My First Real Ski Trip - Stubai

After a great deal of hurried, last minute planning, I found myself in Stubai, Austria; this was to be not only my first encounter with ParaSnowsportGB (for which I am currently what is known as an invitational athlete), but also my first time skiing outside sitting down (and the first time skiing my own monoski - before I had only used one owned by Disability Snowsport UK on the indoor ski slope in Manchester).

Meeting the members of the ski team proved to be a great experience, everyone was very friendly and welcoming, but the true test happened the next day, when I trialled my monoski for the first time. That first day was hard. I was very tired and found it difficult to adjust to the new terrain and ski, and toppled over much more than I was used to. I finished the day feeling rather annoyed with myself, although I was told that I was being hard on myself.

The next day was better, and the day after that even better (even with the 5:45am starts) and I began to enjoy myself more, and I found over the course of the week that my skiing improved immensely. I also learnt many other things, such as how to look after and tune skis for the best performance on the snow.

This trip was also the first time I had come into contact with races and gates, as even when I was a stand-up skier I had never tried this. Due to my inexperience in this area, I did not spend that much time in gates, although I did have a fairly impressive crash whilst skiing a GS race course. I learnt the hard way why an inspection run of a course is necessary, after overtaking the Paralympic skier I was following down, which led to me not hearing the shouts to slow down. I ended up straight-lining the steepest part of the course, this wasn’t going to badly, until I hit one of the gates. After this my monoski and I underwent a series of flips together, around 5 in total, until I eventually came to a stop. After checking I was still conscious, all the coaches had to say to me was how lucky I was that my Mum didn’t see it.

This trip taught me a lot about adapting my skiing to different terrains and slopes, and although I mostly worked on my own with the same coach I have at home, it was good for me to see other skiers with disabilities, especially those who use monoskis like me, I have a lot to learn from the other racers and the coaches too.

I went home determined to get better, and ski faster and with less falls, this trip made me realise just how much I wanted to ski, and from then on the real training began.