Lodge pole pines hang heavy with snow. Twilight fades to dusk and dusk turns to darkness. A waxing moon casts faint stripes across the trail. Clouds of breath hover and freeze our cheeks. All other sounds are drowned by the squeaking of skis across the snow. (more…)

If you haven’t yet seen the results, XC Oregon had another great day! Zach finished 2nd overall only 8 seconds from winning, while Brayton and I finished 9th and 11th just over a minute behind. (more…)

After getting a much needed 4 inches of new snow, the morning dawned crisp and a bit windy. The course here is short at 900 meters and we knew qualifying times would be very quick, despite squeaky snow. (more…)

A lot has happened here in Montana since the last post. I thought I’d have time and convenient internet to keep you all updated but I’ve actually been lacking in both.

So, to make a long story short, we had a great week of training starting last Saturday afternoon. Skiing twice a day, we averaged 3-3.5 hrs of skiing for the first part of the week, usually doing a longer workout in the morning of around 2 hours followed by an easy ski, jog, or core strength in the afternoon. (more…)

Zach and I got profiled on the local news last night. To watch it click on the “Video Archive,” then we’re the piece titled “Sporting Life: Two train with eyes on ‘10 Olympics.” Julie deserves a lot of credit for for planting the idea for the story. Thanks!

With only a week before leaving for West Yellowstone and exactly two weeks before our first race of the season, there is definitely a little bit of nervous energy and team workouts right now. Every year about this time is the same for me (and talking to some of the guys, I think it’s pretty universal). I start to question my fitness. Have I done enough? Should I be doing harder intensity? How much time do I need on snow before racing? How can I eke out more fitness in two weeks? (more…)

It doesn’t rain very often in Bend.  In fact, I think there was about two months straight starting mid-August in which it might have sprinkled once or twice for ten minutes and that was it.  The result being that there is a fair amount of accumulated dirt on the roads.  So when it does rain, things can get a little dirty in the streets.  No, I don’t mean like battling it out with Streetfighter; I mean muddy.  Hence the photo… (more…)

XC Oregon had a great team workout this morning in which we raced a mock team-sprint (skate) on rollerskis.  Despite strong headwinds, some disputes over course, and threatening rain, we started the “race” shortly after 8 a.m. and the battle began.  Since we were doing a workout against teammates and not battling for prize money at some Super Tour, we attempted to make equal teams to keep the race interesting.  Of course this is diffiicult on snow, but on rollerskis it is near impossible so we faked it as best as possible. (more…)

40° and rainy in town should be perfect for snow on the mountain, right? That’s acutally a semi-serious question, as this is my first fall in Bend, but I would think that even with some inversion going on, the 3000′ vertical difference between here and there would take care of the state change between falling liquid and falling snow. (more…)