Registration is open for GDHL and adult gate training! Go through the members' log-in on the Club website to get the early bird discounts and first choice of days for training. Special rates continue for those 35 and under. The calendar allows for two holiday camps this year, one before New Years and one after. The Calcutta will be on Saturday, 7 January. With a bit of co-operation from the weather, we'll be skiing long before that!

While you're signing up for GDHL and training, think about whether you'd like to be part of the J-F's team of GDHL organizers. Any level of contribution is welcome on our committee. Send us an e-mail to discuss what you might do.

For those of you who ordered North Face GDHL jackets last spring, the cost will appear on your October Club account statement. The jackets have arrived and are being embroidered. As a practical matter, we won't be able to distribute them before the Club opens. We'll see whether we can arrange something before the Calcutta. For those of you who have had trouble with commitment, there is a last opportunity to order a jacket. Click here for full details and just do it.

Several Craigleith racers have been to Michel Pratte's camp in Zermatt, But it's not too late for you to sign up for his Sun Peaks camps in late November and early December. Just click on the Pratte logo to get to the website for details.

And now, to get you thinking about skiing again, Kate Ryley has been kind enough to do a Q&A:

*Not from GDHL, but pretty good all the same!*

Q: You told me last season that, since you stopped skiing as your main focus, you were starting to “lose your mojo” on the hill. How much time did you devote to skiing in the past?

A: Skiing was a full time job. If I asked an entrepreneur or a sole-proprietor how much time they committed to their jobs, it would be a tough answer! It’s hard to put a number on the amount of hours but if I had to guess I would say we had about 50 days off a year- if you weren’t skiing, you were in the gym (which aren’t off days!). I’ll probably ski once, maybe twice a week this winter. Probably none of which will be in gates. I loved GDHL last season; the camaraderie, the energy, the competition. It was difficult (and quite honestly a bit frightening) to have had no training and still expect to go down that hill and HAVE IT! On a personal note, I’m the kind of person who is either “all in or nothing”. The fact that skiing isn’t my full time sport anymore is a challenge! My point is, you need to commit so much time to this sport if you want to improve (just like golf), let alone stay par to where you ended off your last season.

Q: Most of us wouldn't see any loss of mojo, but what did you feel that you lost from previous seasons? Is it more due to lack of practice of technique or lack of physical conditioning? How much time does that cost you in a race?

A: Practice, practice, practice. You know that saying we all know “If you don’t use it, you lose it!” Well, that certainly applies here! Honestly, I think the GDHL last season was much harder for me than any racing I’ve done! Why? Because I was out of practice! I was terrified! With lack of training and continued experience, you slowly lose your confidence, you lose more of your muscle memory, you lose your timing, your reaction under your skis. You become less and less comfortable. You can’t have too high an expectation for yourself or anyone else. As far as physical conditioning goes, that’s another huge factor. I never, in all my years of skiing, doubted my physical ability. It didn’t even cross my mind. It was second nature. If you weren’t skiing, you were in the gym. Now? It’s something I think about and if I ever get back in that start gate, it will be an added variable. This is one of the reasons I have so much respect for everyone in the GDHL- It’s HARD! And it can be dangerous. Skiing this season will definitely feel different. Last season I at least had some fuel left in the tank from the end of my last season… now I’m running off fumes and bitty workouts!

Q: Your NCAA career featured great success but also great consistency despite you racing against people who were also racing World Cup. What were the biggest factors in those great results? What were the differences between NCAA and the other elite races in which you skied?

A: Some people think school is the “end of the road” for your ski career. For many of us, it was only the beginning (Robby Kelley, Tim Kelley, Dave Chodounsky, Kristina Riis-Johannessen, Jonathan Nordbotten, Hig Roberts, Michael Ankeny, etc).

Prior to attending UVM, I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform well in every single race. I mean after all, I was doing this full-time! I had no excuse not to, right? When I went to school though, I had more than skiing - I was also balancing my sport with an education. I had 75% fewer days on snow than my non-NCAA competitors, so when it came down to race day I naturally lowered my expectations and it therefore took the pressure off to perform. My consistency stemmed from two things; firstly, my hate for not finishing. I always did whatever it took to get to the finish line. I took my inspection seriously - inspection is key! Finding those parts in a course that not everyone sees, where you can “let it go” and turn it up, or on the contrary where to keep an eye out. I always had a game plan after my inspection. And I trusted it. Of my 4 years at UVM, I had 53 races, 40 podiums, 22 golds, 13 silver, 5 bronze, and NO DNF’s! Of those, in my senior year I finished 12 out of 12 college races (winning 8 of them ;)

Secondly, I didn’t want to let my team down. College skiing was tough in the sense that you couldn’t always put everything on the line… your team relied on you to finish in order to get team points. Though it helped my consistency, the other side to the argument is that I also think I could have been faster. Skiing isn’t about making it to the finish line… it’s about making it down as fast as you can.

Q: Are there things that have been important to your skiing that we lesser mortals can try to implement? Was there anything in particular that you did, that you think we should know about?

A: Free skiing has always been key for me. Gate training is really important, but free skiing is equally as important. One of the things I always had to do, especially on race day, is free ski. I always did tons of free ski runs between race runs- there was never a reason not to (well, I guess one could argue to save your energy, but I also didn’t think sitting in the lodge all day was any better!) On race day for example, if I had a good run I would want to free ski to keep the feeling going. I almost felt as though if I didn’t keep skiing I would forget! On the other hand if I felt like I didn’t have a good first run, I knew the only way to fix it was to ski. The only thing that ever helped this angst and calm my mind was free-skiing. Whether I had a good first run or not, skiing between runs ALWAYS made me feel better.

On a more technical level, things like equipment setup and video footage are seriously important. Get your coach to video you, and make sure prior to ski season you get someone to set your boots up and talk to you about your skis (bevel and edge sets). As far as general day-to-day stuff, I personally always ski down a hill with a goal in mind. I’m always working on something. For me, that’s what makes skiing so much fun!

I have always been an over-thinker. My long time ski manager, Jeff Ryley, always told me to “keep it simple, stupid”. I couldn’t turn my head off. I was always thinking about skiing. What calmed my mind down was picking one or two cues. For example, if I happened to just ski down the course in training and have an amazing run where I smoked everyone out of the park but I didn’t have a cue that run (in other words I thought about absolutely nothing), I was like “SHOOT! Well… what did I do? How can I mimic that again? Maybe it was just a fluke?” However had I gone down that course with a cue and had an amazing run, I would feel so much more settled and confident knowing “OK, that worked. I thought about this, I thought about that, and it worked. When I go out and race next week, I am going to think about that in the start gate”. My phone was (and still is) full of notes to myself, usually taken after a run or a good day of training. I would quickly write it down before I forgot!

Q: How has your ski-racing career influenced your life now?

A: It’s hard to know who I would be today had I not ski raced. I don’t know what is innate, what is nurtured, etc., but it can’t be denied that in the real world I continue to be competitive with myself; I strive for the best and never settle for mediocrity. Characteristics that can’t really be taught, that come naturally to me now, are engraved in me - things like drive and work ethic. I’m your ultimate A type … a to-do list sort of girl. I’m at my best when I have a lot on my plate. I like being busy! All of these things have influenced my life outside of the sport and I hope they will continue to help me along my path to success in the “real world”!

Many thanks to Kate for sharing these thoughts. Be sure to schedule weekday showings with Kate (kate@blueelephantrealty.com) for Toronto properties, so that you and she are free for weekend skiing!

Think snow for November!

James Mathers