So psyched and proud of Super C.

Tonight was Railjam at Nationals. As with the pipe, she came in completely intimidated by the size of the features. Didn’t even know what to think about the dog house.  The tube with two 90 degree turns?  no way.

Finally got to practice on them for 2 hours this afternoon.  Came out feeling good but didn’t seem super confident.  Couple of hours of homework and a quick dinner before back to the slopes for the comp.

As we’re heading back, she announces she’s going to hit the dog house.  The dog house is a steel A-frame that’s taller than she is.  the drop off the back end is at least 10′ to the landing zone.  But she’d going for it.

So the guys’ heat is first and we’re watching from inside the bar.  Watching many of them crash land from the dog house.

Then the women are up.  She does some nice spins on the boxes.  She hits the waterfall and the down-flat-down.  Then we see her lining up for the dog house.  I think only one other woman in the heat had hit it at this point.  She pushes off.  She’s going a little fast. She launches off the ramp and is sliding along the top rail.  And then she slips.  Falls forward and bashes her hip against the rail then crumples down the other side and lands upside down next to the dog house.  The entire crowd gasps.  I can barely breath.  Bob is gripping my shoulders.

And she jumps up, grabs her loose ski and runs back up for her next pass.

Her next pass she goes for the tube:  “disaster 2” (I learn later- disaster means she skipped the first part of the tube, jumped on to the middle.  then she slid the rail and came off with a spin in the air.)  Her coaches called it the best trick of the heat.  Immediately after Best Crash of the evening.

One of the other moms came over to tell us “your daughter’s a tough one”.

Again, she’s glowing.  Grinning for an hour and talking about what she wants to work on next.

Kaden told her she’s got it, she just needs more core strength to pull in her knees on the big lips.  Jamie and Evan both said they were super happy with how she stepped it up and went for it.  And got up and threw the best trick after her crash.  (Evan said won’t even have gone back up for another go after a fall like that.)

She got 4th.  which almost seems like an after thought right now.  Though she’s stoked about that too.

Oh- didn’t post yesterday.  She pulled in 5th in the Super Pipe.  She was disappointed.  But described it as “SOOOO much fun”.  I’m impressed- 3 days ago she’d never been in a pipe bigger than 15′.  Most of this season, Northstar’s pipe was 12′.  First time competing at Nationals and she gets 5th.

Super C came off the mountain glowing today.  Which was awesome to see because the last couple of weeks she’s been frustrated and mildly injured and just not that into it.  This morning i had to drag her out and she was quiet and didn’t seem at all excited to be here.  In Colorado, for USASA Nationals (at great effort and expense by her parents).

And the morning started badly.  we were both still tired from getting up so early yesterday.  and she forgot her lift pass, so Jamie sent her to the pass office to get a new one.  which was fine because we’re at a Vail resort so they could look up her pass and print her a new one.  except once she had it, she got on the wrong lift to meet up with her team.  and then a liftie’s directions didn’t get her back to the park, so she had to take another lift.  so for about half an hour neither of the coaches or I knew where she was and her phone battery was dead.  and I was having flash backs to the last time we were at a strange mountain and she ended up out of bounds in an avalanche area and thinking “she’s never going anywhere in a new ski area without me again”

but she called Evan and arranged a meet up and skied back.  and was only mildly freaked out over the same flashbacks.

then after lunch they hit the big jumps and she got her spins back and remembered how much she loves this and how thrilled it makes her and just could not stop smiling all the way down the longest gondola ride around and into the car and through Frisco and the Safeway even

Also, I had a great day on the snow.  also started kinda slow.  bopping around going “yeah, so I’m in Colorado.  shouldn’t this be better…” and feeling a little stiff and not skiing that well

then i found my groove and started making some turns.  and found some runs i liked.  and started realizing that the Breck black diamonds weren’t all that challenging.  had some fun fast cruiser runs on Doublejack and Corsair and such.   moved up the mountain and skied some big slushy bumps in the shoots.  figured out how to get to the chair that goes to the top of Peak 8 (really, this mountain is so confusing once you venture away from the mid-mountain area around the top of the gondola.  no wonder they have so many signs.)  and the runs off the summit were fun but really not at all intimidating.  okay, so I didn’t hike over to the cornice between Peak 8 and 9 after ski patrol stopped dynamiting it and opened it up. that was a more intimidating drop)

by the last few runs, it struck me that not only was I having fun, I was skiing the whole mountain well. cutting turns on the bumps.  putting together a nice line from the top.  and getting some good speed on the wide open blacks.  and I thought “I’m back.”

a few minutes ago I come upstairs, naively thinking everyone will be asleep.  lights are on in every room.  as I go into L’s room, there’s no one on the sleepover mattress on the floor

me: where is everyone?

[C’s head pops out of the mound of blankets on her bed.  L and Brady both pop up grinning from his bed.]

Brady: the light was really bad down there so I moved in with Lib.

C: Other than going to find shoes tomorrow afternoon, is there anything I have to do tomorrow?

me: [mumbo jumbo about laundry and re-packing for Colorado]

C: [getting to the relevant question]: so I can sleep in tomorrow?

me: yes, you can sleep in.   [to the boys] so when you play in the morning, you have to be quiet so you don’t wake up Clem

L: does that mean we can’t play xbox?

me: you can play xbox as long as your quiet… can you do that?

C: no, they can’t.  but it’s okay.  they can play xbox.