Sun Valley Season Finale

I just got home from the last races of the season: SuperTour Finals in Sun Valley. It was my first time to Sun Valley, and it was even better than I expected! Despite the forecast for rain and snow, we had several sunny days, and I never stopped being amazed at all the mountains. It is so pretty out there! We took advantage of the free buses to go into Ketchum or Sun Valley, or Penny Mountain to go sledding on our spare time. That was really cool to me that you could just hop on a bus right by the condo and go pretty much anywhere...we don't have anything like that in Vermont! We also went to the hot springs a couple times, which were amazing! I've never been to a natural hot spring, and it was really cool to be able to jump from the hot spring to the freezing cold river and back to the spring! We got in some quality contrast bathing/ice bathing!

The hot springs, where we all are is hot, and on the other side of the rock barrier is freezing cold!

We got to drive through and avalanche on the way to the hot springs. 

The racing was incredible too. Thanks to Sun Valley for putting on a great week! With nearly all of the top skiers in the country there, it was a good wake up call that I still have a lot of training to do. The first races were the 50/30k classic (which I skipped, hoping to rest up for the final four) but we got to go out and watch, which was really fun. The rest of the races were over five days: two races a day off, and two more. The first was a 3k skate, then a 10k classic mass start, then a classic sprint, and finally the hill climb up Dollar Mountain. The first day didn't go very well for me, I managed to blow up after only three minutes, I guess that's what happens when I pace myself like I'm skiing at sea level instead of 6,000 ft. The mass start went a little better, and the sprint was even better than that. I qualified 27th, and finished 3rd in my quarterfinal to place 2nd Junior for the day! The last day was the hill climb, which is never my specialty. I skied alright or the first part, the flat part, but as soon as I hit the steep part I blew up. I heard people cheering for me telling me "you can make it, have some fun with it"...they could see I was dying and could tell that telling me to hammer harder or put my head down wasn't going to do anything seeing that I was already suffering pretty hard. I did make it to the top though, 13th from last, in my last race in an SMS suit. To top it off, Annie Pokorny organized a flash mob that we pulled off at the podium ceremony. She taught us all a dance to "We R Who We R" and when the music came on during the junior girls podium, about 20 of us jumped out and danced it. It was pretty sweet. Hopefully someone got it on video, but it was a really fun way to end the last race!!

"The Conch Man" made an appearance at all the races. 

Classic 10k

Sprint Quarterfinal

  

Junior Sprint Podium

Go Ida!!! photo Nat Herz

Climbing Dollar Mountain. Dori McNeill photo

Flash Mob. 

Sometimes I'll finish a season feeling like I still have a lot of races left in me, but for the first time this year, I feel like I really emptied the tank. I didn't have great races at spring series, but if I had stopped before then, I would have wondered what more I could do...but after this week, I know there's nothing left, I was definitely running on fumes for the last couple! We still have a bit of snow at home to get in the last few skis of the season, and then it all starts over again!

Thanks to everyone who supported me this year and made it my best season yet!

All photos credit to Lilly Caldwell unless otherwise noted.