Lady luck was not on my side for this first week of racing.

I am starting at the back of the pack again this year because of my injury I wasn't able to lower my rankings enough last year.

Starting 72 in the second and qualifying training run the sun was out and it was a beautiful day. That is until about 3 racers before my turn the clouds came in shrouding the track into darkness.

No one really had a chance anymore as the track was quite rough and it was now impossible to see the bumps.

I gave it a good stab anyway but was thrown off line too many times by holes I didn't see.I finished 38th, three tenths from the top 30. I felt pretty good about that run as I had two huge disadvantages starting at the back... flat light and a rough track but still managed to beat half the field that had better conditions.

Race day and I was sure it would be cancelled due to the bad weather and the 50 to 80 cms of new snow. 140 volunteers and 8 snow cats put in a huge effort clearing tons of snow so that the show could go on.

The wind played a starring role in this first race blowing extremely strong for some and not a all for others, turning the race into a lottery. My numbers didn't come up.

I am in the start and the wind is howling... I can hardly see the first gate from all the snow flying everywhere. I reach the finish and look up for my time after a clean mistake free run to see that I was in 59th place. So frustrating... there was nothing I could do. Assorted coach's after the race sympathized with me saying that I had pretty much the strongest head wind of the day.

Sunday is another day and we have Super-G. Clear skies and no wind for all.

I was still feeling pretty down on myself even though I knew it wasn't my fault. I hate skiing slow and have great expectations of myself this year which now seemed to be crumbling down around me after that first race.

I couldn't focus clearly on memorizing the course during the Super-G inspection and as such I made quite a few mistakes during my race run.

I placed 27th and made my first World Cup points for the season.

A reasonable result others would say...all things considered.

Next weekend is Beaver Creek my favorite hill....lets see what I can come up with there...hopefully no more excuses.

Best wishes,

AJ Bear


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