Hello all,

I just arrived home last night after a damn good finish to our camp and a couple days of ripping around Europe with my dad. The snow hardened up and we were able to get some pretty money slalom training with Deiter Bartsch, a local rock star Austrian ski coach, who went up in the groomer and made sure his hill was perfectly prepared. With Deiter Charles Christianson and I skied a few days with Johan Brolenius, a Swedish slalom specialist, and Hannes Brenner, a recently cut Austrian national teamer. The last day of training I was able to ski a day of GS with Bode on some glacial ice. The end of the camp was great and I was able to pick up another pair of boots with some new plastic that should work well in GS and SG, but we’ll see how the feel in Colorado. All and all, the end of the camp was far better than the beginning.

It’s nice to be back online – it’s official I’m addicted to the internet – just after my last update my computer decided to no longer turn on so I’ve been deprived of my daily internet quota, which has been pretty burtal. In Austria it’s the easiest way to see what’s going on in the world.

Anyway, I’m psyched to get to Colorado do a little fine tuning with equipment and start the season. I fly out to Colroado on the 5th so I can vote here in NH and then rip out west.

Congrats to Megan McJames who had her first top 15th in a World Cup yesterday at Solden, while Ted and Bode are sitting in 4th and 5th, respectively, after the first run earlier today.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend. w

We’ve been in Austria nearly a week and we’ve already fulfill the main goal of this camp: get new skis and start dialing them in. After arriving last Wednesday – both Sam and I arrived on time with our baggage in tow – we met up with Jake Zamansky at the Munich Airport and drove to Innsbruck. Upon arrival to Patsch, which feel more like our European home than anything else, we called Bode’s GS and SL service man, Tschunti, to see if we could pick up some new skis for the season (I put in an order with Tschunti a few weeks earlier). He made a few calls for us and before we knew it the next morning Sam and I were driving to Kennelbach to pick up some skis at the Head Factory.

It was a pleasant two and a half hour drive– we only made one wrong turn – upon arrival we were immediately greeted with shot of espresso and sat down to talked with Rainer, the boss about skis and our plan for the season. We loading our van up with 10 pairs of fully prepped skis, 2 downhill, 2 super g, 3 giant, and 3 pairs of slalom skis. Tschunti is totally the man!!! He must have spent a couple days getting them ready, which is a huge help for us.

In Kennelbach, we walked around the relatively small factory mainly unsupervised. Although, a guided tour certainly would have been more informational, it was nice to check it out on our own. After picking up the skis, we met up with a Michela, one of the boot guys, and got a pair of boots made, picked up a few skis bags, some tennis rackets for Tschunti, and a bunch of stuff for Bode. After nearly a full day at the factory – including a free lunch – Sam and I drove away with our hands in the air completely psyched about our victorious trip. Christmas certainly came early in Austria. Now we just have to ski them in, dial in our set up and get them all home.

We’ve been getting some decent training at Stubia glacer, only a thirty-five minute drive from the apartments in Patsch, but the weather has been a little too warm during the day and night so the snow isn’t setting up too well, which means we’re skiing on spring snow rather than ice.

We pulled the plug on today and hopefully it will get a bit colder during the next few days.

Hope all is well back, w

Thanks to all of you that took part in my golf classic on Friday. It was a great time and a huge success. For those of you that couldn’t make it, it started out ominous with a painfully chilling downpour that lasted for an hour before the clouds passed and the warm blue sky came to save the day. There was no shortage of booze or Jager as it was a quick remedy for all of us that didn’t bundle up.

All and all, it was a great time. With 90 golfers, 80 people at the BBQ and auction, and a big donation from a family friend that couldn’t attend, we raised $31,000!!! Thanks so much for making it happen. With the support of my parents we’re only $10,000 short on covering the whole season, which is awesome.

The noon shotgun tee time tuned out to be too late for most of the parents of the crowd that had to tend to their families, but those of you that stayed enjoyed a well deserved BBQ and Jesse Thompson dominating the auctioneering. Either way, I’m sorry for starting the tournament so late in the day, but special thanks to all of you that stayed.

Sam and I are off to Europe tomorrow with Jake Zamansky and Charles Christianson for two weeks of training and dialing in skis in Innsbruck, Austria. We don’t have the training completely figure out, but once we arrive that should fall into place.

Thanks for all of your help. It means so much to have so many people part of my ski racing campaign. And as you all know, this wouldn’t be possible without you.

Thanks. Best Wishes, w