Last week I left Bachelor which now has 84 inches of snow and was 22 degrees when I checked this afternoon.

I spent the holidays skiing at Mt. Spokane with 50 inches of snow and 27 degrees today.

Tomorrow, I’m traveling to Houghton, MI for US Nationals which has about 5 inches of snow (although they are trucking in more) and got up to 31 degrees this afternoon.

Ski racing is funny sometimes.

I did three by about eight and a half minutes on roller skis today. They’re V2 105s and they are the slowest skis I’ve ever been on. Skate, classic, combi – these are the slowest. So that made it hard. And the plan was to go hard anyway. (more…)

I am a morning person. I like to get up early, I like to ski in the morning and generally be up and about in the AM hours. A couple days ago though I couldn’t get up to the mountain to ski until after dark. After working a ten hour day at the shop, which, by the way, triples my work hours for the week, I was still feeling surprisingly motivated to go for a ski. (more…)

I’ve been back home since Christmas Eve day visiting my parents and enjoying having meals prepared for me.  (more…)

Today a bunch of XC Oregon raced the Nancy P’s Classic here at Mt. Bachelor.  And it was an epic one.  Snowing hard before the start and until long after the last finishers.  With a little help from Jack Hart, we were able to avoid any major wax disasters as it was right around freezing and absolutely dumping in the tracks.  Bill snapped this photo with his phone and it really captures the feeling of a hard ski race, but doesn’t really show how much it really was snowing.  (more…)

Every time we load up our cars and ski boxes with gear and clothing for our multiple week race trips, we start planning the logistics of having a private jet or at the very least, a pimped out team bus. (more…)

Unlike most of the country, we have great skiing right now.  Bachelor has upwards of 60″ of snow and 50km of tracked, groomed skiing and the sno-parks groomed by Tumalo Langlauf are also in prime condition.  Here are some photos from my OD ski this morning.  Keep reading and you’ll see I’m really not trying to rub it in–I have a reason for showing how great it is here.  (more…)

Like Brayton, I also did intervals yesterday (Thurs.) but I got to do them in Bend, skiing at Bachelor for the first time since the mountain officially opened this winter.  I’ve been gone that long. (more…)

I was planning on going back to Bend after last weekend’s races in Sun Valley. I’d been trying to figure out a way to come down to Soldier Hollow to do the last distance SuperTour before Nationals, but there was pretty much no way to race on Sunday and still make my plane back to Vermont for Christmas. (more…)

The nordic ski community is full of amazingly friendly and giving people.  And after the last three weeks, I owe many of them huge thank yous. (more…)