AST Athlete Journal: Kyleigh McConnell

Hi everyone!

I am Kyleigh McConnell, and this is my first year on the Alberta Ski Team, formerly on Lake Louise Ski Team. I am writing to you from Chile, about halfway through our camp. Everyone is feeling good, thanks to our great trainer, Nate, back at the CSI gym and all of the other adventures that filled our summers. My adventures included working for TransRockies at multiple events, such as SingleTrack 6 in Nelson BC, and other surrounding towns, and Golden Rush in Golden BC. In between events I would work in TransRockies warehouse where I manage and organize gear for events. I also got my Forklift certification in between summer ski camps! When I wasn’t working or in the gym, I did as much mountain biking and backpacking as I could fit into my schedule. Mountain biking especially was great to train my cardio and legs on the ups, and practice handling nerves as well as race mindsets on the way down. I challenged myself to the Harper Mountain enduro in May, and also completed the Moose Mountain Enduro when we got home from Saas Fee.

All of this helped to prepare for the elevation and long days in Switzerland, although they still definitely took their tole on me. Saas Fee had some amazing skiing, as well as incredible off snow activities. One of my favorites was cold plunges in the river with music to recover. After getting comfortable back on snow we all started making changes to our skiing. The quick laps on the T Bar were great for getting volume in.

Once we got back home, I got straight back into mountain biking, going to the CSI gym, and working. The three weeks at home flew by and before I knew it I was packing up again to head to Chile! After a long two days of travel including four flights and a drive we finally made it to our place 5 minutes down the road from the ski hill.

We have been enjoying starting everyday with warming up in the parking lot alongside our volcano sunrises. Once we’ve gotten ready to ski, we load the lift shortly after 7 am and prepare to ski the course. The snow was soft during the first week, so that included the coaches salting, but now that it has gotten a bit colder we have been enjoying harder snow and earlier starts in the course. Thank you to all of the coaches for all the work they have done salting and creating an awesome training environment for everyone!

After six days on snow, we had a weather day where we got to go see some waterfalls, and walk around town for a bit. We have also used movement to recover with activities including a short hike, some dyland, and a little jog with a recovery in the river after. Now we are three days into a ten day block, so recovery is a big focus.

Back at our condo we fill our evenings with big lunches, tuning, dryland/recover, and we take turns making dinner. Last night we had breakfast for dinner made by Zoe and Polly, which was incredible. I had never had breakfast for dinner before and they definitely set the bar high with crepes, french toast, sausages, egg scramble and lots of sweet toppings.

We are all enjoying our time in Chile and the great skiing conditions. I am excited to ski some more slalom tomorrow, and hopefully some GS soon!!

We all really appreciate all of the support from our team sponsors, GMC Dealers of Alberta, Karbon sports, and Genstar Canada!!

I hope to see everyone at the Gala on November 7th!

 – Kyleigh McConnell