Dog Days

I have been training out in Park City, Utah for the last three weeks.  It has been a solid block and good cameraderie with the boys in the gym has made us stronger and made us long for the ski hill more than ever.  Midweek has looked a lot like this.

And the weekends have looked more like this.

We have a place right on the Jordanelle so we have been taking advantage of the nice weather and the location and TJ's boat to get out on the water and rest our muscles.  Last week we went on a hike, and we were trying to make it to the top of this.

Unfortunately there was no trail so most of our hike ended up looking like this.

We did find some cool stuff along the way like some snow

And some really green plants.

And some snow tunnels.

Fish forgot his water bottle, AGAIN, so he got some sustenance from the snow melt

After the week of training I took off for Jackson, Wyoming where my sister lives with her husband Trevor.  I showed up in town and we went to watch our buddy Jim in the rodeo.  He is a team roper and he killed it but unfortunately his partner did not. Better luck next time Jimmy!

We went up to the top of the tram and checked out some still skiable terrain off the backside.

Thanks to Jason Rolfe and his hair stylist for hooking us up with some tickets

Chelsea posing with the tram

And a Corbetts Couloir plank in honor of Anna Goody

Thanks to Chelsea and Trevor for another great weekend, We got in some fishing, tubing, biking, and touristing.  We finished it off with a ferris wheel ride at the carnival, I definitely missed Anna on that ride, ferris wheels just are not the same when you are the third wheel!

Heading to NZ on Tuesday, ready to get back to work!

Kings and Corn

Sometimes there are opportunities that appear out of nowhere.  A few weeks back I was on a bike trip with my ski team on the California coast and I got a phone call asking if I would have the dates free to be able to come up to Alaska and hit up the Kings and Corn at the Tordrillo Lodge with Tommy Moe and Daron Rahlves.  Suffice it to say that my calendar was quickly cleared and we made it happen!

This blog is just to share a few pictures from that 5 days we spent doing nothing but trying to find the nicest  corn snow left in Alaska and the biggest King Salmon that were still running.

The Lodge is about a half an hour float plane ride out of Anchorage

A warm greeting from the staff that chills out there for months at a time.

Our command post for 5 days

Our transportation, unbelievable to have the heli pad right outside the front door

Still a lot of snow up high in AK in July, even though this was a thin snow year

Chilling out on the glacier

Heli drop at the Talachulitna River, getting the raft blown up for a float

King a ling, oh yeah 

Daron, stoked!

Tommy showing off a pretty little Rainbow

This shot was taken at 12:30am , gives a good perspective on the light situation, the sun would go down for about 3 hours but it never got completely dark. Kinda missed seeing the stars.

One of my favorite shots, Tom Day leaning out of the heli over this little pool on the glacier, the white bottom made the water the coolest aqua blue color that I have ever seen.

That is all the evidence that I have for now but it was a great week.  We were filming all the action for a ski movie so hopefully they can capture the epicness of what they have going up there in AK!

Quick Winter

I have a bit to catch up on.  I had a short racing season this past winter due to a DH training wreck in Bormio, Italy on December 28th.  Luckily I walked away and can now say that I have a clean bill of health.

Although I did not return to racing I was able to enjoy the last couple months of winter with a ton of pow skiing and hanging out in the mountains with good friends.  A luxury that is not often afforded to the traveling ski racer.  A week in Jackson Hole, one in AK, a handful of days in Snowbird and a ton of ripping at home in Squaw Valley salvaged my winter.  Here a few pics from along the way.

A day after I was released from the hospital in Austria.  My face was a little mangled and my head pretty rattled.  

It took me two months to get cleared to ski again but when I got the go ahead I went directly to Jackson Hole to visit my sister and Trevor.  It snowed almost every night for a week.  

Trevor introduced me to Teton Pass, we would hike in the early AM and then ski the resort all day.  

Trevor, Chelsea and I enjoying  a blue Wyoming day.

This view never gets old

Early morning hike

More fun skiing 

from the top

Got to do some touring with a whole new Tahoe crew that I rarely see in the winter, this is Jack Wolf an old ski racing buddy.

Squaw during an amazing streak of skiing. 

Nate and I smiling after an afternoon of snow machining in AK

This is a shot from Arctic Man, can see the hoard of RVs in the enter of the shot out in the distance.

Looking forward to getting back to this.  

I am now in Mammoth with the rest of the US Downhill Team.  The conditions have been a lot of fun. We actually had a pow day on Thursday but since then the weather has mellowed out and we have accomplished a couple days of Super G training.  For me it is great to get back to work and feel the adrenaline that you get when you put a pair of race skis on your feet.

Hope that everyone is enjoying spring.  I am looking forward to a bit more skiing in Mammoth and then spending time with this lady.