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IRevving Back Up
Sorry for the lack of posts lately.. I’ve been busy and I’ve started working with Tyler Brown (one of my first coaches and current MSM Ski Team K2 coach) on redoing my website. I like the general appearance now but updating things is a pain in the butt. So Tyler is helping me transfer everything over to an easier and better system, while also revamping the look of the site. I think it will turn out very nice!
Well my vacation is almost over and its time to start the dryland part of the season. I’ve gotten into the gym a few times in the past week and boy is it hitting me hard! The first few workouts of the year are always tough. Other than the gym I’ve rekindled my love of tennis. I got a wicked new racquet from Head and played a few times while Mari was in town, and played with the Alex and Phil Mach for a 2.5 hour monster session today. It was great and I learned a lot but my hand is simply destroyed with blisters!
At the end of last week I also had the chance to attend both the OSZ and MSM Ski Team Banquets, which were fun. Both banquets recognized the up and coming talent in the region which is always good to see! I was very flattered to be presented with a special award at the OSZ Banquet. Once again I was amazed by the support of the people in the region, and I want to thank every one of you.
As far as my schedule is concerned I leave for physical testing in Calgary on Thursday evening. I’m staying out there for 3 weeks after that to be near the ACA trainers in order to get as strong as I possibly can for the tough season ahead.
Malcolm Carmichael, a Banff based photographer, sent over a couple wicked shots the other day from National Championships in Nakiska:
Super G
Downhill
Downtime (Continued)
I’ve been having a lot of fun since I last posted. Lots of time off, spending time with Mari, hanging out with friends, and attending some cool events.
The first ‘event’ I went to was the WWF CN Tower climb. I got involved as a result of another organization I’m involved with (Canadian Athletes Now), and since I was going to be in Toronto at the time I said, “Why not?” It ended up being a heck of a workout and took me 13:59 to make it up the 1776 steps to the top. My heart rate didn’t go under 200 for about 13 of those minutes!
The next day I had a meeting with Eric Sprott and the rest of the Sprott Private Wealth group. The meeting was great and I got to meet the people who are involved in my sponsorship, which was also very cool. While there I was invited to the Sprott Gold Medal Celebration event a few days later, so I changed my plans and stayed in Toronto a few more days. The event was in collaboration with CAN Fund, and I was very glad I stayed for it. I met several Olympic medal winners from Vancouver and even got to hold a Gold medal. I’ve never seen a medal as cool, or as heavy as that! I also met Jane Roos, the founder of the CAN Fund. She has such a positive outlook on sport and funding, it was neat to talk to her. Each Olympian had a chance to speak, which was probably the coolest part about the event. Hearing each speech brought me right back to Whistler during the Games and made me realize how important my goals are to me and made me want to achieve them more than ever before.
You can check out some video from the event and interviews with the Olympians and Eric here
View of part of the Sprott/CAN Fund event
Everyone was given a t-shirt they could get signed by the Olympians
After Toronto I stopped off in Ottawa for about 4 hours before moving on to Montreal to watch the parade of Olympic Athletes down Ste Catherines. The turnout for the parade was unreal (tens of thousands of people) and it was so cool to see that Olympic pride is still alive and well!
I have just over a week before I head out to Calgary for physical testing and the first dryland block of the season. I’m looking forward to working out again and getting strong for next season! Until then I’ll be at home biking, playing tennis and some light work outs in preparation for the heavy summer ahead.
Downtime
Having some down time for the past two weeks has been awesome. I truly needed this break from skiing, and from any sort of schedule or serious obligations. To be honest I haven’t done much at all over the two weeks. A little shopping, a lot of relaxing, and not much else!
I’m heading to Toronto tomorrow to meet with my sponsor Eric Sprott. If you’ve been reading my blog you know Eric recently made a monumental donation to the CAN Fund. For more info check out: www.sprottgoldpledge.com. After that I’ll spend a few more days in Toronto visiting my Godfather and hanging out with friends. After that its back home and time to start moving again. Nothing too intense, I’ll just get back into playing sports and being active. Tennis, biking (road & mountain) trampolining... All the fun stuff!
End of Another Season
Another season bites the dust. As usual I’m a little sad there is no more skiing for a little while, but I really need some time off.
The Spring Series were a good time as usual. The weather was incredibly hot, above 20 degrees all week. Because of that, an uncountable number of bags of salt were laid down onto the track to make it runnable. I wanted to end the season with some confidence in GS, which worked well because I won both GS races. It wasn’t a cakewalk because there were a bunch of good american guys there, so it felt good. I DNFed the first slalom, but ended up 5th in the second one which I was decently pleased with. After that last race it really just felt good to finally be finished because my body had had enough!
Mari and I both ended up winning the Super Series Overall as well!
Along with Julian Sheiner winning the J1 title, and Chris Steinke in 3rd for J1s.
As for now I’m in relax-mode for a few weeks, before starting the engines back up a few weeks before going out to Calgary at the beginning of May. I’ll be laying off the blogging for a little bit while I’m relaxing as well, so no updates for a bit.
I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has been following me throughout the year. Your messages, comments, and support mean a lot to me and make the long tough days more bearable!
Cheers
Overall Nor-Am Cup Champion!
I am the Overall North American Cup Champion for the 2009/2010 season!!!
I can’t believe it but it’s true! I’m completely happy and a little bit amazed at everything that happened this season, and today especially to make it happen.
Coming into today’s race Will Brandenberg of the U.S. was ahead of me in the overall standings by 18 points. I hadn’t given up yet, but Will is an amazing slalom skier so I had prepared myself for the fact that he would probably win the title. This might have helped me a little because I was totally relaxed in the start of the first run, and laid down one of the better slalom runs of my career. As predicted Will laid down an even better one from bib 1 and was sitting in second.
Going into the second run I was a little more nervous because I knew that if I wanted to even have a shot, I would need to have another run like my first. But I figured it was better to lay it all on the line and blow out knowing I had given it everything, than put down a mediocre run and know that I could have been faster. With that in mind I laid down another of my better slalom runs, made a decent mistake at the bottom, but was still in there. Mari and I were standing in the crowd at the finish watching the remaining 10 racers and I remember saying, “Well, I was second on the season, that’s pretty good right?”. I knew that in order for me to win, Will had to ski out, and I had to be somewhere inside the top 15. (The whole season I’ve been trying not to get stats and numbers in my head because that has thrown me off my game in the past) Watching Will come down was one of the most stressful things I’ve done in my career so far. As he came over the knoll onto the last pitch and into view I thought, oh well that’s that.. So when he crashed through a hairpin on the 2nd last roll in the course, I couldn’t even believe it! The crowd (mostly Americans) let out a collective groan, while I let out a mini scream of joy before I caught myself! I still wasn’t sure I had won until Travis told me I was 13th in the race and that gave me 2 more points in the overall. I was stunned. I was ecstatic, relieved, surprised, overwhelmed. It was incredible!
Will and I have had a good battle over the last half of the season and I can’t even imagine what he’s feeling right now, because we were both so close right up to the last run. If he had won I couldn’t have been too disappointed because he deserved it just as much as I do.
The title means I have a spot in every World Cup race next season! That doesn’t mean I will race every, or even close to every one, but if the coaches feel I’m ready, I’ll be in there!
It means so much to me to have won the title. I can remember a few years back when I first started racing Nor-Ams, watching the top guys and wondering how in the world I would ever be able to compete with them.. And now I’m the one on top. It’s a little surreal when I think about it! A lot of hard work has paid off this year, and although this is a big step in my career, it’s only one step and hopefully there are many more to come!
More Photos From the Weekend
Two time Olympian and fellow Ottawanian Pat Biggs is selling a special edition quilted HBC Team Canada Olympic jacket from the Vancouver games. Pat is auctioning it off on eBay to help cover his expenses for this year. So if you're interested in helping out an Olympian and owning a piece of Olympic history check it out: http://bit.ly/bR4PpH
You can also check out Biggsy's website and blog at www.patbiggs.com
Grippin' and rippin' on slalom skis
Left: 2010 | Right: 2005 | Not a lot has changed..
My dad, Brett Frip and I. Brett Frip is one of the organizers of the Ski-A-Thon
My mom and I after the medals
And for good measure a new shot from the Lake Louise NorAms in December
Rest Week
First off, can anyone believe the weather outside in Ottawa right now? Unbelievable.. But as nice as it is, it needs to get colder because I'm not finished with the winter yet!
After podiuming in the second Super G in Aspen I was ready to tear it up in downhill, but it was not to be. Evidently I like to turn (oh really?!) and need to figure out how to glide faster, because the top flats of the downhill track were killing my times. Oh well, live and learn! Even with the mediocre downhill results I managed to hold onto the NorAm overall lead going into the NorAm Finals next week in Vermont and New Hampshire.
After Aspen I returned home for a week of rest, racing, forerunning and fundraising. The first few days were nice and relaxing as Mari came to Ottawa. After a few days with her and a day of training at Fortune with the Quebec Team, my dad and I went up to Tremblant for the Boys and Girls Club Ski-A-Thon (www.skiathon.com). Todd Brooker (Canadian HEAD rep) was another guest of the event. It was a lot of fun to ski with a Crazy Canuck and the man who got me involved with HEAD skis. The event was a huge success, raising $106,000! I met a bunch of really cool people, and it was a ton of fun. I just might have to attend again next year!
The day after the Ski-A-Thon was the annual GMC Cup race at Camp Fortune. Canadian Olympians Pat Biggs and Ryan Semple (both slalom specialists) were racing that day, so my expectations were to be as close as possible to those two. Things worked out a little better than I had planned as I came through the finish of the first run to find myself in the lead. More than a little surprised, I tried to duplicate that success in the second run but it was not to be. I made a bunch of mistake and Pat ended up with the win, but I did come second, 0.01 in front of Ryan. Hundies matter!
The next day was the K1 OSZ Championships GS race at Mont Ste Marie. My younger sister Becca even convinced me to wear all of my Olympic forerunning gear. The forerunning was a lot of fun and made me realize that I really miss skiing on Outaouais because it is so fun! Rebecca didn't do as well as she was hoping, but did end up tying for the overall medal win for 1998's because of how well she did in the slalom the previous weekend. Way to go Bec!
I'm leaving for Mont Orford tomorrow for a few days of training before the NorAm finals, where I'm aiming to wrap up some World Cup spots for next season!!
Front page of the Aspen/Snowmass website
Arcing it up at Fortune. Photo courtesy of Cynthia Stewart of Photo Buddies
Mari and I after the Fortune race
Camp Fortune Podium
I think it's too big Sprout...
Handing out medals at MSM
An Incredible Olympic Experience
Trav, Dave (Trav and my technician) and myself moments before the start
What an unforgettable week! My Olympic experience was full of delays, snow, fog, but most of all fun. It was awesome to be at the Olympics, especially a home one. The support from everyone was unbelievable even though I was just forerunning. I ran into a ton of people from the Ottawa skiing community while out in Whistler. A bunch of them were volunteers (working their butts off!) and some were taking in the sights and sounds of the Olympics. But everyone was really supportive which was awesome, so thanks a lot!
When race day finally rolled around the atmosphere was like nothing I've ever experience before. There were TONS of people at all of the viewing areas (7,000 in the stands!) hours before the race even started. It's a pretty cool feeling when people cheer when you come through the finish.. of the inspection! Due to only having one official and incomplete training run, everyone had a chance to run from Coaches Turn to the finish. After that I had to head straight back up to the top because I would be the first forerunning and would open the Alpine events at the Olympics. 
The view from the start on race day (20 min before start). Notice the line of people forming on the top left.
At precisely 10:20 the beeps started for me to begin my run. Leaving the start and hearing the roar of the crowd up there was something I didn't expect and will never forget! I almost broke into a smile before the first gate (good thing I was only forerunning I guess). Since I was the guinea pig and the first one down, I found out pretty quickly that the jumps were huge that day. The track was way firmer and a little faster than training, but was also a lot bumpier. Coming through each viewing area I could hear people cheering, which is something I have never heard before. Coming over the last two jumps, which were massive that day, I could see all the people in the finish and was just awestruck by how many were there. As I came through the finish I was so excited to be there and that I had just been a part of the Olympics that I let out a scream and fist pump, which I guess the crowd liked because they went wild! I will never forget that moment.
A view of the crowd
So with that said I'm really glad that I had the experience of running in such a big event because of all the little things that kind of took me off guard. For example the noise, people, and cameras everywhere. I think the experience will definitely help me in the future and hopefully in Sochi 2014!!!
The volunteers deserve the biggest medal of all. It was ridiculous how much work they were doing! Even making snow-slides to clear the track. Genius.
A bunch of the speed guys training Super-G on one of the nice days
Trav and I had the chance to watch the women's Super Combi. This is Vonn after straddling and a collective "oouhhhhhh" from the crowd. Just goes to show that anything can happen in this crazy sport.
After watching the Super Combi we went up top and took a 25 minute hike to find some freshies.
Todd Brooker hooked me up with some fatties for the trip
Awesome.
Typical Whistler
Can anyone honestly say they didn't see this coming? By 'this' I mean the brutal, awful, terrible, disgusting weather that is happening in Whistler right now and for the last three days. Even though I expected something like this to happen it doesn't make it any better or easier to deal with. I really just want to ski that track again!
That being said this is still the Olympics(!) and Trav and I have been having a good time while we haven't been able to race. Yesterday we went up to the top of Whistler and ripped off a couple of sweet powder runs, then moved a little lower and did some GS training. Conditions aren't exactly ideal but it was good to whack some gates again.
Something I somehow forgot to mention was the amazing send off surprise I received from the kids at MSM. The day before I left I was given a wickedly cool banner by my sister and Rowan Courtenay that the kids made for me! I was pretty surprised and very touched by the gift and I can't wait to get on that track and represent the club when the race finally gets off!
Thank you guys VERY much!!!
During the down time I've been getting some practice playing this very neat ski game from ORF. It's got a bunch of tracks from Kitzbuhel, Wengen, Beaver Creek and even the Whistler track. If you've got some time to kill check it out here: http://skichallenge.orf.at/sc10
This has been the scene in the finish for the past three days. Pretty depressing.
More questionable signage
The most ridiculously amazing house I have ever seen!
My amazing birthday dinner at Mongolie Grill. Who needs veggies anyways?
Olympic Time Baby!
I made it out to Whistler last night after a long travel day and a surprise race at St. Sauveur. I hadn't planned on racing out there but I did and ended up winning (in slalom even), which was pretty cool.
Things in Whistler are pretty hectic as you would imagine. All the security glitches are being ironed out right now in the few days before the 2010 Olympic Games officially begin on Friday.
Travis and I, along with a few boys from the BC Ski Team had the chance to run the DH track today for 'TV testing'. Basically we were the guinea pigs for the cameras to make sure everything is working and they have all the angles covered, etc etc. The track is in great shape and they've changed a few things since I last ran this track a few years ago. There are a few more jumps now, which makes it even more fun! Tomorrow is training run #1 so it's down to business for everyone involved in the race on Saturday.
I don't have internet in my room so I won't be updating my blog as often as normal, but I will be updating my Twitter several times a day with pictures, videos, or whatever else is going on. If you want more updates check out twitter.com/dustincook.
That being said I will be getting up another blog post with a photo run-through of the course, which I'm planning on getting up tomorrow.
Cheers!
The Olympic Start House
Trav decked out in our forerunner gear
The stands in the finish of the DH
The back of the stands
What a Long Strange Trip it's Been..
As the title says, it's been a long difficult trip this year in Europe. Three weeks over here is a relatively short trip compared to the past years, but the difference this year was the crazy amount of racing jammed into those three weeks. Last year I was over here for a month and I did three races.
This year I arrived on the night of the 9th, trained the 10th and 11th, did DH training runs on the 12/13th, DH races on the 14/15th. Raced a slalom on the 16th, GS on the 17th. Finally had a day off on the 18th. Trained on the 19th, GS races on the 20/21st, followed by two SG races on the 22nd. One day off and one travel day on the 23/24th. Which finally leads me to where I am now in Les Orres where I've done 2 DH training days (25/26th) and a DH race yesterday. 13 races (including DH training runs) in 19 days. Phew, just looking at that and I now realize why I am so completely wiped out. I was supposed to race a second DH today but I am so fatigued, mentally and physically that I pulled myself from the race to take a few GS training runs and try to get some feelings back for the final race of the trip: a SG tomorrow.
The trip started off fairly well in Patcherkofel, which I wrote about earlier. Moving on from there I did a FIS slalom in Lenggries, where I was 2nd in the second run! Definitely a step in the right direction in slalom. Following that was a Europa Cup GS, where I fell which was disappointing. After that was a FIS race in Kirchberg that did go alright. It was stacked full of World Cup guys (many of them top-30 GS skiers) and I finished 14th, not too far off the pace. After that the fatigue of all the racing and travelling has sort of taken over and my skiing and results have gone downhill.
The thing that makes a schedule like this so tough in Europe is that after each event that we've done, we've had to drive 2+ hours (sometimes 5 or 8) to the next stop, immediately following the race. That means your muscles don't get to recover and you get very little decent rest.
Needless to say I'm looking forward to getting home and getting some rest! I'll be home for a week, possibly up at MSM for a day to forerun, and then off to Whistler to forerun the Olympic Downhill and Super Combined!
The first few gates of the Les Orres Downhill
Nice scenery behind the start
Questionable signage?
Photo and Such
Cynthia Stewart of Photo Buddies was at the Mt Blanc slaloms and took some pretty wicked pics of me skiing slalom of all things. These are by far the best slalom pictures I've ever seen of myself. I always watch a few people from the start, and usually end up thinking "dang, those guys are good!" It doesn't really occur to me that I might look like I know what I'm doing as well haha.
I also put up some new shots in the Recent album in the Photography section of the site. Theres a bunch from earlier in the season in Colorado, Lake Louise, and some from the Chirstmas break. I got a new lens a few months ago and I've been playing around with it quite a bit lately and I love it. Let me know what you think!
R&R
After being on the road for almost two months in a row this break has been very nice and was definitely needed. I've just been recharging my batteries for the last few days up at Mont Ste Marie. The lifts up there didn't open today due to freezing rain so I decided to drive back to the city and do some stuff I need to do. For example get in the gym, do some shopping and see friends. Hope everyone is having a great holiday and I'll see some of you up at MSM in the next few days. I'm going back up tomorrow morning to coach for the next three days, should be fun!
Here are a couple pictures from the Lake Louise DH a few weeks ago:
Photography Page
I've updated the photography page so that things are a little more simplified. I also fixed the Purchase page so that it actually works now. If you like any of my photos and want to support me, purchase a photo!
SIRC Photo Contest Update
Thanks to anyone and everyone who voted for me in the SIRC Photo Contest. Thanks to you I won!
SIRC issued a press release a few days ago announcing the winners and I was quite flattered to see that I was on top of the list. The press conference can be read here. Thanks again!!
Stubai Camp
The almost three weeks I spent in Stubai, Austria for the second on-snow camp of the year were eye opening to say the least. Our first ski day was on October 10th. We had heard about how little snow they had, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I got to the top of the glacier:
Fantastic first day conditions!
22 runs in a slalom course later and one wrecked pair of skis and we left the mountain in disbelief. It snowed a little that night and the rocks got covered over for the most part, but a new challenge arose. We switched to another side of the glacier the next day and though it had much better snow coverage, the snow was coverring up glacial ice. If you've never skied on glacier ice it is the slickest, hardest ice you will ever find. Razor sharp edges are rounded and dull in two runs on the stuff!
So after an interesting first two days the storm started. It snowed for eight days straight after that. Eight! The mountain went from zero snow, to waaaay to much snow in a matter of days. All the accumulation, plus a seemingly never ending stream of hazards made training extremely tough, but we hamered on through and skied every day. Iced over goggles, giant ski-wrecking rocks, 80km/h winds, and freezing temperatures kept things from getting too dull!
Finally some nice weather!
With about five days left the sun finally poked through and brought us a few good days, which we took full advantage of. The snow wasn't perfect but it got better and better over those last five days and we got some decent GS and Super-G training in. On the penultimate day of training we skied Super-G to start off then moved to slalom. I did the first run of slalom gates then went to do the second run and couldn't put any pressure on my skis. Turns out I likely have a bulged disc in my back. The pain was so intense the first day it happened we thought that it might be serious, but the pain has lessened considerably since then so the doctors think I should be good to go in a week or so.
With all the soft snow we only did 3 days of slalom which brings my slalom training total for the year up to about 4 days. Even though I've done so little slalom I've been skiing well when I do get the chance to ski it, which is encouraging because I had such a tough time in the event last year.
Overall it was an extremely tough camp mentally. I've never been on a camp where we faced such challenging conditions, and it seemed like some new, even more difficult challenge arose each day. Every day can't be perfect as my coach constantly reminded us! The way I see it, I made it through all the bad weather so the rest of the season should be blue skies! Not likely, but I can dream.
