El Colorado, Chile 2017
My 4 weeks camp in Chile this summer was my first ever trip to the Southern Hemisphere. This camp was crucial for me to get back up to speed in gates following my surgery before the races start in the winter. It wouldn't have been made possible without the support of Santander through my sport scholarship at the University of Bath, so a big thanks to them!
The trip over to Chile involved a hefty 14 hour flight from London Heathrow to Santiago. Fortunately it was an overnight flight so I spent the majority of the time sleeping. Once we landed we drove up the mountain to El Colorado at 10, 000 ft, which would be our training resort for the next month. Since our nearest supermarket would be 1.5 hours away however, we decided it would be a good idea to stock up on food before we headed up! I had heard legendary tales of the sunrises and sunsets in Chile and they definitely lived up to expectations on our first day.
We stayed in the Monteblanco apartments in El Colorado for the first two weeks of camp, which were conveniently ski-in ski-out. Each day we were up a 7:00 and on the lift by 8:30. We'd then ski until 12:00 before grabbing some lunch. Depending on energy levels, we'd also ski another 2 hours in the afternoon. After skiing was recovery, which usually consisted of a dynamic warm-up, some band work and hill sprints due to the absence of gyms on the mountain. Each day we walked down to some containers that we used as make-shift ski rooms to service our skis.
My main goal for this camp was to be back training confidently in full slalom and GS gates, ready to start my first races this winter. Last year in April I was sat in a hospital bed with all my muscle shrinking away and in insane amounts of pain; I heard my teammates would be training in Chile that summer. They were all so excited and I just wanted to go badly. Everyday I was pushing in the gym so that I could be here this year training gates with them. To begin with I was starting at the bottom of the pitch and only skiing the flats. By the end of the camp I was pushing hard out of the start, skiing from the top, on the pitches and in any snow conditions. It felt amazing to be skiing gates full gas again!
Food in Chile was interesting. They didn't have any fresh milk and that made me pretty sad because at home I usually drink about a litre a day. But they did have lots of avocado, tuna and cheesecake which made up for the lack of milk! In the Monteblanco apartments we could cook our own breakfasts and lunch. For dinner we ate at a restaurant (the only one in El Colorado), which did some pretty good meals apart from one we had which looked a bit like an attempt at a British cottage pie but also contained tuna...Yum.
After the first week of hard training we took a day off and decided to spend our time exploring Santiago, the capital of Chile. We visited the tallest building in South America and a traditional Chilean market.
After our day off in Santiago, it was time to get back into training. Unfortunately the majority of the girls team had all contracted a chest/sinus infection. I managed to stay illness free until the last week. Some of the team got the opportunity to train Super G and Downhill - I decided to focus on GS and Slalom whilst me knee is still recovering. This meant some early morning starts and some days we were going up the lift in the pitch black - not even able to see our skis!
After two weeks staying in the Monteblanco apartments in El Colorado, we moved a little further down the mountain to Lodge Andes in a town called Farellones. It was nice to have a change of scene and have a chef to cook us breakfast and dinner. To get up to the skiing in El Colorado in the morning, we were transported by these giant golf buggies, which were fun to slide around in on the bends but were also quite chilly at 7 in the morning.
One of my goals for this camp was skiing powder for the first time since my operation. We race in a huge variety of conditions so I wanted to start by getting used to free-skiing outside my comfort zone in all conditions as well. We were blessed with just one day and damn it was good fun! Another goal was to start skiing rollers in the jump park. This was a pretty big deal for me because I first injured my knee in a jump park in Les Houches four years ago and I hadn't stepped in one since. It sounds stupid because they were just rollers, but I was still terrified. Being able to ski on different terrain and rollers helps you become more adaptable as a ski racer so I knew it was good for me to do it. I began slowly following behind my coach and gradually going faster each run. Then by the end of the camp I started skiing them by myself after training. The last goal I complete was (oddly) crashing. I knew if I crashed without hurting myself, I would be confident in races to really go for it and even if I crashed then I would be ok.
Other than the sunsets, Chile also seems to be famous for it's stray dogs. All of them are very friendly, sometimes they even run up the lift tracks to watch our training and races. We named one Jeff and after feeding him some ham, we had regular visits from him every afternoon.
My original plan for my return to racing was to forerun the South America cup races in Chile, but I was skiing pretty well and felt confident so I decided to race! First up was the Giant Slalom in El Colorado followed by a Slalom race in La Parva - another training resort close to El Colorado.
I was quite nervous the morning of the GS race. At the start of the race, Conrad Pridy one of my old coaches appeared which put a smile on my face; he was one of the few people who encouraged me to comeback to racing after I got injured so it felt fitting that he was in the start gate with me for my first race back! Unfortunately my pole also quick released around a gate on my second run, but I managed to finish and complete my first race since my surgery!
For the slalom my dry throat had manifested into a chesty cough making breathing a much harder. The sky was quite overcast whilst we were inspecting the course for first run, but by the time of the girls started the fog starting rolling in. At times you couldn't see past the first gate - and this was a slalom! Second run was delayed by 45 mins because of the fog, which meant a lot of waiting around at the top. I gave second run everything I had and I was a little faster than first run. At the bottom of the race I wanted to throw-up my lungs, but I was satisfied with finishing and not holding back in such difficult conditions.
The points I scored on both days weren't great, but I didn't really care because I just finished my first slalom and GS races in 18 months after 3 knee operations and that's enough for me at the moment. Next my goals can be to start finishing races with good results.
I've improved and learnt a huge amount on this camp. I broke down so many fear barriers, I'm back training with my teammates, competed in my first races, learn't to see the positives in everyday and experienced a new culture. But I think the biggest thing I've come away from this camp with is being able to say that after 4 years, I'm not injured anymore. Thank you again to Santander for making the trip possible - it's set me up for an awesome season of racing. I'm now at home doing some serious rest and recovery, catching up with friends and spending time with my family. Then I head back to uni for the start of my second year and start training hard again in the gym.
I've put together a video of some of my skiing in Chile and one of my teammates, Elsa Powell-Dooley,, has made an awesome edit from our camp in Chile. Check them out below: