As I sit here in Calgary waiting for my flight home, I realize we had a successful week, maybe not with FIS points or Nor-Am points, but we experienced good skiing and fun times.

The flat conditions were difficult, but the course crew injected the snow with water making it more like ice skating and less like skiing, which actually played to my advantage on the steep sections with a high bib number. But the day ended with some pitiful skiing on the flats- it was sissy skiing that ruled the flats rather than the proverbial hammer that we're always striving for. I was pivoting in blind gate sections when I should have been pointing my skis down the fall line, looking for speed, and worrying less about my personal well being. Either way, I crossed the finish line to finished in 6th place and was early 2 seconds off the pace.

However, it wasn't all bad. I did accumulate enough Nor-Am point to have a better bib pick for the second day as I started 2nd. I decided to ski on a different, newer pair of skis because it was time to give the new Fisch sticks a chance. My plan was to pin-off each section and I did; unfortunately, with a full pin mentality there are often mistakes that litter the run. The mistakes were not calculated, but I was skiing far better than the day before. I ended up finishing in 6th again, but was a lot closer to the pace and without a few mishaps we would have been on the podium, but that's ski racing.

We're about to catch a flight back home to Boston and it's well past check out time so take care and hopefully your week is off to a good start.

w