what up Austira?

Zoë, Kenneth and I have safely arrived in Rauris, Austria, after taking numerous planes, trains, and automobiles, and more than my fair share of sketchy train stuff in Munich, but we are all here and ready to rock!  We all went freeskiing today on a strikingly beautiful day here in Austria. We took a little dabble on the race hill, taking a chance to peak at some of the tricky terrain features that the hill presents.  Tomorrow we have official training, so we have a good opportunity to get a good feel for the course!  Race day on friday, get excited!!




also the photo is taken from the Summit of Rauris, what a spectacular place!

since I've been gone....

It has been quite some time since my last blog post, and I had intended to keep you all more informed, but unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot to write about, then there was lots to write about, and no internet to write with!  So I'lll give you the quick and dirty.  For the last few weeks, I have been training with the steamboat springs winter sports club, pretty much every day.  I have made some very good progress with my skiing, and I felt like I was skiing about as well as I could, until last thursday.  I broke my thumb.....wah wah waaahhhhh.  But Its not a serious break and it didn't require surgery!  So I sucked up the pain and went down to Vail and raced.  Around 70 people showed up to bash gates, and a fantastic time was had by all, especially this kid who skied a great race, skied penalty free (for once) and came home with the gold!  It felt great to come away knowing that I am skiing as fast as I think I am, and that I am ready to throw it down on the world cup level!

I am currently sitting in Denver, awaiting my flight to Europe.  Denver to London to Munich and a Train to Salzburg!  This thursday we will open our World Cup season at Rauris in the heart of Austria!

Wish me luck!!

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!