough for being so supportive of me. I’d like to also thank everyone on the board of Alberta Alpine, Pat Gillespie, Alied ten Broek, Heather McRae, for your hard work and dedication over the past months to keep our season going. Your flexibility and readiness at any moment has been greatly appreciated. I would also like to send a big thank you to my coaches who have been fantastic support this season. You have all helped create a high-performance environment and positive vibe have made our group ski much faster.

I hope that you have all found some solace on the ski hill and other outdoor activities this year. I appreciate you visiting this page and enjoy some spring skiing.

See you on the slopes!

-Liam Wallace

Here are a couple moments from the season:

Pre-season training in Saas Fee Switzerland.

Crazy light above the tbar on the Allalin Glacier Switzerland.

Riding the t-bar with some guy in Obdach Austria at 6:45 am.

Alberta Alpine Long drive contest, Quest for Gold Tournament.

Morning ahead of European Cup Super G in Zinal Switzerland.

Sunrise in Italy.

One of the many great days spent training at home recently. Mens DH GS training.

Hello, Alberta Alpine community! My name is Kiersten Vincett, and I am from Galahad, Alberta, in East Central Alberta. I have been in ski racing for 15 years and started racing ski cross in U16. This season is my first year on ASXT. I was previously on ABSX, and my home club is the Valley Ski Club. This year has been very tumultuous and full of surprises. Working around the Covid protocols in the summer proved to be challenging but manageable. I felt like I went into the ski season very strong, and I am thrilled with the training we received from the Canadian Sport Institute. I want to thank our strength and conditioning coaches for all the hard work they do during the summer to do our best on snow.

The biggest challenge of the year came right at the start when in November, I contracted Covid. The team had to quarantine, and it was a difficult time for everyone. We rescheduled our Panorama camp to after our quarantines and had a fantastic couple of weeks in Panorama. With the Canada Snowboard Cross’s help, we built one of the best early-season start sections I have had in my ski cross career. Working with other teams makes it more affordable to the athletes and creates better training environments for multiple sports. It is great to see the programs’ comradery to create training opportunities to propel our careers forward. I appreciate all of the ski hills that are willing to work with us to provide these environments.

The team spent a lot of time in the Crowsnest Pass at Past Powder Keg (PPK) and Castle over the last couple of months. Finding new training venues and exploring new areas is always interesting. On shorter training days, we would explore the town, support local businesses, and see the area’s rich history. After a lot of long hours and hard work, we built a track at PPK; we could get high levels of volume with the short turnaround time of the T-bar. We were able to change up the course a few times to work on new technical and tactical skills. Castle also provided us with great GS opportunities, although we did blow off training (with our coach’s encouragement) to ski the impressive powder Castle had to offer. Freeskiing is an important skill to hone, and it helps with improvisation and terrain management which is critical in ski cross.

I have capitalized on this training year; I have made some significant strides in my skiing that I am excited to bring forward into next season. It feels like this is a never-ending preseason of training. I miss the hustle and bustle of the start area, the adrenaline pumping when the starter calls racers to enter the gate, and the late nights tuning skis for the next day of racing. This excitement keeps many people going; I have been experiencing a bit of training fatigue, as it is hard to know what you are training for. I keep expecting a race to be around the corner, but it has not come and will not come until at least next year. This season was one of my primary goals to compete at World Junior Championships (WJC) in Russia. Unfortunately, Canada was unable to compete, so I cannot capitalize on my last year of eligibility. WJC in Austria was one of my favourite ski cross memories, and I was excited to make more, but Covid had other plans.

This season had been difficult as our jobs depend on a vast support structure of coaches, teammates, volunteers, parents, and race admin. The ski cross community is a very close, tight-knit group, I miss racing, but I also miss seeing all people who work so hard to make it a positive space. Many of the volunteers are like family; they are so excited to see us year after year and welcome us back to their ski areas. I can’t wait to see them all next season. The blessing of Covid is that it makes us take stock of what is truly important. You don’t realize how much you miss your community until it gets taken away.

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Wow, what a crazy year it has been. About a year ago the world shut down on us. I just want to start by saying how thankful I am that we are back skiing and have been able to go to some races this season. We are currently travelling to Collingwood, Ontario for some races and we are happy to have picked up a few more athlete for the trip. I am excited to see what the team and all the young blood can accomplish.

I would like to speak on behalf of the AST women team, and thank Gavin Preziosi and Jim Read who have worked tirelessly to give a season of normalcy in these unprecedented times. You guys are the best and I can’t thank you enough. (Jonas and Pete you’re alright too :))

One final shout out to all the parents, clubs, coaches, sponsors, servicemen and fans. Without the support of the Alberta Ski Community none of this would be possible, “It takes a village”! Furthermore, I hope you all enjoy the video and what AST women have to say!

Thank you,
Kiki Alexander

Hello Ski Racers from EuroLand! I hope your keeping healthy and enjoying the great Canadian outdoors during this odd winter!

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Katrina van Soest. I grew up in Vernon BC and started skiing with the Vernon Ski Club. Unfortunately, the club didn’t have a FIS Program so I joined the Vancouver FIS Ski Team for my first year of FIS. There were three other girls on the team that were tech focused but I was and will forever be more interested in speed skiing. A few friends suggested I approach Banff Alpine Racers (BAR) to find what I was looking for, so I did for my second year. My skiing would not be where it is today without the support I had (and still have) from BAR. I skied with BAR for four years and I can honestly say they are an amazing crew of people from teammates to coaching staff to some of the coolest parents anywhere. In my sixth year FIS I made the Alberta Ski Team. But due to COVID-19 I knew there wasn’t going to be many chances for racing in Canada this winter so I sought out other options. Which is when I was introduced to the International Ski Racing Academy.I was super fortunate to be accepted to be a part of both the Alberta Ski Team and International Ski Racing Academy (ISRA).

(Photo credit to John Everly. Pictured Duane Baird BAR FIS coach 2019 LakeLouise WorldCup)

This winter has and continues to be a wild ride from the start to now (almost finished). Since making the move to join ISRA in Italy I’ve enjoyed some amazing opportunities. The most important was starting in my first Europa Cup races and a close second is living in the Italian Dolomites! Racing in Europe is something special and I now know every competitive ski racer needs to do it at some point in their FIS careers. My first few races were daunting to say the least. I didn’t know anyone and I was on a new team with new teammates and new coaches. Fortunately, these girls and the coaches turned out awesome.  I’m learning so much and having fun with all of them! I’ve skied at many new resorts in new countries and seen some amazing sunrises. The mountains here are very different from the Rockies. They are HUGE from valley bottoms to peaks they’re the tallest mountains I’ve ever seen.

(Passo San Pellegrino)

This winter has brought many new experiences into my life. There were many families who couldn’t be together for the holidays and unfortunately mine was one of them. I didn’t have two weeks to spare around Christmas time so I had to stay in Europe away from my family. While this was really hard and a bit emotional I was able to “open presents” and join my family for breakfast on Christmas Day thanks to FaceTime. Luckily, I had some of my new found teammates/roommates (Candace Crawford, Eliza Grigg, and Alice Robinson) who also couldn’t go home. In total there were 4 of us who had to stay in Soraga for Christmas. We had our CommonWealth Christmas a day early as Candace and Alice had to leave for a World Cup race.

(San Pellegrino Europa Cup start gate, pictured  Johanna Tikkanen ISRA coach)

Another new thing are Europa Cups. Wow they’re a lot more intimidating than any other race competition I’ve experienced. There are many World Cup athletes racing in them which adds to the intimidation factor. A few weeks ago I got to race the San Pellegrino World Cup track. It was the same piste for the Europa Cup Super G races and it was thrilling! A few mistakes here and there but overall I’m getting close to a top 30 and finally getting some Europa Cup points. I’m hungry for more and can’t wait for Europa Cup finals in Saalbach, Austria.

(Livigno Italy GS Europa cup photo credit to thelagomers)

This winter has been an eye opener into ski racing, I can’t wait for more to come. The ski culture and excitement in Europe is never ending. I want to give a huge shout-out to my personal sponsors mom and dad (Christina and Garry van Soest) and to all my hometown ski racing fans. If it wasn’t for them it would be very hard to keep doing this wonderful sport! I would also like to thank SportingLife and Sync Performance for supporting the Alberta Ski Team!

Hello everyone!

It is hard to believe we have been living in this altered state for almost a year now. I remember the optimism early on when we were postponing events by weeks, or maybe a month or two down the road, in anticipation of “when COVID is over”. I certainly did not grasp the magnitude of COVID’s effect right away. Yet, a year later, here we are pushing through and for the most part, still maintaining some level of optimism.

The team has been very lucky to still have some opportunities to race and train outside of our home region. The month of January and into early February saw the team sprawled into all different corners of our globe. Peter, Logan and Dan were down in the USA on a similar racing and training program as the women’s team. Their four-week tour saw some solid performances across the board with podiums and personal bests. Navigating the COVID ski season presents some unique challenges, but the team stayed focused and ultimately had a successful trip. Unfortunately, on the last day of their US trip, Dan suffered a broken leg while training. He is in good spirits and mending well; the whole team is wishing him a speedy and successful recovery!

While most of the team was south of the border, I was lucky enough to take Liam and Jamie across the pond. In total we spent five weeks in Europe filled with incredible racing and world class training. The journey over was somewhat of an unknown. We knew where we were landing and where we would be staying; everything in between was a question mark. The biggest hurdle proved to be checking into our flight in Calgary. After spending over an hour and a half providing documentation and proof of travel,  they finally checked us in and we managed to board the plane with not a minute to spare. Our layover in Toronto went smoothly and we only had one last hurdle: German customs.

I am not sure if it was all our paperwork being in order or our great Canadian charm, but they stamped our passports with no questions and boom, we were in Europe! Things did spice up a little when our bags, which were checked in 30 minutes before our flight, inevitably didn’t show up. But we got our COVID tests, picked up the rental van and headed for the Austrian border. We had heard the Austrian border was tough and had been turning people away so we weren’t sure what to expect. Much to our delight, after stopping every car in front of us, they waved us right through! This good fortune seemed to follow us for most of our trip. Out of our six border crossings we only got stopped once, which lasted all of two minutes and one simple sentence, “we are headed to a ski race”. Europe loves their ski racing.

As for the actual skiing part of our trip, the guys started off on a great note. Liam found himself on the slalom podium day one, in 3^rd place, and followed it up with a win on day two; Jamie was close behind in 4^th. We stayed in Austria for the first two weeks of our trip where we got some GS and SG racing in as well which saw the guys grab another podium and some personal bests. Leaving Austria we went to Italy for two days of tech races before heading up to Switzerland for some European Cups. This stint got us six starts in five days in three different countries that were capped off with some European Cup points in Super G for Liam. Following this we headed back to Italy where we were going to hit some European Cup GS starts. Due to a large weather system that hit most of central Europe, these and our next races, were canceled. This resulted in a few days off and landed us in Pozza di Fassa. We stationed ourselves here and had five solid days of Slalom training before getting back on the road to test our skills at some local FIS races in Italy. The rest of the trip was mainly focused on skiing European Cup races, which was one of the targets with the loss of our Nor-Am circuit this season. With the announcement of the hotel quarantine coming into effect it became clear it was time to head home. Although we left with some unfinished business and more to prove, it has also left us wanting more. We finished up our quarantines just over a week ago and are back at it at Nakiska, Norquay and Lake Louise in preparation for what will hopefully be a busy spring full of races.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the team and ski racing in this province. These are challenging times, but if we come together we can think of creative ways to still have fun and ski fast. Keep the optimism high and I can’t wait to see everyone out on the slopes soon!

Cheers,

Jonas

Hey all, it’s Haley Cunningham. I grew up skiing for Team Panorama and this is my first year on the Alberta Ski Team. I’m super excited to share my first ever athlete journal with you! Here are some highlight clips from our trip to Colorado last month and our first week of getting back in the gym and training at home hills since quarantine and the cold. This year has been an incredible experience so far thanks to the coaches making sure training is both fun and productive and also thanks to the awesome group of girls on the team. I’d also like to thank our team sponsor, Sporting Life. Hope you all enjoy it!

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Hello ski racing fans!

I’m so excited to get everyone caught up to speed on the really busy month!  We had originally planned to be heading across the pond to Italy for most of January, but after taking a closer look at other opportunities, it was decided that Coach Peter, Logan and I would, instead, be heading down to the U.S. for some racing in Colorado and Wyoming. I was really happy to be going down and extremely excited to get back to racing after a long and productive training block at home, including some very fun days training with my home club, Banff Alpine!

We started off our project with racing in Vail and training in Loveland. It was great to be skiing on some incredible snow that was confidence inspiring and very fun to race on. From there Logan and I were off to Aspen and Eldora for some NCAA racing. These races were definitely a step up in level of competition and it was fun to race with guys who were a lot more experienced than us. Unfortunately, I was unable to successfully battle the tougher warm weather conditions we had and I couldn’t manage to show my best skiing on those days.   While we were racing in parallel with many of our women’s team athletes, with COVID protocols and different race days, this really became a month-long expedition of Peter, Logan and me through “Cowboy Country.” It was nice to see a number of our teammates achieve some great performances in their racing.  Another massive congratulations is also in order for everyone’s new favourite world cup skier, Cassidy Gray, whose skiing in her debut at Kranjska Gora was a moment of inspiration and extreme pride for the entire team!

From there we were off to Wyoming for more racing in Jackson Hole.  Once again, we were blessed by really great racing conditions and I was happy to be back racing in a place that was familiar to me from previous seasons (and a personal favourite).  I was also pretty happy with my racing as I was able to get my first podium of the season with a third place in the Slalom and I also achieved a top 10 in the GS despite some first run mistakes.  From Wyoming, we travelled back to Colorado more GS racing in Copper Mountain.  After all the work training, things started clicking and I felt more confident in my skiing and was happy with my performance in Copper against a field that included some pretty strong skiers.

Unfortunately, what had been a pretty successful month of skiing up until that point took a rough turn. On our last day of training (and a day before we were to fly home in anticipation of new travel restrictions), I broke my leg training slalom in Copper and underwent surgery that afternoon to repair it.  I am doing much better now thanks to the amazing help from a number of people. 

In particular I would especially like to thank the great team at St. Anthony’s hospital in Frisco for the incredible care I received during my stay.  The fantastic staff at Alberta Alpine for taking care of the logistics of getting me home and, of course, my amazing teammates for the warm wishes and support that got me through a couple fairly uncomfortable days in a hospital.  Most of all, I have to thank Peter and Logan for their hard work getting me and all my equipment home as quickly and easily as possible. 

Although I feel incredibly blessed for the opportunity to race in the United States, I have to say I have missed seeing the smiling faces of volunteers, parents and coaches who make up this wonderful community at our own local races.  I’m looking forward to working hard on the recovery and seeing everyone back on the slopes soon!

One last big thank you to our sponsors Sporting Life and Sync for the amazing support they have given us this season!

;)-Dan

This season has obviously been quite different from, well, any season ever. With the lack of competition it has become more of a “preparation” year. It has helped me become both mentally and physically stronger on the hill. Since the new year we’ve been training out of southern Alberta. Pass Powder Keg and Castle Mountain have become our new training sanctuaries. Pass Powder Keg has built a start section for us that has been a tremendous addition to our training. We’ve been able to play with the terrain and set some courses that allow us to run heats and work on ski cross tactics. As for Castle Mountain, you could say our best training is done there. Blasting out freeski runs with Matt Carss and the whole team is my favourite way to get the legs pumping. It’s one heck of a workout but always with smiles.

Unfortunately on January 14 I took a spill and dislocated my shoulder. It caught me by surprise and ended my camp early. The doctor says it will be a 6-8 week recovery. In the meantime I’ve been having fun learning with my left hand and staying as active as I’m allowed. I will be able to start physio this week and I’m looking forward to strengthening my shoulder back up and joining the team for the remainder of the season.

Due to the global pandemic we have not been able to compete even close to as much as previous years. Racing and demanding perfection from yourself until you are completely burned is rigorous, and demanding. I have been training hard at Nakiska for the past couple months, improving on mental and technical ques. This time has allowed for lots of great skiing and lots of reflection. Ski racing has been my whole life for as long as I can remember. Early mornings at Crabbe Mountain, carrying bundles that weighed more than me, and keying in gates trump essentially all other childhood memories. I think I speak for most, if not all of my teammates, when I say: racing defines us. Defeat teaches us to be hungry, Injury teaches us that we can and will overcome anything and the desire to win is the overwhelming force that keeps us going no matter what.

Although I am disappointed and eager to race, I feel this season has allowed me to prepare my skiing more than ever for the day that I finally get to step back into the starting gate. In a sport that is entirely a race against a clock, it can be difficult to press pause and take a step back. Changing something flawed in your skiing is unbelievably difficult. On the average training day we do hundreds of turns, hardwiring both good and bad habits into our technique. Skiing is a highly reactionary sport, therefore we need to train our brains and bodies to react with the correct movements. During the race season it is nearly impossible to train in this way due to a lack of volume and the subconscious forcing us to our natural skiing, which isn’t necessarily the most fundamentally sound or fast skiing.

As some racing opportunities approach, I’m feeling prepared and excited! I’d like to extend a massive thank you to our team sponsors, Sporting Life and Sync, as well as my personal support: Head, POC and Level Gloves. Also Crabbe Mountain and the amazing Crabber community.

Well, what an interesting start to our season! A lot of twists, turns, and unknowns. Trying to plan the 2020/2021 race season has been a moving target thanks to COVID-19. I have also been facing my own challenges due to my knee surgery in the summer. This is the first season in my career that I haven’t been able to join my team on the hill when the snow started to fly. I have to admit, it’s difficult to watch from the sidelines and I can’t wait to join you on the slopes.

That being said, we are very thankful to have Kya Fairley rejoin the group! Since Kya has been running the show on hill, with the assistance of Matt Carss, I have asked her to bring you all up to speed on what ASXT has been up to throughout the first part of our season. I hope you enjoy. Stay safe and be well.

-Jean-Marc Martel, ASXT Head Coach

It is so good to be back with my team! I coached the majority of these athletes 2 years ago and I am so excited to get to work with them again, especially after the longest amount of time any of us have been off snow. They are such a hard-working and positive group, which makes every day incredibly rewarding!

We started off the season getting our feet under us again and back to the basics on the classic Cascade and Wiwaxy 500, then made our way to Panorama for a solid few preseason blocks! Panorama provided us with the alpine training we needed, including some beautiful speed training days, as well as an awesome start section we were able to use following gate training each day. The days were full and extremely productive! (Thanks so much Camille, Maryse, Shayne and the Panorama staff!!)

We finished up the 2020 portion of our season with some free skiing days at Louise and Sunshine, as well as alpine training at Nakiska. One of the days at Nakiska we were even able to cheer on our friends at CSX racing the Arosa night SX by streaming it on an iPad at the top of the course! It was a solid block/wind down for the holiday break.

After taking some time off at Christmas to avoid the holiday rush, we are back at it here at Pass Powder Keg fresh and ready to keep up the momentum!

These athletes have been incredibly adaptive to the ever-changing Covid policies. Although we have not been able to race yet, the time and effort is being put in on their end and it shows. From improving alpine skills, free skiing with a purpose, pulling starts, prepping skis, keeping up with school and staying on top of a solid out of gym program until we are able to return to Winsport, they have remained committed and focussed.

I am so thankful for this wonderful group of athletes and can’t wait to get them in some heats!!

-Kya Fairley, ASXT Coach

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My name is Avery Lebsack and I grew up skiing with the Lake Louise Ski Club until the end of U16. I moved to Team Panorama Ski Club for my first two years of FIS. This is my first season with the Alberta Ski Team and so far we have trained three weeks in Switzerland and six weeks at the Panorama Ski Resort. With the lack of races occurring at this time, our ski camps have been very productive and enabled everyone on the team to work really hard on improviding  skills without the pressure of the high-performance aspect. I am very grateful that we have been able to continue training during these uncertain times and cannot wait to get back in the gates after the Christmas break. I would like to thank Sporting Life and Sync for the amazing ski attire and their support this season.

Avery Lebsack