3.oct. I'm back in Switzerland and recovered from the stressful journey home from Argentina. I have not trained much since I got back. My fitness coach gregi told me to take a couple of days and start training again today. I'm meeting him this afternoon at the gym for a endurance and co-ordination session. My first race will be in four weeks in Laandgraf (Holland, indoor slalom). Before that we have another camp of 10days in Hintertux and Pitztal. The last days in Argentina went really well and I am confident that I can do well at the first couple of races and hopefully make some Europa cup points.  We have not yet decided about going to America in November. Some of us might stay in Europe because there are plenty of European cup races on at the same time as the American nor-am races. A good chance to get in to top30 in European cup standings. We'll see how Christian decides!

24.sept. Killian Albrecht (ranked 28th in the world in slalom) and the Simari Birkner family trained slalom with us today. Alain was flying today! I have not seen him ski this solid in a long time. Super cool! I was also skiing pretty good. Its only the hairpins that are causing me a lot of troubles but in general my skiing was solid and also felt good. Alain was fastest half a second ahead of me and Killian.

23.sept. Me and Alain both forgot to set our alarms last night, so it happened that we did not wake up until 25minutes before leaving time. Got dressed as fast as possible, had a quick breakfast and off we were. We skied four runs of super-g and my times were surprisingly fast, surprisingly because I did not feel to hot skiing the course. The second session was giant slalom and Reini set a really fast course with a lot of distance between the gates. First two runs I was not confident enough to attack the steep part but I was really fast on the flats. I have been doing lots of technique exercises in the morning for warm up. Slow turns with focussing on keeping my hips square and feel what is going on underneath my skis. The exercises have helped me a lot!!!

22.sept. Chill out time!! Last day off before we go home.

21.sept. The best I have skied this camp! The radius I was able to ski was a lot shorter than the days before we skied slalom. My hips were loose and I was able to get some big angles going. I'm glad I have finally sorted out my slalom. Today was great to build my confidence! Andi (ski technician) is doing a really good job. It's important to communicate with him so he exactly knows how I like the skis to be tuned.

20sept. It was really windy on the hill this morning. We had the timing set up for giant slalom but the wind just made it impossible to compare the run times. Also the light was really flat which made skiing harder. Sometimes it's really good for feelings to ski when the weather's bad. My back was a lot better today, thanks to Tom!!!

19sept. I got out of bed with a really stiff back today. I have been having back problems the last couple of days and i think it's because of the really soft Argentinian beds. It did not affect my skiing, I had ten solid runs runs of giant slalom. The way I am skiing GS at the moment is really pleasing. Some off piste skiing after lunch, with open ski boots, was perfect to find my middle position. In the afternoon Tom (physio) had to fix my back and he did a really good job loosening the muscles.

18sept. Today was very relaxing. The batteries are full again and i am ready for giant slalom tomorrow. Noel has gone home to get surgery on his knee. He's had constant pain since the last camp. I hope everything goes well and he will be back soon.

17.sept. Slalom today. I set my boots more forward for today to see if i would get more control at the beginning of the turn. Freeskiing felt great! In the course I was struggling with the timing until the last run where I was really solid and carved the whole way. Skiing is becoming easier and easier for me. A good sign!

16 Sept. It was slightly warmer on the hill today but the snow conditions where still the same as yesterday. I had two different models of slalom skis with me. On one of them we bevelled the edge, hoping to make the ski less aggressive. It worked! My skiing was still not consistent enough, but I am starting to get my old feeling back which I had at the end of last season.

15 Sept. A very long day on the hill! From 9am to 4pm. am: Gs training. The snow was very dry and aggressive to ski on. I was surprised how easy skiing felt this morning! I was fastest on every run. pm: SL training. I have not yet found the right set up for my slalom equipment. The snow here is perfect for testing and over the next few days I want to find out what is blocking me.

14 Sept. We left Bariloche just before lunchtime to go to Esquel. A different ski resort 300km north of Bariloche. It was a long 3 and a half hour journey and there was not much space in the rental van. Because there where seven of us and only six seats, one of us had to lie in the back on top of the all the bags.

13.sept. Day off. Time to take the focus away from training and do other things.

12sept. Everyone has their bad days! I definitely had one of those today! On my second run i straddled a gate and broke the best ski i had with me. Really annoying!! For the rest of the morning i was in a bad mood and was glad when the training was over. What cheered me up was the terrific view over the huge lake (Lago Laquel) and the beautiful landscape around us. Before the last run i took my camera up to the top of the chairlift. Great pics! Whilst we where biking in the afternoon Tom (physio) did lactate measurement to make sure we where on the right heart rate. Tomorrow we have a day off so Alain, Noel, Tom and me went for a pizza and a bottle of Argentinian red wine. delicious!!!

11sept. Another great day of training. The snow is getting harder every day. My skiing is still not consistent enough. There is to much movement in my upper body but in general it was another good session. I felt tired after skiing so i went for a 30min jog and a long stretching session. Before dinner i analyzed my runs with Reini (coach) on the video. There are a few things i will try to change for tomorrow especially focussing on my upper body.

10.sept.I was looking forward to skiing slalom today. It has been four weeks since my last slalom run. Some difficulties on the first few runs but the longer i skied the faster i got. Just like yesterday. Looking back it was a good training session this morning and I am sure if i work hard i will get a lot faster in the next three weeks. I know i have potential and the target is to be top30 in the world after the winter. high goal but realistic!!! Biking and stretching in the afternoon and watching US open off course. Bring it on Roger!

9.sept. Giant slalom. The first few runs did not feel very comfortable. I could not find back to the feeling i had on the last couple of runs yesterday. It took me three runs in the course to get back into it. I still have to learn how to be 100% ready for the first run. It feels like I am not flexible or my muscles take a long time until they activate. Maybe i should try doing some morning sport before breakfast. We had the timing set up today and my times improved from run to run. On my seventh and last run i had the fastest split time coming off the steep. Five gates from home I went down on my side. Trying to get back on my feet I caught an edge, flipped forward and landed on my face. First thing I did after crashing was to check if my knees were ok. They were fine but my face was burning like hell and I had a headache. Back at the hotel I went straight to sleep for two hours. I skipped fitness today to give my head a rest. Later on Reini (coach) gave me a hand on fitting some new ski boots which I am trying for slalom tomorrow.

8 Sept. Today we trained giant slalom. The hill is quite steep and the snow was tough to ski on. I was really not happy with my first two runs, I could not find the right position through the turns. Of the lift I could see that my team mates were also struggling. Finally my runs got better and better because I had focussed on staying forward and skiing active. After seven runs we had enough and I was quite happy with my performance considering  that this was the first proper training day of this camp. For me it is important to store the good experiences in my brain and learn from the negative. In the afternoon 60 minutes on the ergobike were perfect to look back and analyse my skiing from earlier. Right now its dinner time and i cannot wait to watch Roger Federer tonight!!!

7 Sept. First thing I did after getting up was to look out of the window to see if the sky was clear. There was not a single cloud about, but had it been cold enough throughout the night for the snow to freeze? Whilst getting in to our ski boots at the bottom of the hill we got told that it was too soft for setting a course. Freeskiing again!! It was good for me because i still had some technical stuff to work on. Towards lunchtime the pistes of Bariloche got really busy so we went down for some food and back to the hotel. Straight after getting back I went for a 45min Jog along the lake and did some core exercises whilst watching the US open on tele. After dinner me and Alain had some work to do on the ski boots. After that I went to bed and took 10 minutes to think about my skiing and suddenly fell a sleep.

6 Sept. After breakfast at 8am we got picked up by the bus which took us up to the ski area. Everyone was excited to go skiing again and experience a new hill. Already stepping out of the hotel I noticed it was quite warm and I was expecting the snow to be soft and slushy and so it was. We went free skiing for 3 hours checking out all the pistes and some off piste skiing of course. It was great fun and I managed to get a good feeling by the end. In the afternoon I was on the bike for 60 minutes at low intensity and also did some squats to get some tension in my legs to be ready for some runs in the course tomorrow.

5 Sept. Today was a quiet day. A short endurance session on the ergo bike at the gym and a long stretching session was all i had on my programme. Really looking forward to skiing tomorrow.

3.-4.sept: Late afternoon I met up with the Austrian coaches at airport Zurich, that's about a 45min car drive from my home. Our final destination was Bariloche (Argentina). We had a long trip ahead of us and for people with long legs like me its very uncomfortable sitting in planes for 17 hours.  With stopovers in Madrid and Buenos Aires there was at least a bit of time to loosen up my legs and prepare for the next flight. finally, after 20hours of travelling we arrived in Bariloche, a town with a population of 80'000 next to a lovely lake which looks perfect for windsurfing but i guess its a little to cold at this time of the year. In the afternoon i went for a quick jog and had a long stretching session. Exercise was really satisfying after That long Trip. Tomorrow i wont be skiing because not all of the equipment has arrived yet and the Baxter boys and Chemmy are getting in around lunchtime. That's time for me to cope with the jet lag before we start training.