So the first core week of the season is already over. It seems we were a little unlucky with our timing because, from what I understand, the Kitz had been clear, calm and sunny for the previous two weeks. That all changed last weekend when we arrived to a smattering of fresh snow even down at Haus Tirol. We had a couple of days of a distinct lack of visibility but plenty of snow, a couple of days mostly sunshine, and then another day or two of a mix of it all, with fair bit of wind thrown in for good measure.

So while the conditions were fairly tough at times this week we still made the most of it, skiing from half 8 in the morning till 1/2 o'clock most days, and that was before we'd even had lunch (I'm pretty sure on more than one occasion the children stayed out longer than the juniors...). Kudos to all of the guys on the Ambition Children's team - even the two Sarahs! - who managed to brave everything that was thrown at them and make the most of the relatively short amount of time we've had this camp.

We concentrated mainly on GS this week, skiing mostly brushes or stubbies to give the guys a good track to ski on as all the fresh snow on the pistes was chewed up by 10 o'clock. And as it's the start of the season, we've been going back to basics. Focussing on the fundamentals: from basic stance to upper body separation and turn shape. The aim is to get the basics right at the start, particularly in free skiing, to give us a good platform to build upon once we get into the season and start skiing more gates.

All in all it's been a pretty successful week with some good progressions from pretty much every single athlete. With a promising start to the season, all we have to do now is wait for the snow to start falling over the next month and a half, and we'll be back out in early December ready to hit the training hard in preparation for the first set of races in January.

I'll get some photos up from last week shortly...

Benn