Last year I had the opportunity to live in Truckee, California and be a member of the Squaw Free Ski Team. My Aunt Laura and Uncle Aaron live in Truckee and invited me to live with them so I could train and work with a coach. I packed up my skis and my Mom drove me down over Thanksgiving break. It was hard to say goodbye when my brother and my Mom left and drove back home. I attended a public charter school in Olympic Village and was able to go to school in the morning and ski in the afternoon.
I really worked hard at both school and skiing. I rode the public TART bus from town to Olympic Village every day. On the weekends I would often ride the bus too. I trained at Squaw Valley and at Boreal Mountain. Right away I met some other skiers and made some friends.
I competed in USASA North Tahoe Series. The first competition was a Rail Jam and I ended up winning! I also competed in 2 Slopestyle events and won both! I qualified for USASA Nationals in Colorado. My team headed south to Mammoth to compete in the Rev Tour Qualifier. I was too young to compete in Slopestyle but I entered the Big Air competition. While we were there it snowed and the wind blew for 4 days straight. All the events were canceled so we drove back home.
Over Christmas break I flew home and saw my family. My parents are directors for the USASA Inland Northwest Series. They had a Slopestyle and a Rail Jam event while I was home so I competed. I also competed in 2 USSA Slopestyle events at my local ski hill. I qualified for Junior Nationals at Sun Valley.
In March I traveled with my team to Sun Valley, Idaho and competed in Slopestyle. I placed 8th in the under 15 age group and was very happy with my results. It was really great to ski a course with big jumps. Squaw Valley had received so much snow that they were not able to keep up with the terrain park and the jump building.
In April my grandparents drove from Helena, Montana to Truckee. I was headed to USASA Nationals and then back to Helena. I said goodbye to my Aunt and Uncle and my favorite, Anna who I had spent nearly 5 months with. Anna is 2 years old and it was fun being around her. On our last day before we left we went to Lake Tahoe and played on the beach. We loaded all my belongings in their truck and we drove to Copper, Colorado.
At Nationals I competed in the Rail Jam event and then Slopestyle. The Rail Jam was awesome and I placed first! I was so happy! My family and my coaches were there and everybody celebrated my win. I then competed the next day in Slopestyle and placed 5th. I was really excited and felt like I had performed my best. The whole week at Nationals was so cool. I met other skiers from all over and made some good friends. I was really happy and now looked forward to going home. I had a great ski season and can hardly wait to begin training for next year.