Hello everyone!

My name is Garrett Musgrave, this is my first year on the Alberta Ski Cross Team. I could not be more excited to kick off our season with the first race happening this weekend at Nakiska!

I have been experiencing many emotions leading up to this event. Mainly, I have been extremely excited to be returning to this sport. After the 2018 season, I decided to pursue football and academics at the University of Alberta. It was extremely hard to leave a sport that I enjoyed so much but, after some time away, I knew I was not done yet. I have been extremely grateful to be reunited with my old teammates and my amazing new coaches.

Leading up to our first race of the season, we were very fortunate to have preseason training over in Europe. It was a trip with many firsts and great laughs along the way. We started our trip in Stelvio, Italy, then we made our way to Hintertux, Austria and finally Saas Fee, Switzerland. When returned home, we had great training opportunities and facilities at Nakiska Ski Resort. Everyone has been getting very excited for the upcoming race as Covid-19 had put a hold on last year’s races for my teammates. The energy during training has been very competitive and it will be amazing to put all of our hard work to the test this weekend.

This season has been a lot of fun so far and I expect it to only get better. It all starts with our coaches Shayne Spence and Kya Fairley who are joined by our Strength and Conditioning coach, Nate Morris. They make sure we are sticking to our goals while working as hard as we can along with keeping everybody motivated while having some laughs. This season wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t have the support from my family along with my peers at home that helped me to get to where I needed to be. Thank you to everyone that helped my journey back into the skiing community including our team sponsors Sporting Life World Cup Supply, Karbon, GMC, and Raymond James Mission Wealth Advisors. I’m also grateful for the personal support provided by Alpine Saskatchewan.

Thank you for Reading!

Hello everyone!

My name is Ben Wallace, I am currently in my third year of FIS, and a first year on the Alberta Alpine Ski Team. Welcome to my first athlete journal.

Firstly, I want to mention the group dynamic of this year’s 2021-22 Men’s Team. Being the team’s newest member-“rookie”-, I have seen firsthand how inclusive the whole crew of guys are. Right from day one, the positive vibe and driven temperament was given. The ability of this group to keep each other motivated and stoked if one of us had a meagre day has fostered continual development and an environment of growth. For while we are an individual sport technically, in spirit we are a team sport. We push each other on the hill, high focus and effort put into every run.

The past two weeks of racing at Panorama and Norquay have marked the biggest block of consistent racing I have got since Covid-19 began. So getting back into the dynamic and headspace of racing has been a big focus for me. One key point I have reinforced over the last block of poor weather conditions at Panorama has been the importance of the right mindset. Specifically how it is all perceptive, and sometimes you will be soaked to your skin and miserable and you just have to smile through and love the process. That regardless of nerves or poor conditions, and the trepidation that brings, to stay confident in the work put in—and perform.

Up next I will be heading back to Panorama for four days of SG training in preparation of the Lake Louise NorAm on December 10th, my first NorAm ever! My focus is cementing all my work from pre-season speed training at Nakiska, so I nail my technical cues and am able to really push it. My determination and confidence (and, of course, stoke) is very high heading into this race. Be sure to follow Logan, Caeden, and I on Live Timing!

I would like to say a huge thank you to coaches Jonas and Peter as they continue to push and mentor the team and I. I would also like to thank everyone on the board of Alberta Alpine for their persistent hard work to support and administer our team! An additional thank you goes out to our trainer Nate at CSI for all the work he has put in with us over the summer and pre-season.

Also a big shoutout to our team sponsors Raymond James Mission Wealth Advisors, GMC, Sporting Life, World cup Supply, and Karbon. We’re grateful for your support!

We couldn’t do it without any of you.

Hey racing fans! My name is Phil Tremblay, I’m an athlete on the Alberta Ski Cross team this year!

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What a season it’s been so far! We started out with a huge training camp in Stelvio, Hintertux and Saas Fee where we got to spend time on a world cup level track, chasing world cup level skiers. We managed to get into some amazing heats with both Canadian and international athletes, and held our own! The Europe camp was an amazing way to see how the hard work over the summer and last winter through COVID is poised to pay off.

Once we got back to Canada, we were in the gym for a little bit before getting back on snow at Nakiska! The crew out there set up an amazing 15-second start section for us to train on, and it was a blast working with the national team before they went to China for the first world cups. The GS training is also A-1, with an amazing surface to work on.

The focus and drive on the ASXT this year has never been higher. Everyone on the team is firing it up at training and working hard to bridge the gap to the national team. Needless to say, since it’s been almost a year and a half since our last race in Colorado, we all can’t wait to be racing. With the 2026 Olympic Cycle starting soon and a home world cup in Nakiska, there is still all to play for.

On top of all the training, I’ve also been working as an intern/ski racing journalist for SnowBrains. This has allowed me to further my knowledge of the alpine side, and have a lot of fun writing about what I love! With this I was able to get a media pass for the Lake Louise World Cups, where I got to talk to some of the best in the world like Alexis Pinterault, Marco Odermatt and Alex Kilde.

Enjoy this little video of some awesome training runs from the past two months!

Thank you to everyone at Alberta Alpine and our sponsors for helping us push the limits every day. See you at the first NorAm, Dec. 14^th and Nakiska!

Hi everyone,

I’m checking in from Silverthorne Colorado, the beautiful mountain town that Logan, Kiki, Kaite and I have been lucky enough to call home for our most recent training block, and more notably the opening NorAm races at Copper. Training has been great at Loveland. Weather has been on our side and consistent snow conditions have been immensely valuable for final equipment testing coming into the first races of the year.

Last season was difficult mentally, the load of training was consistently high and races were sparse. Though improving and building every day is incredible, without a target, a race or goal to build towards, it can be defeating. One word rings in my mind above all else in reflection: “Hunger”. The hunger that grew as my skiing got faster without an opportunity to utilize it continues to build as we approach this race season. I am more driven and excited than ever to deliver the skiing that I’ve worked so hard to curate over countless hours of training this summer in the gym, and through an exceptionally demanding on-snow pre season.

After these tech NorAms in Copper, we will meet up with the rest of the team, to prepare for the Panorama Canada Cup races, Lake Louise NorAms and Panorama NorAms.

I’d like to thank our team sponsors Raymond James Mission Wealth Advisors, Sporting Life, World Cup Supply and Karbon for their support this season as well as Head and Poc for providing me with the best equipment in the game. To my teammates and coaches who have pushed me so hard coming into this season, racing is finally back. Trust and know that we have put in the work, let’s have a great winter!

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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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