The last week has been dreadful in the ski racing community. A 16-year old Stratton Mountain School athlete Beckie McGill died free skiing on downhill skis getting ready for speed week at Sugarloaf, ME. It's so tragic to see such an affable, fascinating young lady taken so early in life. Our hearts go out to her family. While in Kitzbuhel, Daniel Albrecht of the Suisse Ski Team crashed off the final jump in downhill training and is in an induced coma. His condition has recently stabilized. Albrecht went down in the same place where Scott Macartney - who blew out his knee last week in Wengen - crashed last year.

As for me, I’m back in the US getting ready to hammer out some dryland and train a couple days of GS in preparation for my next important Nor-Am series. I fly to Calgary in a week.

Our Europe trip turned out to be a whirlwind tour banging out seven races and two days of training in twelve days. I stated off the trip well and ended it well in GS, while I had a couple of good slalom turns somewhere in between. For the last month or so I’ve been struggling in GS to give myself enough room at the gate to arc a good turn on more challenging terrain. My final GS run in Europe – racing at Kirchberg – I picked two gates on the hill to stay away from that entered onto the two most difficult pitches. It’s something I was working on last season in more difficult courses. But either way, I was able to let my skis pull their radius, stay off the gate, or just brush it, and finish the turn without having to slide the top of the turn. It was a great feeling to left Europe with some confidence in GS.

The trip worked out well thanks to Chris Frank, Mike Lyodl, and GMVS. They let us stay in their Koessen house dramatically cutting down on our travel costs.

Hope things are looking up, w

The last two days at the River were great. For the first time in about a year and a half, I finally skied fast slalom. I really didn’t know what to expect. We had some killer training leading into the races at Sunday River with Gould Academy on great snow. It was actually the best slalom training we’ve had all season and I was able to put together a couple fast runs. But after struggling in slalom for ages, I wasn’t too confident about the races.

In the first slalom race, I just pushed out of the gate, didn’t think about much, and finished 6th on the first run about a second off the pace. I was pretty psyched because I just skied well and didn’t make any mistakes. The second run was an exceptionally turny course and I found the rhythm early. I became a bit late in one section, but was able to snap off a couple tight turns to stay online. I crossed the finish line to hear most of the other competitors clicking their poles together. It’s a courtesy to click your poles together to let the current racer know that he had a fast run. I asked the guy next to me if it was any good and he said I was winning the run. As it turned out, I finished 5th, won the second run, and was able to drop my slalom points. All and all, it was great to put together two runs.

Yesterday, I skied well, tried to pin it a bit harder, and made some mistakes to finish a respectable 6th. All and all, the last four days were successful. I wanted a GS victory, but there are more to come.

Sam and I are in the Manchester Airport on our way to Austria and Germany for two weeks of racing.

Hope you’re all doing well, w

The last two days up here at Sunday River we raced GS on basically an injected surface with a ton of terrain. It was an impressive hill, but I just wasn't quite able to dial it in. The last two years I've done exceptionally well up here, but I just wasn't patient and found myself doing too much sliding at the top of the turn. I ended up finishing 5th yesterday and 4th today, while Leif Haugen and Petter Brenna (both Norwegians) took the victories. All and all, we were able to rack up some precious NorAm points, which is the focus of this season so we’re going in the right direction. I am looking forward to some training and racing in Austria. We fly to Europe on Friday.

The complete bummer of the series is that Charles Christianson, an associate of Team Maximum Velocity, completely tore his ACL yesterday. He was able to get an MRI today in Rutland. It's a sad day whenever that happens and for Charles it's just s*** luck.

The next two days we'll be racing slalom and I really don't know what to expect so I won't try to predict anything. Either way, we're on a great surface and it's going to be a fair race.

Hope you're all doing well, w

Hey,

Hope all of you are off to a good start in 2009. Sam and I have been up here in Sunday River, Maine for a few days of killer training. Tomorrow is the beginning of a four-day tech series at the River (2 GS and 2 slalom). I’m pretty fired up to start racing here. The hill we’re racing on, obsession, is in great shape with a ton of terrain so it’s time to get over my skis, give some room at the top of the turn, and charge.

Game on.

w