The valley is filled with those humbled by harsh conditions on familiar mountains.
Add ski cross racer Tristan Tafel to that list.
Skiing on his hometown hill at Nakiska, Tafel and several of the world’s top ski cross racers were victims of Friday’s (Dec. 7) variable snow conditions that completely changed the course midway through the Nakiska Snowdown World Cup race.
Once the sun snuck behind the Kananaskis mountains, the snow temperature dropped and became extremely fast, allowing racers starting farther back to post fast times. The Canmore native ended up 41st on his home course, but was still happy with the way he skied.
“I skied as best as I could with what I had. That was the tough luck of it. The track was really slow for the first 15 guys,” said Tafel. “There was a lot of soft snow that just appeared. It was a tough day of racing. A lot of the big names didn’t make it in.
“When you have a day like that, it’s fine. It’s something I really didn’t want to happen at home.”
He remained upbeat with the knowledge he skied well, but was powerless against soft snow.
“I got into that soft snow on a few turns and that made the difference,” Tafel said. “I was getting the tail end of the light, so I was getting a lot of contrast.”
The ski cross phenom will continue his pursuit of Olympic glory in Telluride, where he’ll try and crack the top six. Tafel and the rest of the Canadian team are after the team title yet again, this time in memory of Nick Zoricic, who died tragically last year. National ski cross team uniforms are now patterned after a pair of Zoricic’s blue jeans he once wore in a race.
One race Tafel will miss is the X Games, which has dropped ski cross as a sport this year in favour of snowcross – a snowmobile race. Tafel hopes after 2014, ski cross returns to the X Games.
“It’s a special thing for us because that’s where ski cross was invented,” Tafel said. “But I’m happy to race World Cup.”
Brady Leman was the top Canadian on the day at Nakiska, finishing second in the A final in second place, leaving him sixth overall.
“It’s disappointing any time we have a home advantage and we don’t get someone on the podium,” said Calgarian Leman. “My starts were just a little off today. Sixth is still a pretty decent result. Any time you get to the semifinals it’s not too bad. But I wanted to be on the podium really bad today. I wanted to win.”
The race served as the ski cross debut for Louis-Pierre Helie. The former alpine racer, who incidentally won last year’s Bozo cup race at Norquay, said he’s trained harder than ever before to prepare for the new season. He finished 25th on the day. Ian Deans finished 27th.
Switzerland dominated the men’s podium as Armin Niederer and Alex Fiva took the top two spots, followed by Australia’s Anton Grimus.
Kelsey Serwa was the fastest Canadian, finishing ninth. She was eliminated by the narrowest of margins in the quarter-finals to Anna Holmlund, but remained upbeat in defeat.
“Anna stood up and veered into me and I had nowhere to go except to stand up. It’s the difference of a finger and that’s racing – I have no regrets,” said Serwa, the reigning world champion. “I’m really happy with my performance today and now the results will come slowly.”
Serwa is coming off injury, but said she felt comfortable at Nakiska.
“My goal is to just get more confident and, you know, focus on the start sequence and just be closer to the girls… I literally skied across a girl’s skis so I feel like I’m back and I’m ready to win the next race.”
Serwa was the second fastest racer in qualifying, but got caught in a tough heat.
Georgia Simmerling, another former alpine racer, was the only other Canadian female to make it through. In her second World Cup season, she finished 16th on the day.
Fanny Smith of Switzerland won the women’s race, followed by Ophelie David of France. Anna Holmlund of Sweden was third.
Top Canadian Chris Del Bosco missed the event due to injury.
The ski cross races were much different from regular FIS fare. While the racers sped through the gates four aside, a deejay spun beats at the mountain base, while trick riders reached lofty heights on a massive snowmobile jump next to the finish area.
