Recently Granite Chief Scholarship Team Athlete AJ Hurt was able to travel to Europe to help continue her training for the upcoming season. Check out what she had to say about the amazing experience.

AJ Hurt head

 

 

December 4th 2015, early in the morning, I boarded a plane flying nonstop service to Chicago O’hare.  From there, I took yet another plane to Munich, Germany.  After I landed, I grabbed my bags, and met up with our group outside the Airport.  A two and a half hour bus ride took us to Stams Austria, where we would live for the next few weeks.  Our rooms were in a Monastery called Stift Stams, a historical landmark in Austria.  All of our meals were eaten at the Stams ski academy, known for how many athletes it puts on the Austrian national team.  For the first few days, we trained at a place called Schwiser, a small ski resort, with only two chairs, a gondola, and a poma.  But despite the small size, the skiing was good and the training was even better.  We trained slalom there for three days, and then left for good.  After those three days, we went to a different resort called Fiss.  Now this place was incredible.  The mountain was massive, too many chairs and gondolas to even count.  The food was great, kaiserschmarrn, schnitzel, the soup, all of it was amazing.  And so was our training hill.  Just the right amount of steepness, and a great length for a Giant Slalom course.  Although it was nothing compared to the GS training down the dog leg at Squaw, it was great training.  The first day at Fiss, we trained slalom, finishing off our slalom block.

AJ2

The next day we did some sightseeing, saw a ski jump, and went to the Christmas Market in Innsbruck.  Both places were incredible and a great experience.  December 11th is when we began our GS block at Fiss.  Although it was dumping, we continued to train anyway.  We had another feast of a lunch, and then went free skiing.  The following day, we visited yet another ski resort, Soelden.  Again, I was amazed at the massiveness of the resort.  Our training hill, although flat, was very productive.  We trained here for two days in a row, then, with a bittersweet farewell, we went back to Fiss.   We finished off our GS block there with the same schedule as before.

AJ1

Our second day off, we did some more tourist activities.  We started off the day by taking a guided tour of a castle.  It was crazy to think how there is nothing in the US that is even close to as old as that castle.  After the tour, we had a traditional medieval lunch in a little restaurant in Innsbruck.  The food there was delicious, except for the jelly filled with cow brains.  That was a little nasty.  We visited another, smaller, more traditional Christmas Market in Innsbruck.  After another exciting day off, we went back for our final day of training at Fiss.  Again, no part of the day was bad, except for the moment we had to say goodbye.  But our adventure brought us upon yet another resort, Kuhtai.  Although smaller than Soelden and Fiss, it was a lot of fun, and I felt that I really improved my skiing there.  We stayed there for the remainder of the trip, training one day of GS and two days of Slalom.  One thing that was incredible to see at Kuhtai was the disabled Europa Cup races going on there.  Seeing blind people, people without legs, people without arms, skiing a course was extremely inspiring.  The bravery and the drive that all of those racers had was unbelievable.  Seeing those people skiing was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for me.  After our last day of training at Kuhtai, we packed all of our gear and clothes into a big bus, and left for the airport at 4:30 in the morning.  At Munich, I flew to Paris, where the security was very tight, as can be expected. Almost missing our flight due to troubles with boarding passes, we jumped on the plane just in time.  From Paris, I flew to Chicago O’hare once again.  I boarded a connecting flight to San Francisco where, after a very long day of traveling across the world, I finally got home.

Plane landing by sunrise

My next adventure takes me back to Europe on the 16th of January.  First, I will be going to Kitzbuhel to watch the Hannekham.  A few days later I will be competing in the Hannekum Juniors, along with two girls from Vail Colorado.  After racing in Kitzbuhel, I will leave for the next race, the Seven Nations Cup.  In that race, I will be racing with seven other girls from around the United States.  From there, I am not quite sure where I go next because we haven’t received the full schedule yet.  I know that I am in Europe until February 7th, though. I am really looking forward to this trip and I think that it will be an amazing experience racing with people from around the world.

In the few weeks before I leave for Europe, I will be training at Squaw, and participating in the Wild West Series at Squaw as well.  During this race weekend there will be two slalom days and one GS days.  I will also be traveling down to Mammoth for my first High School race.  Although this race will not be competitive, I am excited to go and have fun.  I truly appreciate all of the help that Granite Chief has provided me over the past few years with skis and other gear.  It helps my family so much.  Whenever I look down at my skis, boots and poles, I always see my Granite Chief stickers, and they remind me of home! Thank you!