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So another solid weekend...it got off to a rocky start, but ended amazingly.

Friday I called off work to go to Patrick Shire's funeral...Patrick was on our team for the previous three years...this year he had moved to Roundtop's team. I only got to coach him for one year, but, he definitely made an impact on my life. He was one of the smartest kids I knew...he was involved in a fatal skiing accident at Denton the previous weekend - 13 years old...needless to say it rocked our team and last week everyone was bummin...the funeral was super sad, but a ton of people showed up and it was great to see all of the support. Patrick will be deeply missed.

The last thing Patrick would want any of us to do is to stop skiing. So, Saturday practice went down...of course, i'm a big idiot and raged it a little too hard Friday night, slept through my alarm, and showed up way late - like noon...I know i know...blah...i was in time for team pictures though, which worked for me! While the photog (who wasnt shooting Canon...lame) was dicking around, I snapped a few of my own, and us coaches started getting a little silly...



The rest of sunday was pretty uneventful - chad amanda and I went over to Wishard's for dinner...I practically fell asleep at the dinner table, then I crashed at Chad and Amanda's.

Sunday sunday SUNDAY! Man, sunday rocked! FIS legal SL course in the AM down Blue Streak. Code Red had a killer set, and it was a fun course! I wanna do that more often...after running that a couple times, i played around on Liberty's backside till lunch time. Despite eating massive shit and my shoulder not functioning for about 10 minutes, the skiing was awesome! After lunch, Amanda, Danny, and I had a parent's clinic for all of the athelete's parents. It was awesome! Our parents rock, and they are only going to get better. Of course, when 1:45 rolled around, it was play time!! Highlights consist of amanda FINALLY boosting a jump instead of sucking it up (way to go!!!!! yes!), teaming the ultra ridge, bashing the wussy bumps on eastwind, death training the booter with dualing spread eagle w/ antennae, and watching curt show up his nephew twice with a solid 70s style spread, and a daffy the second time. Hysterical. Everyone had so much fun...thats what skiing is about. You know you have a solid crew when you turn 600 vertical feet of dirt and "snow" into an "epic day".

Gate training tonight and Thursday, then the Tussey SL all weekend. It's staying cold, the snow is holding up, and everyone is skiing so well. I'm so pumped.


And did I mention we pulled the trigger on Utah tix???? Hell yah! March 7-17 - $200 roundtrip...god bless you Southwest!

Super G Skis Kill it

So this is uber late, but, whatevs...

Last weekend was epic. Saturday, the weather was a tad overcast, but, whatever, who cares...it was super-g training day. We basically had White Lighting all to ourselves so that was pretty sweet. It was my first time running anything remotely comparable to a super-g course, let alone my first day ever on super-g skis. haha It rocked. The course was killer...my first two runs (also my first two runs on the super-g boards) were sketchy at best, but I felt like I had it more dialed the third and I felt like a rock star for the fourth. haha I'm sure I sucked, but man was it fun...after we took the course down, the key three and Robbie opted for the ever crucial lunch-on-the-lift (which means we werent a bunch of sallys and ate our lunch on the lift to bag a few extra turns). I think this was the only time where I have said that Heavenly was saweeeeeet! It was amazing to rip high speed arcs and feel that solid and stable...I can't really remember where we went after that, but I remember ripping down blue streak and then switching to GS skis...which felt like noodles after the morning's events. The rest of the day was awesome, I think we just bashed bumps with the kids all day.

Saturday night turned into a tuning marathon on my part...hammered out three pairs of skis and a couple, um, cups of, um, coffee...in the midst of it all, we were planning out the Triple Crown race which was to take place on Sunday...since it's generally full of middle aged, overweight, speed suit laden men, it seemed appropriate for me to make a complete mockery of it. For starters, I tried on Cordell's speed suit, just to make sure the fit was appropriate. Money. So, I rocked it out on Sunday.

Sunday, Cordell and company set a 60 gate SL course on White haha it was ridiculous...I wasn't coaching, just playing...so I dabbled in the course, but got worked a few times, so just stuck to the backside...not to mention it was incredibly difficult to ditch out on the backside...snow was super soft, air was cool, bumps were plentiful...so i stayed back there until it was time for the big race. hahahaha Needless to say, I was as ridiculous as possible...even carried my GS skis up to the start, grunted, growled, made a ton of noise hahah I beat Larry, so, it's all good...

In the afternoon all we did was bash bumps and bump races with the kids...probably the most amazing day of training I've ever been a part of...everyone had a blast, the kids seemed to pick up on a lot, and parents seemed super pumped. On the way home that day, it dawned on me that I coach along side of, coach some of, and are supported by some of the most amazing people I could ever imagine. I had such an awesome feeling after that day, but was pretty bummed when I realized it was practically over...

You are ridiculous, Mid-Atlantic...

Another righteous weekend of the shred up at Liberty...early morning gate training yesterday, and gate training today. Cordell blew chunks yesterday when we got home, I'm guessing Amanda poisoned his roast beast sandwich...either way he was out for today so I got to play Coach Chad haha those are some tall boots to fill, but I think I managed...skiing was surprisingly good despite the mercury topping out 'round fiddy degrees...Saw Pauly and the rest of the p-crew which was cool and it was even cooler to see Zander man and his fam out sliding around - even if he did stab me with that damn ski pole about 50 times haha I suppose it was really my fault...

Anywho...this weather is looking like absolute crap...I'd like to bring to your attention to of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen on Accuweather...

Exhibit A
As you will notice in the graphic below, the graph of the high temp is literally, off the charts...



Exhibit B
The Mid-Atlantic is full of wusses. Note that 31 degrees is dubbed "frigid"...



How does that Coheed song go again? ...pull the trigger and the nightmare strops, woah oh...Why can't I be in Cali enjoying the 11 foot dump...grr

It might get a little hairy...

Things might get confusing here...I know I haven't wrapped up this past weekend's events yet, but I feel the need to touch on last night...

Winter finally came back and slapped Liberty in the face...thank freaking god...if conditions at liberty were always like last night, I wouldn't be so pissed about not being in Vermont -- yes it was that good haha

Anywho, your typical Thurs night gate training with the race team. We got shafted on Sneaky Pete with a SL course that was a joke but man that backside was righteous. The Core Four was on the mountain with a few additions. It was great to see Robbie and Jared back on the snow, and as always it was great to see April and Todd. Todd gave us the heads up that Upper Ultra was a little on the outta-control side of things and that there was "powder" to be had. In disbelief and with little convincing, The Key Three and Jared went to investigate...sure enough, the backside was firm, but grippy - in most spots. Lower Heavenly required a few tricky navigational tactics, but nothing extreme. However, Upper Ultra was a dream...loose powder, and tons of launch pads. As usual, the night was too short, but a blast.

All in all, a killer night - this weekend is looking promising too.