Well, That Wasn't Supposed to Happen

My season took an unexpected turn yesterday at NASTAR Nationals when I hurt my knee on the final run of the weekend. Starting dead last after being the top qualifier, I hit a cross rut on a left foot fallaway entering the turn that sent me a little back and directly into a large hole at the bottom of the next gate. It was about 1:30 in the afternoon when I ran and the warm weather played a big role in the deteriorating conditions; the course had changed quite a bit from inspection at 9 that morning. While airborn I saw the big hole and tried to avoid it. My inside ski landed first, but directly in the hole. It twisted, I felt things shift, and immediately pulled off course. I didn't even crash, but I knew that something was wrong. Knee injuries usually happen to the outside leg, and are frequently accompanied with dramatic explosion-like crashes. This had neither. Throw in the fact that I was at NASTAR Nationals and you have the perfect combination of a very unlikely and horrible experience.

I slid down the side of the hill, possibly swore at the ski patrol who asked me to sit on her toboggan as a way of getting down, got help from my old college competitor and Swix rep Andrew Wagner packing my car and getting out of my room, and headed straight for the Vail Valley Clinic. As this isn't my first encounter with injury, I already had Dr. Millett's email and cell phone number on hand. He directed me to a fellow who saw me last night and helped set up an MRI for this morning. I met with Dr. Millett this morning and he informed me that I have a ruptured ACL, meniscal damage, and a fracture to my tibia. This was much worse than I had anticipated, and pretty much took my breath away. On top of that, because I have had that ACL repaired before I am going to need two surgeries: one to remove the old screws and ligament and do a bone graph, and another in a couple of months for the ACL replacement. There is some hope that he can insert screws for the new ACL in other places and combine the process into one surgery, but it is unlikely (I'm pressing hard for this). I told him that I was obviously very bummed about the news but wanted to get surgery/start the healing process right away. He told me that I could go under the knife today at 2pm...well then, here we go.

An ending like this to my most successful season to date has been pretty upsetting and totally not what I pictured. In total irony, I got an email while in the waiting room that SkiRacing had published a Q&A I did a week ago with one of their writers, during which I attribute much of this season's success to staying injury free....too soon? On the plus side I had never seen the photo they used in the article before, and it made me feel a little better seeing myself back on skis (my knee looks so stable!). I haven't really been able to wrap my head around what the hell happened yesterday, I feel like it was a real one-in-a-million type situation, but the only thing I can do is look forward and hope to heal up as fast as possible.

Finally, I need a way to get the bad taste of this what happened yesterday out of my mouth, because other than my knee injury the weekend was a total blast. I am very impressed by the enthusiasm of ski racing on the NASTAR level, and even though it basically kicked my ass (as opposed to the World Cups, ECups, NorAms, or whatever else I raced this season) it was an opportunity that I am glad I went after. Below are some shots from the weekend, hopefully they will illustrate what I mean when I say that the passion for ski racing was in full force. Hoping for a fast surgery and a good report from the doc on the other end!

Early morning at the bottom of the race hill, bring on the crowds!

Any time I can get a picture of Hulk Hogan at a ski race with his kids I take it! Super nice family.

Race day morning smoothie made by super hunk Steve Nyman: 4 raw eggs, almonds, spinach, feta Greek yogurt, nano green, apple juice, mixed berries, Nature Valley Granola bars (not pictured)

Awards at NASTAR Nationals...slight bigger than a FIS race

The winner of the male 90-94 years old category. Apparently they have to keep making new age categories for him!

Podium for qualifiers, with Robby Zehner (left) and Mark Dunsworth (right)

Meeting a fan and fellow racer!

Racing in Bulgaria

Bankso is a pretty cool place. After a small training block in Innerkrems, AUT with the two USST GS specialists, Tim Jitloff and Tommy Ford (Ted Ligety stayed in Russia to train and Bode decided to go boat shopping in Turkey), I joined the other ski racers in bombarding the few flights that day heading to Sofia, Bulgaria. The Bansko venue is apparently different than most other World Cups in that all of the athletes' transport and lodging at the hotel are the same. We were loaded onto different busses, each with a 3 or 4 national teams (our bus was Canada, USA, Sweden, Germany), and were driven 3 hours to Bankso where we all stayed under the same roof, the Strazhite Hotel. I was paired for the week with former college skier and World Cup staple Jimmy Cochran, and after some creative furniture rearrangement in our room we were both able relax, unpack, and not worry about rolling onto each other throughout the night.

As this was the first ever WC GS race held at Bankso, everyone was essentially a rookie racing on the hill. This was pointed out to me by my former ski coach and current Universal Sports commentator Steve Porino in a nice note he sent me earlier in the week. It was comforting when free skiing the race hill the day before the race. One thing that caught most people off guard was how flat the light was at 10am, the proposed start time the next day. Ted was very active in trying to move the start back an hour or so, citing that it would be an unfair advantage to those that raced later when the sun made it over the tall trees bordering the race run. During the warmup it became standard practice to take 5 or 6 turns and then shut it down, start again, stop again, all the way down to avoid getting thrown by all of the sidehill and micro-terrain that was unseeable.

For the second warmup run I brought up my race skis, and managed to somehow hit a rock on the race course. The damage was directly under the ball of the my right foot, and extended on the base edge about 3-4 inches. In the finish arena I ran into Leif Haugen's technician Nicklaus, who helped me take it down as best he could but it was largely unchangeable. I don't know what the odds of hitting a rock that large on the race track are, but they can't be good. No one else I talked to touched a thing. Determined to take one more run on the hill I switched my edges, putting the burr on the outside left edge, and took another lap. I was feeling much more in control of my equipment this time down the hill and was starting to relax when my burred outside edge gave out, knocked out my other ski, and I went down hard.

The mental full body systems check I performed on myself was not good; my left shoulder was in a lot of pain and my right thumb had been bent back pretty far. I also managed to break the zipper on my training shorts...not bad for a crash while free skiing. I saw Mike Day on the side of the hill and told him I needed to see the team doctor. I couldn't much raise my arm and my thumb wasn't doing anything. I couldn't believe what was happening: had this ridiculous chain of events really just taken me out of tomorrow's race? For about 10 minutes there it wasn't looking to good. I've had two shoulder issues before, both on that side, and both times the pain that I initially felt upon impact only got worse. Luckily, this time it got better. After about 10 minutes and a healthy amount of Aleve things started to reverse. The thumb and shoulder were sore but they weren't really that hurt. I found a way to grip my pole that was a little different, and actually went and took a couple free runs afterwards. The race was back on!

Race day was snowy and windy, and there was some talk that it would be cancelled. To get away from this talk I largely kept my head down and focussed on the warmup courses and taking free ski runs. The body parts were still sore from yesterday's crash but nothing that was affecting performance. After getting a couple of solid laps on the training course I was happy with the way I was skiing and excited for the race.

Even though it was windy, people were going at irregular intervals, and light was coming in and out, the guys who were skiing well were still the ones that were moving up. I came out of the gate charging and skied well up top. I got a few gates of wind and lost a ski on one turn but carried good speed through the first sidehill section of the course. Into the next fallaway section I had a pretty large mistake that ended up sealing my fate for the afternoon. I got another blast of wind on the bottom flats which definitely didn't help, but I could have skied faster and made things a lot easier on myself.

One thing I was trying to do the whole time over in Bansko was to enjoy the experience and take in how lucky I was to be doing this. Crashing on the warmup day, hitting a rock on my race skis, and battling bad weather diverted from that focus, but I still ended up having a lot of fun and it was definitely one of the more memorable trips of my life. For starters, my Williams teammate and good friend Tavis Moonan surprised me at the Sofia airport, saying that shortly after he found out I was racing he decided to book a plane ticket and offer his support. The other USST guys were shocked I had a friend who would travel this far to come cheer me on, everyone realized what doing this type of thing meant. More than just vocal support, he was always on hand to help me out with my tuning duties. Since I was probably the only guy in the race tuning his own skis and was using another technician's bench (thanks Pepo!) I always did my skis later at night when the bench was free. Tavis would accompany me to the tuning compound each day, and even ended up taking over scraping duties on race night since my thumb couldn't zip up my jacket let alone push a scraper. I'm pretty sure that would have been a low point had it taken me an hour to scrape two pairs of skis, but instead it was something that we laughed about and just chalked it up as another ski racing experience.

Also, as Will Brandenburg and I were waiting for our flight home in the Frankfurt airport, we met Staff Sergeant Brian Nash who was returning back to the States after 6 months in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Nash is in Infantry in the Army, and stepped on an IED 3 months ago. The 1.5 lb IED that discharged was siting on top of a 25 lb IED, but luckily the wiring was faulty and the larger bomb never went off. He had surgery 3 months ago to repair his compound fractured foot with the hopes of finishing out his tour. The surgery did not go well, the bones didn't heal properly, his nerves got pinched, and he has no feeling in his foot. He spent the last 6 weeks taking morphine pills to make the problem go away. It didn't and eventually he was forced to pull the plug and head home. From Georgia, Nash is heading to Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs where the doctors will re-break his foot and start the healing process. He had no regrets about his experience and ended up telling Will and I story after story about his time in Afghanistan. Talking to him, my shoulder started hurting a lot less and I decided to not worry about my sprained thumb anymore. It is times like these where I am especially grateful to have the opportunity to do what I love. Worrying about other things is a waste, because you never know when things are going to change. Meeting people like Staff Sgt. Nash only drives home this point. I invited him up to Vail whenever he wants, and I hope he takes me up on it. Next stop, La Crosse, Wisconsin!

Shipping Out to Bansko

Life right now is very straight forward. Ski well in NorAms, race in a World Cup.

After racing in the MacDermid NorAm Cup in Vail, CO over the past week I was given the green light to race in the next World Cup, this time in Bansko, Bulgaria. I knew that if I skied fast during the NorAm GS races that I would have an opportunity at a WC spot, but up until the last run of the series things were not looking too hot.

I had fallen on the flats in the second run of the first race, and although I skied well otherwise and scored a career best result (barely), it wasn't a whole lot to go to the table with the USST and ask that they consider me for another WC spot. Luckily, I was able to turn things around on the second run of the last day, winning the run by 3 tenths and moving up from 19th position after first run to 5th overall, finishing as the top American.

It feels great to be heading back to the White Circus. I just finished booking my flight to Bansko, it’s always a bit scary booking an international 3 days before departure but whatever. I am currently at home in AK, competing in the FIS U races (experiencing every imaginable kind of weather) so I’m a little further away from Europe than usual. Staring Sunday morning at 1am my milk run itinerary is as follows: ANC-SEA-DEN-IAD-MUC, stop for two days of training, then to SOF. From Sofia, Bulgaria, I am told there is a 3-hour shuttle to Bansko. I will free ski the hill on Friday and race on Saturday. In any other situation I would cringe at a logistical schedule like this, but right now all I can do is grin.

Fingers crossed for the race (and to changing the flight itinerary). Whatever happens the journey is gonna be great. Thanks to everyone for their support and well wishes, off to Bulgaria!

PS- I found this little gem in the Alyeska Ski Club offices. It is the 1990-1991 Nastar  Alaska division season recap, in poster form! This relic is full of greats from Alaska's ski racing past, I don't even think they have Nastar in AK anymore. I was able to land second in the boys 5-6 category, damn you Loren Dreyer!

European Vacation

So racing in Europe was a bit of a bust. No other way to say it. The weather was very warm, and when it wasn't it was snowing hard. Aside from my glorious shopping spree on the first day of the trip I can't speak to too many things which were total wins. But even if I didn't come away with the best results possible, I had some memorable experiences and ones that will prove beneficial down the road.

For example, no other standard FIS race compares to the Westendorf night race. The Westendorf Nachtslalom is held every year on the night before the Kitzbuhel WC super g, about two towns away. Because of the lack of housing in the town of Kitzbuhel (there are up to 80,000 spectators for the Hahnenkamm weekend and only 20,000 beds in Kitzbuhel), most fans stay elsewhere in valley for the weekend. Many racers competing in the Kitzbuhel slalom (on Sunday) use Westendorf as a prep race (on Thursday). Some fans like to kick off their weekend of race spectating at Westendorf, as it allows them closer access to their favorite slalom skiers, and it's an all around good time. Typically anywhere from 2-4 thousand people show up for this race, although the numbers were a little light this year since it was raining right up to the start of the race. The organizers put up a fully stocked athlete VIP tent, beer vendors, bars going off surrounding the event, the whole deal, making it the largest ordinary FIS race in the world. After finishing 21st the first run from bib 27, I straddled half way down second run. Although I didn't get a result from the race it's great to be a part of such a fun environment, and it puts other race scenarios into perspective for the rest of the year. Plus, I had a great time blowing off some steam after the race (when it started raining again) and enjoyed the fact that I had a couple of days off coming up.

Here are some photos from the rest of the trip. I am back stateside now, and after a couple of days of dryland I am going to start training again in Vail on Sunday. A big shout out to former ski racer, full-time cougar hunter, and skier cross phenom Joey Swenson competing at his first X Games. Kick some ass this weekend Joey!

Best. Shopping Trip. Ever.

For any ski racer, visiting the factory of your ski sponsor is something just short of a religious experience. There are no American companies that produce race skis so there is an added mystique about visiting the actual factory in Euroland instead of the USA distribution warehouse. These factories are usually in some small Austrian town and are a real hassle to get to. This all adds to the experience as the massive industrial buildings tower over you when you pull into the parking lot. From the outside it looks kind of mysterious, as if a million little Oompa-Loompas are in there working. And if the factory is the Wonka Chocolate Factory, the door labeled "race room" is the Inventing Room and Chocolate Room all rolled into one.

Nordica USA Super Rep Ethan Korpi set up a meeting for me in Mittersill, Austria to visit the Blizzard/Nordica factory for the first time and pick up some new skis. I decided to make it my first stop of the trip (couldn't help it) so after I landed in MUC I called Nordica and confirmed I had made it, got my bags and my rental car, and was off.

Upon arrival I met the Blizzard/Nordica race room manager, Mike Kogler, and presented him with a gift. Meetings with ski industry people always go better when you bring something sort of adult beverage as a welcome present. I picked up a large bottle of Tennessee's finest at the Duty Free, and not surprisingly was met with a warm smile. We instantly became friends.

Mike brought me over to show me my new GS skis, mounted with fresh bindings and oh so beautiful. He also asked me to bring 2 pairs of SL skis to the US, which I readily accepted. It was hard not to ask for two of everything in the room. After a couple tune-ups on other things, new bindings on my current race SLs skis, some boot work, I was on my way. Like the best things in life, it was all over way too quickly. I hate shopping for the most part, I basically don't do it outside of the holidays, but wow that was sweet. I now understand why people say it can be addictive. Not exactly sure how I'm going to squeeze 4 extra pairs of skis in my bags on the way home, but these are logistical problems I am only too happy to deal with. Time to make them turn, looking forward to racing!

COLLEGE!!!!

There's a saying out there that college is the best four years of your life. I can't really disagree with this, I loved my college experience and wouldn't trade it for anything. But only 4 years? That's so limiting. With this in mind I returned over the weekend to the glory circuit of college racing to prep for my upcoming Europe trip and have some fun.

The college ski racing circuit really is unto itself. For starters, it's the only circuit in which skiing is a team sport. Although there are individual titles to be had your team wins and loses as a whole, men and women combined. This creates a much louder atmosphere at the start and the finish, and it's awfully refreshing after racing on the NorAm and FIS circuit where cheering for others comes mostly from...the college skiers. The skiing is also very competitive, making for an overall great race.

Skiing at Williams, I had never been in a FISU out West (they're called carnivals out East) and had never raced at Eldora Mountain before. These FISUs, hosted by Colorado University, lasted three days. The first two days were GSs, while today was a slalom. Starting 18 on the first day I skied well enough from outside the top 15 (college seeding) and was able to put two good runs together to notch my first victory of the season. Winning always feels good, and this was no exception. The victory from the first day got me bib 6 for the second day of GS, and again with my new DODGE boots I was able to fight both runs to squeak out the win.

Today, with about half a foot of new snow and no course workers the race officials were forced to cancel the race before the completion of the first run. These are the downsides of college racing, especially out West. While this was a major disappointment it was the right call. I started 18 again (again, college seeding) and came down into 6th position, 2.7 seconds out. By the time they cancelled the race the course had deteriorated to a point that the holes resembled lunar craters more than anything else. I ended up taking off a bit early as the organizers still were trying to pull off a women's slalom, and I didn't feel the need to sit through 5 hours of more slalom in bad conditions for no reason.

That turned out to be somewhat of a tactical error. I was unaware that the awards were belt buckles, which sounds really cool to me. I got hosed out of a belt buckle after winning a Super G at Bogus Basin when I was 17 (I'm still holding out, Carmen!) and I haven't been right ever since. Back to Eldora, the crowd at awards somehow convinced the organizers that getting awards was a must-be-present-to-win scenario, and bumped everyone up a notch. Nick Cohee, the runner up at the GS race, sent me a pic of the belt buckle and as the rightful owner of this property I am currently in the process of righting the ship and restoring some sense of normalcy to the ski racing world. This means that Espen Lysdahl, who placed fourth in the race, will ultimately go back to getting a wooden spoon for an award instead of a bronze belt buckle. He knows it's bad luck to take someone else's medal so it won't be too hard. Plus, I expect Espen will win no less than 20 of these types of medals over his college career so I'm not too torn up about doing this. Sometimes remembering the glory years takes a little more work than you think.

Anyway, heading to Europe on Tuesday where apparently there is so much snow that races are being cancelled. Erik Fisher is over there now and told me that Austria got a legit 5 ft dump of snow. Paul Epstein said he skied chest deep powder yesterday. I spoke with the USST this morning and found out that my ride to the opening Europa Cups in Meribel, France has evaporated as they haven't been able to train in Sölden and are heading there now, a week early. Driving to France solo is something that I was trying to avoid, but hopefully I can train it or I'll just suck it up and make it happen. Should be a great racing experience!

Ski Friends

In the sport of ski racing you are constantly relying on instinct. Successfully navigating a race course involves one critical split-second decision after the next. Make the wrong one and there are consequences.

The same applies to loaning your car to someone. Enter my good racing bud and fellow road warrior Warner Nickerson.

After the Beaver Creek WC, Warner needed to stay in the Vail valley to continue therapy on his back and he was essentially homeless. Ian Lochhead, my landlord and SSCV Supercoach, took him in and let him to crash at his house, putting us all under the same roof before I took off for Panorama. Shortly before I left, W and I were in his car driving to dinner when he asked in his innocent/totally not innocent way, "So Dude, what are you doing with your car while you're gone?"

For starters, ski racers are pretty aggressive drivers. All we do is try to make a turn as fast as possible. Combine that with the false confidence that these skills are directly applicable to asphalt and you've got yourself one dangerous amateur rally car driver. Needless to say, I was a little concerned about loaning my car out to another ski racer for an extended period of time, especially one who wasn't able to get on the slopes at the moment and probably needed an outlet for his frustration. My apprehension was confirmed when, as he was asking me about my car, he rammed his rental Chevy Cobalt over a curb in Vail to complete a U-turn instead of putting it in a reverse and staying on the street. "Don't worry man, it's a rental!" he tried to assure me when he saw the look on my face. All I could think about was the low clearance on my car and how expensive that little move would have been in my Passat.

I was very happy to learn before I left that W had lined up Leif's Viking1, meaning I was off the hook. I ended up leaving a key at the airport parking lot (Holiday Inn Express, much cheaper than anything else around DIA) anyway and told him that my car was available in case of emergencies, but didn't think he'd need it. Of course, about the time I got to AK for the holidays I got a text from W asking where I left the car, and if he could use it for a couple of days. The same fear crept back into my head, but I figured what the hell, it's the holidays and it's only for a couple of days. What's the worst that could happen?

I awoke yesterday to a text message from Warner asking me to call him so he could explain where he left the car. Hmmm, that's funny, I told him exactly where to leave it. I then checked my email and saw that he had tagged me in a post. Uh oh. After reading his blog post titled "it wasn't my fault!" I was in full I-told-myslef-so mode. A phone call to him put me a little more at ease, but only a little.

This morning on the shuttle ride from DIA to the hotel I prepped myself by asking the driver if there were a lot of cars that were parked illegally at the hotel, and if they were towing them. "Yeah it's a mess out there right now, but unless you parked in a really bad spot you should be okay." Please God, let Warner have found a non-really bad spot. Sure enough, there were cars parked everywhere around the hotel in illegal spots. On the grass and on snowbanks, it was indeed a crazy sight. My car wasn't anywhere too outstanding so that was a relief, and the car turned over (barely) so I didn't even have to jump it. I was very happy.

True to his word Warner left me a signed autograph card of him shredding a turn and some money for a car wash that he meant to get. All was good. That's when I noticed the knob on the bass control was missing, which I am guessing had something to do with the thumping music from Warner's burned CD titled "Beatport Top 10 progressive mix" left in my CD player. The front seat was moved way back like a ganster whip, allowing me to imagine exactly how Warner put on 500 miles on my car in 4 days.

The money went to an oil change that I got this morning, and other than the fact that the mechanic informed me that he couldn't add extra zip ties to my skid plate because it is missing (the mechanic also told me he would be a good skier because just last year when he was in jail he could squat 525lbs) things are good. Warner is a good friend and I was happy to help him out. I'm sure he handled my car with kid gloves, and without friends helping each other out the sport of ski racing would be a much more expensive and lonely sport. I can't wait to borrow his car some day, cheers Warner!