Breakin'

Just decided to check in with a quick update on my winter break, since I haven't seen most Williams people in a while.   It sounds like the East has great skiing right now, I am kind of jealous of the crew in Quebec right now.  Good job to everybody in the TT this morning, by the way! After doing a bunch of party laps at Craftsbury for the Eastern Cups, I headed back home for a few days.  It was really nice to see my friends and family and be at home for a little while, even if it was short.  Boise was beautiful, and the skiing at Bogus Basin, our local trail system, was decent.  It was nice to see some of my old friends and ski on my home trails, it had been almost three years since I had skied there.  Being in the sun was nice too after the East.  

Me and some of my buds at Bogus in the sun

 I was only at home for a few days because my family had decided to take a vacation this Christmas to Nelson, British Columbia.  It turned out to be a great decision, the town was fun, the nordic trails were beautiful, and the alpine skiing was unbelievably good.  It had snowed over a meter in the two days before we got there so the powder was all time.  I even got to meet ex-team member Mitch for some sweet turns in Rossland, BC which was about an hour and a half away. It was awesome!

Not me skiing...but you get the idea

The only clear day we had...it was snowing the rest of the time 

My family and I at the ski trails in Nelson

Sweeeet nordic skiing

My dad and I skiing at Whitewater Resort, near Nelson

The alpine skiing was so sweet I took a few days off of training that I probably shouldn't have, but it was good for my mental health.  After skiing a long day at the resort, my family went to some natural hot springs north of town called Ainsworth hot springs.  I love hot springs for how they make you feel, but also for all the weird characters you see there.  Each hot spring is unique and this one was cool because it had some semi-natural caves where the water was pouring out of the ground that you could walk into.  There were some weird gollum-like people hanging out in the depths of the caves that you couldn't really see at first glance...

Hot springs on Christmas day!

Caavvvveeeessss

As my time in BC unfortunately came to an end, I caught a flight from Spokane to Salt Lake City where I was staying with Christoph Lentz, a Williams alpine skier, at his house in Park City.  The skiing was great, I skied a different set of trails each day and the sun was out in full, a contrast to the omnipresent fog and snow in BC.  Soldier Hollow was pretty sweet yesterday, there is enough snow to ski all the trails on good skis but not enough to till with the Pisten Bully, so there is a massive snowmaking operation going on, helped by the very cold temps.  In the stadium today I saw alums Hannah Hausman and Holly Whitney as well as Vanya and future skiers Heidi Halvorsen, Jordan Fields, Eli Hoenig and Luke Costley.  Strong Williams presence at Soldier Hollow today!

Each one of those little mounds is a snow pile, about 15 feet tall.  Hermod's climb on the right.

A snow pile in the stadium.  Child for scale

Tomorrow is the first race day, a classic sprint.  It should be fun and competitive, the fields are really deep in every race this year, especially for the Junior guys.  At the end of the week I catch a flight to Oslo for my winter study in Norway.  I have to catch as much sun as I can before I go to the deep dark north, right now is just about the darkest time of the year in Scandinavia.  I'll keep the blog posted!