Holding Down the Fort

With Ingrid in Sun Valley and Nick off in the Boundary Waters, I decided that rather than join my teammates in Idaho, it would be better to hold down the fort in Minnesota. In all honesty, I was pretty bummed to be confined to crutches for the first part of summer instead of bombing around the mountains of Sun Valley, but MN has been good to me this summer.

Hard to beat the Boundary Waters

I've been working for a local conservancy fighting invasive species (the highlight being driving my little cart to various worksites during the day)

Not a bad office for the summer

and eating absurd amounts of kale from our garden. I've also been mountain biking quite a bit on the new trails near my house (currently seeking riding buddies if anyone is looking to bring their bike out east this fall) and enjoying the top-notch rollerskiing in Afton. While I miss all my teammates loads, I've managed to find some ok training partners in the midwest too. 

Ripping around Afton with the hometown hero

I also got my mountain fix by heading out to Bozeman with a couple friends to adventure around and train with the juniors out there for a week.

How to avoid sunburn as a Minnesotan in the mountains

I'm super psyched to get back to Williamstown in another month and join up with the team! Finally, here is a picture of potentially the best pancake I've ever eaten in my life (not a claim I would make lightly)–10/10 would recommend the breakfast restaurant Jam! in Bozeman. 

Though unassuming, this pancake gave me a new standard with which to hold all other pancakes too.

Updates from Down Under

Hi everyone! It's been a hectic summer, but I've finally settled down in Melbourne and found some time to write a post. Here's what I've been up to so far:

After exams in May, I headed off to Bend to race the Pole Pedal Paddle with my sister Kate and hang out for a week.

I didn't find much sun in Bend, but the snow cover was good!

After landing back in Zurich, I set off on a road trip to Zegama, Spain, with my other sister. She crushed a vertical kilometer race there with a 4th place finish and we got to explore the mountains a little bit.

We may have gotten a little lost, but we made it to the top

New life experience: being chased down the mountain by a herd of goats

On our drive back, we stopped at the Dune du Pilat on the French Atlantic coast. It's Europe's highest sand dune at 100-115 meters above sea level and a very cool but bizarre natural formation sandwiched between the ocean and the forest.

How did all this sand get here?

Next, my travels took me to London, where I spent three and a half weeks doing an internship in the R&D lab at a biopharmaceuticals company. They let me do a lot of independent lab work, which was exciting! I also learned all about the challenges of fitting in time for training while working 9-5, five days a week.

Rollerskiing in central London and Regents Park with my friend Irene (we got some very strange looks)

Refueling properly post workout with some Dutch pancakes

Found a cute street named after Henry while on a run

As soon as my internship in London was done, I headed home for 24 hours and then on to Sydney to visit a friend and go to study abroad orientation.

Luckily Australian customs let me into the country, even though my ski bag looked a bit like it was carrying a rocket launcher

I've been finding SkiErgs in a surprising number of gyms in non-snowy places - this one was in Sydney

Beautiful views from a run around the Sydney Botanical Gardens

More beautiful views, this time from a trip to the Blue Mountains

I would have thought the world's steepest railway was in Switzerland, but turns out it's in Australia

Bondi Beach was gorgeous, but one grumpy seagull photobombed every picture I took

I'm now in Melbourne and settled in at the college where I'll be living for the next five months. I'm excited to explore the city and hopefully get up to the mountains and snow as soon as I can!

I hope everyone else are enjoying their summers too!

In the Land of Sheep and Potatoes

Hello from another Sun Valley resident for the summer! Though I'm a little sad there aren't as many lakes to jump into as in Minnesota, Idaho is alright so far. Highlights have included going on mountain runs with the team, getting on the rollerski treadmill, some solo running expeditions into the mountains, getting to know the local sheep, playing Pinochle with the crew here, and eating lots of cookies.

Arborglyph carved on an aspen by sheepherders long ago

She loves her crocs

Lucy hard at work making sure the trails are passable

Bye bye baby aspen

Still a bit chilly up top, almost as inviting as the Green River in March

They're not wrong...

Couple of goobs at Pioneer Cabin (Where did Woody go?)

One of Jenae's finer moments

Another one

More tongue

Yay!

Jenae v. hammock

Fueled By FISH

Sticking with the theme of "activities that require poles," I've been mixing up the summer training with a good bit of fishing. I've convinced myself that this is the ideal recovery activity since standing waist-deep in glacial rivers is just as good as an ice bath and fresh, wild caught salmon blows any dish served at Paresky out of the water when it comes to both taste and nutritional value.

A good haul on the Resurrection river delta

Gettin dinner ready

Mom's happy to have some fish for the freezer too

A larger (albeit less edible) fish

 Of course it wouldn't be a summer blog post without a little training update. I've been working out with Alaska Winter Stars, which has a good crew of UAF and UAA skiers, as well as US ski team member Gus Schumacher (pictured above to the right of dead whale). I've also managed to get in some bonus runs with Jack, when he's not scrambling around glaciers.

Running along O'Malley ridge, featuring the upper left corner of Jack's head

Firing up the race engine in the Bird Ridge hill climb. Even made me miss pine cobble a little bit.

Midway through June my summer took an unexpected turn when I received a call from a fishing boat captain who needed a replacement deckhand for the remainder of the month. Within 36 hours I was on a plane out to the East Aleutians to work on a seine vessel in the Area M salmon fishery. After spending a night in the town of Cold Bay, population 128, I took a bush plane to King Cove where I met the crew and headed out into the Aleutian Islands for two weeks. 

One last run before two weeks at sea. The only pavement in town, this quarter mile long pier in Cold Bay was a good spot for some running speeds.

Tough time finding my gate at the bustling King Cove airport

I was a bit bummed to miss out on two weeks of training but the opportunity was too good to pass up.  The crew of 5 was an interesting mix, with everyone from an ex-marine to a California hippy who was fishing in order to live out of his van and rock climb all winter (Ivy take notes). We fished two 4 -day openers, working almost around the clock. The deck work was exhausting but I'm thinking about taking a page out of Emil's book and logging some of the days as ODs. On the plus side, the buff that I brought with me worked great for protecting against jellyfish stings, so I have nordic skiing to thank for that.

Cruising between sets on a rare sunny day in the Aleutians

Rain gear naps are a must when you're fishing 20+ hour days

Two weeks and almost a quarter million pounds of salmon later, its good to be back on land. Now its time to catch up on sleep, get some good training in, and enjoy eating food other than PB&J tortillas and canned chicken. 

Living the #funemployed life

Hey everyone, Jack here.
Like most responsible students, as I approached my last summer as a college student I decided I needed a job and applied to some places. Turns out that the universe didn't want me to get the internship I was counting on, so I'm living the funemployed life this summer. I started that adventure off by heading to a glacier to ice/rock climb and summit some big peaks before really kicking training into gear.

A rope team returning to base camp

sunset on Denali around 2am

The little dots below are Denali basecamp, where we based out of for a few days

I returned from my glacier excursion incredibly burnt and tired, shed my skin like a molting lizard for a few days, and then got back to my regularly schedule: eating, sleeping, and tanning. This summer has been a shockingly sunny and warm one where I live, at the time of writing this I think it's been 3 or 4 weeks since it's rained. Consequently, we have some gnarly wildfires going on right now and sometimes the smoke is so bad that we can't go out and train. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but we're hoping for some rain.

Anyways, I'm stoked for my final season of skiing for Williams, and from what I've been hearing it sounds like it might just be our best season yet. 

Rock that cow son. 

-JC