Eh?

After all the excitement in Beaver Creek, I traveled up to the land of "Eh's" for the first speed NORAMS of the year in Nakiska, Alberta. I have raced tech there in past years and so knew the general layout of the mountain and what to expect from the hill. (Let's just say after spending a week on Birds of Prey THIS hill didn't really put the butterflies in my stomach.;) I scored in two out of three SG races and got a ton of confidence back in my SG skiing. However that's not all that improved this week!! My hockey skills are getting quite a lot better as well! Each day after skiing we would go out to the rink behind the hotel and have a pick up game with all the Canadian boys for a few hours for dryland. I was so beat!(in more ways than one.) I swear some of those kids come into this world wearing skates and with a stick in hand.. Anyways, I had a blast with it and am looking forward to more of the same in the future!

In life in general, I think our opinions are dictated by our perception of things. I am always asked the question, "What is your favorite mountain other than Schweitzer?" and can never give a straight answer because my experiences at the different places I travel strongly affect my opinions of them. Some people remember their favorite areas for the trails, the views, the friends they share it with, or myriad other things. I tend to remember places by their food... And this trip Nakiska took a serious blow on its record. Each day we ate breakfast and dinner in a huge conference center with a buffet line. There were about 150 athletes and coaches all enjoying(or not) the same fare, and as far as I know about 140 of those came out the other side no problem. The other 7 percent of us ended up with two days of our heads shoved into toilets checking out the contents of our stomachs. It struck me the last day about 15 minutes after the completion of the SG portion of the Super Combined. Some of my buds were telling me not to run the SL portion because I was getting sick all over the place, but isn't that why we are here? I mean why waste a perfectly good oppertunity? So I did run the slalom and somehow kept everything inside of me for 41 seconds of attempted athleticisim. Even though I was sick I still skied pretty well and had a decent result all things considered! Something to build off for sure! =) After that I headed off to Panorama, Brittish Columbia with my head out the window for a much needed day off followed by a week of awesome racing!