Dustin Cook

Sitting in the car right now on the way to Munich from Sölden, thinking about the race today. On the one hand it was really cool to get my first crack at a World Cup race. Getting that first one out of the way should make the nerves a little easier from now on! On the other hand I skied terribly for 3/4 of the run and should have been so much faster, but, as the saying goes: that’s ski racing.

Coming into the few hours before start I had a couple of solid runs in the warmup course, and had managed to calm my nerves to the point where I was ready to rip. My mind was in the right place, and I did ski decently well on the top flats and first pitch, but coming into the breakover onto the main pitch, the fog had rolled in and the light was so flat I couldn’t differentiate the snow and ruts. Naturally my instincts were to sit back and that’s what I did, and I got taken for a ride. At least I managed to make it down.

It was an incredibly tough day for everyone, with super tough conditions, and only a few people outside of bib 35 made it into the top 30 flip. Although in the end it didn’t matter.. The race was cancelled before the start of second run because of…. fog!

Oh and according to the coaches and other guys I haven’t had a World Cup start yet because “there was no race today”. Haha. Guess I’ll race my first one in Canada at Lake Louise!