September 2002
Hello Everyone!!
It's that time again!
As most of you know I've decided to continue racing at least
through this year. I'm taking things year by year from here
on out.
The team went to Chile to train before our first World Cup
in Valle Nevado. We went to a new resort for us called Chillan.
It was a great area! Natural hot springs abound there and
the resort is complete with a spa. Of course it helped that
there was a ton of new snow, so we had a great day of freeriding
and some good days training.
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After Chillan we went to Valle Nevado to prepare for the
World Cup. As usual it was great to see everyone. Despite
what people said, not very many people retired after the Olympics
as was expected so it was fun to see all the old faces! We
were plagued with bad weather the day we were supposed to
race. I had one of my scariest chair lift rides in high wind
and lack of visibility made it impossible to race. The second
day we were blessed with blue bird skies and incredible snow
conditions. Every one of the girls on our team qualified for
the finals and two of the guys qualified for finals. A great
showing for the women's team! I didn't have an easy day. My
first round I raced one of the top Austrian girls then went
on to meet the Gold Medalist from Salt Lake. I rode well and
advanced to the semis to meet Nicolein Saurbreig from the
Netherlands. I made one small mistake on the second run and
she beat me. I ended up finishing 3rd, which I was pleased
with.
After the race, most of the guys went to Pichelemu, Chile
to go surf and
I
headed to Peru to meet up with my sister, Kristin, and another
friend of
mine from Idaho. Two of the girls from the freestyle team
met us in
Cuzco
as well. Our plan was to hike up to Macchu Pichu and then
go rafting
but
because of new rules for Machhu Pichu tourism we didn't have
enough time
to
do the 4 day trek on the Inca Trail. Instead we hiked one
day and spent
one
day at the ruins in Machhu Pichu. We managed to see the sun
rise at the
ruins which was incredible! We figured we hiked around 4000-4500
feet
on
the second day. We all were spent but we all felt like we
saw what
Macchu
Pichu had to offer.
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We returned to Cuzco late in the evening and after some difficulty
in finding a hotel we said goodbye to the girls. We got to
sleep for a few hours then got picked up to go rafting on
the Aperimac at 3 am. After about a 3 hour drive to the very
small town of Pivil we loaded up 3 mules with gear and kayaks
and began our 6,000 foot descent to the river. The views were
amazing with 18,000 ft snow capped peaks overhead and the
Aperimac river way below us. After getting down to the river
bed we loaded up the gear and started out on our 2 day trip.
The Aperimac has never been damned and the difference between
high and low levels was amazing. Of course it was low water
for us but the rapids were still intense, mostly class 4 and
a really good class 5 called Toothache. We camped the first
night on a beach in a steep canyon. There was a make shift
sauna on the beach so after one of the most intense thunderstorms
I've ever seen, a few of us enjoyed the sauna and a late night
dip in the river under the full moon accompanied by a box
of Gato negro wine.
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The next day after some morning cliff jumping we headed towards
the notorious toothache. We had to get out to scope the line
through the rapid. After watching the kayakers and the gear
boats go through we were all thoroughly scared but excited
to go. We loaded up our boat and started out. We made it through
the first technical section narrowly avoiding getting flipped
but when we headed into the bottom hole we got hooked up on
a big rock which slowed down our speed. Unfortunately, when
we hit the hole the side of the boat that I was on got sucked
under water and myself and one of the other guys on my side
of the boat got pulled off into the white water. I went for
an exhilerating swim through the the bottom part of the rapid
and was scooped out by one of the safety kayakers. After toothache
we had a portage and floated through some more class 3 and
4 rapids until the bottom. The trip was amazing! I still can't
believe they would take complete rookies through the kind
of water we went through but at the same time most people
aren't as sue happy as Americans and the guides were incredibly
knowledgeable.
That night we returned to Cuzco and had a crazy night at
the disco which
ended up with one of our guides at the hospital with stitches
in his
head
after someone broke a bottle on his head! By the time I left
Cuzco I
was
exhausted from lack of sleep and a few adventure packed weeks.
Now, I'm excited to be home to prepare for the upcoming season.
I leave
for
Soelden, Austria at the end of October so I only have a few
weeks to get
ready to go.
Please drop me an email to let me know what is going on in
your lives.
The
emails I receive from my friends and family help me feel connected.
I
love
to hear what's going on with everyone.
Please stay in touch!
Ciao,
Lisa
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