Anna Segal is a skier from Melbourne aiming to compete in the new ski-slopestyle event at the Sochi Olympic Winter Games. 2014 will be the first time the event is contested at an Olympic Games. After suffering a torn meniscus, Segal talks about her long road to Sochi.

BLOG: After three and a half months of rehabbing at home in Australia, I passed my ‘back to snow’ testing and was given the all clear to return to the ski life. After this much down time my anticipation to get back on snow was almost tangible.

However, before I could get back to doing what I love, I had a long pilgrimage ahead of me. I left Melbourne on the Saturday to catch my flight to Seattle. The usual 24hr journey turned into a good 48hrs of travel due to my plane out of Sydney being cancelled forcing me to I stay overnight for the flight the following day. Luckily I have good friends in high places in Sydney… maybe not high places, but good friends. My buddy Frances lent me a board for the morning and took me out for a beautiful Sunday surf. We grabbed breakfast then headed back to the airport, just in time for me to catch my delayed flight.

I arrived in Seattle at 7pm, passed out, then had to wake up at 6am the next day to catch a flight to Denver, with the goal of picking up my trusty car, Shadow and driving her back to Seattle. From Denver we drove up to Breckenridge to get Shadow’s oil and tires changed, a new registration, plus a few other minor fixes to keep the 207,000 mile beauty going.

After crashing for the night with my friend Carrie, our next stop was Park City, Utah. Although it was only a 7 hour drive, it nearly killed me! It could have been because I was still jet lagged, or because we were driving through the desert with no air con. Either way, I arrived grumpy and hungry enough to bite someone’s hand off. Luckily my good friend Ash Battersby was waiting up to receive us into her newly acquired Park City home, with that warm American hospitality.

The next leg was a 13hr drive from Park City to Seattle. After a Cwaffee and cream cheese bagel for fuel, we were back on the road. This drive, the majority of which is through Idaho, is boring as! To pass the time we played trivia games, attempted to create artsy instagrams and set up a tattoo parlor in the passengers seat.

After what seemed like an eternity, we made it to Seattle, just in time to watch the sun set.

I had a couple days free before I hit the road again, so I stopped into the K2 offices for a quick catch up with the crew. My visit timing was perfect as it coincided with Friday afternoon drinks, how splendid.

My mini holiday in Seattle came to and end and it was time for my final leg of the pilgrimage; Seattle – Bend, Oregon. Five and a half hours seemed like nothing in comparison to the last week of traveling. The drive passed by like a breeze.

After 7 days of traveling (with a few breaks in between) I was staring up at spectacular Mt. Bachelor. The next few weeks are going to be filled with sunshine, friends and the most importantly- skiing!!!!

Keep following the journey on-

Instagram: http://instagram.com/anna_segal
Web: http://annasegal.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anna-Segal
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaSegal

Read my past blogs-
Two weeks to go >>
Back at it >>
Read all Australian Winter Blogs >>

Anna Segal