More NanaNordic-ness

Final Exams are next week, so I won't have time for a NanaNordic write-up until after than. In the meantime, here's another video that sums it up pretty well. Keep in mind this was the coldest day we were there.

If you have 3D glasses, click the 3D button at the bottom to view in 3D, otherwise 1080 HD is best

Kobuk 440 Mass Start

Internet connectivity was spotty during my time with NanaNordic, and I'm still working on a full write-up. In the meantime, check out this video I took during one of our ski classes  Change the resolution to HD for best picture.

Yet Another Life Experience During School....

You might be wondering "Wow, why is Sam in Alaska right now? I thought he was going to school in Montana or something."

Well let me tell ya..

Don't worry, I'm still going to school and skiing at Montana State. Classes get out in May, but I found the time and generosity of my professors for one last adventure before summer break.

During my 24 hour layover in Anchorage, I got to go out and ski on this. Kincaid at it's finest.... In April

What I'm doing is called NanaNordic, which is a ski and biathlon coaching program promoting skiing as a lifestyle across Arctic Alaska. Over the course of a month, distinguished Alaskan and elite American ski and biathlon athletes will travel from village to village with 220 pairs of skis, boots, an poles and teach roughly 2000 villagers how to ski. There are 11 villages in all (Kotzebue, Kiana, Selawik, Shugnak, Ambler, Buckland, Noorvik, Deering, Noatak, Kivalina, and Kobuk), with myself and a few other coaches posted in Kotzebue, 996 miles Northwest of Anchorage. During this time, we will sleep in the local schools, eat with the kids in the school cafeteria, and enjoy being a temporary member of the community. It's a great cultural experience for both the visiting coaches and the local villagers, and after we're done, the program will donate the skis used throughout the month to the local schools for physical education classes.

Another pic from my Anchorage layover. I leave Alaska, and come back to a brand new biathlon building with an epic walk-in safe and new rifles. I can't wait to work here this summer

I've never been to the bush before, let alone above the Arctic Circle, so excited is an understatement. Not many Alaskans I know have been to the Arctic, and I'm excited to see the Bering Sea for the first time. For those that have been there, they claim it is the REAL Alaska, and it's finally my time to experience it.

I write this as I'm flying to Anchorage, and I must be really tired and hungry because the mountains of Montana from the air look like steak and the puffy clouds of Washington look like white chicken tenders.

So good to be back in my element. Liekish Loop April 7.
Stupid moose...

I don't know what my connectivity or availability for posting will be once I'm up there. No matter what, my adventure will make it onto this site in its entirety eventually, and with plenty of pictures.

Mammoth in Pictures Final Day

After helping out with the first three races of the day, it was finally our turn. As much as we all joked around as to the importance of this race, once you toe up to the line, there's only one thing on your mind: Win. We gave the spectators a good race, keeping it close until the end.

 

And thus began the hurt. This course was tough, but super fun.

 

Just like the good old days. Raleigh Goessling and I chasing down Casey Smith. We all shot well, I missing 1-1-1-3, and dropping from second to fourth on a dreadful last stage of shooting. I don't mind though. It was a beautiful day with fans all around. Life is good.

 

At first when people asked if I saw a bear on the trail, I thought they were making fun of my size. But then I saw this.

 

The elite crew at the end of an awesome biathlon weekend

Post-race cooldown. Couldn't get California Love out of my head. This is a good thing.

At least my skis made an appearance on the podium. Fourth place is no shame when it's behind these three. I've looked up to all these guys since my first year in national competition. I still don't know why Casey insisted on singing Katy Perry to the crowd from atop the podium....

After the race, it was time for the volunteer workforce to take down the range until next year. It's amazing what 30 people and a snowcat can accomplish. This puppy was gone and in storage in less than two hours. 

No caption needed

Loading up the range into the snowcat.

I can't even begin to thank everyone who made the Mammoth Winter Biathlon possible for all of us visiting biathletes. I had the most fun of my entire season in Mammoth. Not only did I get to share the sport with others, but I was able to gain perspective on what I really enjoy about biathlon and fall in love with it all over again. I woke every morning excited to be a part of this massive operation, and went to bed every night exhausted and happy from a day full of beautiful mountains, great people, and mutual love of athleticicm and friendly competition. Thank you to Mike Karch, without whom this beacon of biathlon potential would have never existed. It's my hope that other biathlon clubs in America will look at this event and the can-do attitude behind it and be inspired to reach a potential they never thought possible. Take it from me, what Mike Karch and Mammoth has done with a simple idea, elbow grease, and what seems like impossible obstacles is unparalleled at every level in this country. They have literally climbed a mountain and made their dream a reality on top of it.

I can't wait for next year.

Mammoth in Pictures Day II

DAY II:

A bright and early morning for another day on the mountain. Our lift tickets were activated, and we were first in line every day at 8:30. Getting to the range consisted of driving our cars to the shuttle bus, which drove us to the base of the mountain. From there, we hopped on a chairlift that took us to a waiting chartered snowcat that drove us to the venue. Again, props to the race organizers.

At the top of the chair lift. "Just put your skis in the rack and hop in." Yeah, no big deal or anything right?

And just when you thought this place couldn't get any cooler, a PistenBully BBQ truck parks in the penalty lap. Seriously the best tasting pulled pork burritos on the planet. Throughout the day, alpine skiers and mighty-mites on the mountain would cruise up and watch the races.



Another bluebird sky, and a full day of officiating at the range. Before our "Elite" race on Sunday, the group of us visiting athletes worked as range officals helping the shooters stay happy and safe for the 6 Saturday races and 3 Sunday races before our final race. Yeah, that's right. We had 6 races in a day. Hundreds of racers. We got a ton of sun again, an I finally wasn't the only one burned enough to be made fun of by the waitresses in the village at dinner. From R to L: Casey Smith, Myself, and our new awesome Californian/Russian homeboy Dmiytry Yegoshin



L to R: Myself, Katrina Howe, and Mark Johnson getting some much needed time off our feet between races. Chairs provided by the super awesome BBQ PistenBully.

Mike Karch, the most fearless man in biathlon I have ever met. This guy is single-handedly responsible for this entire week. Impossible is not in his vocabulary, and if you were to say "I want to build a temporary world-class biathlon range halfway up a California ski resort at 9000 feet and have the largest biathlon race in the nation and have it attended by everyone from first-timers to seasoned U.S. Teamers, and then take it all down and do it again every year forever with sponsor donations and an army of volunteers", most everyone would say it could never be done. Well here he is, 6 years of successful annual events later and walking the course with blue dye writing awesome Tour de France-esqe motivation on the corduroy. Thanks Mike. You're the bomb.

One of the most gratifying races of the day was the sit-ski division sponsored by the Wounded Warrior Project. These guys rocked the mountain.



After another long day on the mountain, we were pooped. Once the races were over, we remodeled the range from 25 meters to 50 meters for the masters races on Sunday, and then skied down the mountain into town for the local biathlon shop expo, some chow, and bed.



Mammoth in Pictures Day I

DAY I:

After the long climb to the range, this biathlon oasis emerged from the mountains.
Our home for the next 4 days



Helping coach at the morning live-fire clinic alongside local biathlon figures
Clayton Mendel and Britt Cogan. I have both Clayton and Britt to thank for
an excellent week in Mammoth
 

After a full day of on-snow clinics, it was time to head back into town to join my
teammates for the afternoon indoor laser-rifle biathlon classes. Hundreds of eager shooters
came out during the course of the day. You can see the sun is already getting the best of me.
 



It's so much fun to have all my biathlon friends and teammates in one place helping coach.
We got our Ball on between classes at the laser biathlon clinic.
We were exhausted after a full day of being serious, and crashed hard after a huge dinner in the village.
 





Sunburns and Crustskis

When the range is only available via chairlift and you don't have a lift ticket, you gotta climb. Day one of Mammoth Biathlon is in full swing. Look for a full writeup on the days events later, but for now, here's this:

Sam-eth the Mammoth

The Mammoth Winter Biathlon is advertised as the largest biathlon race in America, with hundreds of racers and spectators expected to congregate just east of Yosemite in Mammoth Lakes, California for a week of everything biathlon. The event is even televised by the American Trigger Sports Network, and is a stellar example of what good organization, generous sponsorship, and intense enthusiasm can accomplish for the sport of biathlon.

Every year, race organizers invite a handful of 'Elite Level' biathletes to increase depth and exposure of the event. Psshhht, how could I pass up a weekend of springtime biathlon in California?

And thus began my post-spring break vacation....

What's up Double G??!!?? San Fran layoverness

Traveling for biathlon is tricky, but there are some benefits of living in a place like Montana, where it takes 10 minutes from curbside to airgate and they look at you funny if you don't check a firearm. Even though the plane's ceiling was only shoulder height, United Airlines is still earning my future patronage. They reseated me for free to a spacious exit row when I kept hitting my head on the overhead compartments while trying to wedge myself into seat 9D. Heck yes I'll assist crew members in the unlikely event of an emergency if it means I can move my legs until then.

It feels weird to be in California on a random Thursday in the middle of second semester,
but my professors were accommodating enough to allow for this extended weekend.

The primary purpose for Mammoth is to work as an ambassador of higher-level biathlon to this large Nordic community. For the first few days, my teammates and I will help run shooting and competition clinics on the specially built live fire range as well as instruct indoor curriculum on laser rifle systems. The week will culminate in a biathlon race for all clinic participants (again, "the largest race in America"), followed by an exposition race for all of us visiting 'Elite' athletes and instructors. It will be great to reunite with my teammates that have spent the season racing in Europe, and very interesting to race them at almost 10000 feet. It's been a few years since I've raced at such an extreme elevation, but I've had the beat races of my career in this environment.

These guys in Mammoth build a 20-point range every year in less
than 4 days. Pretty sweet.

I'm very excited to get back to coaching biathlon, something I thoroughly enjoy and have missed doing. I'm using this short break from school to regain some perspective on the sport, have a little fun with some close biathlon friends, and soundtrack it all to my killer classic rock playlist.

For more info on the event and bios of the visiting elite biathletes (including me) click HERE

More posts to come...

Payoff

This is What's Going On Right Now:

#1 - I'm back in shape and feeling faster than ever...

First thing I did when I got off the plane: got back in shape

#2 - The skiing in Montana has been like this for months now.....

The moment things start to melt, it snows another 4 inches.
A little like heaven on skis.

#3 - I've had some successes in some local races recently.....

Junior National Qualifier races with my personal wax technician Kyle

#4 - 30 hikes down in my "100 Bozeman Area Hikes" Book .....

Marking off three more of the "100 Hikes around Bozeman"
At this rate I'll be done with them all by next year

#5 - I've had a ton of fun training with the team.....

Distance skis in the dumping snow at Big Sky

#6 - After 23 months of training harder than ever for this exact moment, I leave for Soldier Hollow tomorrow for my first races on the NCAA collegiate circuit as a member of the Montana State Travel Team.

Everything is finally starting to pay off.
And the snow is everywhere. Still.

As far as I'm concerned I've made it.

Rite of Spring

“By the time he put the finishing touches on the Rite of Spring in November of 1912 in the Châtelard Hotel in Clarens, Switzerland, Stravinsky had spent three years studying Russian pagan rituals, Lithuanian folk songs and crafting the dissonant sacre chord, in which an F-flat major combines with an E-flat major with added minor seventh. The rehearsal process wasn’t easy either. Stravinsky fired the German pianist and the orchestra and performers only had a few opportunities to practice at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where the Rite debuted in May 1913. But the Russian born composer pulled it off, and his composition now stands as a 20^th century masterpiece.”

-Samuel McNerney, Correcting Creativity: The Struggle for Eminence

Everyone says that Bozeman is a fun town, and I realized that I really haven't done too much in the city as a simple citizen. With all of the recent news of what happens in sports when an athlete wants something too badly, I took it as a sign that I'm training as hard as possible, and what will happen will happen, so why not have a little more fun when I'm not in class or on the corduroy? Biathlon isn't going anywhere, and neither is my work ethic towards it, and I have plenty of time to become a champion. Afterall, only so much stress can melt into the snow before it turns to water, and spring semester is supposed to be all about having fun.

So that's how I found myself at Wild Joes Coffee Spot on a Wednesday evening with a ukulele in my hand and no idea what I was doing. I had arrived early in order to survey the situation, and started to warm up on my own in a lone corner. All of a sudden, sweet soprano twangs began to fill the house with tropical vibes. Looking up, a flash mob of hipsters, old folks, and everyone in between were pulling out ukuleles from their packs and purses and proceeding to jam together. This was the Bozeman Ukulele Cabaret, a somewhat underground musical community in Montana where the only rule is to not take oneself too seriously.

Over the past few years I've trained myself on the ukulele to what I thought was a fairly elite level, but alas this past Wednesday I met men whose prowess of the ukulele was only surpassed by their collective level of kook. These guys had commissioned Gibson luthiers to hand-make their “axe” (their term not mine), and could solo like a Hawaiian Jimmy Page. After getting over my initial shock of this funny collection of people, I spent the next two hours belting out Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and Neil Young until my fingers blistered and my voice was hoarse. It was the first time I had an audience, and it was definitely a departure from my usual college routine, but it was fun knowing that it's impossible to mess up on the ukulele. All this jamming culminates at the “Lovers and Martyrs” open mic on Valentines Day, and I've already started putting together a setlist. Beware Bozeman, beware...

So when someone asks what I'm doing instead of going to World Juniors for biathlon, they can say something like “well he's still racing for Montana State I think, and he's joined this ukulele club and rarely updates his blog.... other than that I think he's just kind of being spontanaeous”

I am so ok with this.

Faring Well

First World "Problems"

I went to northern Minnesota this past month for the World Junior Biathlon Trials, a race series I have always performed successfully at for the past few years, and which have qualified me for multiple international campaigns with the U.S. Junior Team. I've made many changes to my racing and training regimens this year, and went into the Minnesota competitions a little confused. Of the three races, I was only content with the Pursuit Competition, where I was able to shake off my seventh place of the day before and squeeze into second place with some more Sam-esque skiing and shooting. Needless to say I did not qualify for the U.S. Team this year.

Thumbs up for a good time in Minnesota, Thumbs down for my results.
It's times like these where I remember that I love biathlon for the entire experience,
not just for how well I do.

But instead of being disappointed, I feel a little relieved. My focus this season has been towards my nordic ability and the MSU Ski Team, as well as managing my fellow athletes through Biathlon Elite. The added stresses of missing schoolwork for international competition almost broke me last year, and this year I now have the time to continue to get faster and be ready when I'm called upon to compete in NCAA races. I'm going to continue to do what makes me happy and fix the things that don't, but in Bozeman instead of Austria.

My lone podium for the week. I'm happy to say my not qualifying wasn't a fluke,
but rather because the competition amongst juniors has elevated to an impressive level.

Minnesota gave me a much-needed amount of perspective. I've sang in the Davies Symphony Hall, I've performed beside my best friend in the Sydney Opera House. I rode a townie to school every morning on exchange in Germany, and heard Wagner in the Theater in the Round. I've been to places in the United States that only a biathlete could pin on a map. I've raced in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, and been to most every biathlon range in the United States. I've driven from Alaska to the States with my brother, and have run up as many mountains as possible along the way. I've gotten lost and found in wildernesses across the country, and have been snowed, rained, hailed, and thundered upon during my thousands of hours in the outdoors. I'm getting a college education. I've done what I have loved since I was born.

This is Minnesota. Lakes and pop-up fishing villages. Love it.

So am I disappointed that I'm not racing in Europe this year? No. Good athletes have bad races, and I've seen and done a lot already in my life. For now I'm happy and content with training hard, getting better, and reemerging onto the radar when it really counts and when I am absolutely prepared.

Finally, I have to thank those who made my biathlon races and travels possible this year. Thank you to the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage, Alaska Biathlon, and the Alaska NRA for your continued interest and support of me. Thank you to Marc Sheppard and Altius for your coaching and support of me and Biathlon Elite. Thank You Methow Valley Biathlon for taking me under your wing at Trials. And thank you of course to my parents. I am extremely grateful for your belief and support.

Home Sweet Home

Since my last post, the final weeks of fall semester has come and past, and I have made my way back to Anchorage. It feels awesome to be home. Plain and Simple. 

Zeroing for the Sprint Competition at the North American Cup this past week. Photo Jehle Family

This past week, I travelled to West Yellowstone with the Biathlon Elite team for the first North American Cup races of the season. It had been a while since I had raced biathlon (due to early-season race cancellations and my focus and commitment to the Montana State Ski Team) but I seemed to still have my touch, and shot well enough to win the Sprint and place second in the next days' Pursuit race. While the racing field in biathlon is considerably smaller than any nordic race, the competition was fierce enough to still feel incredibly satisfied with those results. The temperatures never got above zero degrees while we were in West Yellowstone, and hopefully I wont have to shoot in -11F again this year. It was a good race series for Biathlon Elite as well, showing that what was only a pipe-dream of an idea in my head last May is turning into one of the most powerful private biathlon forces in the nation. Biathlon Elite picked up a new sponsor this month, Hammer Nutrition, which will function as our fueling and supplement suppliers as well as our nutrition advisors for this next year.

Myself and Casey Smith after the Sprint. After such a disappointing SuperTour Series
the week before, this win felt good.

Spending the weekend before finals out of town and racing is super fun, but makes for a finals week of sleepless nights and a new interpretation of what an "acceptable" source to cite might be. I couldn't get out too much to train due to finals, so now that I'm home on familiar trails I'm skiing like a bat out of hell. Yesterday Andrew and I raced the Team Sprint together, and I had a great time losing the leads he would make for me each lap around.

 

Team Sprinting with the bro. First exchange. We were winning!

 And now I am enjoying skiing everyday in paradise. Today was cold (-16F) but my camera was still able to capture this gem. 

 

In the negative teen temps, but I couldn't care less. I'm home and doing what I love.

SuperDuperTours

With the race season finally in full swing, it’s back to training during the week and racing every weekend. A quick recap of this past week’s SuperTour in Bozeman:

Bohart Ranch did a great job of making what snow they had last the pummeling of hundreds of skiers. I did fairly well in the skate sprint, but lost composure in the heats. Sunday was the classic distance, and it was the poorest, most confusing performance of my career. Look for me at the bottom of the results… I’m still grasping what actually happened, but no one that far down on the results list should be wearing blue and gold. I never gave up though, went my hardest the whole way, and finished. Again, heart isn’t enough at this level, especially against the best in the nation.

Happier post coming soon.

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 5^th 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. 

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