K1 Provincial Champioships at Mt.Washington

Mt.Washington played host to 150 K1 competitors for the Provincial Championships on March 18-20.
It was a huge undertaking for the Mt.Washington Ski Club as we ran two simultaneous courses on two separate runs on the Friday and Saturday of competition. Setting up and running one course is a big job on its own, this required twice the manpower. The event was giant success with praise coming from the visiting clubs. Thanks to all the volunteers from visiting clubs that helped make it all come together.
This race was the main qualifier for the upcoming Whistler Cup so even though our coaches were trying to keep our racers focused on the event and not stressing out about placing high enough to qualify, it was still on everyones mind.
Maja has been focused on top ten at every event this year and has been pushing hard and taking risks. This has resulted in major improvements in her skiing but also means she is always on the edge and even the smallest error in this sport, where fractions of a second are critical, can drop you way down in the results.

   Friday saw the girls skiing Giant Slalom(GS) and the boys on the Slalom course(SL).
There were 84 girls from around the province competing for Provincial standings. Top 30 is a great result.
GS&SL were both two single run events, meaning two runs with separate results.
Maja almost fell and winded herself on her first GS run but managed to stay on her feet and still finish 13th, only 00.7 of a second out of tenth place. Her team mate Keegan McCooey skiid well into 29th.
On her second run Maja placed 16th and Keegan 28th.
The boys as usual were at the top of their game on the Slalom course with Kole Harle winning the first run and coming 6th in the second run. Liam Gilchrist placed 7th and 9th, Logan Frame 10th and 11th, and Robbie Yelland 30th and 24th. There were 73 boys competing.Wow!
Day two had the girls on SL and the boys on GS.
Maja missed a gate and had to hike on her first run, placing 69th. You only have a few seconds to hike back to a missed gate before the judges call you off course for the next skier coming behind. You have to hustle and in the end you're only guaranteed a finish way down the list so it takes some will power to not just give in and not finish the run. Either way it's a disappointment for the racer and upsetting. So much work goes into training and it all comes down to one attempt, maybe a minute of your time to be perfect.
Keegan put in a great run and came 12th.
Maja's second run was much better at 12th place, Keegan also placed well at 23rd, only a second behind Maja and still enough to drop 11 positions!
The boys again cleaned up on the GS course with Harle 5th in the first run and 1st!! in the second. Gilchrist placed 3rd and 5th, Frame9th and 11th and Yelland 32nd and 36th.
Day three had the boys and girls both on the Kombi course for a single run only.
Maja gave it her all and came away with 6th place, less than a third of a second out of third place.
Keegan also skied very well, placing 14th.
The boys again all placed well with Gilchrist 6th, Harle 7th, Frame 10th and Yelland 32nd.
It was a great event that ended with bright sunshine on the Sunday.
We would have to wait until the slightly complicated Whistler Cup qualifications were calculated to see which of our racers would qualify.

There are two videos available, they are both identical but in different formats

that we are testing out to see which provides the best quality

for file size and consistent functionality.Both are linked from You Tube.

Both can selected for HD and full screen viewing. Enjoy.

Western Candian Championships-Silverstar Resort,Vernon,B.C.

The Western Canadian Championships were held at Silverstar Resort February 18-20. This is an event which requires qualification to attend and all six of our local K1 athletes qualified to compete. Competition was fierce, there are no weak skiers at the Westerns and any placement in the top half of the field is a respectable result, simply qualifying to attend is an achievement. Each province and zone has a selection criteria to fill their quota of competitors for the event. There are four zones in B.C. and the quota of 40 male and 40 female skiers is shared among the four zones. The Western Championships includes clubs from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Yukon, Alberta and B.C., each with their own zones and quotas.
Maja had an overall strong event with her results improving with each event.
Day one saw her place 39th and 41st in her two GS runs, teamate Keegan McCooey 54th & 57th.
Day two Maja had excellent results of 26th & 25th in her slalom runs, Keegan 41st and a DSQ in her second run.
On the final day Maja put in a very impressive 15th place in the Kombi event, Keegan placed 25th! These are both awesome results. These are the best skiers in Western Canada!
The Mt.Washington boys also put in amazing results for such a high caliber event.
Kole Harle- GS 12&29, Slalom 11&53, Kombi DNF
Liam Gilchrist- GS 24&14, Slalom DNF&DNF, Kombi DNF
Logan Frame- GS 25&29, Slalom 14&DNF, Kombi DNF
Robbie Yelland- GS 41&60, Slalom 39&38, Kombi 34
Way to go Mt.Washington, way to go Maja. A 15th place finish at the Western Canadian Championships!
Next up, the B.C. Provincial Championships hosted right here at home at Mt.Washington!

New Do

Maja decided it was time to shorten those long locks and go for a fresh, tidy, less snow clumping look, before the Westerns. We think it looks great, and definitely attracts less snow.

Little Sister and Niece from Norway show off their skills

We had family visiting from Norway Feb 10-24. Maja's uncle Paal and her six year old niece Embla came to visit and enjoy the local ski hill. Embla had only been on alpine skis for half a day before coming to Mt. Washington. She has an incredible amount of determination and after only one day on our bunny hill she wanted to take part in Mt.Washingtons Nancy Greene Toy Race. The Toy Race was a fun event for local club members and a warm up for the following weekends Experience the Podium Nancy Greene event which saw visitng clubs from Grouse, Seymour, Cypress and Whislter. Everyone had a great time at the Toy race and the weather and snow were epic. There is a video segment from this event with runs from Embla and Sylvi.
The Experience the Podium race was also a huge success with lots of local kids and visiting clubs. Sylvi competed in the 9 year old female category. She placed first in the dual Glalom on day one and first in the Kombi on day two. Her times were awesome. She not only won her division but on day one her time was the fastest overall, inlcuding the 10 and 11 year old girls and the boys! On day two she had the second fastest time, second only to one of the older boys from her club, Jared Perras by less than a second. Nice skiing Sylvi. There is a video segment from this event as well.

Grouse K1 Slalom February 5&6

The Mt. Washington K1 Alpine Team travelled to Grouse Mountain leaving on February 3rd for a 2 day slalom event. This is the last race to qualify for the Western Canadian Championships. Only the top 18 skiers from each zone qualify for the Westerns, based on their points for the season so far. The Mt. Washington team had excellent results at this race.
In her first run Maja disqualified when she unknowingly missed a gate at the end of a flush. Had she skied the run clean her time would have put her in 3rd place only a fraction of a second behind her team mate Keegan McCooey who put in a phenomenal run for 2nd place. In their second run Maja placed 6th  and and Keegan did not finish her run.
The boys also placed extremely well. 1st run Kole Harle 5th, Liam Gilchrist 6th, Logan Frame 10th and Robbie Yelland 12th. 2nd run Harle 1st!, Frame 6th, Yelland 9th and Gilchrist 14th.
On Day two the two run times were combined for a single result. Maja placed 12th and her team mate Keegan 16th. The boys had some trouble finishing this course , except Logan Frame who came in with an awesome 3rd place finish. There were 42 girls and 45 boys competing.
After this event and all the consistent top  20 finishes at previous events, every single one of our K1's have qualified for the Western Canadian Championships. Awesome! The team's results are all so consistently good for the whole team, that Mt. Washingtons K1's have the best team standing in B.C. !!! Well done.

Good luck at the Westerns, competition will be fierce with only the top 18 ranked skiers from each zone from B.C. to Saskatchewan. There are 4 zones in B.C.

K2 Coast Zone Giant Slalom Race at Mt. Washington

Our club hosted a Coast Zone K2 Giant Slalom race on January 22-23. Maja and the other K1 team members as well as the Snow Leopard from Ghana were chosen to fore-run the race. Fore-runners race the course before the competitors to ensure the gates and timing are all properly placed, safe and functional. One of our local volunteer Ski Patrollers, Don "Moose" McCauley put together an awesome video clip of the event which I've included in the post, as well as clips of Maja and the Snow Leopard.

Hemlock Race

The K1's travelled to Hemlock Resort, northwest of Harrison Hot Springs, for competition on January 14,15 &16. Unfortunately this event did not run smoothly and the competitors were left with 2 gs runs for the girls and one for the boys on the Saturday with all other runs cancelled due to weather and ski lift malfunctions. This was supposed to be six events over three days. The Friday races were cancelled due to rain and from the sounds of it a lack of organization. Saturday saw two runs for the girls and one for the boys due to issues with the chair lift and weather. Sunday events were cancelled due to weather and failure of the chairlift. This was a very disappointing trip for the team as a lot of effort and expense goes into training and travelling for these events. Maja placed well in her first run at 10th and 12th in her second run. Her team mate Keegan McCooey placed 28th in her first run and an impressive 4th in her second. The boys also skied well in their one Giant Slalom run. Liam Gilchrist 4th, Logan Frame 10th, Robbie Yelland 11th and Kole Harle missed a gate on his run. Maja's ever faithful grandpa travelled with the team to Hemlock but due to the foul weather and the heavy work load for the few volunteers he didn't manage any photos or videos for this event.

Maja Turns 13

Maja turned 13 on the 7th of January. Maja's homework requires more and more computer time these days it seems. She's routinely bumping the adults off the computer both at home and at her Grandparents home to do schoolwork. She's also keeping up with schoolwork when she's on the road skiing so we thought it made sense for her to have her own. Both sets of Grandparents and Mama and Pappa chipped in to get her a little notebook to fill all these needs. We knew she would be excited but we didn't expect any tears. Here's a slightly long video clip of Maja opening up her supercool gift.

Report cards and Training Days

The Mt.Washington Alpine team trains every weekend, some Fridays and the odd Monday. Maja's been feeling the workload of her first year at junior high and the French Immersion program. She impressed everyone with all A's on her last report card. We're all very proud of her. Of course her little sister Sylvi is every bit as amazing and is also up on the hill training every weekend with the K-Star pre-competitive program and sometimes with Maja's group as well.

Giant Slalom Training

Sylvi gets some GS Turn Tips from Maja

Whistler! First Race of the Season

The Mt. Washington team was in Whistler Dec 18-19 for the first race of the season. Unfortunately due to the number of competitors it was decided the skiers would only get one run for each event, slalom and giant slalom. Normally there would be two runs for each event. Maja had two good results even though she was not satisfied with anything less than a podium. Pappa had promised he would take care of all her ski tuning for the season if she finished in the top ten and now Pappa spends his evenings tuning Maja's race skis.

In the GS Maja placed 11th at 43.79 sec and her team mate Keegan McCooey came in 12th at 44.63 sec.

In the slalom Maja placed 9th at 50.74, edged out by Keegan by 3/10 of a second at 50.47 for 8th place.

The boys also had excellent results.

Kole Harle placed 3rd in GS and 5th in slalom.

Logan Frame placed 4th in GS and skied out in his slalom run.

Liam Gilchrist placed 8th in GS and 4th in slalom.

Robbie Yelland placed 11th in GS and 14th in slalom.

There were 42 boys and 39 girls competing at the K1 level.

Awards!



Apex Training week Nov 25-Dec 1

The entire Mt. Washington Alpine Ski Team was at Apex Resort for training the week of Nov 25th to Dec 1st. The resort is essentially closed except for one run and a T-bar which is open only to teams for race training. This provides early season training in an environment that allows for focused training without the distractions of a resort with public on the hill. Maja was lucky enough to have her Grandpa along with her again this year. Enjoy the video clip with the ultimate training soundtrack of course.

Dryland Training

The team has been taking part in dryland training on a weekly basis since early September. Dryland training consists of cardio, core and some strength training. Here's a small video clip of one of their more specific ski focused excercises.

Maja Interviewed by News Reporter Bill Payment

2010-2011 Season!

Maja's second season of competitive skiing is already underway. This will be Maja's second season at the K1 Level. The entire competitive level group has been taking part in dryland training and fitness testing starting in early September with weekend and midweek sessions. On-snow training will start with a week of training at Apex Resort as soon as the mountain opens for team training. Apex is located close to Penticton and is one of the first mountains to open in B.C. It is a very popular training location with many alpine ski teams. The first official event of the seaon will be at Whistler in December.
As many of you know we have also been fundraising and again we are overwhelmed by the positive response from the generous businesses and people of Campbell River, especially in todays tough economy. Thank you to everyone for your support. We will keep you up to date throughout the season with the blog and e-mails. Think Snow!

Mudbowl

Maja's Junior Development Soccer team took part in the

annual Mudbowl tournament in Port Mcneill on May 1-2.

It rained most of the weekend as expected but it was a

good time and a fun tournament. The Campbell River

team took home the title for the U-12 division, winning

all of their games.

This video clip can also be found on YouTube

in slightly better quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8fhepVA0XI

Entrepreneur Fair

Maja has been working hard on her project for an

Entrepreneur Fair at her school. The students

had to come up with an idea for a product, then

produce the product and sell it at the fair,

trying to make profit after expenses. Maja's

product line was based around stones she collected

of varying sizes which were polished, lacquered and

drilled as needed to make necklaces, earrings,pocket

rocks and garden rocks. The fair was held

on April 23rd. She made $81 after expenses.

The profits will offset the cost of a field trip

to Strathcona Park in June towards which each

student needs to raise $175.

Speed Camp

At the end of the season the race program members get the

mountain for themselves for three days for a speed camp.

This is so they can set a Super Giant Slalom course they can train

on safely without other skiers on the hill. They start at 7am

and ski until noon to take advantage of the early morning icy snow.

Once the snow softens they can't make use of the snow due to ruts

forming and it simply gets too slow to be worthwhile.

They use a radar gun on the kids to check their speeds.

Maja's fastest speed was 86 kph coming into the first of two jumps.

She was skiing on Super G skis borrowed from her coach.

They were 175cm! Her longest skis, for Giant slalom are 155cm.

The fastest speed was put in by Gabe Pare at 98 kph.

Gabe is 15, in his 2nd year of K2.

Maja had to miss the last day of the camp due to her

entrepreneur fair for school being held that day.

Maja and her 175's

Maja cruising through the air at 86 kph

Rearview of Gabe at 98 kph

Ski Club Year End Awards and Banquet

The Mt. Washington Ski Club held their year end awards
presentation and banquet on April 3rd. It was a fun evening
and the food was excellent. There were numerous awards,
speeches and presentations throughout the evening.
Maja was presented with the K1 Fastest Female Award.
Kole Harle received Fastest K1 male.
Probably the biggest award of the night went to Lindsay Frame.
She received the Ben Bellamy award which is given to an athlete
based on sportsmanship, mentoring , teamwork and a supportive,
positive attitude toward everyone around them.
Ben Bellamy was a member of the race program who died tragically
and is remembered for his positive attitude towards sports, his
team mates and coaches.
The award was presented by his brother Lucien Bellamy.

Free Skiing with Pappa

With the last race of the season done and the season almost

over the girls took a Monday morning to ski with their dad.

It's pretty cool to see these young girls skiing gnarly terrain.

Not too sure if anyone but pappa likes this steep terrain though.

Coast Zone Finals

The Coast Zone Finals were held on Mt.Washington from April 2-4.

The club worked tirelessly to pull off this event but the weather just

wasn't going to cooperate. Friday April 2nd saw volunteers arriving

on the hill as early as 6:30 am with racers from around the province

waiting to compete. The snow had been pouring in all night and it

wouldn't let up all day with winds as high as 95 mph, that's right

mph, recorded at the summit. The entire mountain was without

power most of the day with no skiing operations and obviously no

racing. This spelled the end for the Super Giant Slalom which the

K1's would have been skiing for the first and only time this season.

Saturday brought a break in the weather but with all the new snow

the course was very soft and difficult to maintain. It was a lot of

work to clear all that new snow and set and maintain a slalom

course but a successful day of slalom racing was accomplished.

Sunday morning there was 15-20 cm of new snow with snow still

coming down to the point the race coaches decided the Giant Slalom

could not safely go on. It is impossible to hold an Alpine ski race in

fresh powder. At least the visiting skiers got to sample some of

Washington's fresh snow which we've been fortunate to have an

abundance of this season.

The Mt. Washington skiers did post some excellent results for the

slalom event and it was nice to see the race season end on such a

strong performance at home.

Maja finished 10th overall for the K1's and 3rd of the first year

racers, just a second behind her team mate Keegan McCooey who

placed 6th overall and 2nd of first years. Awesome!

The boys were also impressive with Liam Gilchrist placing 3rd,

Logan Frame 5th, Cole Anderson 6th and Robbie Yelland 9th.

Kole Harle raced hard but did not finish his race.

Maja's little sister Sylvi was selected to compete in an add-on race

for the K-Star group. She is actually 6 weeks too young for this

group but was invited to compete with racers one to two years

older. She finished in second place! Way to go Sylvi.

We didn't get too many photos of this event as we were all very

busy sweeping the course and working to keep the course in shape

for the racers. It was a very busy weekend for only getting in

one day of racing.

Maja out of the start gate!

Sylvi on course.

Maja and Sylvi with Robbie Yelland.