Leah DeFilippo ‘22 (Photo: Mr. Michael Aldridge)
Be sure to check out Leah’s other dispatch from Hintertux.
Staff writer Leah DeFilippo ‘22 is an alpine ski racer who is currently at a training camp in Hintertux, Austria organized by NYSEF. Each day she logs a diary entry that she shares occasionally with the readers of The Mirror.
Monday, September 27th, 2021. It is currently 11:56 pm EST. time, I am currently flying over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s been a long day, but a good travel day. We efficiently loaded our ski bags, boots bags, and duffels into two Northwood buses and two NYSEF vans. Obviously Ikuo Toishi’s van took the dub [win], Jimbo Johnson’s van in second, Tommy Biesemeyer’s bus in third, and Thomas Vonn’s bus in dead last on the NYSEF/Northwood race to the Newark airport. I personally hit a record low for baggage fees, and everyone else did fairly well too. I had around 40 pounds of bindings in my carryon bag, and the TSA agent was suspicious of them to say the least. Let’s pray all of our ski bags made it to Munich, Germany.
Song of the day: HIGHEST IN THE ROM by Travis Scott
Tuesday, September 28th, 2021. I’m tired today because I didn’t sleep at all on the plane. But all our baggage arrived on time and in one piece which was a win. We drove from Munich, Germany to Finkenburg, Austria after our flight. Then we unpacked our gear, and I took a trip to the grocery store with Liz Creigton ‘24, Hillary Larsen ‘22, Dominick Deguardia ‘24, Norah Dempsey ‘21, and Joey Galperin. Fun fact: gummy bears are better in Europe. They’re simply built differently.
Song of the day: Horizon by Malz Monday
Wednesday, September 29th, 2021. Today was our first day on snow! It was raining down by our hotel, but on the glacier it was snowing lightly. There was a bit of discontent with the conditions, but I thought it was fine. Any skiing (that is not flat out dangerous) is better than no skiing. A lot of people’s ski boots were causing them foot pain, so shells were taken off on the glacier. We are all currently grinding our homework at study hall.
Song of the day: Life Goes On by Lil Baby (feat. Gunna & Lil Uzi Vert)
Thursday, September 30th, 2021. We had a flip day today. There was study hall from 8 am-10 am, and we skied from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm. Today I hit a rock on my skis and got a gauge right along the edge. Rest In Peace to the 773 SL skis. They were on their last legs anyway, but they were my favorite pair of skis. Besides that, it was a good day. It was sunny and bluebird skies on the glacier today. I am excited for the weekend so that I can catch up on my schoolwork. Peace.
Song of the day: Moonwalking in Calabasas (feat. Blueface) [Remix]
Friday, October 1st, 2021. On our way to the glacier this morning, we had to stop because there were cows that needed to get across the road. It was the FIS girls’ first day on GS skis today and we spent the day free skiing. The FIS boys slapped some plastic and ripped some slalom turns. I went on a run after skiing and met some friendly goats and sheep, I did not touch them because you must declare that when you go through customs. There is a dog at the hotel we are staying at, but it does not like people. I put my hand out so that it could smell and it snapped at me. It also snapped at Dominick, and Lincoln, so it’s just not a “people person”.
Song of the day: People Watching by Conan Gray
Saturday, October 2nd, 2021. Today was a long day. I got around 10-13 runs in our GS course, and 6 free runs. Coach Jeremy “Worm” Transue’s van got stuck in some mud and had to get pulled out by an Austrian homie. My van stopped at a ski shop and got back to the hotel around 5:20 pm. After dinner I hit the tuning room and waxed some skis.
Song of the day: Hurricane by Kanye West
Sunday, October 3rd, 2021. Today is our fifth consecutive day skiing (day five in the trenches), which isn’t a lot back home, but at the elevation we’re at it’s a lot. I am definitely feeling it this morning. The FIS boys took today off, but the U16s and FIS girls chose to go the extra day because we’re supposed to get three feet of snow tomorrow. I know what someone ready this maybe be thinking, “Three feet of snow? That sounds awesome!” Wrong. When it snows three feet, trams, gondolas, and lifts do not run. But our training day was pretty good! Clouds would go in and out making it hard to see, but still a productive day. Because of the fog, I got a bit lost with Jeremy “Worm” Transue coming down to the gondola. Pro tip: if you’re ever by a bunch of parked snow cats on a mountain, you’re lost. Go back the way you came.
Song of the day: DNA by Kendrick Lamar
Monday, October 4th, 2021. Day one out the trenches, today is a rest day. We started our day off with a productive two-hour study hall. We headed into the “Main Street” of Finkenberg and had lunch. After that, we made a quick run to the grocery store to stock up on some snacks for the week. Overall an uneventful day but fun and relaxing.
Song of the day: Kings Dead from the Black Panther Sound Track
Tuesday, October 5th, 2021. I’m currently in study hall, and I’m having Wi-Fi issues. I can’t even load my assignments on Teams let alone do my assignments. I’m typing this in the notes app because I can’t even load Microsoft Word. Looking at the web cam of the glacier, it’s just gray. I can’t see anything. According to Mrs. Fagan, “It’s like water skiing up there.” So we will not be skiing. This will be the boys third rest day and the girls second. We went into Innsbruck and walked around the city. It was cool to see the architecture. It was hard to tell the difference between residential buildings and stores.
Song of the day: NDA by Billie Eilish
