Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Week in Review

It’s that time of year where families around the country look longingly at the empty chair across the Thanksgiving dinner table and curse the gods as to why their cross-country skier of the family must be absent from such an occasion. For every Thanksgiving, skiers everywhere make the pilgrimage to the season opener races in West Yellowstone, Montana.

Over the summer, West Yellowstone is a vibrant tourist trap on the north-western fringes of Yellowstone National Park, known for its budget T-shirt shops and sales tax. In the winter however, the town almost shuts down completely, with main street boarded up for the season and only the occasional snow-machines and service vehicles for traffic. During this one week in November, West Yellowstone belongs to the Nordic skiers.
The trailhead. Spirited and busy
This was my third such pilgrimage to West for the Thanksgiving SuperTours, and my first as an official roster member of the Montana State Ski Team. These races hold a special significance this year for me because while I am officially on the MSU team, only 5 out of the current 8 males are permitted to make the travelling NCAA team for the rest of the season.
Day I in West Yellowstone. The view from our room
To make matters complicated, we arrived on Monday to 37 degrees and rain. Soon after it was determined that there was not sufficient snowfall to hold the races in West Yellowstone, and the venue was moved to the ‘South Plateau,’ which is a 30 minute drive on a single-lane forest service road and about 1000 feet higher in elevation from the original venue. Despite the hassle to get to snow every morning and evening to ski, the trails were excellent and spirits were high among the team and the hundreds of other skiers forced to share a single trail with each other. The only downside to the week was that the biathlon race I was to race in was cancelled.
Skiing in the rain with Andrew. Good times.
My brother Andrew was in West this year for the races, and it was great to get out and put some quality skiing in with him. The first race was Friday, and the course was a point-to-point hill-climb style race on a closed trail, which meant no spectators or support staff. I liked the idea of no one on the trail but myself and my ski ability. The course was fast glazed snow and I was able to send it. After deliberating with my brother about strategy and how I would best go about hauling my 200 pound self along an uphill course for 10 kilometers, I was confident and smart about my racing the whole way through. I took a nasty crash into the woods on the ONLY technical turn in the race, but got up as fast as I could and skied even more ferociously after that.

Although it was my best effort and I shaved off minutes compared to my time trial earlier in the week on the same course, I came up short of the ‘top-5’ cutoff for the MSU travelling team. It’s always been a dream of mine to toe up to the line against my brother in a college race, and I still have two more races next week to prove myself worthy of that experience before they make the official team selection. I am confident I can improve.

Andrew did incredibly well, placing 5th overall, which gives him a great chance of making the U.S. World Cup team in Canmore, Alberta. I’m incredibly proud. We celebrated with pizza.
The booth at the Expo
There was plenty more than ski racing going on at the Ski Festival, including the annual Ski Expo, most known for the ski-brand booths displaying their latest technology and the triumphant teenagers with armfuls of stickers and other miscellaneous swag that would trample a small child in order to be the first person to get a Madschus poster. I would most closely relate it to the ski-equivalent of Black Friday. Biathlon Elite co-hosted a booth at the expo with Altius Firearms, and I got to meet a lot of prospective biathletes and sponsors. It was great publicity, and I have to thank Altius and Jack Hart of Swix/Patagonia for making the booth possible for us.
Climbing to the end of the Plateau
On our last day in West, the team went on a distance ski to the end of the grooming on the Plateau. We climbed and climbed, and the higher we went the better the skiing became. I was in heaven, and once we reached the end of the trail, we overlooked the westernmost part of Montana into Idaho and Wyoming. There were spooky charred trees from a recent forest fire poking out of the snow, and everything was black and white. It was one of the most amazing skis I’ve had in a long while.
The end of the trail. Overlooking three states
And now I’m back in student-mode in Bozeman, eagerly awaiting the next weekend of skiing and ski-racing. Cheers. 

Friday, November 9, 2012

下雪 is Chinese for THERE'S SNOW ON THE GROUND!!

"Winter is not a season, it's an occupation." -Sinclair Lewis



Stoke factor is high today with the first skiable snow in town. With the West Yellowstone Ski Festival right around the corner, it feels great to be in great physical condition.

In other news, I would like to thank The Physical Therapy Place LLC. for being my latest biathlon sponsor for this season! It is through community support like The Physical Therapy Place that I am able to continue my pursuit of Olympic excellence. Look for their logo on my rifle this year! The Physical Therapy Place is a locally owned private practice in Anchorage, Alaska founded in 2000 with a vision to provide the highest quality treatment for a wide variety of conditions within a caring, patient focused environment.

Here are some more pictures from today's ski...........

I got to snow-test my new Rossi  technology. Sammy likes.
Lindley Park was very scenic. At 10am it felt like evening