CALGARY — Amy Fraser's halfpipe season has been an exercise in winging it.
The 28-year-old freestyle skier from Calgary posted the best results of her career despite weather hurdles.
"I've got a good wing-it mentality," Fraser said. "I feel I can go in and be like 'try your hardest and whatever it's going to be, it's going to be.'"
Reigning men's world champion Brendan Mackay and Fraser lead the host Canadian team into a pair of season-ending World Cups in their hometown Thursday and Saturday at WinSport's Canada Olympic Park.
Rachel Karker will not compete in Calgary. The 2022 Olympic bronze medallist from Erin, Ont., wrote in an Instagram post last month that she's reinjured her back.
Fraser ranks second in the world behind Olympic champion Eileen Gu of China. Fraser heads into Calgary with her first career World Cup victory and first X Games medal earned over the span of one week.
"I feel like it's kind of the culmination of just hard work and being consistent and persistent with my skiing, and a lot of moving pieces kind of falling into place," Fraser said. "I definitely came into the sport a lot later and have been learning as I go and competing as I'm learning. That in itself has been a humbling process.
"I'm super stoked on how the season's going. I'm healthy and in one piece, which is what I'm honestly most stoked about. We had next-to-no training this year coming into the season."
Weather curtailed the Canadian team's pre-season training as well as Fraser's prep heading into January's X Games in Aspen, Colo.
"I think I skied one day of training before going to X Games," she said.
Three days after finishing third in Aspen behind gold medallist Gu and world champion Zoe Atkin of the U.S., Fraser beat both in World Cup qualifying in Mammoth, Calif.
Qualifying was shifted ahead a day because of an inclement weather forecast, so Fraser again had a single day of prep in California.
Crews unable to get ahead of wind and snow filled forced the cancellation of the final. Medals were awarded based on qualifying results.
"I was super-stoked to be on top of the podium, but definitely kind of that bittersweet feeling that it was not a full contest," Fraser said. "We didn't run finals.
"All of us didn't put down the best runs that we can do, but we did the best we could do based on the conditions and based on the contest.
"We knew going into the week that the Mammoth weather was pretty bad. Put down one of my better runs this season in qualies. I definitely skied with the intent that 'OK, this is it. This is a mini finals' and treated it as such."
She opened the World Cup season with a bronze medal at Beijing's 2022 Olympic venue and ranked fifth in Copper Mountain, Colo., in December.
Alberta's warm winter weather that wiped out this month's snowboard slopestyle in Calgary also delayed the opening of the halfpipe, where Fraser learned the sport at the relatively late age of 21. She finished fourth and seventh in Calgary's World Cups last year.
"I'm honestly just nervous to perform in front of the home crowd because lots of friends and family are coming out," Fraser said.
"It feels like you're in a dance recital in front of them and I just want to dance well in front of everybody. I just want to ski well and not be embarrassing. I'm pretty good at tuning all the extra out, but it is a bit of extra pressure just because it's home."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2024.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
