December 8, 2012

Anna Holmlund, centre, of Sweden leads Kelsey Serwa, right of Canada and Katrin Mueller of Switzerland in Saturday's ladies' qualifying round during the at the World Cup ski-cross event at Nakiska. (Todd Korol/Reuters)

On this day, just getting down the hill was good enough.

As Nakiska Ski Resort played host to the first ski-cross World Cup on Canadian soil Saturday, nobody needed to be reminded of the fact it was the first time since teammate Nik Zoricic’s death last March in Switzerland that Canadian racers took to the hill with something on the line.

“It’s kind of an escape from everything to be back on the race course,” Calgary’s Brady Leman said. “We’re all still out here doing what we love, and I love to ski race, and I love to ski. Any day I can go skiing and say I went to work today, it’s an amazing day. I know that’s exactly what Nik would want, for us to keep going and to keep having fun.

“It’s a big relief to get it over with.