Nasty

Bird Ridge. 3 miles, 3400 ft uphill the whole way. Throw some wet, wind, and cold and that was nasty. Brent and I took off from the start and I felt super comfortable for about 15 minutes until last week caught up I couldn't match the pace. After about 25 minutes some of those classic skiing muscle that I abused last week started to cramp up in the cold and I was waddling up the mountain with my feet two feet apart. Trying to keep moving just hoping they would come around so I could hold on to second place. Luckily for me once Tor Kristopherson (3rd) got to within 5-10 seconds the course started to level out enough that I could run and the cramping let up and was able to pull away and save second. The best effort of the day had to be Rob Whitney who was 6th or so, that man can suffer!

Next up, a couple days of rest working down at the Raven before getting back to it on Wednesday.

Eagle 1

Yesterday I dragged my body out of my bottom bunk. Shoved down some more food and coffee before heading out for the last ski of the first Eagle Glacier camp of the year. This morning I woke up to the chirps of baby Hazel and gave her a bath before I ate breakfast. A whole other world...

My rest days are a little different than the rest of the team this year due to baby care which means the rest of my training week is a little different as well. This means that this was the first time I was back with the full team for the summer. This is the third year of the new APU team and you can tell that the whole crew is working really well together. Super good to see. This was also the first camp up there with Mark Iverson and Mike Hinckley. Two guys with quite a bit of talent that have been a good addition to the team.

Camp was a little different than usual thanks to the volcano. The ash that blew in March definitely left its mark on the glacier with a nice shade of gray. We woke up to snow a few days up there and the glacier would be white for a few hours before the gray would come back to the top. The loop we skied was much cleaner than the rest after the PB moved the surface ash to the side but the fat rills I put in my rock skis were no where to be seen after a few days.

We also classic skied a ton. The PB had some mechanical issues after a couple days and the snow wasn't setting up thanks to the ash and the weather so the snow machine set classic tracks for most of the week. Ski training is so varied with training options that we never do the same thing all that much. This week with only classic skiing was tough. Sore in all kinds of places and my feet were killing me by the end but my classic skiing is way better than it was seven days ago!

Up next is Bird Ridge on Sunday. A 3500 or so ft uphill race along the Turnagain Arm. Luckily I managed avoid hiking out yesterday so my legs at least aren't sore. Who know's how the rest of my body will take it. Big thanks to Keith at Alpine Air for getting Laura and I out of there and Jay for getting us back to town!