Our journey to Idaho was not nearly as bad as anticipated. Although we were pretty cramped in the car, and border control took excruciatingly long, it was a gorgeous day and the scenery was amazing. We saw everything from towns and cities, to huge stretches of land and looming mountains. My favourite point of the journey I think was when we were only about 2 hours away. We stopped in a lay-by on the side of the road and all got out of the car and took in our surroundings. Darkness had completely fallen, but there was no light pollution, (since we were in the middle of a mountain range), so the light from the stars was incredible. The Milky Way could clearly be seen, and everywhere you turned your eyes were masses and masses and stretches of stars, making you fully appreciate our tiny little place in the universe. Pictures could not possibly do it justice, so you will just have to trust me when I say it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

We didn’t arrive at our cabin too late in the evening – we got there early enough to make full use of the hot tub before turning in. This weekend’s race was giant slalom. Girls usually race before the boys, and you all must inspect the course before skiing it. Inspection opened at 9am, and the race started at 10am. We did two races a day – girls then boys, then the course is reset, and then we do girls and then boys again. We finished our first day with a bit of free skiing before returning to the cabin. The mountain was absolutely beautiful and despite being confined to one slope, this did not hinder our appreciation of it. When you are not racing, your team has to help out the race by gate-keeping – which means that you have to watch the racers ski the gates, make sure they ski them correctly – and disqualify them if they do not. This was barely a chore for this race, as the weather was amazing, and it was barely cold at all.

Our team is filled with both experienced racers and novices. Our team lead won both races that weekend, and the rest of the team did super well as well – especially those who had little (or no) race experience. I would honestly recommend ski racing to everyone – the team is not exclusive in any way, and racing is an amazing way to improve your skiing, as well as meeting like-minded people.  What a weekend!