Charles don’t park your car in Breckenridge
I was cleaning out my carry-on bag – which only happens a couple times a year – and I find all sorts of random/exciting things like:
The main compartment…
One of the front pockets…
- Lots of Headbands
- Maui Jim and Dicks Cottons Sunglasses
- Extra Todi shoes
- Booster Strap
- X Games Credential
- Various medicine Volaren Gel (I this is yours, Jon), Brufen, Ibuprofen, Paracetamol, Celebrex, Ambien (for international flights), Biofreeze, Arnica, Vitamin C, Fish Oil, Adrenal Supplements, Sunblock, and Superglue.
- Wires
- Extra pair of Todi Shoes
- Soxs
- Chargers
- Soap
- Hans Olsson‘s iphone – i think i owe you 80 euros for that one haha
- A couple To Do lists
- Tons of random coins
- Car Keys – not yours Charles – I wish I had some good news for you!
- A parking ticket
One thing about Charles is that he always fits everything in – every race, training, class – you name it and he makes it happen. I am genuinely impressed that Charles was able to get a parking ticket in Breckenridge, Colorado when he were traveling around Europe. This globetrotter brings everything to new levels – you’re killing it, buddy.
Looks like you can’t park in Lot F at night.
Here are some instruction. My favorite is the “pay within 10 days!” You really should have gotten on that one. So if you get a boot on your tire or if you car is towed in Breck you’ll know why.
I still don’t understand why it was in my carry-on. Any thoughts??
I was trying to figure out what I was doing on the night of January 15, 2011. I might have been visiting a couple friends at a bachelorette party… in Breck. haha love ya buddy!
Welcome home from Bulgaria!!
Cody Marshall Wins Nor-Am Slalom
Vail, CO – Cody Marshall is a great friend and a phenomenal skier. I was lucky enough to be his coach as he foreran the Men’s and Women’s slaloms at the MacDermid Nor-Am races in Vail, Colorado.
Cody and I have a long history of racing together, rooming together, and sometimes even hating each other after really long Europe trips. But more than anything else, just being good friends. Two years ago at Eastern Cup Finals in Killington – near Cody’s home of Pittsfield, VT – Cody came up on the hill for two miserably, rainy days to coach me. After first run, I think I was in 8th, he proceeded to completely rip me apart and the rest of the field for sucking sooo hard. He had been on snow a handful of times, but wasn’t ready to train or race yet. Literally he spent 5 minutes tearing me apart for not dropping my knees in hard enough and skiing like an 8 year old. To say he was disappointed would be a massive understatement. I looked at him and couldn’t really believe what he was saying. I hadn’t put on a pair of slalom skis in months and was just up there having fun; but after embracing his fury, I realized he was totally right. I sucked and the field wasn’t killing it as I wasn’t all that far off. With his inspiration, I won second run moved up to third and was happy to thank him at the end of the day. We were both pretty psyched.
The reason Cody isn’t racing now is because two and a half years ago he fell about 30 feet on to his head from a hand railing. “He was in the hospital for seven weeks after sustaining a traumatic brain injury on July 15 2009. A subdural hematoma, fractured skull, brain surgery, a coma, seizures, seven fractured ribs, a splenectomy, and blood clots are a list of some of the more serious problems he had while in the hospital. Cody had to learn how to breathe, talk, walk, and swallow all over again. It was two weeks after he awoke from my coma before he learned that I wasn’t in a “hotel in Canada.” – From the homepage of his website.
Cody and I have always had a way of firing each other up when one of us is too hurt to race, we focus all our energy on energizing the other one. After first run in San Candido, Italy, I blew out and Cody was in second. The rest of the Europa Cup Team left Europe so it was just the two of us racing for the ski team. I blew out and was in the finish second run. There was a decent pitch on the bottom and I could see everything that really mattered in the course from the my vantage point. I jumped on the radio a few before he went to explain, “The course has a solid grove, the snow is a little soft, it’s really important to work that groove, set up one turn on the pitch coming into the first hairpin and everything was totally money. You got this. You’re going to crush it!!” Cody came over the roll ripping, nailed the hairpin, and won the race by over a second.
When Cody decided to come to Vail to forerun for two days, I was overjoyed to be his coach. The ski team coaches totally support him and want the best for him. However, their legal/medical team thinks he is too much of a liability so they refuse to clear him to ski, which means he can’t train, be coached, or race for the ski team. It’s classic ski team administrative bullshit. Even though he passed the ski team impact test and his doctors – that have worked with him throughout the last two years – cleared him to train and race over a year ago.
When you ask Cody about his future ski racing, he’s not really sure what he wants to do. Money is tight, he’s doing some coaching, and he’s not sure he has what it takes to be a competitive World Cupers. When he first saw the extremely high level of skiing at the MacDermid Nor Am Cup races here, he didn’t even see how skiing at that level was even possible again, which is understanding. The level is so high right now. It was great to see a bunch of friends and young guns absolutely killing it at Vail. It’s been almost three years since he scored World Cup points in Slalom, but he was back in the gate and everyone was psyched to see it. I was in the finish talking to Canadian Olympian Trevor White and he kindly said, “I was on the lift and immediately recognized Cody forerunning. It’s great to see his distinct style back in the gate. He was dropping his inside shoulder a little, but it’s just great to see him here.” That was the sentiment from coaches, athletes, and the rest. It’s great to see Cody back in the gate.
Chelsea, me, Tucker, and Cody Marshall. An epic family shot! Too bad I’m in it haha.
Megan and Cody… so cute.
The first day of forerunning, Cody made some strides. It’s was great to see, but the second day I came down on him. He was definitely sucking for a World Cup slalom skier. He was killing it for someone that sustained an injury as serious as he did. It’s amazing that he’s back on his skis; but let’s be serious, Cody wants more than just being able to get around a couple gates. At this point, he had completed 6 of the total 8 runs of forerunning (in two days) and the top of his turn was just too damn soft. He wasn’t committing to his ski the way he used to, he wasn’t bringing confident intensity to the front of his boot that immediately transfers to the tip of his skis, which creates – the one thing that matters in the sport – raw speed. When he was over his skis and committed it was good, but not great. He was missing the snap out of his skis.
I told him about the soft top of the turn and then told him it was time to get fired up! I told him I was going to be at the start to fire him up and I’d do whatever it takes to get him going. “I can’t wait to start punching you up there!” I said not unkindly. He immediately said that’s not what he wanted. He needed more miles and I completely disagreed. He needed some intensity.
Before his next run, he admitted I was right. He needed some fire. We started doing a punching sequence. Where I was the trainer and he was the boxer. Jab, jab, cross, upercut. Jab, jab, cross, uppercut. He was starting to get fired up. I was psyched. I told him, “I’d be overjoyed if he brought intensity to 5 turns and blewout of the course.” We all wanted to see him snap off some nasty turn. He went out of the gate with good intensity and had it for a few gates. I was overjoyed. On the lower section he broke a couple gates and then cruised to the finish. He was ready.
Us at the start!!
There was one final run left. It had been two long days, but he was fired up. We went back to the old jab, jab, cross, uppercut again and again. He said with a smile, “It’s a lot easier to not feel like a piece of shit, when you don’t ski like a piece of shit the whole way down.” I had to write this one down on the spot because it was just too damn funny. With both of us laughing we were psyched. I once again explained how he should arc and hammer as hard as he can. Who cares if he blows out after a couple gates. Demo, an ex-ski team service man, clipped him into his skis and it was game time! I slid down to watch and the old Cody Marshall exploded out of the gate. He snapped of 5 nasty turns and was going far faster than he had in years. He was bringing all of his intensity into the front of his boot. He got a bit late and his intensity was still at an all time high, but wasn’t quite as good. Who cares? I was overjoyed to see him make a few turns that were at the same level as some of the top skiers in the world. Cody was racing again!
I don’t know where his professional ski racing future is headed – it is still a long road – but I do know this is exactly what he needs right now. He needs to know for himself that he can compete at a high level again. Much like the Ah Hah moment Dane Spencer had three years after his serious injury when Dane won the second run of a Europa Cup GS by over a second in Meribel, France he knew he was back in the game. After that season, he moved on to coaching, but it was so impressive and inspirational to watch and see Dane prove he had it.
In the finish Cody explained, “That was the first time I was looking for speed since I got hurt. I just need to remember to bring that kind of intensity everyday I ski.” The smile on his face and twinkle in his eye made it clear Cody’s desire to be competitive is still strong.
Oh and by the way, Cody won the women’s race the first day! Booyeah!
Here are some shots of him and us along the way.
Deserved Success at Howard Head
Vail, Colorado – Bob Goddard, one of my favorite fellow rehabbers, was in dire need of a coach so I jumped at the opportunity. Bob – at the tender age of 57 – is battling serious nerve damage to his hips due originally to a mountaineering accident 18 months ago. Since his accident, he has undergone surgery on bi-lateral sports hernias and bi-lateral labral tears. Since October and his first labral surgery, he has seen huge improvements. Only 5 months ago, one of his doctor told him he needed to completely limit his walking to only exercise in a pool. After hearing that in Atlanta, Georgia, he uprooted his life as a real estate executive to completely focus all of his effort on recovering in Vail, Colorado at Howard Head. Bob needed a coach/secretary for his interval spin workout so I was psyched to give this sarcastic, kind, and gentle friend a little beat down. Bob is pretty awesome. It’s not just his endless generosity, smile, or classic entertaining banter so visible on the surface; it’s his observant, perceptive competitiveness that fires us up.
Mike getting Bob ready for me.
There are a number of people at Howard Head with similar stories of uprooting their lives to make sure their rehab is most effective. After spending a couple days here, it is clear Howard Head is not your average physical therapy center where you’re given a few exercises, pushed out the back door, with regular work hours. Howard Head is open 12 hours a day everyday. Bob and I are among the luckiest ones to have Mike Wahoff as our peerless lead therapist. Mike like almost everyone at Howard Head is pretty kickass. He’s constantly seeing as many patients as possible and completely willing to help and educate anyone with a keen eye. I owe much of my rehab success to Mike and so does Bob. But it is Mike that has created a unique social support team for fellow rehabbers to unite, persevere, and conquer. It’s his unwavering commitment that makes all of us work together to help each other persevere our former glory. I have to say it’s a lot easier to be battling along side comrades as the rehabilitation road is often fraught with unexpected obstacles. A support team is crucial to success.
Mike and his sidekick Topper Hagerman, who owns Howard Head, weren’t able to administer Bob’s grueling 34 minute workout so – like any proper teammate – I jumped at the opportunity to help my fellow comrade rather than just hammering through my workout.
Game Time!
It was 10:20 AM and game time for Bob. He just finished stretching and confidently strolled to his stationary bike, set the seat height, and slowly tossed his right leg over the seat – something he could barely accomplish 3 months ago. It was time for battle and his eyes filled with determination demonstrating how prepared he was for this fray. Bob started with a slow warm up, before I took over as his coach to tell him exactly how long to spin at a certain level and RPM. During first two sets he was struggling a little from an ongoing cold that plagued him – one that is circulating the Vail Valley and especially Howard Head – but he soon hit his stride.
Time to turn down the suck and turn up the good!
In the end – during his final push – Bob went for 2 full minutes at level 7, at 120-130 RPM before his heart rate peaked at 173 beats per minutes (at age 57 an average max heart rate is 163). It was an impressive final push. For many of you that haven’t had nerve damage it’s hard to comprehend the magnitude of this accomplishment. It is a very painful, slow process that takes a small step back before each step forward. I felt the glory of his victory as his competitive nature and commitment to getting back on the mountain are as strong as ever. Bob, your charge to fight back is starting to show your deserved rewards.
Spinning it out.
Bob’s interval summary.
Bob’s excitement is obvious. Too bad our overly paid photographer can’t get a focused shot. Good times at Howard Head.
Damn it Charles.
Just before my great buddy and roommate Charles Christianson left for Europe he said, “I’m putting my keys right here, if you need to use my car” with a look in his eyes that said please don’t destroy my car. Over the last two weeks, I have certainly used his car. Just so you know, Charles, there are an extra 1200 miles on your rig. Thanks. I really don’t remember driving it that much, but the odometer doesn’t lie.
When I first started driving his 2003 Passat Wagon, I felt like it was on the verge of a serious, catastrophic disaster. The exhaust was quite loud and the car just wasn’t running all that well. Every time I turned it on, I was pretty bummed I was driving it, but as time when on, I just kept doing it. It felt like I was a smoker knowing it was a terrible habit, but I just keep doing because it’s so easy. I was taking great care of the car. I cleaned it out, washed it, and was driving like granny.
However, the damn car just kept getting louder. Charles arrives back here on Saturday and I offered to pick him up at DIA; but instead, I’ll be in Aspen cheering on some friends at X Games so I had to get his car to Denver. Telling him to take a shuttle service was out of the question so I planned an easy round trip to drop it off and pick up a rental car for my last two weeks in Colorado. At 4:00 PM, Roger, Ian’s dog, and I took off to Denver and she was running really poorly. But Roger was pretty satisfied laying on my arm. His head is really heavy. 
That all changed as we were driving over Vail Pass. It went from loud to ridiculously, painfully loud. Literally, I cranked Leif’s hot Euro beats CD to 100 percent volume, but it still sounded like I was sitting inside one of the cylinders. I needed to find someone to fix this ASAP. There was no way I could give Charles his car back in this condition. At 4:45 PM I approached Idaho Springs and thought there must be a welder around here somewhere so I pulled in. I found two welding shops.
And both of them were about to close. Bummed with two ears ready to explode I drove on. I really wanted to find a podunk auto or welding shop that could help me without totally sticking it to me. A few exits later, after driving up a hill and the piercing cacophony was at an all time high, I swerved toward the exit, at the end of the off ramp I turned right, and realized there weren’t any shops in this town so blew through a stop sign because a damn tourist was going so slow I couldn’t handle it. I quickly was mirroring I-70 looking for a place to get back on. Roger wouldn’t sit still anymore. He was just standing up then sitting down again and again. My head was pounding and I was really hungry as I missed lunch – not the best combination for good decision making.
Seeing a No Outlet sign was pretty dreadful since there was a hill and I couldn’t stand stepping on the gas because the car was so loud. I could take it, but Roger was pretty bummed out.
Turns out when I blew through that stop sign and saw the I-70 sign it also said, NO ACCESS. Maybe I should have been paying a little more attention haha.
At this point, I was demoralized as my ears were ringing. I felt pretty bad for Roger and just wanted to get out of the car. It was 5:30 PM and right as we got off our exit in Denver, I saw a Midas and drove in. They seemed pretty nice and said they were open at 7 AM the next morning and could check out the exhaust leak so at least I had one place willing to help. I had a nice dinner with Dave Dodge, the founder and lead engineer for Dodge Boots, at the SIA show in Denver and went to bed exhausted. I got up bright and earlier to rip over to Midas as their doors opened. They put Charles rig up on the lift and we saw this:
Which I saw and was back to being demoralized. Matt the welder also explained how once one flex pipe goes, there is a lot of pressure on the other one. Either way, we had a serious issue. 2 flex pipes were rusted out and the whole assembly was four catalytic converters one on either side of each flex pipe. Damn it. They priced out a full fix of around 1400 dollars. Matt, super welder, figured he could cut off the welds of the flex pipes, order 2 new ones and weld it all back together, hopefully without taking the entire thing apart. I assured him he could definitely do it (I just read Steve Jobs by Walter Issacsson and Jobs would always say things like that to motivate his employees) so I felt pretty confident.
8:30 AM the 2 flex pipes arrived and Matt started welding. After three hours of labor, he finally finished it and she sounded like a dream.
Here’s Matt pretty pumped to be done.
Driving away, Charles, I have to say your car is running better than it ever has (at least since I started driving her in December). It was a huge chore to go thru all this, but there was no way I was going to drop it off at the Holiday Inn Express sounding like a crapped out Harley. So you’re welcome!
You only owe me $374.16. No big deal, you can pay me in cash when you get back.
See ya soon buddy!
And by the way, I’m pretty sure there are some camera’s at red lights in Denver cause a couple went off when I drove through them on my way to Leif’s house after dinner the other night. But, don’t worry I think we’ll be fine since I’m from New Hampshire and you’re from Alaska.
A sad day for skiing
The skiing icon Sarah Burke died today after a dramatic crash just over a week ago. Sarah’s publicists released this:
“Groundbreaking Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke passed away at 9:22AM January 19, 2012 at the University of Utah Hospital from injuries sustained in an accident on the Eagle Superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. She was training for upcoming winter events.
As the result of Sarah’s fall, she suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, one of the four major arteries supplying blood to the brain. The rupture of this artery led to a severe intracranial hemorrhage, which caused Sarah to go into cardiac arrest on the scene. Emergency personnel responded and CPR was administered on the scene during which time she remained without a pulse or spontaneous breathing. Studies in the University of Utah Hospital Emergency Department indicated that she retained brainstem function. She was placed on life support and a protocol of therapeutic hypothermia was initiated to protect her brain. An angiogram indicated the site of arterial bleeding, and on Wednesday, January 11 the injured artery was successfully repaired.
After the operation, numerous neurological examinations, electrodiagnostic tests and imaging studies revealed that Sarah sustained severe irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest, resulting in hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.
Sarah passed away peacefully surrounded by those she loved. In accordance with Sarah’s wishes, her organs and tissues were donated to save the lives of others.
While early reports in the media stated that Sarah’s injury was a traumatic brain injury, it is important to note that Sarah’s condition was the result of a lack of oxygen to the brain during cardiac arrest.
The family wishes to express their deep gratitude to Sarah’s dear friends for their love and support, and for traveling to Salt Lake City to comfort the family.
They would also like to thank the University of Utah Hospital and her physicians and care team in the Neuro Critical Care Unit for their incredible care and compassion.
The family was moved by the sincere and heartfelt sympathy expressed by people inspired by Sarah from all around the world. They have received a substantial number of inquiries from those who would like to make a contribution on behalf of Sarah. For more information, please go to www.giveforward.com/sarahburke.”
I’ve never met Sarah so I don’t have any good personal stories about how kickass she was, but it’s just so sad to see a rockstar of our sport go so early. Here a little clip of her for you all:
On a lighter note, the ski racing community is losing Didier Cuche next year. He’s probably throwing in the towel because he knows he’ll have to ski on 35 meter GS skis next season. Here is a video showing how he crushed the Hahnenkamm last year. He has had an incredible career and wish him the best in the future.
Best Wishes,
w
Probably the best Service Man in the game!!
That’s right, me. Without anywhere near full power in my left leg, I had to make someone’s skis fast. The last couple days, I have been prepping and preparing Ian Lochhead’s GS skis for probably the biggest event ever held in Vail, Colorado: the first Town Series Race of the 2012 season. It’s huge! There were at least 52 competitors and as many as 12 non-racer spectators! Even Fuxi was at the venue!! This is, believe it or not, the 44th year of Town Series in Vail and my athlete/housemate needed a victory to start the season off right!
I prepped his skis with care putting on a couple different layers of Swix and Podium wax and then put on some epic Podium additive (super fast wax that is pretty much gone after a few gates). It was game time for the J4 Head Coach at Ski Club Vail. Unfortunately, he took out his rockets for two free runs and the additive was gone. Next time I’ll be sure to bring my goodie bag to the start!! But he murdered Bruce (a J3 Men’s coach from Ski Club, Holderness and the greatest state in the Union, New Hampshire) and me on the top flat when we did a glide test.
I made sure to do the classic – college style – slip just before he went both runs. There were only three of us that actually slipped the course during the race so it was worth a couple hundies! But it didn’t matter because Ian’s skis were rockets. I’ll let the results sheet speak for themselves!! Yeah and he skied ok. haha
Ian walked away with two bottles of Korbel champagne – probably the best champagne on the market… other than all the ones better. Awesome!!
As Ian put it on his facebook page, “Big thanks to the best service man in the game Warner Nickerson” You can check out the full results here in the Vail Daily!! Great job to everyone that competed; better luck next week.
A Glorious 2011
A friend of mine Kuske Fahlgen just put together a sick short of the epic year of 2011. I first met Kuske before we boarded a helicopter for our 3 hour flight from Are, Sweden to Folgefonna, Norway where he was a bit hungover and a little nervous about the flight haha.
We made it without any issues and had 3 glorious weeks ripping up the mountain and being mighty bored on rainy days in Jondal, Norway. Here is his epic edit: Jon and I are in there a couple times haha!
Watching those sweet clips reminded me of our sick trip so here are some more sweet shots!!! As you might imagine, this trip was pretty fun!! Thanks Jon. And thanks to the Vågen family for epic accommodations and hospitality. 
Last place to refuel in Sweden.
Lost and running out of gas hahaa.
Folgefonna Glacier before they groomed it for us.
Walking to our new home.
Burrito time after some skiing.
Kuske himself getting some shots.
Off to get some therapy, but checking out those pics just totally made my day!!!
w
Happy New Year from Braun Bay
We have a pretty die hard crew of Braun Bay loyalist for America’s Birthday. John Whalley is undoubtedly the most diehard. He is our Commander-in-Cheif, the Captain, and the Director of Awesomeness all brought into one for America’s Birthday. He sends out emails like this leading up to the glorious event. This one was sent out on March 25, 2010:
ICE OUT! 100 DAYS TILL BB2K10
When John sent me a text about going out on the water with his wife Mia I was sooo pumped. I specifically decided not to bring my swim trunks because I wasn’t all the fired up to be in the water. Not a great plan haha I should have know better. I didn’t realize we were going straight to Braun Bay. Here are some shots from today! It was pretty cold, but super pleasant. It was 50 degrees and sunny not exactly what you’d expect in New Hampshire on January 1st. Mia brought had an extra BB shirts – I felt honored to rock her shirt.
Too fun. Thanks to John, Mia, and my dad for a sweet couple hours on the water! Here’s a shot from Braun Bay on the 86er from two years ago! 
Happy New Year!
Warner
See America Tour: a sad story in the air
Airports are always a place to meet random people, but meeting Megan, a 17 year old girl (she specified she was 17 and a half), on her way to “meet her sugar daddy” was abundantly painful. Seriously, that’s what she calls him, “her sugar daddy.” Megan lives in Phoenix and was flying to San Francisco to see Kyle her sugar daddy that is “deep in his thirties.” Before I go into detail, here are some pics from my Tour of America.
12:31 PM Boston, the start of what turned out to be more than 23 hours of travel.
13:45 PM Boston See ya!
5:30 PM Houston, Texas.
8:30 PM Phoenix, Arizona: This is where I met Megan on her way to see Kyle, her sugardaddy. Our flight was delayed for about an hour so I ended up asking her a ton of questions because I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around the idea of her being a call girl. Megan dropped out of high school two years ago and is planning on getting her GED and eventually going to college. She learned about www.seekingarrangement.com (SA) on TV. It’s a website that connects sugar daddies with sugar babies. SA is “the #1 Sugar Daddy Dating Sight for Those Seeking,” it’s a place for people with money to find “young attractive, intelligent, ambitious, and goal oriented sugar babies to mentor, sponsor or be a benefactor.”
The part of the TV program that made her sign up was that some of these guys are willing to pay for their “sugar babies” college educations. But I have to say, I just can’t see that happening. Her sugar daddy, Kyle, flew to Phoenix to meet her, he took her shopping, bought some expensive clothing, and now she’s on her second trip to see Kyle in San Francisco. She was grappling with the idea by constantly asking or explaining, “it’s totally ok to do this, right?” “It’s not that bad, is it?” “I really want to go to college and I certainly can’t pay for it” “It would be like getting a full ride to college.” All I could say, “Yeah if you genuinely like the guy.” But all I could think is if not, you’re just a call girl. All she could say was, “He’s nice.” She went on to explain how much money he was spending on her and how he is a CEO of a company. Megan lives with her mother, claims she met Kyle on facebook, and claims he’s 29 years old. When I asked she said she didn’t do it on the first date, but admitted they had. I can’t believe this type of website exists. It’s almost 2012 so I guess it’s not too surprising it exists, but holy fuck this is sooo wrong and sickening I don’t know what to say. What do you all think???
The rest of my trip was a daze as I was exhausted and constantly hoping Megan gets a chance to make it in life.
10:45 PM San Francisco, California: the door was closed, but the plane was still there. Damn it, especially since I was upgraded to first class on that one. I was rebooked leaving an hour later thru Dulles.
11:30 PM San Francisco, California: exhausted.
Dulles, Washington DC: almost made it.
10:30 AM Boston, MA and 23 hours later. Food looks way better than it was haha.
Sorry for the pathetically sad blog, but I just had to write about it.
Happy New Year to all! I’ll give a proper update on the back soon. As you might imagine since I did this tour of American I’m not off to Europe for the World Cup GS in Adelboden, Switzerland. Off to Denver after the New Year.
Gold Status Despiration Tour
BOS-IAH-PHX-SFO-BOS for $454.80 and 19 hours of my life is probably the dumbest smart thing I’ve ever done. For those of you that don’t travel too much I’m flying from Boston to Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, and back to Boston leaving this afternoon and return tomorrow morning.
After searching for a couple days, I settled on these flights. I’m paying 13 cents per mile and I will be able to travel next year with three 70 pound bags, plus a boot bag which will save me far more than the $454.80. However, those 19 hours I’ll never get them back!
I hope this is my seat!
Absolutely retarded, right?? Who in their right mine would ever do this?
Below is a list of charges per extra bag traveling internationally and you will quickly understand why I’m doing this. After two international flights with all my ski equipment, I’ll be ahead of the game. But this trip is still ridiculous!!
I kinda want to check a bag so that when I’m asked, “What’s your final destination?” I can say, “Boston, Massachusetts.” while I’m in Boston Massachusetts.
Off to Boston after PT and some traction!
/Warner
Charles Response ahahaha
To see his picture click on the link below, but this is what he wrote.
Charles Christianson’s response:
In the sport of ski racing you are constantly relying on instinct. Successfully navigating a race course involves one critical split-second decision after the next. Make the wrong one and there are consequences.
The same applies to loaning your car to someone. Enter my good racing bud and fellow road warrior Warner Nickerson.
After the Beaver Creek WC, Warner needed to stay in the Vail valley to continue therapy on his back and he was essentially homeless. Ian Lochhead, my landlord and SSCV Supercoach, took him in and let him to crash at his house, putting us all under the same roof before I took off for Panorama. Shortly before I left, W and I were in his car driving to dinner when he asked in his innocent/totally not innocent way, “So Dude, what are you doing with your car while you’re gone?”
For starters, ski racers are pretty aggressive drivers. All we do is try to make a turn as fast as possible. Combine that with the false confidence that these skills are directly applicable to asphalt and you’ve got yourself one dangerous amateur rally car driver. Needless to say, I was a little concerned about loaning my car out to another ski racer for an extended period of time, especially one who wasn’t able to get on the slopes at the moment and probably needed an outlet for his frustration. My apprehension was confirmed when, as he was asking me about my car, he rammed his rental Chevy Cobalt over a curb in Vail to complete a U-turn instead of putting it in a reverse and staying on the street. “Don’t worry man, it’s a rental!” he tried to assure me when he saw the look on my face. All I could think about was the low clearance on my car and how expensive that little move would have been in my Passat.
I was very happy to learn before I left that W had lined up Leif’s Viking1, meaning I was off the hook. I ended up leaving a key at the airport parking lot (Holiday Inn Express, much cheaper than anything else around DIA) anyway and told him that my car was available in case of emergencies, but didn’t think he’d need it. Of course, about the time I got to AK for the holidays I got a text from W asking where I left the car, and if he could use it for a couple of days. The same fear crept back into my head, but I figured what the hell, it’s the holidays and it’s only for a couple of days. What’s the worst that could happen?
I awoke yesterday to a text message from Warner asking me to call him so he could explain where he left the car. Hmmm, that’s funny, I told him exactly where to leave it. I then checked my email and saw that he had tagged me in a post. Uh oh. After reading his blog post titled “it wasn’t my fault!” I was in full I-told-myslef-so mode. A phone call to him put me a little more at ease, but only a little.
This morning on the shuttle ride from DIA to the hotel I prepped myself by asking the driver if there were a lot of cars that were parked illegally at the hotel, and if they were towing them. “Yeah it’s a shitshow out there right now, but unless you parked in a really bad spot you should be okay.” Please God, let Warner have found a non-really bad spot. Sure enough, there were cars parked everywhere around the hotel in illegal spots. On the grass and on snowbanks, it was indeed a shitshow. My car wasn’t anywhere too outstanding so that was a relief, and the car turned over (barely) so I didn’t even have to jump it. I was very happy.
True to his word Warner left me a signed autograph card of him shredding a turn and some money for a car wash that he meant to get. All was good. That’s when I noticed the knob on the bass control was missing, which I am guessing had something to do with the thumping music from Warner’s burned CD titled “Beatport Top 10 progressive mix” left in my CD player. The front seat was moved way back like a ganster whip, allowing me to imagine exactly how Warner put on 500 miles on my car in 4 days.
The money went to an oil change that I got this morning, and other than the fact that the mechanic informed me that he couldn’t add extra zip ties to my skid plate because it is missing (the mechanic also told me he would be a good skier because just last year when he was in jail he could squat 525lbs) things are good. Warner is a good friend and I was happy to help him out. I’m sure he handled my car with kid gloves, and without friends helping each other out the sport of ski racing would be a much more expensive and lonely sport. I can’t wait to borrow his car some day, cheers Warner!
It wasn’t my fault!
Charles, I have some not so good news about your Passat Wagon. First off – you probably already know – chicks do not dig it nearly as much as the Viking1. Bummer for you and as it turned out for me when I was rocking it.
After living the high life of rolling deep in Leif’s Viking1, I gave it to our buddy Andreas Kilde because he already coordinated with Leif to borrow it when his family was in Denver for the Holidays. But for a good 5 days, I was the man crushing it in the Viking1. Rolling around the mountains in a Porsche Cayenne Turbo was totally sweet. I’ve never had a nice car and it’s absolutely hilarious how everyone treats you very differently in one. I’ve borrowed Bode’s Audi RS6, Jon’s Nissan GTR, and Ted’s Audi RS5, but it’s always been in Europe so having the Viking1 in Colorado people thought it was actually mine, which was hilarious. Rarely, if ever, has anyone said, “Dude, let’s take your car!” That doesn’t happen when I’m rolling in my Honda Accord Wagon, but that happened to me nearly every single day with both dudes and chicks. And after nearly a week, it was starting to go to my head – I was starting to think I was pretty damn sweet. Unfortunately, it was probably mostly entirely the car. Thanks Leif for letting me realize I’m not that sweet when I gave it to Kilde haha. But seriously, it was fun to drive it, thanks, and I knew it wasn’t going to die, which was a pleasant change of pace for this guy!
Back to the point of this blog, it was good to get back to reality in Charles rig. So I waited until after Christmas to mention to Charles I have some good news and bad news. He paid the Holiday Inn Express to keep his car there for two weeks, which is a good idea it’s cheaper than DIA and pretty damn easy to use. I borrowed it for a few days in the middle. However…
Good news/bad news 1:
I found the Holiday Inn Express, but they ran out of parking spots.
Good news/bad news 2:
Luckily I was able to park the car, but it’s not in an actual spot. It was in the middle of a snowstorm so I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Good news/bad news 3:
I locked your keys in the car, just like I was told. But, the interior lights never went off. I watched for about a minute, but it was cold and I had to catch the 6:30 AM shuttle so when I left they were on.
Good news/bad news 4
If it’s not towed, you will most-likely still need someone to jump your car.
Good news/bad news 5:
I cleaned the interior and left some money, but it’s to wash your car because it looks disgusting (it was like that when I picked it up so that shouldn’t be a big surprise).
Good news/bad news 6:
I left you a personalized Autographed Dodge Boot Card of me you can probably sell it for the price of the towing, storage, and jumping with tons of money to spare, or maybe not!
In closing, thanks to both Leif and Charles for their help making my program in Colorado much cheaper. Leif your rig is ridiculously awesome and Charles your car has terrible windshield wiper, but amazing snow tires! Charles, I hope we have some good luck and it’s still there and has power! If not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it soon. Sorry to tell you this way, but it’s still early in Alaska and I didn’t want to wake you up!
Free $2,500 Gevril wrist watch
So some of your know that a friend of mine, Ed Tranter, and I started a bidding website called bidonskihomes.com that is bidding site, like ebay, exclusively set up for short term rentals of ski homes. It’s a pretty cool site that will hopefully get HUGE!! After all my travel, I realized the need for a one-stop-shop for ski home rental and that is precisely why Bid on Ski Homes was created.
Ed has some connections with Gevril so we are offering a FREE $2,500 Gevril wrist watch to the first person that places 100 homes on the site. What we really need right now is homes on the site. If you choose the 90 day listing it’s free for as many homes as you want to post. It could be a glorious late Christmas gift for your wife, husband, friend, or even yourself. Any help getting people to put homes up would be greatly appreciated. We realize brokers have a large inventory of homes so if there are some you know see if they’d be interested in another place to market their homes
Check out the site and give me some feedback.
I’m off to Howard Head for some more physical therapy! The slow and steady recovery continues. Cheers, w
Rolling Deep in the Viking1
I’d like to give a special thanks to Leif Kristian Haugen for giving me some style and luxury the last few days. I dropped him off at the airport, returned my sexy Chevy Cobalt, and sped away in the Viking1 his prized Porsche Cayenne Turbo. This thing is way faster than any SUV should ever be.
I’d say Norwegians college students have a little too coin laying around, but right now it’s getting me soooo many cougars up here in Vail I don’t know what to do. That’s not really true, but when I parked at Howard Head yesterday the parking attendant stopped me to ask, “you staying for a while?” I was surprised he cared. Usually they look down with disdain at my sexy cobalt and point to the back of the parking lot. Before I knew it, he moved a cone and made me a spot closer than the handicapped ones. If nothing else, I impressed the husband of a potential cougar, winning!
The first thing I did was pick up Ian’s dog Roger and bring him up to Vail. Sooo thoughtful of me.
It even gets super gas mileage!
See ya later Cobalt!! She was a little dirty after nearly a month of putting upT with me.
Tusan Takk buddy. Kick some ass over there!
Recovery.. it’s not smooth sailing on Winnipesaukee
Although it was super fun and inspiring to watch Americans absolutely crush in Beaver Creek, it was painful to know I couldn’t ski as I watched them put on their boots every morning. It’s much easier to just focus on yourself and not see exactly what the competition is doing.
My average day:
Physical Therapy for two hours with Mike at Howard Head
- Biking
- Traction for ½ hour a day – it seems to be the most immediate positive response.
- Tons of core using my inner stomach muscles around the spine.
- Lots of stretching
- Nerve Glides
When you pump up the traction unit there is about 85 lbs of pressure pulling my L4/L5 apart. It feels great!
Scott Wacker at Movement Physical Therapy is kickass.
- He’s doing dry needling with me every couple days, which can be quite painful.
- Then heat
- Nerve Glides
The Dry Needling is definitely loosening up my back and great to have it part of my day.
Acoustic Massage from a family friend Sarah
- This is actually really cool as her table has speakers in it to help release all the tension. She’s a great masseuse.
And other than that, I’m doing more exercises back here at Ian’s, occasionally swimming, and taking his sweet dog Roger for a walk a couple times a day.
Progress:
Today: I finally woke up with a sore left leg. For the first time we actually made it work hard enough to be sore, which is a great feeling. With all the work we’ve done, today I reached 85 degrees of flexion in a left leg squat. And I no longer have any pain in my back ever since the epidural injection.
We’re going in the right direction. It’s no highway that’s for sure.
Hope you’re all well, w
Best Get Well Soon Notes!
Here is a list of sweet get better soon notes I’ve received over the last week. Sorry for the foul language, but I feel like it’s not worth changing as it affects the authenticity of the notes. Not to mention, some of the people writing these things never swear so take that in mind. hahaha Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good, but no extra power in my left leg. I’m just hamming out core workouts every hour and watching a few movies. Here are the notes:
“Stop being a pussy!”
“Can I bring you anything from the outside world Warner? I’m working in Beaver Creek but after work I could stop by with some reading material, contraband, whatever?”
“I hope that you get well very soon so you will return to jumpimg better than when we were in Stockholm 
eheheh”
“Fuck man. Sucha drag… I hear snow in eu is shit.”
“for sure injections are going to be your best quick short term fix but you have to start hammering the physically thearapy or you have no chance.”
“What the fuck? I am livid FOR you…What a bunch of BS. Screw them you should have called them out on it. It’s bullshit that you can’t get covered. The USST just keeps acting like they’re doing you favors, when they don’t even see how good you
are for the sport. They benefit from you no matter how you cut it. I’m pretty fired up. I might have to do something about this…”
“I do wish you a fast recovery 
and fun — lots of fun — no matter whatever shitty fucking thing happens to you — I’m sure you’re gonna make the fucking best of it … if not: cheer up!! I’m sending you a huge overdose of happiness and motivation — look out”
The last one is my fav. Cheers, w
Ted Dominated Yesterday
Beaver Creek, Coloroado – When you’re sitting in your hotel room wearing sweats it’s just sooo painful to watch yourself be a DNS on live-timing. It was a whole lot more fun to NOT be on the start list yesterday. And for the first time in my week at Beaver Creek, I went to the finish to watch yesterday’s event. It was great to see Tim Jitloff and Tommy Ford break into the top 15. There were only a couple hundred people on hand, but Ted stepped up and laid down the law on GS. His second run was inspiring.
Here’s some video from it!!!!
Thanks so much
I want to thank all of you that reached out to me about help for my back issues. Some of you I haven’t responded to yet, but I really appreciate all the help and ideas. They are really helpful as the decision I make now will have a dramatic impact on my immeidate ski racing career.
Thanks. And I have an appointment for the injection with the same doctor at an in network hospital so I’m really excited about that. Tomorrow morning I am going to make sure that everything lines up so my insurance will cover almost all the costs. The pills haven’t seem to do anything yet. I still only have about 50 percent power in my left leg.
Hope all is well, w
Watching From the Hotel
This sucks, but hopefully I’ll be back soon. My leg is still shutting down. I did a good spinning work out this morning, which was nice.
Leif killed it thou, he’s in 3rd right now!!! Sooo pumped for you buddy! Get some second run.
Charles Christianson meets the White Circus
Beaver Creek, Colorado – Charles Christianson, older brother of USST athlete and young phenom Kieffer Christainson, is a really kickass dude. It’s always fun to say he’s Kieffer’s brother, but the truth is he’s one of a few dudes that are the heart of American skiing. It’s guys like this that keep hammering after countless season ending injuries that exemplify what it is to be a true ski racer.
Charles will push out of the gate tomorrow 58th on the epic Bird’s of Prey, Beaver Creek slope. It will be his first World Cup start at the tender age of 27. I think that’s a record, btw. The USST has always focused on younger athletes so it’s really impressive to see them use the nation spot on an older, late blooming athlete that deserves to be here. He has countless accolades we could go thru; but you get the idea, it’s great to see him in the white circus!
In true rookie fashion we cut his hair with pride! So the rule is: if Charles finishes top 15 tomorrow he get to do the same thing to us. Good luck bro, but don’t be too fast hahaha. No really kill it and I’ll happily let you chop off my mop!
Full Panic Mode
Vail, Colorado – I just watched Bode kill it on a EuroSport Live feed over here with the Dodge guys – that was awesome. I’m in full panic mode with my back. My L5 disc is bulging to the left laterally which is making my left leg shut off whenever I lean to the left. Not awesome. So I’m driving to Denver in a few to get on a McMannis machine that should stretch it out, then see another chiropractor doc down there, and get a really stiff lumbar support belt. Then I’ll see Bob, the doc up here, tomorrow morning.
We’ll just have to see where we stand every half hour. Denver see you soon, w
Back on Snow Test… Failure
Vail, Colorado: The training looked sooo money.
I laid down two pairs of skis in the snow. I brought one pair of good training skis and my race skis for Sunday. I was all fired up to snap off some nasty turns and gain confidence for Sunday. I placed my right toe into the toe piece of my binding and pushed down my heel to hear the pleasant snap of my binding securing my boot. Then I went for my left boot and tried to press my heel down and it just didn’t go. After three attempts, I lined up my bones to successfully clicked in. Something definitely wasn’t firing, but I went up the lift anyway. At the top, I did a quick leg curl test and it became clear my left hamstring wasn’t in the game. I got to see a high school buddy of mine, Topher Harlow, at the top of the training hill, but wasn’t able to make a single turn; epic fail.
Here’s a shot from the parking lot of Gregorak on the pitch. Being in the parking lot sucks. I’m off to see the Doc again this morning and will hopefully get something going. Good thing I only live life one half hour at a time or I’d be pretty worried ab0ut Sunday.
My whole family is out here so it’s time for my body to stop sucking. w
Testing the back tomorrow at Vail
Beaver Creek, Colorado – I’m soooo psyched to ski tomorrow. I’ve taken off the last week to give my back some much needed rest. I’ve been biking a fair amount and have been icing a ton, seriously a ton. Like up to 10 times in a day – it’s been some serious couch time to log that much icing, but totally worth it. Anyway, I went to a chiropractor in Denver today and I think I’m turning the corner. My left leg isn’t twitching anymore and it’s only numb deep in my hip so I’m pretty fired up to see how it feels tomorrow on snow.
This guy, Bob Blaich, is the man. I’ll tell you all how it feel tomorrow!! We’re training from 2-4:30 at Vail with Ted and Gregorak.
Psyched, w
Val D’Isere Race Hill, yesterday
Do you think there’s going to be enough snow to race in less than 10 days??? Apparently, we’ll find out tomorrow, but it doesn’t look too good.
The weather report looks like this:
