We just finished up a two day series of GS at Coronet Peak on the South Island of New Zealand. The last two days represented a brilliant opportunity to pin it and score big against stiff competition from the Norwegian, Swedish, and US Team guys. Yesterday, I started 22 and after a solid first run I was sitting in 6th place four tenths of a second off the leader, Ted Ligety. Second run, I was extremely fired up, jumped out of the gate, and cut off the line; however, after five gates down the steep pitch a rut caught my outside ski, I lost a ton of elevation, and had to throw my skis sideways to stay in the course losing time. I crossed the line and the timer didn’t display my time so with the mistake I wrote off the day as merely a good first run. Miraculously last night I heard I finished in 7th and scored a 14.78 point race, my second best GS result ever.

Today I was more than confident to get the job done. The field wasn’t quite as stacked, but there were still some good skiers on the start list. First run, I got on it and had a solid run, no mistakes, but it wasn’t quite as strong as yesterday. After the run ended, I was in 3rd just under 5 tenths of TJ Lanning and Jono Brauer (tied for first). Second run, I was ready to get after it and wanted nothing more than to fly home with a nzed victory. I took an aggressive line down the pitch and was putting together a strong run. Nonetheless, half way down the course I gave some direction, not nearly enough, over a blind roll and skied through the next gate. A tactical mistake cost me the race ending my day with letters (DNF) rather than numbers. It was an opportunity in which I did not capitalize. I was over it until I heard TJ, who won, scored a 6 point race. But whatever, I’m skiing fast and it’s only August.

All and all, we had a great camp down under and I’m walking away with a GS result so things are good. I’m looking forward to a flight home, a wedding tour, more conditioning, and a few days of warm weather on the home front. Take care from down under, w