Are You Living It?

We had the Kreischburg, Austria World Cups last week.  I placed 19th in the GS which is my best GS result this season in the World Cup.  The snow was really good and the course was fun.  It had lots of terrain, with rollers, flats and a steep pitch to finish.  The next day was a night slalom but unfortunately I went out on the third gate in the first run and my day was over.  A bit frustrating but it happens sometimes and I try not let it get to me too much.  The silver lining, however, was my qualification for World Championships in Korea.  Myself, Tyler Jewell, Adam Smith and Chris Klug qualified for the men’s team and Michelle Gorgone, Erica Mueller, Lindsey Lloyd and Andi Jo Stump on the women’s side.

We just wrapped up a great week of training in Heiligenblut, Austria.  The weather was perfect and the snow was the best we’ve had all year.  Heiligenblut means “Holy Blood” in German and rumor has it the local church has a vile of Jesus’ blood somewhere inside it.  Heiligenblut also happens to be the hometown of our wax technician, Christian Schmidl and the home of the highest peak in Austria, the Grossglockner.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog but I’ve been in Italy for the past two weeks and the small towns in Italy are not really known for their internet access. Anyway, we arrived on the third of December into Munich and drove to Sulden. Sulden is a beautiful place and is home to a group of very high mountains knows as the Ortler. I also believe this is Reinhold Messner’s hometown. My training got off to a rough start as I didn’t receive my bags until the following evening and when I did, I discovered that my G.S. boards had been destroyed by United. However, I was able to capitalize on the great powder that Italy’s been getting over the past couple of weeks. I haven’t seen this much snow in Europe in the seven years I’ve been coming here.

I’m sitting on the couch watching some Monday night football and relaxing after my first day of training at the US Ski and Snowboard Team’s training center in Park City.  I packed up and made the “beautiful” 11 hour drive yesterday from Mt. Shasta.  For those of you who have never been on the stretch of I-80 from Reno to Salt Lake City I can only compare it to driving on the moon.  It’s a desolate landscape accented by white salt flats and the occasional truck stop/casino.  I will head to Steamboat Springs on Friday for Halloween (my favorite holiday) with my friends and teammates Justin Reiter and Erica Muller.  After a proper celebration we will head back to Park City for our annual fall physical testing camp with the U.S. Snowboard Team.