Nor-Ams Can Be No Fun

The first day of the Nor-Am series wasn't bad. I certainly didn't ski well, but I finished and was in a respectable position. The past two have been much less fun. I hiked in the first run of the Slalom at Loveland, and did not qualify for the second run. So we watched the second run (which is still quite fun) and then hopped in the car and killed the awesome drive over to Aspen. Unfortunately, once we got here and settled in I started to feel a little cold coming on. It happens a lot, my head gets really congested, I have no energy, and get chilled very easily. But I felt ok this morning, and warm-up felt good. But after sitting around and waiting for my number (85) to get called, I started to feel it a little bit again. I went on with the run, and was skiing ok before losing a ski about halfway down the course. I was frustrated, but qualifying for the second run turned out to be quite difficult, so I may not have made it anyway. Almost a month of skiing without much rest is starting to wear on me, physically and mentally, so I'm pretty excited to get back on the road and get to my new home, California. But there's another race tomorrow, and I'm going to try my best to get fired up for it.

First Nor-Am

So I had my inaugural Nor-Am today in one of the toughest races of the year, the Loveland Slalom. I started 96, which is the farthest back I've started in a long time, but luckily the hill is in awesome shape so the track wasn't much of a factor. I had a few pretty costly bobbles (as always), especially the one at the bottom, right before the flat (that I crawled across). I was 51st going into the second run (only 60 qualify, so I was happy to make it) and I skied much better, but still with a few mistakes. I ended up 32nd, which is respectable despite how far out I was. But, when you're racing against world cup racers like Marcel Hirscher, Mike Janyk, and Nolan Kasper, it's tough to score. I had a lot of fun, something that I wasn't expecting. It's exciting racing against unbelievable skiers like those guys, and to have a feeling that you can sort of hang with them is pretty exciting. The last week of my Colorado trip has been nice, with a few really relaxing days off and a wonderful thanksgiving, but I'm really stoked to head to Aspen and race then continue on to California. Well I've got a lot of packing and other menial tasks to do, so I'm going to sign off, but I'll let you know how tomorrow goes once we arrive in Aspen.

I was stoked to see a few old friends today, Jo Morrison and Becca Nadler. I also promised shout outs to a couple of Holderness friends, Colton and Lily. Remember Colton, do the opposite of what your instincts tell you.

The Laziest of Days Off

I had intentions of doing stuff today, but it turned out to be one of the laziest days I've ever had. We stayed in bed until about noon (I watched Grown Ups online, which despite all the rumors turned out to be really good) then headed over to Frisco for a few errands. We picked up some booster straps and pole baskets before stopping in at Wal-Mart for a couple of games that we could use on the Wii in our condo. We picked up a Cabela's game and a Zelda shooting game to be played with the Wii's shotgun accessory. According to Mark Engel, "You suck at Zelda, but we still like you. Scannell's way too good and that's why nobody likes him." We've been playing this all afternoon, and plan on doing it for the rest of the night. I thought we were going to train tomorrow but it turns out NorAm rules don't allow you to train on the race hill less than 48 hours before the race, so we're probably going to have another day off. Luckily I have an hour and a half ride down to Boulder where I'm spending Thanksgiving, then I'll return on friday. Still snowing!

Cold Days in CO

Colorado, unlike anywhere else, can go from California weather to Sugarloaf weather overnight. And we certainly experienced both in the past few days. Today was nice, but monday was cold, windy, and cloudy, just like home! Monday was no fun at all, one of those days when I wished I had practiced my putting a little bit more and earned a golf scholarship. The course was tough and I skied horribly, which put me in one of those moods when I hate ski racing more than anything. Today was better, we had a derby style GS race and my times were respectable, but certainly not where I'd like to be sitting. But I guess the good thing about this sport is there's always room for improvement, something that I'm currently looking for. After training we moved over to a new place where we'll stay for the Loveland NorAm Slaloms. We've got a day off tomorrow, and I'm thinking about driving down to Denver for a quick round of golf if the weather cooperates. So I'm going to sign out and enjoy being serenaded by Mark Engel's guitar. Good night!

Sunny Days in CO

We've had 4 great days of training in a row, 2 GS and 2 SL. I really dialed in the GS and skied well in the last few runs of that block and have been warming the slalom skis back up yesterday and today. I'm optimistic by some of the progress that I'm making, but would still like to put some really fast runs together and gett a little bit closer to the fast guys I'm skiing with. The weather has been awesome, with mild temperatures and plenty of sunshine, and the hill has been in great condition because of it. Unfortunately, the good times may be over, with a huge snow storm moving in at some point tonight. The next few days could be full of a lot of slipping, but I'm optimistic that it'll be in good shape for the NorAms on saturday. Even though I'm dreading the blizzard that's moving in, I'm enjoying a relaxed Sunday afternoon planted in front of the TV, (I just watched Peyton Manning choke a huge comeback with an idiotic pick) and I'm looking forward to seeing a couple Peter Webbers on thursday! Hopefully you enjoy the pictures!

A Couple of Tough Days

We've been cranking up the intensity on training the past few days, with tougher surfaces and courses. I skied alright on tuesday in the end of a crazy snowstorm, then took a day off yesterday, and skied again early this morning. I've had some good sections but for the most part, it's been really inconsistent, which is frustrating. The hill we've been training on is pretty mellow at the top but gets a lot tougher at the bottom, and I've been struggling on the steeper sections. Hopefully tomorrow will go a little bit better and then we'll switch to slalom. Hopefully it doesn't snow too much this weekend...

SO MUCH SNOW!!!!

It's blowing my mind a little bit at how much it's snowed over the past few days. It started last night, dumped throughout the day today, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop until wednesday or thursday. Today was the first day of the National Development Camp at Loveland, a camp that will hopefully be better than it was last year. Fortunately, I was part of the group that headed up at 9 o'clock instead of 6, so I didn't have to do as much slipping as the other guys. I got 6 runs of GS in on a watered surface that ended up skiing quite nicely. Hopefully the snow will stop sometime soon and we can get a sweet surface for the rest of the camp. Farewell from a comfortable eastern boy lost in the snow...

I know I'm from the East, but I still don't like the cold.

The temperature has been dropping progressively the past 4 days and today was probably the coldest. The good thing about it is the snow holding up better, but the bad thing about it is the frozen toes and hands, my least favorite thing about ski racing. And the california guys who I'm skiing with think for some reason that because I'm from the east I like the cold, but this is totally untrue.
Today was our last day at Copper before moving over to Loveland for the National Development Camp that starts on monday. We ended up with 4 days of Slalom and 4 days of GS, and the last few have been extremely productive. I've been working on my consistency in both events, trying to eliminate the bad turns that ruin runs, but I'm certainly linking up some really good turns. I feel really good about the faster sections that I'm putting together but skiing on the ice at Loveland will certainly be the real test. Excited for a day off tomorrow! Hopefully I'll have better internet in my new place and I can post more consistently.

SNOW!

Yesterday started early, 5:00 am early, to some quality full length GS training. It felt good to get back in an intense environment like that, but I was a little bit disappointed in the way I skied. I made a lot of really good turns but a lot of really bad ones, something that will hassle me until I’m able to gain more consistency. After we finished, the hill opened and I took a few more free-ski runs before calling it a day. It was a nice, restful afternoon and a good sleep-in before we trained a little bit of slalom today. It was a nice progression with a few different set-ups on different terrain. I felt alright, but the snow that was falling piled up to a point where it was pretty frustrating. We’re going to do some full length slalom tomorrow in the early afternoon and hopefully the snow is a little bit better.

Another Awesome Day

Today was another great day, with clear skies and perfect sunshine, except for the crazy snow/sleet squall that came through. We free skied this morning for a while before my back started tightening up and my feet started to kill me and I took a short break. Then, the crazy weather came in and lightning forced the lifts to close. Once we got back out there, the sun returned and we were able to get some awesome GS training in. The older pair of boots that I went to today felt a lot better (probably due to some canting issues with the other boots. Overall another great day and hopefully the next few days don't bring too much snow so we can train more. I'm also going to try to get some better internet and upload some video to the blog. Going to head over later and see the CVA boys!

Happy 21st Birthday to Weenut! Hopefully he makes it to tomorrow...

Two Stupidly Long Days

Phew, where do I start. I guess yesterday morning I was in Omaha, Nebraska. I remember starting the drive in Omaha but after that all of Nebraska and eastern Colorado are kind of a big blur. A lot of corn, freeway, and nothingness. We decided early afternoon that we were incredibly hungry and after struggling to find any where with any food, stumbled upon Buffalo's Bill Bar and Grill in Ovid, Colorado. We figured that a small, down-home place like that would have some great local flavor but it turned out to be about as plain and boring as the town it resided in. We hit the road again and decided that on such an unbelievably beautiful day, we should stop and play golf. It was a quaint, little place that provided us with a great break after 7 hours of driving. I even got my first eagle after driving the 9th green! We continued on to the hotel where Will was staying for the night before traveling back to NYC. It turned out that the hotel reservation was never booked correctly and after credit card customer service people ruined my mood completely for an hour, I made the final push to Copper. But it turns out some people from Denver like to drive up to the mountains on a friday afternoon. So the ride took much longer than expected but I finally arrived, unpacked, organized, and crashed. Today was much better. The temperature was about 30 degrees at the beginning of the day and as I sit here on my deck, it's about 60. The snow stayed pretty good despite this, and we were able to get GS and Slalom freeskiing in the morning. After the crowds started to accumulate we set up some short radius GS gates to ski on Slalom skis. I took 6 runs and felt ok, it was definitely just getting the feeling back after a few months off snow. I was having trouble getting a solid platform at the top of the turn and when I didn't, the bottom of the turn was pretty rough. I skied on the new pair of boots with the soft cuff. I'm definitely going to try the older boots tomorrow. It was all in all a glorious day and I'm pretty wiped now. A little bit of dryland and some grocery shopping should do me well tonight. Farewell from sunny Copper, Colorado.

The Great Land of Nothingness

Everything's bigger in the midwest. The meals, the cornfields, and especially the hospitality. We arrived in Davenport last night to the home of Cory Yetter, Will's cousin. Davenport is a sleepy little city in eastern Iowa where on a wednesday night, nothing much is going on but he showed us a great time! We stuck around his place with a few other relatives of Will's and had some great food before heading out to Del's a little dive bar where interesting locals were the main attraction. This morning, after a slow start, we hit the Iowa Machine Shed, the perfect little Iowa restaurant. Unfortunately we missed breakfast, but the lunch specials were unbelievable, our waitress was phenomenal, and we left wondering, is this heaven? But the road called and we continued west towards Omaha, where I am now. Tomorrow should be a long day, with 8 hours driving to Denver, but I'm really excited to get there and get on the hill. So I'm going to head off to dinner but I'll try to post again from Copper tomorrow night. Farewell from a couple of simple guys chasing the sun.

SNOW AT SUGARLOAF!!!!!

Shicagtown

Due to my somewhat busy night in Chicago last night, I was unfortunately unable to post on the blog until now. But I’m trying to keep up with it, as I type on the highway leading westward out of the greater Chicago area. So where do I start. We had a pretty quiet night in Cleveland, with a little bit of exploration and a little bit of dinner at a very empty bar. We saw the billboard where Lebron used to be (now covered by a Shermin Williams ad), saw the building where the Cavaliers play, and soaked up the ghost town that Cleveland is turning in to. Talking with locals in most of the areas that we’ve been in has really shown us the extent of the depression that’s sweeping this area especially. In the hotel in Cleveland, one of the employees told us that over the past year, 4,000 jobs were lost just in that specific district. It’s a real shame that will hopefully be alleviated somehow, whether it’s from the people, the Government, or possibly some sort of higher power? To finish my quick tangent here, I was a little bit dismayed by the election results from the homebase back in Maine. I felt everything went pretty well except for the Gubernatorial race. I feel Paul Lepage is the worst option that we had for Governor and hope that his term ends up being short and relatively uneventful. I thought Eliot Cutler was going to pull it off for a while there but it didn’t end up working out. I’m also very perplexed by the GOP taking back the House. Will and I have had many conversations about how it seems that America as a whole has never been satisfied with the job that the Government is doing so we just elect different parties every few years and hope they’ll be able to bring us change. The democrats couldn’t get it done the past few years so as a country, we’re evidently hoping that the republicans will be the trick. Who knows what will happen? It just seems that the more I look into it the more dismayed I become about the present and future of our country. Now that my sporadic rant is finished, I’ll continue onto our explorations of Cleveland. After breakfast, Will went straight onto the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I explored some other areas before joining him. I liked the Browns stadium, and I was very tempted by 50% off Brady Quinn and Braylon Edwards jerseys in the team store. I then moved on to the Hall, an experience that I admittedly wasn’t that psyched about. For the most part the outfits and memorabilia didn’t do anything for me, but the few movies that featured interviews and performances of the inductees were extremely powerful and educational. The greatest thing that I left Cleveland with was a true understanding of how Rock and Roll is more important as a concept, a large group rebelling against the expectations of society, Honestly, for the most part, I appreciate the beliefs of the movement more than I do the music. It was a good experience that was topped off with an easy drive to Chicago filled with more great music, highly philosophical conversations, and a lack of landmarks. We arrived in Chicago to overwhelming traffic, but after we found our way to Will’s friend, Eric’s place of work, we were able to get a tour of the Northwestern campus from him. Eric and Will were roommates as freshman at BU, but Eric transferred to Northwestern for his final three years and is still living in the area, one that he is very familiar with. We explored the campus, ate some ridiculously good deep dish pizza, and visited the fraternity that Eric was president of during his time at NU. It was a good night, capped off by the wonderful hospitality of Eric’s family. They welcomed us into their house with open arms, fed us, and sent us off with a good feeling about Russian hospitality. Today we traveled from the northern suburbs into the heart of the city, grabbed some lunch with Eric, and then hit the road again. We finally reached rt. 88 West, and as I sign off we are about 100 miles east of our destination, Davenport, Iowa. So keep checking in for more posts as we continue to make our way across this great land. So farewell from the Dekalb Oasis, Illinois at 4:20 pm Central Time.

I’d also like to throw a shout out for my boy Richie, happy 19th! Hopefully you had a great one!

Day 2: Home of Lebron

Boy, what a day. But it does feel good to have another temporary home for the night, a $99 Holiday Inn in downtown Cleveland that is surprisingly not filled with cockroaches. Our day started in Cooperstown, and a 3 hour visit in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Boy, what a place. If you have any interest in baseball, then it's definitely a trip that's worth making. To my disappointment, I couldn't absorb all of the information fast enough but the most important part is the atmosphere and mystique of being in such an historic place, surrounded by artifacts belonging to seemingly super-humans who have entertained us on the diamond for years. Cooperstown isn't just about the hall, a couple of amazing golf courses (circa about 1900) were also great visits and almost distracted us from the true reason for our trip. After dragging Will out of the plaque room, we embarked on our journey West, to Buffalo and then Cleveland. We obviously had to get Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, but first we took a slight detour north to Niagara Falls, a wonder of the world that was certainly worth the extra time. I've never been, and it certainly lived up to the reputation. The power of nature is stunningly beautiful, and we were both reminded of this during our short stop. But the road called to us, to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, the birthplace of the Buffalo Wing. This also lived up to the reputation, providing us with the greatest wings that we had ever tasted or could imagine tasting. The atmosphere was rustic, with license plates of numerous states covering the walls, and random motorcycles parked in the beams. After our dinner of ten wings each and plenty of ice water to cool them down, we returned to the highway en route to Cleveland. The sunset was one of the best I've ever seen over Lake Erie, rush hour traffic never seemed to happen, and the music treated us well on rt. 90 West. I certainly scored on the cheap hotel, and here we are, with the longest day of our trip behind us and the most leisurely days ahead of us, relaxing and ready to test Cleveland's nightlife. The plan for tomorrow is as follows: hit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, maybe try to find a casino to kill some time in, then head over to Chicago. It should be a relatively short 6 hour trip through the heart of the industrial belt to stay with one of Will's buddies. He is like a kid in a candy store every time we come anywhere close to a city, and now that we're approaching one of his favorites, his excitement can hardly be contained. So check in tomorrow night for another update, from another city, closer to Denver!

I apologize for the lack of photos, my camera connection to the computer has definitely not been working. I'll try to mass upload snapshots from the trip when I can. Sweet!