A regular column by Queenstown teenager Taylor Rapley, one of New Zealand's best young skiers, who is spending three months in Canada, training and racing. She is writing exclusively for the Queenstown Times about her life on and off the slopes.
We have been kicking it in Canada now for almost a month.
It was a long trip over, especially once we got to Vancouver and missed the first and second flights into Calgary, thanks to five large bags one would struggle to move even with a super trolley.
But we got to Canmore in the end . . . early hours of the morning and unable to train for the following three days due to ridiculously cold temperatures resulting in the lifts having to stop running.
This cold snap lasted about a week. Some days we would train in it.
We would tape up our faces (as neck warmers do not do the trick over here), do two or three runs then quickly go inside to the ski patrol hut at the top of the chair and take off our boots to defrost our toes.
Some of the boys were trying to be heroes and didn't go in, so ended up with some frostbite.The rest of us had frost nip.
I wish I was exaggerating but I'm really not . . . race boots blow when it comes to comfort and keeping warm.
Now that the cold snap has left us, we are training double sessions from 8am until 3pm on snow every four days with a day off in between.
It's very full on and by the time we get to sit down, it's about 7.30pm.
I couldn't ask for much more than to be exhausted at the end of the day.
The training here is choice.
The snow is hard and we never train on the same terrain two days in a row, which makes training days similar to race days, as we set up the clock and race against it each run.
This definitely has a huge influence on our performance. Our first races are tomorrow and Sunday and the whole team seems ready.
I can't say I really miss home - I spent so much time there when I was injured all last year - I forget to remember I'm from Queenstown.
When I say this, I mean I never find myself thinking about what's going on there, what the weather is like, what the time is, what people are doing.
It probably sounds selfish but I'm in my own little world at the moment and I quite like it!
In saying that, I did miss Christmas with the family and New Year with my mates but these dates come round every year . . . the chance to do what I love on the other side of the world does not.
I wish I could give some people what I have. The view I have in the morning and the action I have during the day makes me feel pretty stoked.
Happy New Year!
