Austria Day 7: Tough SL Hill and Dinner in Italy

Today's session was a little bittersweet. We had lane space set up for an afternoon session on #20 which would have followed Manfred Pranger's private morning session. Pranger is the 2009 World Cup Overall Slalom champion. Tom had arranged that the Austrian coaches would pull the course and we would set ours in the same holes. The idea behind this is so the guys can see what the fastest possible line in SL is and then try to ski it. Most likely, they would not have pulled it off. It provides a great hands on lesson in where they need to eventually be in SL physically and tactically.

Unfortunately, the snow was soft today, too soft for Manfred to want to train. Not too soft for KMS though! We had the best lane on the entire glacier, normally reserved for national teams. It starts off flat for about 15 turns, then goes into a long steep section, probably around 20 turns, before flattening out abruptly for 5 turns into the finish. It's a globe style pitch, which means that every turn is a little bit steeper than the last. It is very challenging, because when the hill falls away from you constantly, it gives the feeling that there is a touch less gravity than normal. It is really easy to lose snow contact at this point.

There were a lot of DNF's today, but the guys are skiing fast when they are able to make it all the way down. It is a very challenging hill and some DNF's should be expected in October. It is exciting to watch Kyle come into his own, Cam and Mike are light years ahead of their SL from last season already. Dylan is killing it. James and Wyatt are very impressive as first years FIS guys, and many of Tommy's runs are the fastest I have ever seen him take in SL. He is starting to really figure out what dynamic skiing is.

As a reward, we all made the short drive to Italy for dinner. It is the best food on earth, that's all.

One side note. Tom and I pulled an awesome bonehead move today that must be shared. Because it is Saturday, we had to park a mile down from the gondola and take shuttle buses up. On the way back (the guys had already made it to the van) we hopped onto a shuttle and said "Wouldn't it be funny if this was the bus into the valley?" Well, twenty minutes later we were in the valley. We hopped off, waited, got on a shuttle back up to the glacier. The driver looked at us funny because we were the only people in ski gear trying to get up to the glacier at 4 P.M. Having a bus all to yourself is pretty nice. We arrived to the guys pointing and laughing. Sweet.

We have one more SL session on Monday before heading back to Munich. We will be moving back to #6.

Tomorrow is the big day. Soelden. Won't be able to sleep tonight, that's for sure.