A Title That Would Consist With A Randomly Busy Week.

So usually I don't write about random weeks in my life, but this one was randomly busy, and oddly funny, so I kinda just needed to share it with everyone.

So the day after I posted about Apex (If you haven't seen that post, then maybe you should check it out... HERE), I contacted Mackensey about getting together one last time before she went home to lame, I mean cool, awesome Fernie.  

She wanted to hangout for the entire morning and whatnot, so I ended up dragging her to my old high school, The Edge, because I had to run a couple errands.  Mackensey requested that I toured her around the entire building, and she was in awe the entire time.  To me, its wasn't anything different, I grew up in that school.  But I realized that it really is a stupidly awesome place.  I know being there, and I'm pretty sure every graduate from The Edge could back me up on this, it seemed long and unexciting, and we really just wanted to graduate and start our lives.  Going back; however, made me see how much I took it for granted.  Like how many schools are out there with two rinks, a fully loaded gym, physiotherapy clinic, golf centre, and dance studios?  Not too many.  Anyways, there's my two cents, I just re-realized how amazing of a place it is.   If you don't know about The Edge School, here is their website (http://www.edgeschool.com/). 

After that, I suggested to Mac that we should see a scary movie.  Mac being Mac, she's down for anything I force her into.  See now, I actually enjoy scary movies.  Not for the 'scary horror part', but for the 'watching other people getting freaked out of their minds part'.  So we went and saw, The Woman in Black... Here's the Trailer.

I honestly can't watch the trailer again, because it's that freaky, but if you guys saw how terrified Mackensey was in that theatre, you would have been laughing as hard as I was.  She was screaming, waving her hands in a freakish matter, oh, it was fantastic.  I'm not saying that I wasn't scared at any point throughout the film, because I was.  I am saying, there was a large portion where I was literally not watching the movie at all, but just laughing at Mackensey instead.  Aren't I an amazing friend?

After that Mackensey was very happy to leave me in Calgary, and go back to Fernie. 

So when the weekend came, I was really feeling the urge to ski, and ski hard.  So when my dad came home from work on Firday he opened the door to this.

My inner thought at the time was, "Dad... I really just wanna ski this weekend...".  Skiing keeps an inner child at heart.  

So he packed his bags, as I threw my stuff into the car, and we were off to the cabin!

I love our western sunsets.

I wake up early Saturday morning to stupidly fantastic news that one of my buddies, Ben Thomsen, came 2nd!!!!!! in the Sochi World Cup Downhill!!!!!!!  Here is his sick run.

This was definitely great news to wake up to!

So I go up the hill, and while I am standing in the lift line I see this sign.

Up close, you can see it says "Congratulations Ben Thomsen Soshi World Cup Downhill 2nd.".  Me, being the completely sarcastic and intelligent human being I am, notice that Sochi is spelt wrong.  So my conversation with the very serious lifty went as followed.

Mick:"Ya, you know you spelt Thomsen wrong, there's actually a 'P' in there."  (I WAS KIDDING!)
Lifty: "What? Are you him?"
Mick: "Ya, I flew in from Russia this morning..."
The lifty then gives me a questionable chuckle.

I get back to the bottom of the lift after doing a run or two, AND THEY CHANGED HIS NAME TO THOMPSEN!  Wow.... I got the delightful opportunity to tell them of my stupid wit, and that I was really joking them, because they actually spelt Sochi wrong...

Anyways.  After a very therapeutic day of solo skiing, I decided to join some friends at the T-Bar & Grill.

The T-Bar, the only bar in the world where it's acceptable to order a hot chocolate (with Baileys) at 9pm.  But all in all, its a seriously fun place to rock out!

Sorry for partying!

On another note.

When I started this blog, I vowed to myself not to get into anything political, or turn this into my online journal.  However, in the past week there was an issue in the news that irked me a little, I found it was... "blog/share" worthy.  So the following clips will give you the 'DL'.  I am not going to voice my opinion.  I just wanted to share.  If your not interested, then please, keep going and skip the following videos.

(Skip to 0:40)

So a day after this situation arose.  A brave Republican woman was uploaded to YouTube.  

All I am going to say is, good for Maureen Walsh.  That's a politician that matters.  I just thought I would share.

Anyways! Quick ending note!  Recently I lost a rivet from my boot, and when I went to replace it I noticed that it didn't just loosen its way out, but instead got ripped out... Ya, not sure how it happened either. 

:(

 Anyways! If anyone at Rossignol feel like giving an retired racer/current coach some new boots!!!!! (lets do a looser fit with a 295mm, ZB...) Please give me a shout! Oh ya... and I kinda, might have messed the top sheet of my twins... So I am also looking for some All-Mountain skis.  As much as I love ripping on some slalom racers, they aren't the best powder skis...  I think we should start a campaign!  GET MICK BOOTS! (AND POSSIBLY SKIS!) haha

Anyways, Until Next Time!

Apex Week

This past week I was asked to come up to Apex, British Columbia, and help out the Calgary Alpine FIS Team.  I was extremely excited to go up with all the athletes and revisit Apex.  Apex to me, has a lot of history.  I had raced there in previous years, one of which I somehow managed to put myself in the worst crash I, and many other people have ever seen.  If you happen to be my friend on Facebook, you can see the video here: Mick's DH Crash in Apex.  Ya....  If you're not my Facebook friend then too bad, or add me up!

That crash landed me with an extremely bad concussion.  I just remember 'waking up' (I became lucid), In the hospital, in the middle of my CT Scan.  Then again laying in bed, only to find that one of my teammates had the opportunity to strip me of my clothes and long underwear... and that my nurse was a failure at inserting IV's.

Obviously going into this race, I was wanting everyone to come out healthy and injure free.  Of course, Apex is Apex, and it never goes that way.

On day ONE! The racers were just free skiing on the track, and I was just standing watching them ski through.   Todd (Coach/My Boss) who was standing at the start asked me to ski down to a certain section and wave them off course.  Just as he radioed; however, one of our Athletes, Collin, had skied passed me.  Thinking "Oh, he's been here before, he would know where to ski off", I skied on down.  I was joined with a fellow coach Tessa, and we stood there, chatted, and waved the racers off course.  About 15 minutes later, another coach, PL, slid down past me and then yelled up to me that there was an injured athlete down there!

Worried, I skied down only to find that it was Collin.  He had been lying there for 20 odd minutes before anyone had found him.  We got Ski Patrol, then went on over to the Patrol Hut.  He was in a lot of pain, but got some laughing gas which I am sure he enjoyed.  I was then dropped off at the Hospital with him, where he got some X-Rays, and we found out he strained his Patella Ligament and Hamstring Ligament.  So all in all, Collin is now doing fine.  But it was definitely a toll for the first day.

Now to be honest,  I don't exactly have anything else to say for this post... At least I don't think I do.  So here are my favourite pictures taken throughout the week, and if I feel the need to write anything further then I shall.

I didn't take any pictures of the first day of Super-G because the weather was gloomy, and there wasn't anything particularly special to capture.

The second day of Super-G was beautiful, and a beautiful day calls for happy start coaches!... and Mackensey...  OH RIGHT! I didn't mention! Mackensey is also working for a Ski Team! Ya, it's kinda dangerous, and we have the tendency to get a little unfocused on the job because of her.

Anyways...  The start was freaking amazing so I was definitely happy to be working!

Mike prepping the skis.  So Fast!

The view from the SG Start... not a bad day at work I'd say.

The next day was the first day of GS, and we had to wake up a little earlier *cough*cough* 5:45am, but the sunrise made it completely worth it!

There is definitely a benefit to being on the hill this early!

I was kinda obsessed with this sunrise... But seriously, can you blame me?

It made working at the GS Start all that more rewarding... you know, besides spending the day with the kids.

Mackensey with the coffee mug I got her for her birthday from Disney World!

Tessa ready to coach!

The next day was nearly an identical, if not more amazing sun rise!

Coach Todd getting his panoramic shot of the view.

View from the GS Start when you're the first one to arrive.

Again... The weather really plays with your mood.

Well at least it did with Mackensey and Catrina... It's ok, the sun made for the perfect lighting.

Anna all ready to race! Side Note.  This day in the GS, Anna laid down one of the best runs I've seen her ski, but then unfortunately got blown out of the course.  Regardless, I was really happy to see her ski the way she did, she should be proud of herself for coming so far this year!

Anyways, Apex came to an end.  Some of the athletes got some of the great results they wanted, so it was definitely a successful trip.  I also ended up learning a lot more from this trip then I expected.  It was truly a great experience, and I can't wait until I get to do it again!

So Until Next Time.