Silver Star, British Columbia
SuperTour Period 1
Hi everyone! As this is my first blog for Team Birkie, I will give a little introduction! My name is Erin Bianco and this is my first year skiing for Team Birkie. I grew up in Ely, Minnesota and continued my college ski career at Colby College. Now, welcome to the start of the SuperTour 2022-2023 season!
Silverstar deserves all of the hype. We arrived at the cutest snow village that looks similar to Whoville! It was so fun to see people skiing right through the town to either connect to the endless amount of trails or grab a coffee at Bugaboo (which is where I spent most of my time when I was not skiing.)
The race venue sits at about 5,500 ft above sea level so we arrived for a pre camp to acclimate before the races. It was also important to have a couple of weeks on snow so our bodies would not be shocked going into the first race. These weeks of training included our first on snow intervals. These were extremely helpful in getting race ready as it feels pretty different from roller skiing. This pre race period was also a great time to get on some new skis and figure out which ones run the best in certain conditions! Shout out to OutThere Nordic for getting me some new Fischer skis this year!
Then it was race time!! Heading into my first races on the professional circuit was exciting and also nerve wracking but once we started it was rapid fire! The weekend consisted of a classic sprint, 10k skate mass start, skate sprint, and a classic 10k individual start. The classic sprint was a fun start to the week with Renae and I qualifying for the heats. I was bumped after the quarters but Renae almost made it to the finals, just about 1 second out of the lucky loser position.
Not only did we have to battle altitude, a hard course, and being on snow for the first time but we also faced brutally cold temperatures. Being from Ely, MN I thought I was invincible in the cold but I was SO wrong. I don’t know if skiing on the east coast made me soft or what but this was a different level of cold.
The highlight of the weekend for me was the skate sprint day. It was a fun day with Gus, Julie, Renae and I all qualifying for the heats (Renae qualified in 2nd!!). I was really excited to make my first on snow final! The heats are always fun to try out different tactics. I usually like to draft but this time I tried leading. It was a good learning experience even if the final didn’t end how I wanted it to but I was still happy to have made it that far! Now onto Sun Valley!
