Dual GS and 18 holes of Golf = Awesome
Bend, Oregon – I spent 36 hours in Bend this past weekend to compete in the Race and Ace. It was an epic event with a short 20 second dual GS and 18 holes of golf all for the World Cup Dreams Foundation. Erik Schlopy and Bryon Friedman founded World Cup Dreams Foundation to create a safety net for injured world-class ski racers. This is their biggest fundraiser. Scott Macartney, the organizations CEO, put together a great event and even the weather was perfect. The event will be on the ski channel in the upcoming months. World Cup Dreams is a super cool organization that has helped many ski racers find their path back to World Cup competition. They have been instrumental in helping me pay medical bills for my back injury.
Laureene Ross, Will Brandenburg, Hailey Duke, Cody Marshall, Brooke Wales, Scott Snow, Steve Nyman, Bryce Bennett, Brennan Rubie, and I all came out to support the cause. Actually Laureen lives in Bend so it wasn’t all that challenging or impressive that she made it haha.
I have to say Bend, Oregon – one of the fastest growing cities in America – is one heck of place. It’s kind of like Denver as the climate is very moderate. They only get snow a few times a year, but they’re only 25 minutes away from Mt. Bachelor, a killer mountain with tons of snow that was open on the 4th of July last season. Bend’s elevation is 3,444 feet while the main lodge at the base of Mt. Bachelor is 6,350 with a peak of 9,068. It’s a pretty unique, sick set up.
Wilbur gettin fired up!
The Marshall, Cody!!
My team, the Hackers and Slackers, yeah we killed it… mostly. In order we were John, Richard, Phil, and our semi pro golfer Benji didn’t make it up for second run and our team pic. As far as the race went, I was 4th… not that good haha. Congrats to Steven Nyman for winning. He was understandably pretty pumped coming back from his achilles injury. And congrats to Scott Snow, and Scott Macartney for rounding out the podium. Mac beat me out by a hundredth and I beat Will Brandenburg by a hundredth so it was pretty tight. But this is about raising money, not who won. However, I have to admit I am not ready to be racing yet by any means. It was super fun to ski, but you can easily see just how pathetically small and weak my left leg is in this picture. I’ve been doing good posture exercises with Perfect Postures for almost three months and my back is getting much straighter, but my psoas still isn’t firing rights so I’m going to New York this morning to see a nerve specialist. I’ll keep you all posted on how that goes.
My favorites – the TV talent that interviewed us and videoed the entire event. The edit should be coming out in a month or so… actually I have no idea; but when it does come out, I’ll tell you all.
The Marshall remembering he’s almost as good as an average golfer.
Broken Top Golf Club was a really fun course.
Mac making it happen!
Another angle of Mac killing it!
Seriously, where the hell is Tommy Ford? We were in his hometown and spent all day with his parents!! You’re a terrible son, Tommy!! Terrible. What I’m trying to say is: we really missed you 
. And Nolan school is no reason not to help out! Yeah we missed you too.
Even Cody and Laureene dominated the piano late night like 9:00ish… well, mostly Laureene!
All and all, it was a great event. It was epic to see so many friends old and new. Special thanks to my team the Hackers and Slackers for almost winning, 5th place aint so bad. And to Scott Macartney, the CEO of World Cup Dreams, for making it all happen.
Nastar Nationals takes out Charles.
Winter Park, CO – I want to express my deepest condolences for Charles Christianson who ended his season three days ago at Nastar Nationals. It’s not Nastar’s fault and later in this blog I applaud them for what their doing, but it just sucks all around. Charles hasn’t gone a single season in 5 years without a big injury so I was pretty impressed when he was in the final stretch a week ago with only a mostly broken hand, beat up shoulder, and bad back. It was looking sooooo good. Charles went to Nastar Nationals because he pretty much doesn’t back down from a single opportunity. If you ask him what “opportunity cost” is he probably has no idea because he fits absolutely everything into his schedule. When he got a call to attend Nastar Nationals, win a fully paid berth to Chile with the ski team, and get some great notoriety he jumped at the chance and flew out to Colorado. There wasn’t a single GS race in the US and Canada – they were all cancelled due to weather – and his mostly broken hand couldn’t handle cross blocking so Canadian Nationals Slalom was out. He looked at it as a way to get ready for U.S. Nationals a few days later at the same resort, Winter Park. It was a good plan.
He sent me this picture of his bib a couple days ago showing just how many participants there are in Nastar Nationals. It’s a huge event. I’d say he didn’t quite nail the bib draw haha.
The first day, he had the fastest time qualifying with a 0.01 handicap, which means he’s basically the fasted dude in American on GS skis. As you look at those results a little closer, an old superstar AJ Kitt is the pace setter and based on his time a zero handicap is 4 tenths behind Charles. So day 1, Charles was looking good. Ted Ligety and a few others were there to keep everyone on their toes. It’s is really cool that Ted attended the event because for many it’s the first time they get to see the fastest GS skier in the world. One of ski racing’s biggest challenges is that very few people understand how impressively fast the athletes are skiing. The general public can’t see where they stack up against the best. It’s not like golf. Golf is such a great sport because you see progress very easily and on every single course you know what a scratch golfer will shoot. If you shoot in the 90s where par is around 72 and the best pros would shoot in the low 60s or high 50s on relatively easy courses you can appreciate and understand how impressive the best golfers are. The general public can’t show up at Solden and compete. Nor can they even see how icy and steep it is on the couch from home.
This is exactly what Nastar is doing. They are have done a great job at creating a handicap system that explains where the general public stacks up against the best skiers in the U.S. and I applaud them for that. I remember racing Nastar in my early years and have always been impressed with what they are doing. It’s just too bad that the weather was so soft.
And as you can see there are a ton of people there.
The race started at 10:30 AM that’s when Ted looked like this:
Ted the fastest GS skier in the world is hoping for his downhill ski to hook up in the soft snow.
After Charles won the first day, he start last the next day based on the seeding… not good in extremely soft snow. By the time Charles pushed out of the gate, it was around 1:30 PM after tons of snowboarders, telemark skiers, and racers competed all on one course. Charles was hammering the course and half way down coming into a left footer Charles explains in mid air in between turns, “I saw the big hole and tried to avoid it. My inside ski landed first, but directly in the hole. It twisted, I felt things shift…” In that situation, you just have to make the best decision you can, brace for impact, and hope for the best. His right ski smashed into the hole and basically stopped as the rest of his body to continued. He skied out of the course, not falling, knowing things were very wrong with his right leg. Unfortunately, the intense impact of the hole in the course tore his ACL, meniscus, and fractured his tibia. Not awesome. Charles gives a more detailed description on his blog.
This is a similar situation as Benni Raich and Resi Stiegler blowing out their knees in the Team Event at World Champs and World Cup Finals, respectively. You never know when you’re going to get hurt. It can happen in training, racing, or even walking across an icy street. You can’t blame anyone for what happened; it just sucks and is inherent in this sport. After the injury on Sunday, Charles immediately drove to Vail, Colorado. He had an MRI done Monday morning and went into surgery Monday night. They repaired the meniscus and now he’s on crutches for 6 weeks with only 90 degrees of mobility in his right knee until his next surgery in 8 weeks on his ACL. It’s too bad they weren’t able to do both surgeries at once. As Charles explains, “The second surgery is really bumming me out.”
Heal well.
A new career path? Maybe.
La Crosse Wisconsin - Over the weekend, my announcing skills debuted at the Dan Nagy Memorial in La Crosse, Wisconsin. That’s right. I went all the way to the heartland of America – there are 76,500 farms in Wisconsin and we drove by most of them- to watch and call one heck of a ski race. When I got the call from George Rolfs that the organizers wanted me to make the event a little more exciting by announcing, I was totally dumbfounded. I wasn’t sure what to think, but after a few minutes and a couple text messages with Nolan Kasper I knew I had to send it!
This wasn’t just any old race in Wisconsin. The way the schedule worked a lot of exceptional skiers could attended namely Nolan Kasper, Will Brandenburg, Chris Frank, Charles Christianson, Michael Ankeny, Massie Ide, Matt Strand, George Rolfs, Taylor Rapley, Keiffer Christianson, Cameron Smith, Anna Kikut, Sara Kikut, and Anne Strong among others. It’s a memorial event for Dan Nagy, a local racer, coach, outdoor enthusiast, and other accolades of an all around great guy, that died far too young in a tragic plane accident 6 years ago at the tender age of 30. He left a wife, Colleen, and two little rippers McKenna and Andrew behind. They among countless other friends and colleagues were on hand for the glorious event.
The weather was perfect for two days of epic racing on “Damnation.” (seriously, that’s the name of the trail.) Awesome, huh. And as you can see it’s actually pretty damn steep on the pitch.
How do you prepare for something you’ve never done before and really don’t want to suck at? Once it set in that I was announcing in 4 days. I immediately sent messages to the three announcers that I know and respected: Nick Fellows, Doug Lewis, and Steve Porino (in no particular order). I went for all three assuming there was a better chance one of them would respond. I told them I was going to announce and asked them for any advice that would be helpful. Within 9 hours they all responded and this is what they had to say.
Nick Fellow – Nick is the main EuroSport announcer for World Cup ski racing in the United Kingdom and if you haven’t heard him announce he brings tons of intensity. He wasn’t the most talented ski racer, but his love for the sport always radiantly shines through. Go to minute 8:50 and watch him call Aksel Lund Svindal’s run it gives you an idea of how he rolls. And this video is first run so he didn’t put it all on the table.
Anyway, he said:
“You will make a brilliant commentator and my advice is pretty straight forward. Naturally use your up to date ski knowledge and let people know of your World Cup experiences. If you can get a little biography info on the top ranked racers, results , age etc etc it will make it easier for you to fill the gaps. Talk tecnique in short and easy to understand segements. Have fun. If you enjoy it so will your audience and don’t be afraid. If you announce like you ski it will be dynamic, accurate, skilled and bloody exciting. Do the same behind the mic and you will have a ball… go fast Warner. Nick F”
I was really pumped to hear from Nick. I met him last year at World Championships and his points were totally money and really helped.
Doug Lewis – I first met Doug at his summer camp, Eliteam, when I was a J3 and have liked him ever since. If you’re young enough (less than 15), you should definitely check out his camp – it was exceptionally fun and challenging. He’s been in ski racing forever and was a two time Olympian and a medalist at the World Championships in 1985.
“I have a couple thoughts for you. 1) Sit down with an organizer or bunch of coaches and MAKE SURE you know the pronunciation of every racer’s name. That is the ONE thing you have to get right. 2) Meet with organizer day before if possible and check out the sound system, area where you will be sitting, and how close the timing system will be. Test the sound system so you know it works and have a place to sit and such. 3) Besides getting names right, the next thing is to announce times immediately and correctly. You are an athlete and know that you want to hear your time and place first foremost. 4) After that you can add your personality and stories. A great way to learn about athletes you do not know, is to get the Organizers to have a one page info sheet for all athletes to fill out when they pick up Bib. 6 questions on it – Name, nickname, hometown and ski club, favorite race day breakfast, Ski racing hero, favorite musical artist, and another of your choice. You won’t get all of them filled out, but those that you do get, put in bib order and try to fit in a factoid when they are coming down. 5) Things happen pretty fast so don’t be surprised if all you do is names and times. 6) Remember to thank coaches and organizing cmte over the air as they deserve thanks as you know.”
All great points and I did my best not to butcher each race’s name. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until an hour before the race when I was able to go thru the names. I should have been more diligent on that front. But luckily, we were in a different booth than timing so we could fit quite a few people that knew the proper pronunciation far better than me.
Steve Porino – I have only met Steve over the last few years on the World Cup tour and didn’t really get to know him until World Championships last season. He too is a badass ski racer that competed on all the great tracks throughout his career. Super nice guy, great announcer and really fun.
“1: Don’t let sucking get in the way, I don’t! Ha! Live (on-site) announcing is a bit different in that you want to be a cheerleader. If they crash, tell them to hustle and to hike. Of if they seriously thump, tell them “it’ll stop hurting when the pain goes away.” If they’re ripping, say Hirshcer needs to watch this. That kinda stuff. But I’d make sure you take care of the basics. Who is up next, on course, where they’re from (or team) and their time and position if you have that. If it’s on the FIS site you can always pull up the start order and with a fast connection click from bio to bio. 2 computers would be better: One with live timing so you know the standings, the other for bios. If you have a sense of what time or performance a skier needs to win or move up or whatever, play off that and make sure the people know what’s at stake. Where I think a guy like you will shine, is to keep being a guy like you. Be your cheerful, upbeat self. Tie in some stories about the World Cup and some of the stars you know well. Motivate them, praise them, talk to them. Lastly, and this is the hardest part for someone new: Be yourself, but on 11. You gotta be a little louder and over the top than is probably comfortable. Imagine, or maybe actually do it, having loud music in your ears and talking over it. When I call races I crank up the sound in my headset so I have to compete with that level and don’t start listening and therefore thinking about what I say cause I don’t want to hear that crap!”
Steve once again gave some brilliant points and I even used the Hirsher line once – that line was epic!! My favorite part of announcing was that the speakers were loud enough that the races could hear us on the hill if they stopped. I would chant “hike, hike hike, hike, hike!!” right into the mic and literally you could see the athletes go from completely giving up to hammering up the mountain with tons of intensity. It was awesome. There was a huge hole at the bottom in an entry gate into a flush. It was that fall away left footer with a huge hole that forced Michael Ankeny to hike for his third time in his second run after leading first run. Ankeny was getting a standing ovation from the crowd after his first hike and when he did it a third time – really close to the finish – the whole place erupted. We even got the last male racer to hike in that same section. Sometimes when you’re starting last organizers, course crew, and helpers kind of forget you deserve just as much encouragement and commitment as the first to push out of the gate. I’ve seen course crew start unscrewing gates before the last racer starts thinking that it’s over and it’s really important to make them realize this is their race just as much as the people winning. So when you’re bummed after a crappy first run, starting last you deserve someone to cheer you on. Watching him hike was so exhilarating.
I have to thank Nick, Doug, and Steve for their help. I had no idea announcing would be so fun, challenging, exciting, and tiring. When we were in the thick of race, it kinda left like we were competing just as much as the races. Ramping everyone up doing some entertaining play-by-play and color commentary was most of our playbook. After this experience, it’s completely clear that the announcer decides the level of intensity for the entire race: his or her role is paramount. I just tried to bring a level of intensity similar to what the skiers were bringing to the race course. Based on responses from people I respect and others I didn’t know, I think we did a bang-up job and it really was a great time.
I was in the booth with a bunch of great people that were super helpful with athletes name pronunciation, color commentary, and filling the gaps when I was running low on steam or went outside to do an interview for the local news station. Will Brandenburg was my favorite in the booth – he just makes really good points similar to his super clean arcing slalom style. Nolan Kasper was giving us a hilarious visual split for the ladies, which was epic. Brewster McVicker was great to have in the announcing booth as he knew all the athletes well, which made it a lot easier to keep everyone involved. Amy and Susan were also super helpful and fun to have around.
Here are some nasty shots from the two days of racing thanks to Susan Theis!!
Nolan Kasper ripping!! Nolan started fifth from last around 95th second run, second day and was second on the run. He had a big mistake on the pitch and showed just how nasty he is as a skier the rest of the way down. It was really impressive. I was kinda nervous he was going to break his ankle on the entry gate to the flush, but it didn’t phase him.
Michael Ankeny draggin knucks hardcore!! He won the first day and was leading the second – it was great to see him ripping! This picture really doesn’t do any justice, but seriously.
Charles Christianson getting aerodynamic!! Charles was putting together some really good turns.
Robby Kelley looking nasty! Robby was skiing super fast using his whole ski, but at the end of the turn it was getting a little to far away from him which often made for some really exciting viewing. You’re soooo close.
Keiffer Christianson almost beat his older brother Charles for the first time in his career. You too are soo close haha.
Hangin with the ladies.
The winner: Taylor Rapley, Massie Ide, and Anna Kikut. All showed some really good skiing. Massie and Sara both put down some really sick skiing by dropping their knees in super hard. It was fun to watch.
Winners: Keiffer Christianson, Matt Strand, Michael Ankeny – all got after it. Matt’s second run second day was really impressive. He and Ankeny were both really fast on the flats both days, but Strand crushed the pitch that day and won the race and the Nagy Cup. Charles was second in the overall, but had to get out of dodge for an early flight home.
I’m kind of a big deal… a whooping two fans! Yeah.
Chris Frank, myself, and Will Brandenburg (respectively) after a glorious weekend.
Fun shots.
And yes, there was a party bus on Saturday night which turned out to be super fun. No Norweign Russ bus, but really fun. Only the college grads actually rocked the bus!! Good work to Frank the Tank and Keiffer’s brother 
. A great weekend in Wisconsin.
Cheers, w
Pulled the plug…
Vail, Colorado – As most of you have already figured out, my season is over. It’s painful to think that the next time I’ll race will be on 35 meter skis. However after talking to Ted (Ligety) and a few others, the Head and Fischer 35 meter prototypes are faster than the old 27 meter radius skis that are being used in World Cup GS right now. I have no idea how that works, but I have to say that’s the quintessential characteristic of ski racing: it often defies logic. And that’s why I love this sport. There is no function that decides what equipment will work or who will be the next rockstar. Watch us all be bitching about FIS changing the regulation back to 27 meters in two years for another random reason. However, I have to say this rule cannot be good for younger, less muscularly developed skiers and it cannot be good in softer snow because it will be harder for the skis to come around. Maybe that will all change too haha.
I was hoping to be ready to race here in Vail at the MacDermid Nor-Am event the last few days, but my body just isn’t ready. I have been seeing a chiropractor/Applied Kinesiologist in Edwards three times a week, hammering therapy a few hours a day, and doing some skiing here and there, but backs take longer to get better than I was hoping. My left leg is still far weaker than my right due to the nerve damage so the only reasonable conclusion is to pull the plug on this season.
I am freezing my points, which will increase my GS points by 10 percent. Next year they’ll be 6.66 so I’ll start around 40 rather than 35 in World Cup. It will also freeze my World Cup points before Beaver Creek so I’ll have a World Cup start for at least most of next season. It’s actually pretty hilarious and fortuitous that I can freeze my points. I would have started over 5 GS races – the limit to be able to freeze point under the new FIS rules – this summer/fall if I hadn’t hurt my back in New Zealand. And I have to thank Mike Day for forgetting to have Pete Korfiatis represent me in a race in New Zealand this past summer. haha it’s funny how things work out.
I haven’t done any training yet since my left leg is too weak and vulnerable when I get into awkard situations, but my new plan for returning to racing will be at the Director’s Cup in Whistler, British Columbia. It’s a race for a bunch of washed up skiing legends. I’m feeling like the first half of the description. I know that Paul McDonald and Scott Macartney are coming so that should be pretty damn fun. It’s all prep for the Jon Olsson Invitational in April. And from there I hope that my body will be ready for New Zealand.
“Sometimes it’s just your turn, suck it up.” – Robert Pastrana With that in mind, I’ve been making the best of my season in Vail. Thanks to Foster, Ian, Mike, Tom Palic, Sarah, Eugenia, Bob, and a few others for making my stay so worthwhile. I’m coming home on Friday so see ya soon NH!!
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.
Healthcare in America Sucks
Vail, Colorado – Either the first doctor that read my MRI had no idea what he was doing or he read the wrong one. I went back to the Steadman Clinic today to see a spine specialist because my back isn’t getting any better. He put my MRI up on the screen showing a very clear black (rather than white) disc on my L5 and a small bulge one on my L4. The radiologist report impression read, “L4-5 broad posterior disk protrusion, asymmetric left foramen which is narrowed. Possible left L4 nerve root contact at this site. Small broad disk bulge and central disc protrusion at L5-S1 with possible contact but no posterior displacement of the S1 nerve root and the ventral lateral canal.” The report was completed an hour after I had the MRI on Nov 25th and would have been great information to have two weeks ago.
So after learning this this morning, I made an appointment for epidural injections. However, when I showed up to the appointment Vail Medical wanted me to put $5,105 on my credit card. They said I’d get an 8 percent discount if it was Visa or Mastercard. The reason was because the Steadman doctor is out of network (he cost $2,105) and doesn’t count toward my deductible and Vail Medical – which is in Network for my Anthem HMO – cost $4,700 to do the procedure in their facility. By the way, I was told this procedure takes 15minutes. Since the deductible on my insurance is $3,000, they wanted me to put both of the expenses on my credit card. At this point, I was furious and ready to fight pretty much everyone in the room. Luckily, I kept my cool. When I know I’m getting ripped off whether it’s from a hospital or guy selling paintings on the streets of Santiago, I get really fired up. I talked to the doctor about my inhibitions and he wondered why I wasn’t on the USOC insurance so I explained how I’m not on the national team, but am the 4th best GS in the nation. After a short discussion, I opted for the $6.75 oral pills (2 pills for 5 days). The pills apparently don’t work as well, but they cost $4,993.25. Need I say more. I really hope they work because not having power in my left leg totally sucks. If they don’t work, I’m not sure what I’ll be doing. Today’s conclusion is America healthcare really sucks.
My future plans:
1. Stay in Colorado for the immediate future.
2. Get some headway and power back into my left leg.
3. Try not to spend the rest of my season budget on this injury.
4. Hope to make it back for Alta Badia in two weeks. Adelboden in early January is more plausible.
Two positives:
1. At least tomorrow I won’t have to watch myself be a DNS on live-timing.
2. A friend of mine sent me this video
All I can say is that was awesome. I hope these guys kick some ass tomorrow: Ted 8, Bode 17, Leif 25, Tommy 36, Jitloff 37, Gregorak 39, Nilson 42, Biesy 54, Charles 56. Game on! I’ll be watching!
In the End Zone Waiting for a Hail Mary
Beaver Creek, Colorado – Tomorrow is the first of two World Cup GS races on my favorite slope Bird’s of Prey in Beaver Creek. I’ve been looking forward to this race for months. The last few days I’ve been searching for an answer for my back issues everywhere and I’m not sure if I’ve found one yet. My MRI didn’t show anything wrong with my discs, but the 3 chiropractors I’ve seen say that I have a bulging lateral disc on the left side of my L5. My left leg shuts down when it’s at 90 degrees of flexion, which as you can imagine is not so good for a ski racer. When it reaches 90 degrees my disc pushes into my nerve and shuts off a number of muscles in my leg. It doesn’t hurt; they just shut down.
I’ve gone to countless doctors, physios, therapists, and a cool witch doctor that talked to my body for an hour. I did traction and nerve injury clearing yesterday in Denver while today I did muscle activation and trigger point dry needling. I think I’ve made some headway with the trigger point dry needling – which really painful – but we’ll really see tomorrow morning. My whole body aches right now from all the work. I haven’t gone down the road of injections, but that’s the next thing on the list of possible solutions. Any thoughts there???
My skis are prepped and ready to go, my suit and pads are perfectly lined up, and my Dodge boots are sitting by my bed ready for action. All I need is my body to be able to perform. If I can enter the fray tomorrow I certainly will be pushing with everything I’ve got. My whole family and a ton of friends are here so I’m icing right now hoping all the panic and treatment is paying off. I feel like I ran all the way to the end zone thru countless obstacles the last few days and now I’m waiting see the ball spiraling in my direction. However, I just can’t see it yet. 
This is the McMannis Table to do traction. He tried to charge me 45 dollars for 5 minutes on it, but ended up charging me 45 cents. Looks like he’s not very good with his credit card machine. Advantage me!
Aspen Nor-Am Photos from Today!
I’m not racing here in Aspen, which sucks so I went up on the hill to take shots of mustaches and what not. I think it’s the right call to give my back a longer break and focus on the World Cup next weekend in Beaver Creek. Since I’m here and I think moving around is a good call for the back it was fun to be super fan/photographer! Here are some shots from the day!
World Cup Season Opener
Me on the upper pitch on race day (photo credit Ben Drummond).
Solden, Austria – Having Ted and Lindsey walk away with the first two victories of the season at our new home base here in Solden was glorious. The Austrian Ski Federation is furious that Solden is the Official European Home Base of USST. It’s been pretty funny to watch. Peter Schrocksnadel, the Austrian Ski Federation President, said in a press conference, “It’s like St. Moritz, Swtizerland sponsoring the Austrian Ski Team.” Austrian nationalism is certainly the culprit for the disdain. However, Oliver Schwarz, the Cheif Executive of the Otztal Valley Tourist Office, explains, “The US TEam with Lindsey Vong, Ted Ligety, Julia Mancuso, and Bode Miller have the highest profile on the racing scene and we want to attract international visitors to our resorts. They are the rock and roll stars of ski racing.”
Schrocksnadel is threatening to change Solden as the venue for the World Cup Season Opener next season because of their involvement with teh USST. It’s exceptionally funny to see the Austrians Ski Federation up in arms about it, when they cannot be sponsored by one ski area themselves. Solden sponsors a number of local Austrians on the national team, while other regions and ski resorts sponsor other members of the team. If the Austrian Federation took on a resort as a sole sponsors the country would be even more upset. The moral to this story is that there are way too many huge egos in ski racing. This is just another example of how they are clogging up the ski racing world. “
As for me, life is good here in Solden. The ski team flew home just after the race, while I’m here for another couple weeks of training. I staying in one of the free apartments and have an Audi Allroad at my disposal, which is totally money.
Photo credit: Oskar Bakke
Race day:
I didn’t sleep too well the night before, which is pretty normal. I was fired up for the first race of the year and was pretty happy with the way I was skiing coming into it. I did a nice warm up taking 4 runs without poles on the upper relatively flat section of the mountain. I was ready.
I hammered out of the gate pushing hard and got right into my tuck. I cut the line off a bit on the top flat and did the same onto the first pitch. I lost a little grip on a left footer rolling onto the pitch, but kept it rolling. At the first split I was in decent shape 7 tenths off the pace (in the top 30), then had a little trouble half way down the steep pitch, and got really late. The snow was in good shape, but with everyone sliding the top of the turn it was a bit choppy and bumpy on the pitch. I got really late and have to fight pretty hard to stay in it. At that point, I started to give myself a bit too much room on the gates setting the three gates into the undergate a little too much. By that I mean, I was sliding the top of my turn a little too much and was giving it a little too much respect by having a high line. Coming out of the undergate, I didn’t nail the next couple turns. A couple gate later, I quickly got back into rhythm skiing well on the bottom. I ended up finishing a little over 2 tenths off the pace in 35th place. It was a bummer not to qualify. I was the third American after first run so only Bode and Ted skied in the second run. Jit went onto his hip, Tommy Ford didn’t finish but had a great first split 9th, Gregorak didn’t have his day, Colby’s body wasn’t holding up to the bumps, and Tommy Biesemeyer did a great job from where he started, but didn’t qualify.
Although not qualifying was disappointing, it was easily the best I’ve skied in this race. Frankly, I’ve always really sucked here so it was nice to be in the hunt and I think my equipment is dialed. I’m pretty psyched with how everything is going and we’ll see where it goes from here.
Right now I’m still in Solden skiing with the masters crew from Sun Valley and going to get a day in with the US Women’s Development team. The reason I’m still over here is because the skiing is really good and I’m planning on racing a Europa Cup SG in two weeks. However it might be cancelled due to not enough snow.
Hope all is well. Cheers, w
New Zealand Winter Games
On the podium with Marcel Mathis, Austria, and fellow T2 Athlete Colby Granstrom, USA.
Coronet Peak, New Zealand – Yesterday, Jon and I took the day off to rest after a few days on and I made some adjustment to my Dodge ski boots – I just didn’t feel like I had quite enough edge in the first race down here so the Dodge guys and I moved my cuff out half a degree. This morning, we went up to the hill early to get in some extra training runs and I was pretty happy with the new set up.
Trying to let my skis run off the pitch in Coronet Peak.
First run, I started 11 and put together a solid run nothing spectacular, but was in the lead by about a tenth over Hig Roberts followed by a ton of guys. It was really tight, which means the second run is going to be exciting. The second you think you have an advantage you’re totally screwed so I knew it was all going to come down to second run and it certainly did. Second run was a really turny course on the upper pitch, which gave a large advantage to the early start numbers in the second run. Thirtieth place was only 1.8 behind so it was really anyone’s race.
My plan was to take my turns really far across the hill – without stiviting – just arcing on the top of the turn and I was pretty solid up top. The flats were a bit of a different similar story. It was exceptionally painful on the flats because it was 6 degrees Celcius down there without any wind so the snow was starting to soften up so the line became extremely far from the gates meaning the later you started the further you’d travel. I came into the lower section and looked ahead to stay in the grove. On the flats with a pronounced grove in softer snow it’s imperative to stay in it or you’ll drop into the rut and completely lose all your speed so I was skiing it like a bobsled track, traveling an extremely far distance, but it was the only plausible option.
Although I kept it going all the way to the finish, it felt like I was sailing around the world in a perpetual lift at the windward. When I crossed the line I heard the beloved pole clicking of ski racing, which is a nice way of saying good job to a fellow competitor. It turns out I was 9 hundredths ahead of Marcel Mathis to take the win. He was in 19th after first run and had a miraculous second run to move up to second. Colby Grandstrom was third and made a similar move so did Jonathan Norbotten who moved up to forth position.
After not getting represented in the first race (where I became super technician and Jon won, which was really cool), then really sucking in the second, it was nice to walk away from the mountain with solid skiing and a victory with a 6.9 point result. It never hurts to have some of those in the bank hahaha. So pumped. It’s an honor to win the New Zealand Winter Games GS – people get pretty fired up for them down here, which makes it much more fun. We had a ceremony where they played the American National Anthem in downtown Queenstown. A good way to end the day. It’s been a long day. I just got back from the ski room after prepping 5 pairs of skis for tomorrow and I’m exhausted as it’s way past my bed time and nearly 11 o’clock at night.
Hanging out with Marcus Nilson before awards.
Special thanks to Jon and Oskar for their sick pics. Cheers. Good night world. Training SG and GS with Forests US Speed guys.
40 Meter Radius
Today I was training some GS with the US speed team and Rainer Salzgeber, the Chief of Head Racing, asked me if I wanted to take a run on the new 40 meter GS skis and I had to indulge. If you don’t already know, FIS the governing body of World Cup skiing decided two months ago that they should change the minimum radius from 27 to 40 meters and length from 185 to 195 cm for the 2012-13 season. Essentially making it much more difficult to turn. 40-meter radius used to be the minimum radius for a downhill skis less than a decade ago.
Going up the lift Rainer, he said, “Just remember to get as many angles as you can.” I was psyched for his advice since he debuted on the World Cup in ’89 and had an epic career. It was during the mid 80s the last time GS race skis had a 40 meter radius. It was part hilarious, part scary, and part entertaining. After the run, I skied over to Dane Spencer who watched and said, “So you weren’t doing anything you told me you were working on.” I mentioned the skis I was on and it all quickly made sense to him, “That explains a lot.” We both got a good laugh out of it.
First off, they are great for slipping. My first run was a slip run where they performed exceptionally well. They didn’t hook up at all; they gracefully slipped over every single rut, bump, and hole so nicely. They would be perfect for course workers and coaches since they don’t torque your knees at all slipping.
In the course, they were also righteous for slipping. I pushed out of the gate and found myself stepping at the first gate, second gate, and third gate before righteous sliding commenced. The skis weren’t quite as bad as I expected. I thought I’d fall over at the second gate and slide all the way down the steep pitch on Robins Run here at Coronet Peak. It was basically skiing GS on Super G skis. I was sliding the top of the turn a ton and hitting at the gate as hard as I could. Creating more angulation was imperative and I was pretty happy I took Rainer’s advice to heart – it was the only way I stayed in the course. Having 40 meter radius skis will completely change GS. It will bring back stepping, sliding the entire top of the turn, and the dominance of brute strength. Finesse will no longer be a concern in modern Giant Slalom.
I almost forgot to mention the scary part. When skiing a GS on skis with nearly no sidecut, you have to go ridiculously straight, which means your tips get painfully close to GS gates. I came into a turn on the pitch with my skis fully sideways as I was forced to bringing a new meaning to straight and late as my inside ski tip came mm from catching the gate and straddling a GS panel. That would have been really really unfortunate. I told Ted (Ligety) and he said, “That would have been sweet if you straddled it and broke your leg. You should have taken one for the team.” We all laughed, but he’s right FIS is out of their mind if they think straight, long skis are the safest option. All I can think of is Matthias Lanzinger’s crash three and a half years ago in Norway.
We’re racing some GS tomorrow down here and I’m pretty psyched. It will be on normal 27 meter radius skis. Time to turn up the good.
With the new GS rules for 2012-13
Skiers to fair the worst: Thomas Fanera and Cyprien Richard (two of the best guys to watch on the wc in gs)
Skiers to fair the best: Aksel Lund Svindal and Didier Cuche.
Wish I had pictures and video. I’ll try to get it from Rainer at some point.
Storm of the Century
On our way up to Coronet Peak the wind was hammering so the upper lift was on hold all day, bummer. The roads were super icy so even four wheel drive rigs had to have chains.
Once we got to the mountain the US Team decided to pull the plug. Pat Biggs (right) was on his way out too. He said, “It wasn’t worth spending 100 dollars (New Zealand) to powder ski on a T-Bar. The lift tickets are outrageously expensive down here. While Fritz Dopfer (left) and Akira Sasaki (middle) were ready for some pow (those of us that have season passes were ready for some fun). Clearly Sakebomb made the correct ski choice for the day.
Top of Rocky Gully, the lifty gave us the thumbs up, but you could tell he was a little bummed not to be crushing the pow. Visibility was terrible, but it was really fun to play in the snow.
Then we found a sweet drift to huck ourselves off. As it turns out, Jon is pretty nasty in the air, who know?
Even I went for a sideflip and let’s just say came up a bit short haha
So the roads down here have been horrendous. They only use salt at the end of the storms so for the last three days chains were necessary to get around town. Here is a picture of a plow they were using to plow the road in Millbrook where the USST is staying. I’m pretty sure it’s half of a not so large PVC pipe hahaha impressive. When I asked a buddy of mine’s mother, Margie Arnott, if she had seen this much snow in town in the last decade? She responded, “It’s been all of that.” It doesn’t snow down here all that often.
This is the tee box from a long par 4 at the Millbrook Golf Course. There won’t be any golfing for a while.
Yesterday was a super productive day for me. I got Jon’s new skis mounted. He opted to come down under with only 2 pairs of GS skis and one of them didn’t have any bindings or lifters, but thanks to Tschunti (Bode’s tech) he dialed, picked up some softer wax from those guys, fixed some undercarriage issues on our rig, pimped out my tuning room, tuned skis, went food shopping, shoveled Margie’s drive way (which means epic free dinner in our future) and returned Bode his camera from Gumball. Leif, Jon, and I tried to fill it with ridiculous pictures over the last two months to show him our endless hospitality. Bode flew home yesterday when the airport reopened as the snow has made training not nearly as productive for tech teams last week down here.
Cheers from down unda. w
Back on snow
It was nice to get back on snow today. The skiing here at Coronet Peak is pretty epic right now. The snow is totally money so it was nice to get up there and take part rather than be a rat down in our apartment. I’ve been getting some quality acupuncture and deep massage in Queenstown and am fired up to get back in gates to test the new Dodge boots and some new Head skis while the going is good. I have to say there is nothing more epic than universal health care – man that seems to work nicely down here or at least the part I’m embracing from the New Zealand government. Cheers mate!
So the night before I flew down under, I decided to be exceptionally smart and charge my camera up, which was a really good idea until I had to leave my house at 4:15 AM. Needless to say, I left it plugged into the wall in Gilford, NH which does me absolutely no good down under, damn it. My brother is going to send it down. Thanks bro; but in the mean time, my teammate Mr. Olsson was nice enough to let me use one of his for the time being (he has two still point and shot cameras down here). Unfortunately since I was so fired up to be skiing, I ended up just taking some shots of him and Oskar Bakke (super photographer extraordinaire). Jon asked me for his camera back to put them up on his blog and I responded, “Not gunna happen. Sorry, but this camera is for my blog only. I really wish I could help, but I just can’t do it.” It was hard to hold a straight face, but I’m sticking to my guns on this one haha. So here are MY pictures from MY camera today, bummer for you Joner.
First run of the day!!!
A taste of the epic views from Coronet Peak.
Jon thinking that he’d be able to post this picture on his blog ahahahaha.
A shot of Whitney, winner of the cool lifty of the day award, and in her words “the Jon Olsson”.
Cheers from down unda. w
Skiing Down Under
I woke up this morning feeling like a bag of thirty. Yesterday, I was feeling pretty good so I ramped it up a little and jumped into gates. The snow was really hard on the top – fully injected – and then it was a little inconsistent and let’s just say that didn’t work out as well for me.
With a pathetically slow internet connection, I have put together a photo montage of me packing it in (video to come later). Thanks to Dane Spencer for taking the video and next time don’t turn away sissy boy hahaha. Thanks buddy!
Just snapped that one off – I must be ripping.
Don’t you dare run away from me downhill ski.
Please don’t hook up. Please don’t hook up.
Damn it.
This might hurt.
I could really use some more air in my lungs right meow.
Fantastic, the added bonus of tackling a GS panel. Awesome.
Nothing like a quality first run in gates down under. Jon went up to the mountain to ski today so without a ride I hitchhiked to Queenstown for some acupuncture and a little deep tissue massage, which is making some headway. Tomorrow is the same plan, I hope to be back on snow Saturday morning. Thanks to the kiwi population for their epic ACC Insurance. If you get hurt in New Zealand your covered – another sweet part of nzed!
Season Wrap Up
I will be skiing next year. A few people have asked and I was a little surprised since I thought that was pretty obvious. Either way, I will be racing next season. Right now, I’m ranked 32nd in the world based on FIS points; 46th in the World based on World Cup Start List (WCSL). What this means is that because of my WCSL ranks I will have a start in every World Cup GS next season so that is really nice to have that secured. I have never entered a season with a secured start right and last season was above and beyond the best season of my ski-racing career. I would really like to thank all of you for being part of it, the World Cup Tech Team for a great group of guys and coaches to work with, Jon Olsson and Team TNT for making the off season so fun that I didn’t quit last year.
I’d like to go thru the season. This is more than anything for myself to reflect on the year and mentally know where I made mistakes and things I need to change to have a more successful season next year.
This summer I came out hot with a two 6.0 point races down under. I was able to perform really well in two races in New Zealand and did a ton of free skiing down there and had a great time with TNT and super coach Sean McKenna. Then leading up to Solden, I upped the load of gates, which was really needed and frankly, I should have upped that load even earlier. I should have been in Europe a bit earlier to log a bit more training. Being a GS skier you really need to be firing on all systems in the fall or it can be a long season. I showed up in Colorado skiing well and fired up. I was crushing training for the first few days then started to lag when we trained day in, day out at Vail, which is pretty flat with one three gate pitch. I went to Aspen and really struggled skiing some of the worst I have in years. Then logged some free skiing days and a couple runs of low intensity gates at Beaver Creek to score my first World Cup points. The rest of December was a disappointment as I was right on the cusp of scoring in Alta Badia and really struggled in Val D’Isere. Adelboden I was once again right there, but didn’t qualify a couple tenths from getting a second run. January was painful as I changed my set up around and was slow. Then I put together a good race in Hinterstoder. Then I changed my set boot and ski up again to not get anything done at World Champs and blew out in Kranjska. The spring was painful as I once again made some poor ski choices, but I felt like I was back at 100 percent going back to my old set ups for Nationals and blew out.
It was an interesting year. I did best when I was struggling pretty hard and forced to just free ski for a couple days leading up to races, but more often than not there wasn’t great free skiing this winter. We had some really good training here and there, but I think what I need to do is keep my volume of skiing up, but limit my gate training to a couple days a week just to keep my timing. The long free skiing stuff is what I think I need to preform my best.
That being said, I had a talk with Sasha a couple days ago about where I stand with the ski team. I will not be named to the national team, which isn’t that much of a surprise at this point in my career I learned to expect the absolute minimum from them. I totally dig the coaches I worked with this year. The tech side has an badass staff and I will look forward to working with them for a couple camps here and there this summer. I was really hoping to get insurance through the ski team, but that fell thru as well hahaha. You just have to laugh. It’s funny when you’re good enough to be on the World Champs team, but those results mean nothing since I’m getting damn near 30.
