Reigning Coupe Nor-Am Cup overall champion Louis-Pierre Hélie (Berthierville, QC) and several other high-potential members of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team are elevating their preparation for the upcoming World Cup and Nor-Am Cup season, opening their first on-snow training camp of the season.
Hélie, who won the overall Nor-Am title last season with 1149 Nor-Am points, said they are building momentum toward World Cup and Nor-Am success this coming season, starting with the camp on a glacier near Zermatt, SUI which began late last week.
“The conditions are really good here for what we are trying to do. The snow is hard and it has been sunny,” said the 23-year-old Hélie, who is entering his fifth season with the national team. “We are training at a pretty high altitude so we don’t do 20 runs a day but we try to do as many as we can.”
Hélie said the focus so far has been on giant slalom and free skiing, as many of the athletes return to snow for the first time since May. The Canadian team is there alongside Europa Cup teams from several other nations.
“Our day starts pretty early, we have to be on the gondola at 6:15 a.m. and on the snow around 7:15 a.m. We ski until 12:30 p.m. everyday, and we are pretty much always the last team to leave the mountain,” he said.
Men’s Development Team Head Coach Peter Rybarik said the camp, which began last Thursday and continues through to September 1, will focus on giant slalom and free skiing.
“We want to ski as much as we can,” said Rybarik, adding they are at an altitude of about 3300 metres. “We want to work on the technical aspects with the athletes, definitely drills at the beginning as a warm up and doing a lot of skiing.”
Other members of Canada’s summer training group at the camp include Canadian downhill champion Jeffrey Frisch (Mont-Tremblant, QC), Tyler Nella (Toronto, ON Dustin Cook (Lac Sainte Marie, QC) and Travis Dawson (Calgary, AB). Ladies development group athletes Stephanie Irwin (Calgary, AB) Elli Terwiel (Heffley Creek, BC) are also participating.
Rybarik said this was an important test of where the athletes are in their preparation for the coming season, adding this group will also be participating in an on-snow camp near Stubai, AUT later this fall.
