Chile Camp

For the past two weeks I have been in La Parva, Chile. I was extremely excited to get on snow but wasn't sure how my previously injured back would react to skiing.

At first the pain was terrible. I could barely make a right footed turn with pain streaking down my back and right leg. For about a week I was really struggling to get some good training. After about 8 days of playing around with different stretches, exercises, and massages, my physical therapist finally found something that helped. All my pain was in the lower back, so at first (obviously) we paid all of our attention to the lower L4-L5 vertebra, and the muscles around the lower spine. When that wasn't working we moved up to the L2, and surprisingly, the tense-knotted muscles in the mid-upper back were causing all the problems.

After making headway, I had a very successful Chile camp and got some GS, SG, and DH training. Oh, and we got a sweet powder day, which I have some footage of. For now, here is a time lapse of a Chilean sunset with my GoPro.

August

This past month of August has had its up and downs. It started great with a productive on snow camp in Hood where we had 3 SL days and 3GS days. After the Hood camp I took a 3 day road trip around the Oregon Coast to go surfing and camping in the Tillamook Forest.

After that it was back to the gym for a 5 week fitness block. In week 2, my minor back problems took a turn for the worse. On one of our heavy lifting days I felt my back give in on a power clean, and all of a sudden it was a struggle to walk and even sitting down was uncomfortable. I saw a back specialist the next week to get some x-rays and an MRI. The doctor diagnosed me with 2 inflamed discs in my L4-L5 and L5-S1, and they found an old micro fracture in the lower spine as well.

Over the past 3 and a half weeks I have been getting Physical Therapy every day, and strengthening my core muscles to support my back. Surprisingly (to me too) my back feels great now and I am ready to get back on snow. I just arrived in Chile, and will be skiing tomorrow! This training camp is mostly Downhill and SG. Luckily the speed events are easier on the back then technical events.

Out on the lake with my friend and teammate Sam Dupratt

Hopefully in about a week I will have a video of full length DH on here. Maybe even a couple POV shots with my new GoPro!

Rope Swing!

Here is a video of me and a few friends hitting a rope swing in Oakley, Utah. GoPro hooked us up with  a few GoPros for a couple days and here is what we came up with. There is a few shots of our party barge in there too. Also, make sure you watch in HD... makes it way better. This is the first video of many to come! Enjoy. 

Summer Fun and Summer Snow

I posted my last blog at US national championships. I had hopes of going into the national event fully healed from my ankle injury, but unfortunately I could only race at 75%. My season then ended short. I headed back to Park City to get it checked out and get some physical therapy done on it. I got it healthy enough to get back on snow for the US Ski Team tryout camp in May at Mammoth Mt. California. I performed well enough there to get a promoted to the ‘C Team’.

As a member of the C Team, I am now required to live in Park City for the summer. Although we have been working out from 9AM to 3PM 6 days a week, my teammates and I have found some time for some fun. So far we have set some time aside for some rope swinging, wakeboarding, waterskiing, skateboarding, volleyball, mountain biking, and our big summer project so far… building a boat! Here are some pictures of our building process. 

 

After we finally got the boat together on land, we tossed it up onto my friend's truck the next day to get it on the water. It actually stayed floating way better than any of us thought it would. We got some carpet for the floor, a mini basketball hoop, 2 grills, and 22 people all on the boat before it started to sink. We got it out to a lake in Oakley, Utah that had a rope swing, and where we camped out for the night. 

It has been quite the summer so far between fitness and fun, but I am looking forward to getting back on snow this week at Mt Hood. Coming soon to my blog will be a video of some summer activities so far. For the end of the summer and all of next ski season, I will be traveling with a GoPro, provided by Wachusett Mountain. Hopefully I will be able to capture more skiing and other fun with the GoPro, and share my crazy lifestyle with you guys!

Nor-Am Finals and US Nationals

Nor-Am Finals Started 2 weeks ago in Nakiska, Alberta. The series kicked off with a Super-G in which I faired pretty well in. With a more-stacked Nor-Am field than normal, I was happy with my 13th place finish. The next day was Super-Combined, which at the time I was excited for. I started bib number 42, and had a mistake mid-way down the course and ended up 33rd after the Super-G portion. In the slalom, I straddled near the bottom of the course and completely twisted my ankle up the hill (on the ankle that has recently been operated on). Right when it happened I knew it wasn't going to feel great when I took it out of my boot. After I had a doctor look at it, and a long session of physical therapy, it was clear that it was not 100%. I made the decision of fighting through the pain the next 2 days strictly for Nor-Am Cup points (to stay in the top 15 seed for GS next year). I did just about as well as I could do in the GS's with a bum ankle, and it might pay off for the beginning of next year. With how much the ankle hurt, I decided to not race in the slaloms and save it for nationals.

GS at US Nationals (with the Pro-Am to the right)

Next up was US Nationals in Squaw Valley, California. The first race was GS, and I was confident that the ankle was ready to go with the 4 days of rest prior. Warming up on race day, I could feel the ankle not responding as precisely as normal, but good enough to race. In the start gate, I was trying to focus on my skiing and get my mind off the ankle, but, halfway down the course it gave up on me once again. Without being 100%, there was no chance of me even having a shot at a national title, and with that, my US Nationals was over. I was somewhat disappointed with how my Nor-Am Season and US Nationals ended, but injuries happen and you have to deal with them as best as possible. Squaw Valley put on an incredible show, and I am excited for nationals to return there next year! I have been doing physical therapy for the past week getting my ankle back up to speed to race in Mammoth Spring series.

Super nice day on Lake Tahoe!

World Junior Championships

This past week I competed in the Junior World Championships. When I was named to the WJC team 2 weeks ago, I was thrilled and excited to race in such a big event. I knew there were going to be some outstanding skiers that I was going up against, and I knew I was going to have to throw down solid runs to compete with them. What I did not know was how much fun it it was going to be. In the back of my mind, for some reason, I thought the Europeans were way different from the Americans. When I was over in Europe earlier this year, I saw how serious they take skiing racing over there. I never really made an attempt to meet them though. This past week, I made it a goal to talk and mingle with the skiers from other countries…they are incredibly cool, and have just as much fun as we do traveling the world and doing what we love most—ski racing.

Although I did not have any super crazy results in Quebec, Canada, I managed to get 15th in the Super-G at Le Massif. It was an amazing week racing with thebest ski racers in the world under the age of 21, and a great experience to have in preparation for next year’s WJCs in Slovakia!

I just had a good week of training in Vermont, and now I am in Calgary/ Nakiska for Nor-Am Finals followed by a trip to California to race in US Nationals at Squaw Valley.

Breakthrough!

So, a lot has happened in the past 2 weeks. In Kirchberg Austria, I started my first ever European Cup! It was my first race on the new radius GS ski (35 Meters instead of 27 meters). I started 86, and moved up quite a bit at the first split but mistake after mistake at the bottom eventually caught up to me and I had to ski out. It was a great experience and I look forward to more Europa Cup starts next year.

Next up was Vail, CO back on the Nor-Am circuit. The first day we got there, we were welcomed by 2 feet of fresh snow. The first day was GS and I had a start number of 52. My goal was to have a good enough first run to get me into the flip 30 to for a good start number for 2^nd run, and then to send it as hard as I could. After first run I ended up 8^th. I was in utter shock when I saw my first run rank on the scoreboard. My goal for second run all of a sudden was to not blow it! When I was getting ready for second run I was thinking to myself, “just ski clean and solid.” I did just that. With no big mistakes second run, I came down in first place, which ended up holding all the way until the last 2 guys went—one being my teammate Kieffer, who won. I ended the day in third place, which was a huge improvement on my previous best GS Nor-Am finish of 22^nd.

The Next day I was able to start in the first seed and had another good first run, finishing 9^th. My goal for second run was to just do the same thing as the day before. I was having a great run until a couple mistakes at the bottom. I dropped to 21^st on the day, which became my second best GS finish ever.  I ended the Vail series with 2 Slalom DNFs.

Next was speed week at Apex, British Columbia. It was my first time to Apex, and I didn’t really know what to expect. With a combination of wind and snow, the race schedules were pushed around a bunch, but we were able to get all the races off by the end of the week. I ended the week with a 7^th in DH, an 8^th in SG (both being career best results) and a 14^th in DH.

Next up is World Junior Championships in Quebec, where I will be competing in all 4 events!