Stacey Cook

So……….. It has been a summer full of no updates.  Imagine that.  I seem to be making that a pattern.

For the short version of all things summer- summer has blessed me with an amazing amount of beloved Mammoth time! I really have just been trying to take it easy this summer, and by that I mean cutting down on all the incredible journeys I have enjoyed during the last few summers and sticking to things that are more directly helping my skiing day in and day out.  I was able to create a pattern to my days for the first time ever!  I have spent a ton of time in the gym and on my road bike, but was still able to work some mountain biking and hiking into my program, which are some of my favs.  A lot of questioning went into my prep plan this year, but I think my trainer and I were able to change my program to make it more stringent on skiing focused workout and allow me to get my kicks as well.  The main reason for this plan was of course the Olympics coming up, which made it pretty darn easy to motivate day after day to work hard.  But, also because I felt I needed a change to my program after the last few seasons have not gone as planned.  You can only take a road that leads nowhere so many times before you learn to try a different road, and that was what I did! Maybe this road will lead to all the right places.

For the short version of all things camps- I have two on snow camps already under my belt.  The first camp was in Coronet Peak, Queenstown, New Zealand.  It was a great camp that provided us with a really good tech basis.  I did 4 days of slalom in a row!  Conditions were the best I have ever skied there, and one of the highlights was an incredibly generous invitation to go Heli-Skiing with a friend from Mammoth.  It was my first Heli-skiing experience and hopefully not my last as it made me want to convert to a big mountain skier right then and there.  The second camp was in Chile and also provided some of the best conditions ever! The camp started off on the right foot with a powder day before we ever got into any gates, and all of us girls had some huge smiles on our faces!  We trained super-G and downhill right next to the Canadian and Norwegian men every day.  Not bad having the best male skier and best female skier to train with!  Hopefully those valuable days will pay off when I kick out of the gate at the first speed race this year!

For the short on what’s up next- I leave soon to go to Europe.  The season is starting to get a bit closer and everyone is feeling the intensity kick up a notch.  I will not be racing in Solden this year for the first time in 4 years.  Again…. A decision to mix things up a bit, as that race has never really given me any sort of boost to the season.  After Europe will be a quick trip to NYC! My first time there and I am really excited about that.  Hopefully by that time I have found my blog updating form and can let you in on exactly how everything is going.  Thanks for checking in!

Sun, Sand and…………. Skiing???

I was walking through the parking lot at Main Lodge, Mammoth Mountain yesterday and passed a couple loading their car with their ski gear from the day. Nothing that unusual except it was a convertible with the top down, and the skis were sticking up out of the back seat. I thought to my self, “only in California would you see something like that!”

The spring skiing this year has been absolutely some of the best ever. It’s not because we have more snow then in the past, we are actually still below average for snowfall this year, but the snow is just not melting yet. It was 70 degrees Fahrenheit here yesterday, and you can still go wherever you want on the mountain. Awesome is the only word to describe that.

I was out coaching the Rossignol Race Camp last week with my great friends from Rossignol, and instead of doing drills and running gates like the camp is meant for, I took my group to the top of the mountain to experience a rare, but amazing phenomenon that only hits the resort a few times a year. When the wind blows the right direction, and there is the perfect amount of new snowfall, the bowl at the top of the mountain will become perfectly smooth and absolutely ripable. You have all the space you want, you can go as fast as you want, and you have no obstacles standing in your way. Ultimate Freedom! I would take “Wind Blown Mammoth” over any power day! It was so much fun, and I was really excited to see my group all come down with smiles on their faces outside of a race course! And then I went and took a few more runs on my own. I just couldn’t get enough of it.

Other then still really enjoying skiing here at home, my spring has been filled with a quick trip to the beach in Southern California which was really refreshing, some backcountry skiing, hanging out with friends here in Mammoth, and making plans for a summer of working hard to enable myself to reach my goals next season. Things are looking good, and I will keep you up to date as the summer moves on!

Check out the video of my Backcountry trip on my Facebook page!

I delayed writing my next blog on account that I had no inspiration on what to write about. I want to write out a blog about skiing, but as things were, that would probably of been a very negative subject, and any more negativity was something that I wanted to avoid. Anything I could have written about that was positive most likely would not of been about skiing, and since this site is all about skiing, I think all of you readers would have found that rather boring. So I simply didn’t write.

As I have said before, things were not going well. At the end of January, I had 6 World Cup Points. 6 points. If I had 600 I might have had just over half of the points the World Cup Leader had, but no, I had a whooping 6 points to my name. Things were pretty grim, and my confidence had tanked both on the hill and off. I don’t completely understand how, but somehow my coaches still had the confidence in me that I was clearly missing, and decided to give me a shot that World Championships and they named me to the team. As excited as I was about the nomination, I was also struggling to somehow find the courage and inspiration to continue on the same path. In the last World Cup race before World Champs in Garmish, Germany, I was the slowest by almost 2 seconds when I came down and didn’t know how much more of that I could take. I drove that night to Val D’Isere, France, arriving after midnight in order to make it in time for the 1 hour of free skiing on the race hill that the race organizers allowed us before the Super-G race.

My first time down the hill, I was in shock, my second time down the reality hit of how technical and difficult this hill was, and my third time at the start, I was in tears wondering how I was going to make it down this Super-G course when I had no confidence about my skiing and couldn’t even free ski down it without problems. I hit an absolute low with frustration and insecurity pretty much consuming me. That night after watching some video I threw my hands up and said, “you know, I just don’t care anymore.” I defiantly didn’t understand at the time, that what I thought was giving up, was actually the moment that may have helped me turn things around, the moment that helped me understand what I needed to do was just stop and breath a bit. The next day in the Super-G, I didn’t have a great result by many standards, but I skied the hardest turn on the hill well, and was fast on the bottom part of the course. It was a small building block, and a place to start. The next few days I had a chance to get used to the hill without the pressure of the race. The training runs got better and better each day, and by the time the next race came around I felt like I had a plan and was ready to charge the course, and not just ski it. In the Downhill portion of the Super-Combined, I surprised my self with a 7th place result. The slalom was not so stellar, but who cares when I finally had some speed to work with! I was looking forward to continuing to improve in the last training run before the Downhill race, but that was cancelled along with the 1st scheduled race day because of too much new snow on the track. I knew I had to keep my same plan throughout the cancellations, and be ready to go whenever the race happened. When race day finally came around I felt like my plan was still in my head and going to work. I was running 5 and happy to be in the start.

During the run, I felt very confident about my line, and I hit the few sections I wanted to well. I crossed the finish line knowing that I gave my best effort, and I was going to be happy with it no matter what. Habit this year is to look at the bottom of the scoreboard for my name, and I was psyched to find I was not there, and even more surprised to find my name at the top, and ahead by nearly a second! I got to stand in the leaders box for one racer too! Lara Gut was the next racer down and she ended up with the silver medal. I ended up in 9th place, and while I may not be a World Champion, I had a victory for myself. I remembered that I could ski fast, and that I can compete with the best in the World, and most importantly I know why I was able to! I hope that I can keep competing for the next few weeks to finish out the world cup season.

Want to be the first to know what Stacey is up to? Check out her Blog at www.fisalpineworldcup.com also!

I got the chance this year to return home for Christmas for the first time in three years. The past few years I opted to stay in Europe in order to prepare for the Giant Slalom that always falls the weekend after Christmas. This year it seemed to make more sense to sacrifice one weekend on the tour in order to spend a bit over a week at home during the holidays. The first few races this year have not gone well for me to say the least. The chance to return home gave me the opportunity to completely refresh myself, my state of mind, and my love for skiing. Instead of pounding it out every week on the World Cup, I decided to take a step back, and as I am on the plane on my way back to Europe, I am sure glad I did.

Of course, when I made this decision to go home, I kind of forgot to mention it to my parents. I had told them that I was staying over to get some more training in, and continue racing, but I gave them quite the surprise when I showed up on the doorstep the day before Christmas Eve. The look on my moms face was probably the best part of my entire time at home. Christmas has always been a special holiday in my family, and to spend it with my entire family makes it even more special. I think that is something a lot of people take for granted, but you learn real fast when you spend a Christmas away. And nothing can beat a homemade Christmas meal, but then again you are reading a blog from a girl who loves food maybe more then anything else!

My mom and I also enjoyed a moonlight cross-country ski around our neighborhood even though there was no moonlight. It was more like a skiing by brail adventure, which I figure might come in handy if the same weather patterns continue on the speed circuit. I have not been able to see anything anyways because the weather has been so bad at every race this year.

I also got in 3 days of some amazing skiing in Mammoth. I have not free-skied that much in a long time, and I really needed it. I was raised as a skier, not a racer, and I know nothing will help me more to get out of this slump then getting a good touch on the snow by free-skiing. I hit three perfect “California” days with amazing snow conditions, blue bird sky, and warm enough to ski in a sweater. If you haven’t experienced California skiing, I have to say you are missing out!

Now, I could not be more excited to get back to racing. My next race will be in Altenmarkt, Austria for a Downhill and Super-Combined. Last time I raced there it went pretty well, and I am looking forward to starting my claw back into the game. I know I can compete with the best in the world, otherwise I would not be kicking around still, but putting the pieces together to get there is harder then I would have ever imagined. It gives me a huge respect for the girls that are in front right now, and an even bigger desire to work to get there myself.

Want to be the first to know what Stacey is up to? You can also check in to her Blog at www.fisalpineworldcup.com.

Does it snow everywhere I go? I think so! There has been the age-old saying “if you need snow, just schedule a race,” and this year it has been holding especially true. My teams’ only home race was plagued once again this year by an incredible snowfall, which was great for the mountain, but not so good for racing. I always find it amazing how hard the crews are willing to work to make the race happen. The races went on as scheduled, but conditions proved to be tough and my day ended fast without qualifying for the second run of the Giant Slalom. We packed our bags and headed straight up to Lake Louise.

Some of my best results in my life have come from Lake Louise, and I always am very excited to return hoping that I may continue my good fortune year after year. This year was not to be there either as I had a big mistake in the once again weather plagued Downhill race, I was denied a second chance downhill start due to a cancellation, and displayed a less then stellar performance in the Super-G race. If there was anything I learned last year though, it was that I cannot judge a season in December. So as I packed my bags to head to Europe, I took a little piece of advice from my grandpa. “Keep you head down, and your chin up.” My head is down in the fact that I am going to work my butt off to figure out why I have not had results so far that I expect of myself, and my chin is up in the fact that I will stay happy and enjoy the beauties of this lifestyle, even when things aren’t going right.

We arrived here in Europe on Tuesday to find the weather followed us here as well. As we were supposed to head right away to St. Moritz to get in some practice races during the Europa Cup’s put on there, we were actually redirected to our European “Hometown” of Kirchberg, Austria to wait out the storm for a few days. It snowed a ton in St. Moritz. The race crew was able to pull off two of the three races, in a Super-G and a Super Combined. It was really nice for my confidence to be able to get on the race hill before the World Cup stops here this week. I have had demons on this hill in the past, and hope that having a few days here without the pressure of the World Cup will have allowed me to figure out a few things to be able to get in a good result when it really matters.

Our team is in good spirits despite the weather woes of recent, and we are ready to have some good races. I hope you can watch the races wherever you are.

Let me know what you think. If you are a fan of the video blogs, I can keep them coming throughout the season. If you like the traditional blog, I can keep that going to. This is my place for fans, so let me know what you want! Also check out my Blog at www.fisalpineworldcup.com. Thanks, and enjoy. Stacey

Its been a long time since I last reported to you. In the last 5 weeks, I have been on 3 different continents, 3 different countries, and skied in some amazing conditions.

After my crazy hiking adventure that I wrote about last, I was battling an infected blister on my foot as I got on the plane to New Zealand. Thankfully I didn’t have any more problems with that as I arrived in the country. Out of the 4 different years I have been to New Zealand, this year welcomed us with the biggest snow base I had seen there which provided for some great training. New Zealand is always a starter camp for our team, in which we ease back into full speed training after a good 3 months of summer workouts under our belts. Our coaches set up a really good progression and I felt balanced and confident each step of the way. At the end of the camp, we were back in the start gate again when we participated in some “fun” races that did not have a whole lot of meaning other then getting back in a race situation. The first race I was first, the second race I was second, and the third race I was third! Racing in these races more importantly gave me the chance to work with the transition to my new technician, which is going great and I am very excited about.

After returning to home in Mammoth, California after New Zealand for a brief 10 days, it was out the door again, destination- Chile. Our annual trip to Chile always takes us to the amazing resort of Portillo. You may recognize Portillo as the name of the place that ATHLETA has previously done some photo shoots. We again were blessed with a ton of snow and absolutely fantastic training. We had one jump built into our course that was by far the biggest jump I have ever gone off. We were flying almost 60 Meters going about 100 KPH. It was huge, and a little scary at first but our whole team rose to the challenge, and we were reminded that anything we encounter on the World Cup will now seem simple and small compared to what we were training. It was also very cool to be fully up to speed training against our teammate Lindsey Vonn who is officially the number one ranked skier in the world right now.

I am now back in Mammoth again resting and getting in one more short block of dryland training before the season kicks off in October. Thanks for your patience with my update. Talk to you soon.

The adventurous spirit inside me just does not want to be put in a closet right now. Six days after completing my first triathlon, I set out on my first backpacking trip. While driving home to Mammoth, California from my triathlon in Utah, I stopped at the warehouse for Backcountry.com in Salt Lake City and picked up all of my gear for this new adventure I was about to set out on. Although I was a first time backpacker, they showed me everything that I needed to do the trip in style!

Two friends and myself set a very ambitious itinerary from Mammoth to Yosemite Valley of 60 miles in just 2 ½ days for this trip. Not knowing what exactly I was getting into, once again, I started out the trip in the highest of spirits. The first day had us tackling nearly half the distance and half of the vertical accent, and we needed to keep the pace up in order to fill this hearty task. From our starting elevation of 8,000 feet, we went up to 11,000 right away and then back down to 9,000 and covered 30 miles in 12 hours of hiking. The first 20 flew by like nothing, and I wish I could say the same about the next 10. The path on the decent to our camping location was brutal and super steep, and this is when I figured out I would much rather hike uphill then downhill. The endless pounding and jarring of going downhill made my feet hurt so bad and made me realize that what we set out to do was definitely not a stroll in the woods. Miles 28 and 29 was mostly me putting one foot in front of the other with the hope of reaching our first camp and eating dinner and most importantly going to bed. Going to bed was quite the adventure as well. I have never slept in a Bivy Bag before, and definitely not in the middle of bear and mountain lion country. I was slightly paranoid to say the least, and was expecting to wake up to a bear in my face at any point in time. We made it through the night without any bear encounters, thank goodness, and had a hearty meal of dehydrated eggs and bacon before we started off again.

The second day had us set to cover 16 miles climbing right away back up to 11,000 feet over the Sierra Crest, and then dropping down to 7,000 feet to stay for our second night. I bandaged up my feet and took off once again in the highest of spirits knowing that we only had to cover about half of the distance as the day before. The climb was no problem, once again; almost just a hop, a skip, and a jump to the top of the pass. But then the decent of 4,000 feet took its toll. We hardly covered any distance during this time, but it was definetly the majority of the day as the trail was once again very steep and brutal on my feet and knees. I have to say that at this point was probably one of the most trying times in the journey. We knew that the more ground we could cover on this day, the better the 3rd day was going to be for us as we descended down into Yosemite Valley. After 9 hours of hiking on our second day, we reached our next camp. It felt just as hard as the day before even though it was half the distance. If I could do the trip again, I might have taken a day off here, as our camp was very cool. We were on a huge granite dome, on a small platform that fit the three of us perfectly. I choose to sleep in the middle of the two guys, as once again, I was certain a bear was going to come eat me. Just below us was a river that cut through the granite that had a lot of really nice little pools that would have been fun to explore, but my sleeping bag was the only thing that I wanted anything to do with.

We had only left 11 miles for the last day of our trip, and we were able to cover the first 9 by about 10:00 in the morning. That might sound great, but the only problem was we still had 3,000 feet we had to drop in the last two miles. After 58 miles of hiking in 53 hours, I thought I was going to need lower extremity replacements and was not real sure on how I was going to make it down 3, 000 more vertical feet. The worst part was, that this path is one of the main hiking paths in Yosemite, so it is crowded with day hikers donning attire deserving of the city. As I was limping my way down the final two miles, I got passed my ladies in flip flop sandals and jean shorts like it was nothing, and of course they have no idea why we might be so beat up from this small hike they were on! That is a true test of patients and mental ability to keep going.

When we finally reached our beautiful destination, my shoes came off even before my backpack. All that I wanted for a reward was a milkshake, but while we were hiking a fire had started that cut off the power to the valley. Ice cream was hard to keep without power, and I never got my milkshake, but the satisfaction of making it was enough to keep me happy. As I am writing this two days later, my feet still hurt, but the rest of my body feels stronger then ever, including my brain. I had no idea this trip would be more of a test of mental ability then physical, but I am so glad I had that test before the winter which is sure to bring its own ups and downs. I take off on August 1st to New Zealand to get back on snow after a wonderful summer. I can’t wait. Talk to you soon.

To not keep you waiting any longer, I made it to the finish line in my first triathlon!  The play by play is coming, but first, I just have to say that it was one of the coolest things I have done in my life.  That was the first time I competed in anything individually other then skiing, and I loved it.   

So, the nerves were running on the morning of the race, as I woke up and looked out my tent door to the swimming portion of the course, and it sure did look long.  It was a very different type of nervous then my skiing nerves, this was more like nerves of the complete unknown, where in skiing I at least know what I am getting into.  But to say the least, I was really excited and could not wait for my time to start.  I took a small practice swim before which helped calm some nerves and remind me that I could stay on the surface of the water.  The men took off 5 minutes before the ladies and watching them really got me fired up to go.  Then when it was my turn, I strategically placed myself on the outside of everyone due to the fear of getting swam over.  The count down and the whistle came and I was off, probably a little too energized and fast.  I was doing great for the first 100 meters or so, avoiding getting trampled over and head pushed under like I had envisioned, when I looked up to make sure I was going in the right direction.  Surprise, surprise, I was going in the right direction, but the brief pause in my breathing pattern messed everything up.  The race was at 7,800 feet, and for some reason, I was not able to calm my breathing back down enough to continue putting my head in the water.  So I rolled over and tried to back stroke to calm myself down.  When I was about half way done with the swim, I realized I was not going to be able to calm down and decided to give everything I had on the backstroke where I could at least continue breathing!  It may have been the fastest (or slowest) back stroke ever, but unfortunately I zigged and zagged and swam probably twice the distance I had to, but I made it to the end of the swim and to my surprise ran out of the water with a guy, who had started 5 minutes before us.  I knew my swimming portion was not so stellar, but I was feeling really good about making it and ready for what was ahead. 

In my first transition ever, I fell trying to get my wetsuit off, and probably took way too much time trying to tie my laces, but I hopped on the bike and felt as home as ever.  A lot of my training this summer has been on my bike, so this was my strong point.  I passed two people just getting out of the transition area, and knowing this is where I had to make everything up, I charged hard.  I kept looking for the next person ahead and loved the feeling of passing them and knowing I was making up time.  Of course, I think I could have used a few more miles on the bike to continue making up for my less then stellar swim, but it ended too quickly and before I knew it my running shoes were on.  The run started on this gnarly uphill, which just about did me in, but I had to keep going for all the kids that I was raising money for.  Mentally the swim was the toughest, but physically the run got the best of me.  I pushed really hard though and held my spot I had earned on the bike.  The finish line was very welcome at this point, and I cannot explain the feeling of crossing it! It felt so good.