Snow Days!

Hi all!

If you weren't able to watch the last race or see the results I'll update yo

u briefly.

After a bit of trouble in the first run because of some faulty brakes in the sled Helen and Jenny managed to end up fourth on a very difficult track. Kaillie and Amanda were 8th and Lisa and Sabrina were 9th. Once again a very strong showing from the Canadian women!  

This week we are in Igls (It sounds like "eagles"), Austria.   

Besides St.Mortiz, this is probably one of the prettiest places that we get to see on tour.  The mountains are absolutely breathtaking and there are some of the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises (yeah, we got to see those thanks to 6:00am wake-ups this w

eek) that you've ever imagined.  I'm not a big fan of winter..but the snow here gives the landscape and the horizon this ethereal quality that probably couldn't exist in the summer. I'll try to take a picture and include it in the next post

We've been experiencing a LOT of snow this year in Europe. Sometimes it's a pain in

 the neck (like when you're trying to drive your two-ton sled truck up an incli

ne without snow

 chains on the tires!), but most of the time it's a ton of fun to play in.  

The Canadians are officially the BEST snowball fight instigators on the World Cup Bobsleigh circuit!  One such frenzied snowball fight broke out after the race in Altenberg last week.  It probably started innocently enough with one person casually lobbing an ill-packed snowball at another person's leg or somethin

g. But did it ever escalate in a hurry. Suddenly there were strategies and gameplans!  We were trying to leave the track in our van but we were having too much fun and someone piped up that we

 should do one last drive by on the Austrians and Americans. The plan was to load up our van with snowballs and - well drive by the other teams open the side door, pelt them with snowballs then shut the door and drive off as undisputed victors of the world cup snowball fight championships! Well, it was a good plan anyhow. But someone got pulled out of the car and then we stopped the van and when we went to drive off one smart baseball playing American (who shall remain nameless until he gets his just comeuppance - that's right I said it! Comeuppance!) opened the trunk/bac

k door of the van.  WHAMMO!  Snowballs were EVERYWHERE and there was absolutely NO where to go!  Needless to say we were wet for about 2 hours and I can sense another snowball fight in the near future!  

We also took advantage of the great sleep to create...Gustav.   Wearer of many hats!