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Our trip to South America involved many hours of travel in vans, planes, busses and trains. We arrived exhausted, but excited to hit the slopes in Termas de Chillan, Chile. When the bus pulled up to the hotel we were greeted with several feet of new powder snow which was a bit of a shock, but provided us with some fun free skiing during the first few days. We were able to put gates in the snow eventually and managed to log lots of miles through rutted courses – perfect for those first year FIS athletes.
We took a day off after 4 days of skiing and headed down to the town of Chillan. It was an excellent cultural experience and everyone found some perfect gifts to take home.
When we returned to snow, the skiing improved dramatically each day. The last 4 training days were particularly good as the snow froze over night leaving us with near perfect conditions. We were even able to get in one day of excellent quality Super G. Our training spot was the best on the mountain. Sorry National teams!
Speaking of National teams, also training in Chillan were National team athletes from Spain, France, USA and of course Canada. There was certainly no shortage of good skiers to watch!
Each day consisted of catching a bus at 6:45 am and hitting the slopes by 7:15. Typically we skied until 12:30, ate lunch and then headed out for more skiing before catching the bus down to the hotel at about 3:30 pm. Our emphasis was on achieving maximum time on-snow. It was tough to get much variety in dryland because we were fairly isolated at our hotel, but we were able to follow the recommended program quite closely. Although 'snow speedball' wasn't on the official program, it sure was fun!
All of the athletes performed well, worked hard and improved a lot. The last two days were spent timing both GS and Slalom runs. It was great to see the kids push each other. The athletes were tired by the end of the camp, but they all persevered and had a very successful trip. The coaches were happy that we had no significant injuries to report as well.
Derek Trussler, Kelowna, Big White Racers
Other attending coaches: Glenn Thomsen (Invermere/BCST) and Jordan Williams (Whistler/WMSC)