US Alpine Championships

I had a great time at US Alpine Champs in Winter Park, CO this last week and skied really well. It was the first time the whole team has been together since November and gosh it was fun to see the older guys around! The last day was pretty bad weather, but the Super-G and GS days were sunny and beautiful.(much nicer than skiing in the rain like last year! :-) The GS was a minute thirteen seconds long, bumpy, and at eleven thousand feet in elevation was one of the highest GS races of the season. Needless to say I arrived at the finish out of breath, and with burning legs. That said I still skied pretty well and wasn't upset with my result. The SG day was a pretty big dissapointment. I woke up in the morning ready to go, inspected the course and was pumped with how it was set, and felt great on my skis during warmups; I was ready. After the second intermediate time I was only 1 second out of the lead which would have put me in the top ten, things were going well. Then, four gates from the finish, I pushed the line just a little bit too far and caught my outside ski in some bumps; that was all it took. I was basically sitting on my inside binding with my outside leg fully extended with no pressure on it. That move for half a second was enough to make me miss the next gate and end my race. I had to remind myself to keep looking at the positive, "I skied well and I was going fast." Things could have been a lot worse. I ended the week up with a pretty good slalom race in really tough conditions. That was followed by two GS races in Breckenridge, which brought with them my first score of the year in GS. It sure feels great to have that pressure off my back! I am now home for a night before heading on my way to spring series at Mission Ridge, WA. Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!     

Back On Snow

I am now in Frisco, Colorado after my first two races back from a possible concussion. My last day in Whistler, BC at NORAM Finals I felt like I had a breakthrough in GS, and I have been worried that my week off snow would allow the time to effectively forget what it was I figured out. That said I feel great after two days of slalom races in Beaver Creek, and am looking forward to SG tomorrow at Breckenridge.

My crash at Whistler was nothing special, but still worried some of the staff enough to have me take the impact test. The first time I took it my reactions were .07 of a second slower than they were in July, with everything else the same. The Doctor said that I was probably fine, but that it would be wise to give it at least 24 hrs to make sure things were all ok. After a few days there with limited activity, I decided that it was best for me to get on the road for CO, and get my brain moving again. I stopped in at the COE in Park City on the way for an impact test and some physical examination and passed them both. =) Its great to be back on snow!

Whistler

I went into NORAM Finals in Whistler, BC really pumped on how I was skiing and ready to go. The first day of GS was one of good performance, but not the best circumstances... And all of my own making. In a confusing turn of events I "misplaced" my skis at the start and ended up running on one of my buddies' trainers-- not the best plan! I skied well, but was not in the front of the pack.  The second day, however, was far better! I moved from 73rd starting position in the first run, to 24th place and got to start 7th in the second run; It was a perfect situation. I skied well all the way until the last pitch where I got pulled low and caught some soft snow. I couldn't get my foot out of it in time and straddled the gate with my shin. It was a pretty good crash, but I didn't really think much of it at the time. Just another day, you know? Well the IMPACT test (a special test which compares against a previous baseline and determines if there's a head injury) said otherwise apparently! They are still not sure if I have a concussion, but my reaction time is 7 hundreths of a second slower than it was when I tested in July.  The bottom line is that I am not racing until that changes or the Team doctors decide that I am 100%. I left three days early from Canada after being told that I wouldn't be racing in order to get on the road for Colorado and save some money. Two days of driving later has put me in Park City, UT where I will be testing again tomorrow to see if I can get back on snow. I hope it goes well!!

Home

I have been home for 4 days now, which is the longest since Christmas, and am thoroughly enjoying every second of it! It’s been dumping snow ever since I got here and I am getting very familiar with my pow-skis. :) A friend of ours rented Turner Mountain for his Birthday and invited a large group up for a day of rippin'. The top half of the Mountain was dumping snow, and the bottom was pouring rain, yet the lodge was totally empty.. Gotta love those North Idaho people!! I drive out tomorrow for NORAM Finals in Whistler, BC and am very excited for these next few races! 

Park City

Back to base camp for a week in Park City! After Racing 4 tech races up in Rossland, BC, I headed down to Park City, Utah for 5 days of lifting and training. The snow was a bit crumbly and it snowed a couple days, but the value of training couldn’t have been much better. After all, we ARE heading to some interesting conditions in whistler, BC next week. The off snow training was good as well, allowing me the first chance to get in the gym in quite a while. I look forward to the next and final trip of the season starting with NORAM Finals in Whistler!

Bigsky, MT

After arriving home from Europe, I got to spend a day recovering from jetlag at our family friends the Kern’s house in Washington, DC. My dad flew in the day after me, and we hit the road hours after his wheels touched down. Two, 17 hour, speeding filled, days later we arrived in Bozeman, MT to race the FIS speed series at Big Sky. It was such a great time! The downside to always traveling the NORAM circuit is not being able to see many of my old friends that only do the FIS elite races, so I tried to make up for lost time while there. Sure was great to see them! I didn’t expect to score at all at these races, but was rather just looking for speed-training going into the NORAM speed-week in Aspen, CO. I came out with two 37’s in SG and four days of DH training before the biggest speed races of the year; couldn’t ask for more!   

Europe!

          I had a great two weeks of training in Europe. The snow was difficult to figure out (pretty peely and inconsistent) but still was well worth it. The schedule didn’t end up having as many starts as I would have liked, but I still got three GS starts and a ton of time on snow.

          I had forgotten how much I love everything over there! The little shops, the amazing food, the people, and basically the entire environment are just awesome and smile inspiring. Each day after training we would all go out free skiing as a group for a few hours; what a blast!! The Italians don’t seem to mind fast skiers like many American ski resorts do…  At home you blow by a group of beginners too close and you get reported to the ski patrol for being reckless, over there the entire group starts tucking and straight lining trying to keep up! However, they do mind people skiing the “off piste.” One afternoon we decided to hit up some cool looking powder lines just off the main trails. It wasn’t roped off so we figured it was fair game and sent it. We also figured that the man yelling at us at the bottom was congratulating us on some awesome skiing, and failed to notice the “Carbineri” patch on the back of his coat.  After asking for documents and lift tickets, he took us to the Police station on the top of the mountain and paced back and forth talking animatedly on his phone. After what seemed like an interminable amount of time he told us to stay on the groomers in the future and keep the speeds slow. I could swear he wanted to arrest the lot of us, but apparently I need work on my Italian hand signal diagnostics. Thank goodness they liked us there!