More fun in the Alps!

After having a very disappointing competition, I figured I would try and find my

skiing again in the Alps. This is the fourth time I have been here and I am still in complete awe of how much skiing there is to do. After taking a day to recover from competing I headed out with a friend Liz Daley, a photographer Adam Clark and a younger talented skier Piers Salomon. This was such an amazing and rare day in Chamonix it was bluebird and powder!! We started the day out on the Brevant side with a run near the Ensa couloir that had amazing snow. Then we moved over to the Hotel Face of Brevant and found even better and untouched snow. Piers who is a very talented athlete decided he wanted to hit this big diving board rock. As I watched him throw 360s like it was no big deal, I figured I could at least strait air the 20-25 ft cliff. As I landed in a poof it was so rewarding, I realized I missed this type of skiing. Since being injured I have had a hard time building my confidence back for bigger airs! After having some fun on the Hotel Face we made our way over to the Pas De Chèvre couloir off the Grand Montet, this couloir is long and we had perfect snow. The entire way the views are breathtaking. The bottom dumps you onto the Mer de Glace glacier and then we skied into town as the sun was setting. So amazing, what a day. This really made me realize why I do love skiing and how competing is not everything.

Another highlight of the trip was making our way over to Italy side and riding the Hellbrauner, it was snowing lightly making it hard to see. As we loaded the first box it was just the 4 of us and 3 other people. Busy day at the ski area! We pretty much had our own little powderplayground. The Hellbrauner goes as high as the Agui du Midi on the french side and is just directly across at the top. We took four awesome powder runs through steep chutes and tree runs. It was pretty amazing and did not see anybody while were were skiing. On the 5th run the thick clouds had broke a bit and we decided to go to the very top and ski down the cables. It was at about 12,000 feet at the top tram and definitely cold! We climbed off the tram dock onto an exposed face dropping into the abyss. We traversed in carefully through ice and then opened into 2 very fun chutes that were about 2,000 feet long, this emptied out into another 4,000 feet of fun to go after coming out of the top cable runs. Wow!! pretty amazing day and with no crowds. Heading home now, but so grateful for my time that was spent skiing overseas. Even with competing I feel like once again I have had amazing experiences and met more awesome people! Next stop Kirkwood, California end of Frebruary! Thank you to Mountain athlete, Arcteryx and Scott for the huge support!