The Good the Bad The Ugly...

Some days just seem to be better right from the start, and some days just seem destined to be terrible.  Lately there have been plenty of both!  For example, the last two days have been polar opposite as fat as skiing is concerned.  Thursday was awesome,  I was fast I was clean, and every run felt the same as the last, really really fast.  Then yesterday I was skiing out of the course, making huge mistakes, every run was different.   Thankfully we reset the course, and I was able to string together three of four really solid runs.  Today is our first race simulation of the year, so hopefully I can put two and two together and find some fast skiing.  To break in the new year, the winter sports club is traveling off too Whitefish, Montana for our first races of the year this upcoming weekend.  This should serve as a pretty decent test for me of where my speed is at!  Hopefully I can lay down a few solid runs and come out on top!

In the meantime check out this sweet video by Charlie Dresen, filmed using a GoPro hero camera!

Steamboat!!

I was so stoked to go out to steamboat, do some training on some real nice snow....then I got here.  Theres really not any snow on the ground, and most of the snow on the hill is manmade, but the do have a lot of it made.   We trained today on the big hill for a few hours, it was awful flat, but it was good to get on my new boards and feel the pop on new skis!  I also found out that when we are in Kvitfjell racing, we will be racing on the same hill we trained on for a month last year.  It has some really good steep sections and a a really long flat, so I guess its good to get some flat training in.  On a brighter note, its SNOWING!!

SNOW!

Today was a great day my friends.  Today, I went skiing!  Sam and I drove over to Killington, VT in search of the only lift accessed skiing east of the Mississippi!  Although the lift lines were longer than any line I have ever been in, and the slopes were moderately crowded, the sky was blue, the temps hovered just above freezing, and the snow was beautiful.  Man made, hard, firm, grippy, great snow to work out the kinks and get back into skiing!  It felt great to finally arc some great turns after five and a half months off snow!  Gotta love a beautiful day at the office!

chugging away

Well I've been chugging away down here at school, doing a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of work down here at UNH, especially since my computer crashed about a week and a half ago, I just yesterday got it back, so lots of reconstruction as I sort through all the files they recovered off my old hard drive.  I am working on putting together some of the film from world champs in Rjukan last year, hopefully I will have that up here in the next couple of weeks.  I went home for the long weekend, did a few canopy tours and such.  It was good to get some nice northern NH air, also took a peek at this seasons skis, getting pretty stoked for ski season!!

Back at the U!

Its been, well, all summer and most of spring since my last post, so I'll throw out the readers digest version of my summer.  It was busy.....but really it was crazzyyy.  Ski season ended, I skied Tuckermans ravine a couple times, soak up some sun, relaxed a little bit after a long season.  I flocked flamingos for a couple weeks, then things started to get wild.  I started my Anatomy summer class two days a week in Nashua, NH.  Then I started working five days a week.  So for about a month and a half I did nothing but school and work.  It was crazy.  But i did have a pretty rockin' job so it wasn't all bad.  I was a canopy tour guide at the Bretton Woods Adventure Center.  Pretty much my job entailed zip lining all day...and getting paid.  So it wasn't all bad.  When August rolled around, I finished my class, and started working 6 days a week.  It was pretty wild.  I did a triathlon, no comment on the those results, then the end of the summer rolled around and I find myself back at UNH!  Somehow in the midst of all that I found time to do some pretty good training in there!  Anyway I am living in Newmarket, NH, off campus thank goodness and I'm getting super pumped for another EPIC season of TELEMARK RACING!

Home!

What a perfect homecoming!  I went up to Cannon today to find the snow in perfect condition!  It was like January skiing all over again!  The spring skiing is going to be EPIC!

2011 Nationals!!

Its been a wild ride here in the 'Boat!  The first race, the sprint classic could not have gone better!  No penalties and fast skiing led to a victory for yours truly on the opening race, after laying down the fastest second run!  The Dual Pro Slalom, in which I was the defending champion, led to a third place finish.  The elimination style knockout rounds were just a bit too much skiing for me.  The classic was my worst race of the series, a 4th place finish was less than ideal, but still okay.  I skied fast, but little mistakes on the pitch of see me led to one penalty and the second fastest time, annnnnd 4th place.  Today was the final race of the series, and the season, and although it did not end up as I had hoped, it was still a good day!  I laid down the fastest first run, no penalties, but I pulled a little slide on the snow one ski in the air one ski carving action, which is definitely not fast, and also earned me a nice little penalty, and a sub-par second run, as in not smooth, but clean, led to a second place finish by a measly .12 seconds, with a penalty.  So it could have been a win instead of a second place, but if I took away the penalty it would have been a dnf....so I am happy with the results, but not satisfied.  But if  you are ever satisfied with the results how are you ever going to get better!  2012 here we come!!

So Long Norway!

Well today was a bust...taking a squat in the wrap in the first run left me starting 39th....and a conservative second run left me 33rd...But On the bright side I am leaving Norway having made 5/6 jump lines here in Rjukan, a 10th in the GS, and some really really brilliant skiing.  So tomorrow we start the trek back to steamboat for Nationals...then...I...finally...get...to....go...hooommee! :)

ohhh ski racing...

All it took today was one little mistake yesterday and I am six or seven seconds out and in 22nd place.  The classic gs hill is so so sooo flat that one little slide out on the one and only steep section at the top of the course and thats all she wrote.  I missed the jump line, skated okay...but without the full speed coming of the top pitch I never really stood a chance.  So not my day but thats ski racing.  The field being as tight as it has been on a not so difficult course, you can't make mistakes.  Today we have a day off so I will just work on my skis and relax, maybe do a few free runs this afternoon, and watch the demo race scheduled for this afternoon, the Dual Sprint!  Shane is the lone US starter so I get to play coach for the day!  Saturday is the final race, the sprint classic, that can once again be seen live on Eurosport 2, or on the free link online shown bellow!!

Allmoosstt there!

Had a great race today, coming in 10th in the world championships GS!!  My best result this season in the biggest races this year!  It felt really good to lay down two good fast runs.  3 penalties total, but none on either jump so at least I know I can huck my meat now!  The times were all super tight, and my skiing was fast enough to be top 5....I just need to drop a few penalties tomorrow and things should be pretty sweet!  Tomorrows classic should be a long one so I'm prepping the lungs already!  Tomorrows race can again be viewed live on eurosport2, or one a variety of other places online.

www.fromsportcom.com, and its FREE!!

Rjukan!

Well, world junior champs was kind of a let down...4th in the GS.  I was kind of bummed because the speed was there in all the races, I was just getting a few too many penalties.  But I can take the good skiing away and bring it here to world championships.  We did some training on the sprint hill this morning, and free skiing and jump training on the gs/classic hill this afternoon.  Not much snow on the classic hill, but they have been trucking snow in so hopefully they can till it this evening and it will set up nicely for tomorrows GS.  The hill is super flat and rolly, so making smooth arcing turns is going to be key to win this one!

OH so close!

Laid down a couple of great runs at Hafjell today, but it was not quite good enough.  I ended up 13th after being 8th after the first run.  I missed the jump line in the second run, and that ended up being the difference between 6th, and 13th.  As well as the junior gs world championship.  I ended up 4th in that.  Kind of a bummer but at least I know I am skiing fast over here.  Tomorrow is my best discipline the SPRINT!!

Hafjell!

Well it's go time in her in Hafjell.  We had some time to train today on the race slope, including some jump training.  I feel pretty good, and ready to rock and roll tomorrow.  My skis finally feel like part of my again so I am going to go get em tomorrow morning!  GS!!

CRRAAZZY

The last couple days have been wild up here at Kvitfjell!  The alpine world cup is holding two downhills and a super g here starting on friday so all this week the "white circus"  has been pulling into town.  Needless to say we got booted from our hotel room and we are now staying in a cabin in the middle of the woods with no heat, no electricity, no running water, no beds, its quite the adventure.  Not to mention the fireplace fills the room with smoke unless all the windows and doors are open, so we are heating the place with a little woodstove...But on the bright side since the alpine world cup is here, the food has been spectacular.  We have been eating like kings.  its pretty cool to be staying in the same hotel as all the same skiing superstars that I have been watching on TV and at races.  Its nice to see them as real people without all the media and crazy fans and such, they will actually talk to you!  Tomorrow morning we are going to Hafjell for our official training day, and then friday we start racing!  Time to get after it!

Here is a little shot of...oh world cup downhill points leader Didier Cuche's DH race skis, prepped and ready to go!

New skis!!

First day of gate training on the new planks!  I feel pretty good about them!  Although they are almost identical to the old skis, they do feel quite different.  It going to take a few days to really start to feel great on them, good thing I have a week!  Hopefully they will be ready to rock for Hafjell!  Above is a photo of the risers before and after!

Jumping!!

Sigrid Rhykus invited us to do some jump training with her today in her hometown of Vinstra, a few kilometers north of Kvitfjell, on a 40m ski jump.  For me that was definetly the bigest jump that I have ever gone off of, in terms of ski jumps!  Its pretty crazy.  For people on heavy, skinny telemark skis, we were going around 30 meters, which is pretty big for a telemark jump!  It was good to do some real jump training.  I worked on fully extending and really pushing off, as well as getting my timing perfect so that I am not pre-jumping and getting maximum air time off the jump.  Felt good!  This afternoon I got to finally take a few runs on my NEW SKIS!!  They are pretty much identical in shape, radius, and stiffness, the only difference being that they are much lighter, and a little softer due to the new plate I used.  It is actually made for the NTN binding so it doesn't require the mounting plate underneath, and it hollowed out underneath to save weight, pretty awesome!  I feel really good on them, so we shall see how I ski on 'em tomorrow in training on the national slope!

Hafjell

Yesterday was a great day to be me!! It would have been better if my skis would have shown up, but I did get to do a full day of training on the race hill at Hafjell, the site of world cup finals and junior world championships!  Verdict, I can ski very well on that hill.  It is pretty terrainy, with lots of rolls, and some moderately steep pitches, but I felt really solid on the hill, and the jump.   I think that if the course setters set like they did yesterday, I could have a really good couple of races there.  I have been working to correct some of the problems that plagued my season this year.  Hopefully by the time we start racing again, I will be solid on my skis and ready to show the world whats up!

Training, finally!

Yesterday we started training here at Kvitfjell!  Yesterday we got do some good tough training in the national slope, which used to be the women's downhill course at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic games.  The top section is pretty steep with some gnarly roll overs, and the botom half is pretty flat and its a real thigh burner!  So we got probably six or seven good runs on that one, just getting a feel for the snow here, then did some good free skiing drills in the afternoon.  This morning we set up a brush course on the training slope to work on the form and do some skating.  In the afternoon we ventured down to the bottom half of the olympic downhill to do some jump training on the maaasssiiivveeee drop offs down there!  It was really fun, but a litte scary do hit some of the jumps. We were going quittteee a long ways on some of those jumps.  Tomorrow we will be back on the national slope for more good training!  Hopefully my skis get here soon so that I can get em fasstt!!

Strannggee feeling!

So the last two days I have skied on Alpine skis, just as a little midseason fun break sort of thing, and its been willdd!!!  I skied on slalom skis for the first time in...a long time and WOW are they fun.  They turn sooo fast its like you have little rockets under your feet!!  Also not very long, and easy to tip over..fyi!  Right now I am allll alone at Kvitfjell so I am just free-skiing, letting my body relax, making some fun turns, and overall enjoying skiing!  Shane pulls into town late tomorrow night, and we start training on thursday! Lets get this party started!!

Still snowing in Kvitfjell

I got to Kvitfjell on Wednesday night...it was snowing.  I woke up on thursday morning, still snowing.  We skied all day, and it snowed all day.  I wake up this morning...and you guessed it...still snowing.  Since I have been here....it has literally snowed the entire time, non-stop.   It really hasn't amounted to much though, the snow is sooo light.  Its like skiing through dish-soap bubbles.  Bu it is good to be on snow!  I am now the proud owner of a Norwegian seasons pass!   I am going to be here long enough that I just bought one...pretty sweet!!   We don't start training until next week, when Shane gets here, so for now we are just enjoying the free-skiing! That also gives me plenty of time to sort out my ski situation.  I just appoxied my top-sheet back onto the base of my ski so we will find out how well that worked, but it was worse than I thought, the screws looked like they were pulling out too, which is noott good, so we will soon find out if my repairs are going to work, or if I am in the clear and they are ready to race!

Rottefella!!

I got to go to the one and only Rottefella factory in  Drammen, Norway!  I was shocked to see how small it is!  Only seventy people work for Rottefella! The building is really not that big, but they can really churn out a lot of product!!  We got the full tour of all of their production, assembly, everything except product development...not sure why, but I can probably guess!  They also left us will a shopping bag FULL of ski straps...most of them for the two danish boys, but even them with all their skis could never use all of them...I think there are probably fifty pairs!!  All in all a very cool experience to see how all of our bindings are made, and to meet the people who make it happen over there!  Right now I am staying at Sara Guribye's house in Oslo!  She was an exchange student in Littleton last year, and her family was nice enough to let me spend the night at there house on my way to Kvitfjell!  Tomorrow I will take the train up north and we commence the training!!

Back on the NET!!

Since I have last checked in, I have raced a terrible classic, driven 2490 kilometers, including driving...me driving 3 hours of me driving on the German Autobahn!  The most terrifying and awesome experience ever (more on that later).  Back to the classic in Spain.  While I was tuning my skis before the race, I noticed that my binding was pulling out of my skis, pulling the top sheet of the ski with it...not good!  So I raced on my training skis, which did not go so well.  They are in pretty rough shape after some rocky skiing in Thyon and Spain.  The gases got a couple huggeee "gashes" in them.  And there are a couple big chunks taken out of the edges.  So I am either going to have to have some serious work done to them, and my race skis...or I am going to have to get new skis.  Right now the latter is looking more likely, since I have a long time before I am racing again....we shall see!  

The drive here was willllddd!!  Twenty something hours...and some craazzyy stuff.  I slept for the first eight hours while Thomas drove, and that got us through France, then I took over for about four hours through Germany...crazy.  I was driving about 130 km/h, the "recommended" speed on the autobahn.  From 2:30 to 6:30 there are only a few things on the roads, lots and lots of trucks, going 90 km/h, a few cars and vans going about the smae speed as me, and then every once an a while you run into a few cars that are fllyyinnnggg.  You can see them coming from behind you, and they come quiickk.  Then just like that they are past you and 100 meters past you like you aren't even moving...like that.  Its awesome to see, but at the same time is terrifying!  Anyways....we are now on a giant ferry from Keil, Germany to Goetteborg, Sweden for the next...long time!  Final destination: Norway!!

Espannaa day 2

Well today was nothing special...I had a pretty mediocre first run, followed by a crash in the skate. I think my binding was on crooked after I went through the wrap a little rough.  Soo I ended up getting a little tangled in the skate netting annddd started dead last in the second run.  The second run course was a little bit like skiing a skiercross course  for people like 4 inches tall.  Those bumps were craazzyyy!!  But I was still able to move up to 31st...so not all bad.  Hopefully tomorrow I can do better in the classic.  I seemed to liek the classic pitch a little it better than the one we skied today!

Esssppannnnaaa day 1!!

Another beautiful day here in Spain!  We had a pretty gnarly course today!  Not too too steep, but the turns were very tight and after the jump lots of people got knocked out there today.  I had a decent first run, but with lots of penalties.   The second was much better, I was laying down a pretty good run, I nailed the gates after the jump, and carried maybe a bit too much speed on to the flat.  I had to dump all of it when the course got a bit tight.  I was skiing a very tight line, straight and late, and just never got back on line.  I still ended up in 15th place, with 10 penalties.  So, tough race today but hopefully I can nail it in the sprint tomorrow!

ESSPPANNAAA!!!

We made it to Spain mostly in once piece.  The Long's car broke down so they finished the trip in a ttinny little car!  Its beautiful here, in a summer sort of way.  As in I just got back from a quick soccer game where shorts and a tee-shirt were too many clothes.  The skiing is still good though.  The snow is super hard underneath, and I felt pretty solid in training today!  Tomorrow we are racing GS, I am pretty stoked to race here!  Getting ready to shred!

Well..

Yesterdays classic was a ccraaankkkerrr!!  They cut the jump back over a meter, the TD said he wanted seven men to make the line..and I am pretty sure he was quite successful!  The thing was a monster! I had another one of those races that was good, just not great.  The course was not quite as turny as I had hoped, but I still skied it okay.  I think I ended up in 21st place overall.  Obviously not what i was looking for.  I think all the little tiny mistakes i am making are starting to add up.  I am starting to develop a pretty terrible habit of droping my inside hand to the snow which pretty much makes the end of my turns wash out.  So I am not really getting the lateral acceleration that I was getting earlier this year.  Hopefully I can pull out of that in Spain!  We are going to make the 9 hourish drive tomorrow...blaaaahhh!!

NIght SPPRRIINNTT!

So the furstrated meter went waaayy down today...overall.   I laid down a sweet first run, 13th. Laid down another sweet second run, until my skis decided to diverge causing a nice little crash.  So I ended up 23rd.  I still scored so thats nice, but overall it was a tough day.  Tomorrow is the classic.  I am pretty stoked because my favorite course setter, one of the french coaches Denis, is setting.  Hopefully I can go out and lay down a ripper!  He sets courses that have more gates, but smaller turns, so you have to stivot a lot and make fewer clean turns.  They are more alpine style GS courses, but they suit my admittedly messy style a little bit more!

Night Sprint!

I am pretty stoked for our night sprint here in Meribel, France!!  We had some pretty decent training runs this morning on the super hard snow here.  Apparently it hasn't snowed here since December 25th...and it shows.  The hill is rock solid!  Thats okay by me though.  The course is already set, and it looks like a ripper, turny and steep!  Inspection starts at 3:30 so we are just resting up before its time to go get shreddy!!

Better...

Well we are back in action.  I had a solid run today, not great, not even good, just solid.  I skied more the way I wanted to, I just hit a brick wall on the really sweet uphill skate....But the skiing was good so thats what I was looking for.  I missed the jump line by ohhh about 6 inches, and I lost a little speed on the flat before the jump, so at least I know I can jump!  So tomorrow we are driving to Meribel for a sprint and a classic.  Along the way I will have buy a new pair of poles after breaking one yesterday...could have been part of my skating problems today, Shane's spare poles were a smidge short.  Looking forward to hard snow in Meribel!

ok..this is getting old.

So today gets another short post.  My computer decided it didn't want to charge...soo I have been internet-less for a couple days.  Shane and I got to train with Bastien Dayer on the race hill on monday and tuesday, which was sick!  I had some great training runs especially on tuesday.  Then today came along and everything fell apart.  I pretty much skied like a ten year old.  Thats all it really comes down to.  I just did not ski the way I am capable of.  Tomorrow is a brrruuttaallll classic course so hopefully I can lay down one solid run, seeing as thats all I have been able to do lately.  Jump is huge, skate is long, course is fast...just the way I like it.

Thyon!

So Thyon has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life...ever.  Our hotel has a clear view of the Matterhorn, one of the highest peaks in Europe, there are mountains EVERRYYWHHEERREE, and we are staying in the heart of the Alps, which is downright amazing.  Today Shane and I did a little bit of training with Bastien, who lives here, and Thomas Bergfors of Denmark.  The race hill is pretty sweet.  Its not too too too steep, but it has a lot of rolls.  The jump is going to be pretty much huge, but it will definitely be the best jump we have done this year.  The sprint is going to be super long, and the classic is going to be brutal.  There is a huge cat-track that we are going to take, that if we have good speed coming into, we should be able to just tuck across it.  If not its going to be a brutally long skate.  Tomorrow we will train a little bit more with Bastien and Thomas, see if we can get really comfortable on the hill!  Most of the US Team pulls in tomorrow so pretty stoked to see some new faces!

Kandahar Day 2!!

So we ended up going to the super combi at at Chamonix, Les Houches today!  Pretty awesome to watch.  We didn't ski, and instead we hiked up the side of the DH course and watched from a sweet jump where racers crossed a ROAD in the middle of the course.  They were getting some pretty sick air!  Then we walked a little lower and saw a pretty fast section of the course just above the finish.  We watched the slalom from right at the finish line! That was cool!  Ivica Kostelic laid down a rediculous slalom run to go from like 23rd place to win it!  The other Croatian, Natko Zrncic dim had two amazing runs, and ended up second!  Pretty amazing to see two croatians on the podium together for the first time, and 1-2 no less!! Svindal was Svindal and cleaned up a prett solid 3rd.  He could have one but he made a pretty silly mistake in the slalom that cost him..oh well, he still got some pretty good points!  We had a pretty crazy drive to Thyon today too, lots of switchbacks and crazy drop offs.  We are going to do some training/free-skiing at Thyon tomorrow, get used to being at altitude.  Our hotel is at 2000 meters sooo, the race hill is pretty high!

THE KANDAHAR!!

Banner day in France....The skies were clear, the temps were pleasantly just bellow freezing, and the snow was fast!  We had an amazing day at the Kandahar Downhill!  Didier Cuche proved once again that he is still ridiculously fast in DH, winning yet another downhill this season!  Doninik Paris of Italy showed some  young speed talent, and the rest is Austraia...not much to say there.  I have a new level of respect for these guys after seeing it live, but WOW are they flying.  After the four forerunners, the first WC racer that went by looked, like he was going at least 40mph faster than the forerunners.  There was a big jump on the top of the course where we were standing, and he went like 15 or 20 feet further!!! IT WAS CRAZZYY!!  Thats all I have time for now, but here is a sweet shot from the top of the course!  Driving to Thyon today!!

FRANCE!!

After a few days of skiing DEEEPPP powder in Austria at the SKI CIRCUS (Saalbach Hinterglem), we have arrived in France to see the Kandahar Mens Downhill at Chamonix!  Shane and I drove ohh about 9 hours to Geneva and picked up his wonderful girlfriend Maura at the ariport, and we are now settled into our hotel here in, I don't know where, France, but it is beautiful here and we have a sweet little hotel!  We had a little debocale in Austria, a strap got caught in the latch of our trunk, and we couldn't open it, but with a little elbow grease from Thomas the dirty Dane we got it open.  A trunkless car would have made packing a little tricky!!  I would have some sweet video of Powder for you, but I can't get it off my camera sooo, that will have to wait!!  I'll let you know how the Kandahar goes tomorroooww!!!

Well..

I'll be short and sweet, today I did not ski well, thats about it.  I made too many mistakes in critical places, and I got too many penalties.  Mostly for doing things to keep my time fast after making stupid mistakes.  I ski fast when I can keep em' on line!  Hopefully over this short break we have, 10 days, I can work out some kinks and come back in Switzerland and kick some butt!  Shane and I are going to see the Kitzbuhel Slalom tomorrow morning, so that should be pretty rocking!! So long!

What could have been...

Today is one of those days that you just have to stick away in your back pocket and let stew.  As far as skiing is concerned it was a great day!  I made a silly mistake in the first run in a delay.  My goggles were fogged up so I was not looking where I needed to be looking, a mistake that I should not have made, with or without the foggy goggles, but they certainly did not help me any.  So I slid on my butt for a little ways but I pulled it out and still managed a pretty fast time considering.  The second run was really good for me. I skied mostly clean, aside from jumping about three feet early on the jump.  I got a little lost before the jump, too many turns just before the jump.  I was really fast off the jump and I got really late, fast but late, after the jump but I again held it together just long enough to  crash through the last gate, penalty free, I cleared the telemark line :) and slide through the finish line on my belly.  So I have earned a bit of a reputation for dramatic finishes, but hey I finish!  So raw time, I would have been fourth, but I got nailed with 18 penalties, 6 on the jump for not making the line and 12 in the gates.  So I ended up in 19th place.  My stance is of "questionable bootspace"  So any of the close ones I got hit with a penalty for.  I was not the only one though, a few other guys also got nailed. Sooo goal for tomorrow is to ski clean and fast!  After these races I will spend some time training working on making my stance a little bit wider so that I do not have so many close calls.  Hopefully I can ski well tomorrow, in my crash I incurred a nasty bit of skiers thumb, so I am super sore tonight though, I can barely move my thumb!  ICE ICE ICE!!  I am bib 22 tomorrow, hopefully I a ready to go!!

A FINISH!!

Well I did not ski as fast as I had hoped to today, ending up in 17th position, but I did ski two runs without crashing, on the same day, so a step in the right direction I suppose!?  The course was pretty gnarly especially after the jump where the set was super tight.  I skied rather conservatively in the first run, eking out 19th position after the first run.  I skied clean except for three penalties for not making the jump line.  It was near impossible to make the line, it was VERRYY far.  In the second run I went for a little more, but I paid for it, barely missing the jump line, then skiing one of the last gates before the wrap on the back third of my inside ski with my butt on the ground and the other ski in the air.  I managed to pull it together and finish the run with only that penalty, and still fast enough to land me 17th place.  Hopefully tomorrow on a longer GS course I can ski more aggressively and snag a higher position! I am bib 19, wish me luck!  Shane snagged a sweet 8th place, cole was 31st and maggie wrapped up 16th!  Lets see what we can get tomorrow, GET AFTER IT!

Snowing in Rauris!!

We had a decent day of training today at Rauris.  It is finally snowing after weeks of warm weather and rain we are getting some fresh (wet) snow.   The race hill here in Rauris has a few decent pitches...sort of, but the jump is pretty lame.  I ripped my speedsuit a few days ago trying to get it off, so I unstiched all of the padding to make it fit a little better, and I even sewed it back together all by myself.  I Doesn't look pretty, but I bet it holds up pretry well!!

recap!

Soo, I have not been post in quite a while because the internet where I was staying only worked on Shanes computer, and not well enough for my blog to load.  So four days latter and here we are, FINALLYY posting in the blog again!  We got to Zell am See friday afternoon and spent saturday chilling out around the town, watching all the skiing we could handle!!  Sunday we spent the day up on the glacier at the Kitzsteinhorn.  AMAZING!!  You take two gondolas and a chairlift just to get up to most of the ski area!!  The Summit of the Kitzsteinhorn is around 3029 meters, all of the skiing is above 2000 meters, and Zell am See is at like 609 meters.  You are so high up in the mountains skiing on a HUGGEE Glacier.  It was a truly amazing experience.  The picture above is a good shot of Shane shredding the top section of the glacier.  Monday and tuesday we had some great training at Shmitten at Zell am See, the local ski area.  The snow was super hard, like it had been zambonied a few times!  I feel super fast, so hopefully we can lay down two solid runs tomorrow in the Sprint Classic.  For now, I am off to train at Rauris!!

Settled in!

We have settled in Zell Am See as you training location for the next couple of days with the Danish Telemark Team.  Our hotel is very nice, we have good beds annndd...a sweet jacuzzi tub in our ROOM!  I am pretty stoked to try it out tomorrow after skiing!  Also I owe a huge thank you to Friends of New Hampshire Skiing for awarding me some of their grant money!  I cannot express how appreciative I am of what they do for New Hampshire Skiers!  I am pretty pooped, it's amazing how tired you are after driving all day!  Hopefully the fog here will lift here for us to be able to ski what we are skiing on!!

Zell am See!!

So indeed we are going to Zell am See today to train with the danish telemark team!  So that means the chances of us going to the Kitzbuhel Downhill just got REALLY GOOD!!!!!!

this is getting old..

Today sucked...period...first off it was like 10 degrees, celsius, and POURING rain.  The race hill sucked, and so did my bindings.  I was having a great run, I even made the jump line, but as I landed my binding released, so I had to ski out of the course on one ski!! I am very lucky that I did not fall.  There were seven or eight dnf's today, all after the jump.  It was brutal for everybody.  My time before I crashed was looking very fast, or so I have been told.  So I know that I can ski well, but I just need to FINISH!!  My neck is pretty sore from yesterdays crash, and today my back and knee hurt from trying to save myself from crashing face first into slushy ice, soo, I am going to go jump into the hot pot and relax.  I think we are going to stay in Germany for a couple more days, since the races in Slovenia have been cancelled, they lost all of their snow.  We might also go to a biigg resort in Austria to train with the Danish team.  But I am not sure!  So the adventure continues!!

ouch..

Well today did not go exactly as planned, but I am still happy with the end result today!  The course was super super turny today, and icy as all get out.  The entire course was one big sheet of ice, but we are racing on a europa cup hill so it has to be super hard for them to train and race on.  Ice aside, I had a pretty crappy first run.  I carried to much speed of the last pitch before the jump and I had to dump a bunch of speed, as well as make a few alpine turns before the jump, and proceeded to just miss the jump line, not dump any speed, then completely blow out.  I threw my skis out for the second gate after the jump and they hooked up WAY early and I got flipped turned and tossed every which way.  As one person said, it was "One of the more epic crashes I have ever seen."  It certainly felt like it.  I got up significantly discombobulated, with one pole and no goggles.  A gate judge politely directed me to the next gate, seeing as I had no idea which gates I had or had not gone through and I finished the run after about 20 seconds of collecting myself and making sure everything was still there.  So I got to do a second run just to familiarize myself with the course and to see how my times stack up against everybody else, from the very back of the pack.  I think I was about 30 seconds away from earning points, so I pretty much just got to go out and see where I was at.  So I had a killer second run, laying down the 13th fasted raw time on a terrible track.  I didn't really jump as much as I should have, I was really focused on just having a solid second run and making sure I finished standing up to get a reasonable estimate of how fast I was skiing and thats just what I got.  So I am happy with the second run result, and knowing that I can lay down fast times.   I am excited to see what I can do tomorrow in the sprint!

Ready to goo!

Ski's are waxed, bib has been drawn, 62 (men start at 41), food is settling quite well, and I am ready to go! The race run looked like it was in pretty good condition today.  I think part of what we are skiing on is actually injected snow.  The German Europa Cup team was training on it today.  Hopefully I can go out and get some tomorrow, I'm STOKED!!

ssmuushhh

So we FINALLYY got to ski today.  I was definitely in need of a little bit of good turns.  Contrary to yesterdays boilerplate snow, today we got about six cm's of warm slushy snow on top.  It totally made  the rock solid groomer underneath all soft.  So we skied for about an hour or half powder, half "slop pack" stuff.  The best way I could describe it was like skiing through really good mashed potatoes.  We finally have internet at our hotel, so thats great news, buutt I am still cashless, and we also cannot find a place to tune our skis...but there is a team captains meeting tomorrow, and we also are going to have official training tomorrow.  A lot of the teams are pulling into town today, but  I don't think any of them will be staying with us, we are in a cozy little place.  Its pretty much a big house.  A woman lives on the bottom floor with her husband and two kids, they kind of run the place.  There are four room upstairs, two of which are occupied by the US Team.  Thats okay, we are going to spend most of our time up in Oberjoch for dinner, captains meetings, tuning and such so we will be around the other nations plenty!  The mountain is beautiful!!  I am trying rather unsuccessfully to upload photos, but hopefully soon I can grab them and share them with ya'll!

Bad Hindelang!

ahhhh, Deutchland!  After a long day of following the sings to that led to "D" yesterday, we had settled into our place in Bad Hindelang today.  We got in around ten am, it was only a half our drive from the place we stayed last night to our hotel in Hindelang, so we had all day today to wander around.  We  drove to Oberjoch, which is where we will be racing, its only about twenty minutes, 300meters of vertical elevation, 7.5 kilometers, and 105 curves away.  For those of you that don't feel like doing the math, thats 14 curves per kilometer.  Personally I think they underestimate that number, the road is rediculous.  It puts the kanc to shame.  There is legitimatly not a single section of road that is straight for more than three or four meters.  Its silly, and we have to drive it twice a day.  The race piste is hard as a rock. Apparently it has been quite warm here, and just recentlz thez had one or two nights of intense cold.  Its boilerplate hard.  We watched a little bit of the German teams training and it looked rough.  Hopefully we can do some freeskiing on the race hill tomorrow to get a feel for it.  We went for a little run throught Oberjoch, it felt great to do something physical.  Its amazing what a half an hour of running, pushups, high knees, and other assorted exercises  can do for a body that has been sitting for three days.  Cole and Maggie got here around four from Munich and we just went out to a "Shneitzel Haus" for dinner.  SOO tasty.  I am loving the food here.  I am looking forward to doing some skiing finally tomorrow!  Lets get shreddy!!

Oh I almost forgot!

Did I mention our car is WAAYY too nice for us?  Its this fancy OPEL station wagon, we look like a couple of rich tourists, then upon a second glance into the backseat you will find it completely packed with an assortment of ski equipment and other goodies all in some sort of hefty wear and tear, definitely not what rich tourists cars look like!

Travel sucks...

That was the longest two days of my LIFFEE.  Great travel day today, ha. Everything went fine until the baby next to me kept me awake all the way from Chicago to London, so no sleep for Cory on the overnight.  Then I can't sleep in the Heathrow airport, well because thats just kind of sketchy, I don't want to get all of my stuff stollen while I snooze.  So there's a solid six and a half hours of no sleep.  Sweeeett! I did sleep the entire one and a half hour flight from London to Geneva, and believe me it was great.  Then I get off the plane go through customs, a breeze believe it or not, and go to baggage claim.  No if running on one and a half hours of sleep wasn't bad enough, I get to baggage claim only to discover that none of my stuff really made it to Geneva from London.  AWESOME!  So  here I am in Geneva, no skis, no clothes, boots and helmet check, but nothing else.  Shane has been waiting for me since eleven o'clock (turns out he got there around three) and my flight was a little bit late, just to add some icing onto the cake.  So I am standing in line at the baggage services desk staring aimlessly around the baggage claim area pondering how I was going to sort this mess out, and what do I spy on the back of a luggage trolly, but my ski bag. I must have looked insane, I jumped out of line and flagged down the trolley driver and grabbed my bag off the top.  I now have skis, poles, boots, helmet, goggles, and my jackets and pants.  Good enough to ski.  Long story short, my ski bag went on an earlier flight than mine from London to Geneva, and my duffle bag took the next later flight after mine.  I got there right in-between them.  How funny is that?  So Shane and I are in a hotel somewhere south of Bern, Switzerland.  We really aren't sure exactly where we are, but we are headed in the right direction, and within a stones throw of the highway we want to take to Germany, so I guess we aren't too bad off.  Tomorrow we will start the drive and see how far we get, should be a fun day.  I am looking forward to racing, World Cup opener is just a few days away!!

oh gosh...

 i am seated in row fourty three g.....of fourty five rows...going to be a long trip.  

And So the Adventure Begins...

In t-minus 32 hours (well 24 technically but 32 sounds better) I will land in Geneva Switzerland and then the adventures start for real!

Enjoying the last couple days in the 'boat!

I am enjoying my last couple days here in Steamboat before heading off to World Cup races! Yesterday I got to ski a little powder over on Mt. Werner, that was epic. The snow out here is so so so much lighter than east coast snow. I have now skied champagne powder! Today I got some good training with the winter sports club over on Howelson Hill. On Sunday we did some gs gate drills to work on turn shape and moving the skis away from the gates to generate some sick angles and make things FAST!! Today we just did straight gs training with a little post training skate. The set was super tricky and it had some elements that reminded me of the world championship course at Rjukan with some rolls and banked turns. I am skiing fast so hopefully I can trow down some good results at world cup in the next couple weeks!! Yeehaaww!

TRIVIA NIGHT!

I went to trivia for the second time on my steamboat trip last night at the Rio Grande. The first time we went we were first and second the first time, this time not so much. We didn't even stay for the second round. But The food was spectacular! I had a spectacularly spicy roasted chicken burrito. WOW was that thing spicy. That was probably the most spicy food I have ever eaten...ever. Seriously it was crraazzyy!!! I practically slept on the toilet I drank so much water!