ALPINE SKI. What do ski racers do in summer? Being asked what they do in summer is a questions which every ski racer has heard a million times, and for as obvious as the answer can be to those who spend their lives chasing snow, the average person doesn’t often associate July and August as months which could be critical in the preparation for the winter season. But for those who’s passion and job revolves around skiing and snow, summer is the time of the year where most teams put in the hard work which is rarely seen by the fans.

Training slopes in Zermatt, photo: Swiss Alpin Ski Team

While some teams have already left for the southern hemisphere to train in winter conditions, others are still skiing on the glaciers in Europe which offer great conditions since winter lasted somewhat longer than usual this year.

The busiest glacier seems to be Zermatt, with plenty of teams choosing the Swiss ski resort as the location for their training camps. The Canadian men’s speed and ladies’ tech teams, the Swiss ladies’ speed team, the Italian men’s tech team, the Norwegian ladies’ team with GB skier Chemmy Alcott, the French men’s speed team, the Spanish one and others could all be seen last week crushing gates at over 3700 m.s.l.

Justin Murisier (SUI), slalom training in Zermatt, photo: Swiss Alpin Ski Team

Marc Gini (SUI), Zermatt, photo: Swiss Alpin Ski Team

Saas Fee opens only in late July but right from the first days one could find the Finnish men and ladies’ teams, while Italian Passo Stelvio was the destination of choice for last season’s Overall champion Tina Maze and the Italian ladies’ tech team.

In France the Les Deux Alpes glacier is also bustling with skiers. The French men’s tech and ladies’ speed teams are training there and a few Italians skiers, putting in some days of training outside of their regular schedules with the teams can be spotted.

But as the 5am wake up calls, the high altitude and constant temperature changes makes training on a glacier all summer a really tiring experience, most of the above mentioned teams are scheduled to pack up and move to Argentina, Chile or New Zealand in the upcoming weeks. This time of the year resorts in the southern hemisphere offer full on winter conditions and great training opportunities.

Therefore, the USA ladies speed team, featuring Stacey Cook, Leanne Smith and Laurenne Ross already left for a two-week camp in El Colorado, Chile. While Julia Mancuso opted to join Mikaela Shiffrin and Resi Stiegler at the technical camp in New Zealand, but will head to Chile in September for the speed team’s second camp there.

Lindsey Vonn, who is recovering really well from her February injury, has her sights set on returning to snow in September.

by Ana Jelusic
FISalpine.com
Monday 29 July 2013