The Telemark, and the adventure of skiing on styrofoam .

BRRRRRRR.....it is really cold here. Im not sure what makes -10 in Norway so different from -10 in Franconia, but holy cow was it cold. The walk home just icing on the cake today! We had a hard time slipping the course because the snow was so hard. The water content of this snow is so low that it has the effect of being across between ice and real styrofoam; hard and sticky. Not wet sticky, but the opposite, cold sticky. I would compare it to a cold telephone pole. Let's pretend that your skis are your tongue, when you put your tongue on the frozen telephone pole, it sticks. Well the same thing was happening to me today with my skis. Everyone had the same problem. It is so cold that the snow just ins't fast. Did I mention that this type of snow has the tendency to make giant divots or bumps in the snow. That being said I spent the first run fighting the ruts, trying to no avail to cut down the line, it was just to bumpy. I jumped like a frog, and still missed the line. The course leading up to the jump is flat, and I am afraid that I am not big enough to carry good speed over the SLOW flats of Bjorli. Oh well. i finished in front of my start number always good. Second run started out much better. I took a tight line going inside the ruts, at the expense of my forearms, so I was faster, but still not enough to make the line, I missed by about a foot (the Norwegian who was at the jump told me, I wasn't looking down). After the jump was where I ran into trouble. I hit one of those bumps, except this one was a cross rut from the first run with a bigger hole right where I landed after being bucked by the rut. Needless to say that the following second consisted of me skiing on one leg, me skiing on no legs, me skiing on my face, and finally me hiking to finish the race. DFL, but I am still happy because I skied very well on the top section.

Tomorrow is the classic, one run of pain. That is as long as the temperature does not drop below -20.5, in which case it will be a telemark like today. Either way I am going to attack and try to make my last race in Bjorli my best!

First Race

Well, today was neither the best of days, nor the worst of days. A 28th place finish is not exactly fantastic, however for the first race of the season for me, it is as to be expected. The first fun was not an overly challenging set, however it definitely presented a unique set of challenges. The top section had three gates on a steep followed by a delay set on the transition on the the flat section of the course. I did not have trouble there, but I lost a lot of speed in those flats and the did not make the jump line. I am just not quite big enough, nor did I have a good wax, to carry the proper amount of speed to make the jump line, which only three people made all day, so I don't feel to bad about that. I also had a poor angle of the jump which led to me hitting a large bump and getting tossed off line, lucky for me there was a long delay set after the jump so I was able to get back on line quickly. But it cost me a lot of speed and the bottom of the course was deathly flat and the snow was verryyy slowww, the slowest section of the course. I had low speed through the wrap and my skate started slowly, but I am a fairly good skater and made up a little time there, but not much. Second run looks about the same as the first, nothing especially fast, with fewer mistakes. The second run set was simple, and me the thinker waayayyy over-skied it. Things to work on for tomorrow, better edge angles, ski the set. Things to work on for next year, GET BIGGER!!!

Wish me luck tomorrow in the Telemark!

Training Day One

Today we had our first day of training in the fresh Bjorli snow!!! We got about a meter of snow here in Norway and to the runs in the course were insane!!! It was also really cold here, like 10 degrees. The first couple runs were okay, one run and slip, but as the day wore on the course got very bumpy. The run to the course was a mess too as one hundred ripping tele skiers shredded to the course, eventually everyone stopped trying to ski it and we just slid all the way down to it. I feel like I skied very well today. The piste isn't overly challenging, nor was it very hard. But it was just as fun. We were able to get a ride to the hill today! That was fantastic! But we still had to walk back, the Dane's brought all of our gear. The sky's were clear and I got some great shots of the beautiful hills of Norway! The sky's were finally clear after yesterdays snowstorm, and the mountains here are absolutely amazing. It is unbelievable how suddenly they rise from the flats. This truly is an amazing country. Today I ate lunch at the same table as reigning world cup overall champion, Eirik Rykhus, that was pretty cool, he doesn't say much, but I guess he lets his skiing do the talking. Tomorrow is the first race, a sprint classic, so will will be up early to be on the hill. I don't have any FIS points now so I will probably start at the very back, if not last. Hopefully I can get a few good runs under my belt so that I can raise my start position. Right now i am about to embark down to the wax room to work on my skis, its a mess down there, this photo was this-morning, and since then the Norwegians and French have arrived so the amount of skis in there has risen significantly! It is hard to find a time to work on your skis with all those people in there! Wish me luck tomorrow!!

First day!

Today was amazing! I slept for 12 hours last night and i almost missed breakfast this morning. In norway they eat an odd assortment of meat and bread for breakfast, so I was stuck with cereal and a roast beef sandwich. We took a long time to get ready this morning and finally got to the mountain around 11:30. There is a 20 minute walk from our hotel to the ski area :( it sucks. The only team that has a car is the swiss team, lucky ducks. They shared it with all of the other teams today but we didn't get up in time. Today there was like two feet of snow so we made some EPIC powder turns. So amazing! The snow was a little bit like cement and the hill is sort of flat, but it was still an amazing day. The food is okay...we had soup last night for dinner, it was all they had left, but it was pretty tasty. This morning for breakfast we had soft boiled eggs and meat..it was interesting to say the least. I am loving it here, the conditions are interesting, our wax room is tiny, but the snow is sweet and must admit, its better than being in school :) Tomorrow we have an official training day so I am pretty excited about that! The walk really sucks, its a long ways to walk in ski boots...I hope we can get a ride over there over the next couple of days. But I am in a single hotel room, so that is pretty sweet, and wait, oh my god, the floors in the bathroom are SWEETTT!!! They are heated, it is sooo niccee when you get out of the shower, as well as to dry your stuff out at the end of the day. It is still snowing, and I am getting hungry, so until another day!!!

NORGE!

Wow, it has been the most hectic yet laid back day of travel I have ever had. After Iceland, I hoped on a quick jet to Oslo, only 2.5 hours. I met up with the rest of the ski team at the baggage pick up in Oslo. From there we bought train tickets and then the fun really started....we waited three hours for our train to leave. at around 14:45 (2:45) our train pulled in, and we loaded four bags and four very large ski bags onto the train car in, oh, about 15 seconds. No sooner had the last person stepped onto the train did the doors shut. Time for some more fun! A 5 hour train ride from Oslo to Durbin, where we took skis off the train in record time, only to carry them across the platform and load them right onto a new train. That train ride was only an hour....thank god. We were the only people who got of in Bjorli, the first place we are racing. Only one catch to the only only ones, well along with the Slovenian team that we met in Oslo,we were the only ones at a tiny train station in the middle of Norway, fun I know...did I mention that there was a foot of snow on the ground? ONly the better to slow us down and soak us to the core while we waited for a hotel shuttle to pick us up, but now finally i am safe and sound in Norway after a long day of travel. Training runs tomorrow and maybe a little jog in the am, that doesn't look very likely though, its snowing like a banshee outside!!! WOOOOO!!!!

Hello from Reykavick!

So Iceland, kind of a buzz kill, I get here and its dark, as in 6:30 in the morning and its like pitch black, no light anywhere, it’s miserable. So I walk inside, and wow, it is a beautiful airport, like amazing. There are all sorts of asymmetrical walls and giant sculptures and it was just a good-looking airport. One of the nicest I have ever flown through. Then I got to security…The American security measures do not comply with the European Union standards so we have to take every piece of electronic equipment out of your bag…and guess what I did, pack ALL, and I mean every last piece, of my electronic equipment in my carry on, so here I am getting patted down after going through the metal detector, and I get an airport security dude, who looks at me, gives me the old come back here. I ended up basically unpacking my carry on putting it through a scanner, then repacking it…talk about flustered. All in all my stay in Iceland was relatively uneventful, just the way I like it, I have to say, the airport was pretty damn cool J

One lucky idiot...

I just happen to be the luckiest idiot on the face of this planet. I took out my camera on the way down to take a photo of the back of our car being totally packed full of stuff. Upon taking out my camera, I noticed that camera felt a little light. I'm an idiot, I left the battery, and the charger in the wall, charging, at home. So we jumped off the highway and found a camera store, $75 dollars latter we got back on the highway with a new camera and charger. Ugh, what an idiot, maybe I should have started packing on friday when my parents told me to? I hope thats the only thing I forget. When we finally arrived at the airport, the real luck kicked in. My ski case weighed exactly 50 lbs when we weighed it at home. When we got to the airport we were every nervous about the ski case going overweight and being charged an overweight charge of 50 lbs. We had the nicest check in lady ever, we asked how much my bags weighed because the weight was weighed in kilograms. She said that she didn't know, she hadn't even checked how much the bags weighed, after our tags were attached to the bag! we were underweight anyway, so i guess it doesn't really matter how much my bags weighed...once again proving how lucky I am.

So there is exactly one hour until I leave school for Norway, and quite honestly I am freaking out! I am in english class, and we are doing a really cool assignment, one that I was really excited to do. My mind on the other hand is on a completely different planet. I just looked up at the clock and my mind started racing. "One hour, so much to do, drive down, repack my murse, survive Boston rush hour, check in weigh my bags, (I am a little nervous about that one, one of my bags weighed exactly 50lbs at my house.) and pass security. Its quite a bit to think about. I have also been thinking about the essay that I am going to try to write on my flight. I want to have it done in two hours, seeing as I have about seven hours to fly across the atlantic ocean to Reykavik Iceland! So for now goodbye ap comp class, I will see you in about 12 days, when I return. I hope you are as exited to hear about my adventures as I am to live them!