As I am writing this update, we just took off from Washington-Dulles airport bound for Munich, Germany. I have made this trip seemingly countless times, but it is still exciting. I really love going over to Europe this time of year. It is a ski racer’s paradise. Weekend days are filled with watching World Cup races live on television or hopefully racing. The rest of the time is spent training or racing and enjoying the European mountain culture. Despite my eagerness to get there, I still have eight hours of flying ahead of me.
When I was younger, according to my parents, I had the ability to sleep on command. Right now I wish more than anything that I had not grown out of that. After making nearly 20 trans-Atlantic flights like this I am unable to sleep during the flight. Leaving the United States at 6 pm and arriving in Europe bright and early at 7 am with little or o sleep makes for a rough first day. Jet lag is always a battle. All I want to do when I arrive is fall into a bed and sleep. I have found that fighting this is the only way to over come the jet lag. Those are always the toughest days for me and I am not looking forward to it, but that is the price I have to pay.
Before leaving, I had a few very enjoyable days in Vermont. Instead of taking a day off after the NorAm series in Sunday River, I did some coaching of younger kids as a favor to a friend. I went out and skied around Sugarbush all morning and had a blast. After a four-day race series, the last thing I usually want to do is go out and put my boots on; however, the fun of skiing around soon erased that feeling. I enjoyed a day off the slopes this past Saturday.
Even though I was not skiing Saturday, it still seemed to fill my day. The hard, aggressive snow at my previous race venues left my skis in rough shape. I ended up spending much of the day working on them in an attempt to get them back in shape. I had them stone ground to get the bases flat and make sure the edge angles were where they need to be for optimum performance.
The day after, I got a day of giant slalom training in with the Green Mountain Valley School (GMVS) to keep my skiing sharp and make sure that my equipment was good to go. Following training, I went to Okemo for an Eastern Cup giant slalom as a final tune up for my Europe trip. So far this season, I have focused all of my efforts on the NorAm races. I decided early on that rest and training would be more important than traveling all around to chase FIS races in hopes of lowering my world rank. So far this decision has paid huge dividends.
The competition at NorAms is much higher than most FIS races in the United States or Canada and it can be easy to let up. Because I was leaving for Europe where the intensity at all races is very elevated, I went to Okemo with one goal: to win. In the race, I struggled in both runs with the snow conditions. Every race that I have done so far this season has been on hard, icy snow and to go ski on softer snow threw me off a bit. After two solid runs there, I was able to walk away with the win and was satisfied with my performance.
Despite winning, I left knowing that I still have to keep attacking and skiing aggressively to reach my goals. When I do this, my best skiing always comes out and that is when I am really happy with my results. That is the goal for this trip. I want to go over and put my best skiing out there in the races. If I am able to do this, the results that I’m hoping for will come. 
While packing this morning, I got some great news about the trip. To begin with, my first race will be a European Cup giant slalom race at Kirchberg in Austria. Kirchberg is across the valley from Kitzhbuel, undoubtedly the most famous ski racing town in the world. In order to get this start, I had to beat the US team athletes in the previous NorAms.
For those who are not familiar with the hierarchy in ski racing, World Cup races are at the top. Right below, and arguably more competitive is the European Cup series. Here athletes from all over the world show up to try and earn World Cup starts. It is not uncommon to be ranked 100th in the world and start 70th in the race (compared with 20th in NorAms). So it will be a step up from the NorAm series and my next step in trying to qualify for the World Cup.
In preparation for this race, my coaches were able to arrange some incredible training for me. I have the opportunity to train on the race hill when I get there with the Austrian national team. It is not often that they allow an outsider to join them especially on their home turf, but because of some connections and pulling some strings I will have the chance. It is kind of the equivalent of the Yankees letting Red Sox star David Ortiz show up early for a series in Yankee Stadium and take batting practice with them. It should be a great opportunity to feel the hill out and put my skiing to the test. I cannot wait!