Hello all,

Sorry I haven’t been staying on top of my updates.

A ton has happened since I left for Chile over two weeks ago – which seems like eons ago – with Stratton Mountain School. I had a great camp with 12 days on-snow and one of them in two feet of fresh powder. We had an epic day of powder on our third day. The mountain was ours as their peak season was long gone. It officially closed for the public a few days later; the only thing that really matters is we had a full day of fresh powder and endless face shots. Jake I hope you’re feeling better. Jake Fisher, a friend and coach at Burke, tumbled through a pile of rocks and broke at least one rib.

After a killer day of powder, we took a day off followed by nine days on-snow (all of the kids took at least one day off, but since the skiing was so good I just couldn’t take one off). I still can’t believe the amount of mileage we were able to log nearly all under a bluebird sky. The camp progressed well as the snow kept getting better. It would warm up during the day to around 60 degrees and then freeze every night so the snow kept getting harder. Our last day, during Stratton’s Annual Condor Cup the snow was money. All and all, my balance improved a lot and now it’s time to start taking more risk. It’s time to go faster.

Anyway, we arrived back in Stratton on Friday night around 11:30 and yesterday I started working on my boots. I woke up early this morning and worked on my boots a bit more to finish them just in time for Jamie to drive me to the Albany Airport to catch a flight to Chicago. I’m writing this on the plane and plan to send it out in Chicago – hopefully I’ll find some wireless in my 45 minute layover – then off to Munich where Dane should be picking me up at the Airport.

He has been skiing at Hintertux for the last few days in very limited snow. Many teams and programs have canceled their trips to Europe because they don’t have any snow, but I talked to Dane today while it was snowing over there so helpfully winter is hitting Austria hard.

The new boot program seems to be working so I now have two new versions to test. Other than the travel and crunch time, my life seems to be relatively steady. It was great to spend two weeks in Chile and be in close proximity to Jamie.

I will be updating you all soon to explain the Solden time trial, which is constantly changing because of the limited snow. I’m exhausted and ready to sleep all the way to Munich. Take care. w

Also,

A few of you asked about Cody Marshall. He’s doing exceptionally well. A month ago he called me and said, “I think I can still race this season!” I responded with, “You’re 146 pounds, you haven’t even skied on your new skis (he switched to Blizzard a couple weeks before he fell), and Levi (the first World Cup slalom) is in two months. Come on, let’s be serious.” He responded with, “F… You, I’m 148 pounds!!” Needless to say, he’s recovering exceptionally well and wants nothing more than some competition. He’s being treated like an athlete again rather than a trauma patient so he’s back in the gym with a good plan to get back in the game. His next big step is passing an impact test. He needs to prove that his head is ready to take another hit before he’ll be cleared to ski, which will certainly take some time. Good luck buddy. Keep fighting!!

And Tony, we all hope you’re on the mend too. I talked to Carolyn earlier today and she said you were off to bed. Sleep well and keep fighting. All the best, w