With only a few hours in indoor snow domes
(since my operation and the debacle that followed) as practice, in November I
once again headed to Landgraaf in the Netherlands. I was going to get my
classification confirmed and to start building back up my strength and
confidence, and although the first races of the season were taking place, I
wasn’t planning on entering.
My classification went as expected, this
being my third assessment I knew the battery of tests and examinations that
would happen very well (in fact better than some of the classifiers as this
year I had some trainees working with me). They must have read my report from
last year when I fell off the balance board though, as this year I was able to
avoid it! The result of the classification was LW10.1, the same as last year,
and the most disabled category of sit skiers. However, this time my
classification was confirmed, so I shouldn’t have to be assessed again.
I used this trip both to reacquaint myself
with skiing, and to build on my work in my new rig. I even managed to surpass
this goal, and in training was skiing slalom courses relatively well - this was
a great surprise to me, as only a few weeks before I wasn’t sure if I was going
to be able to ski at all.
With this unexpected success, I decided to
give one of the races a go. Prior to this, during a discussion with a coach, we
had reached the consensus that I was fully capable of skiing the course, but
due to my increased weakness, I would struggle to get myself up if I fell.
Seeing as I was already there, I decided I might as well try, and went into it
with no expectations as just being there felt like a great achievement. The
first run of the race went rather well, I did end up toppling over, but was
able to get myself back up (the first time since surgery and in my new rig!)
and finish the run. The second run was not so successful, there was no major
crash, but my body was completely exhausted and after falling from the start
gate, there was no way I was going to be able to push myself back up.
Overall I was thrilled with the outcome of
this trip, and once I’ve got my next operation out of the way (which should be
much more minor), I can’t wait to get back into skiing more!
Quite a lot has happened since the last post
on my blog, once again I have been somewhat neglectful on the update front!
In July I went into hospital to have a
mitrofanoff operation, and this is where the story gets a bit complicated…
Following the initial operation, I had a series of complications (as my body
apparently took the list of potential complications as some sort of challenge);
this ultimately led to sepsis, an emergency second operation, and a short stay
in intensive care of which I remember very little. Overall I was in hospital
for three weeks, with two of them spent unable to eat or drink and being fed
directly into a vein by my heart. Once I came home I was still very weak, and
in total spent around six weeks in bed.
Thankfully I am doing much better now, and
although I do need another (hopefully small) operation to repair the result of
one of the complications, I am glad I chose to have the mitrofanoff as it will
make my life a lot easier, especially with regards to travelling and being
independent.
However, the summer wasn’t all bad, thanks to
a grant from the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation I was able to purchase a new,
higher-spec monoski. (For those who know about this sort of thing, I upgraded
from a Tessier Tempo Uniski to a Tessier Scarver Uniski). Having to wait to be
able to use it was pretty torturous, and the first time I tried it was not very
successful, but I can now see the benefits it provides me with, and I have
great hopes for the future.
This year’s ski season has been amazing; I
have been reclassified as an LW10-1, took part in my first Europa Cup race, and
finally had my first giant slalom race - and that’s all without mentioning the
success my teammates had at the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics!
As has been the case for the past two years,
my season ended at the British National Championships in Tignes, France which
has had crazy amounts of snow this year (upwards of nine metres) which made the
conditions fun at times. Like most of the race camps, the week started with a
few days of training prior to the races, something I always find very useful as
it gives me a chance to acclimatise to the surroundings and I always make a lot
of progress when skiing with other sit skiers.
Our first day of training was focussed on
giant slalom (GS); I consider it to have been a great day despite having two
crashes that were followed by a coach asking me if I was conscious! The main
thing I was working on this day was maintaining control on the steep terrain,
and trying not to get too far away from the gates. This did not go entirely to
plan… On my first run down I lost control on the steepest section of the piste
and had quite a nasty fall, bending my back the wrong way over the backrest of
my rig in the process. After that I was pretty sore, but determined to carry
on. The next run started better, I was in control and handling the terrain
thrown at me, it was going well - until it wasn’t. Out of nowhere I caught an
edge and was flung up into the air, landing on the tail of the ski. Fortunately
I was completely fine after this crash; the same cannot be extended to the ski,
which snapped! (This particular crash was caught on camera, and I am rather
proud of it!)
The next day we worked on slalom, during
which my goals were pretty similar to those in GS, maintaining precision and
control on the steeper slope. Despite being rather stiff from the falls of the
previous day, I noticed a definite improvement over last year, and was feeling
a lot more confident in my own abilities.
On the final day of training we were due to
train slalom again, but that morning it was snowing heavily, so the coaches
made the decision to take us free skiing instead. This was a really fun day,
helped by the fact that pretty much as soon as we started skiing, the snow
stopped and the sun began to make an appearance. That day we skied all round
Tignes and Val d’Isère, a stark difference to just skiing the one training lane
we had become accustomed to. This gave us a good chance to experience more of
what the mountains had to offer, and to just remember that skiing is fun!
After a day off to rest, it was time for the
races, which, if you have been following me for the past few years, you should
know that historically Tignes has been a bit of a flop. First up was slalom,
and after the inspection I was cautiously optimistic. This was not to last
though, as for the third year in a row I managed to fall out of the start gate.
I would have been able to get myself up and continue, if it weren’t for the
fact that as I fell, I slid past the next gate, disqualifying myself and
getting the result of ‘Did Not Finish’ (DNF). For this I was furious (with
myself), as I knew I had the ability to ski the course, my struggle was just
with how steep the exit of the start gate is. Ultimately, steep slopes are just
something I need to practise, and I wiped away the disappointment by going for
a free ski with a friend.
The next day was giant slalom - my first GS
race at last! I was feeling rather content after my inspection, the start for
this race was slightly higher up the mountain than for the slalom, so I didn’t
have to face my start gate nemesis again, and I was more than capable of handling
most of the course itself). As I left the start gate things were going pretty
well, and I made it down about half of the course with relative success (I had
one slight wobble but I was able to recover from it). At this point I reached a
gate that I knew I had to be tight on in order to make the next one, and
knowing this I attempted to slow myself down so I would have the control to do
this. Unfortunately this led to me over-turning and falling, putting me out of
this race too. This failure did not bother me though, in fact I was thrilled to
have made it as far as I did, I don’t think anyone has ever been so happy to
DNF!
Overall I have had a great year, and I am
very thankful to everyone who has supported me to get this far. Now I will be
having a bit of a break from skiing for the summer (I will be keeping up my
indoor training though) and I should be having an operation at some point,
which will put me out of action for a while. Nevertheless I will be back next
season, and I am hoping it will be even better than the last one!
