Home for Christmas

After the trials in Minnesota I headed home for a week to celebrate Christmas with my family. The few days before I came home it rained a bunch melting about half of the snow that was on the valley floor but luckily there was still enough snow for excellent skiing! Up in the mountains all of the precipitation came in form of snow which made for amazing snowmobiling. There was at least two feet of fresh powder on top of about four feet of solid base snow, if you were riding in untracked snow and came to a stop you would get stuck just because of snow much fresh snow. After a couple of days of snowmobiling when I first got home I got back to training. I did a couple of combo workouts on the range in Mazama and one really long ski on the trails on the rendezvous. On Christmas day I went for a really nice ski with my mom starting from the town trailhead. 

While I was at home I talked with the Methow Trail association (formerly MVSTA), the organization that maintains and grooms the beautiful trails in the Methow, and came up with an agreement where they will give me a ski pass to use the trails if I help to promote them. I am really excited about this and think that it will be a good deal for both of us. 

After being at home I traveled to Old Forge, New York where I spent few days with Maddie and her family. There was not enough snow there to ski but I still had a fun time. I am now in Lake Placid, New York at the Olympic Training Center training before leaving to Poland for the IBU Cup. There is snow making on the biathlon trails here in Lake Placid so the skiing is perfect. 

A new Madshus backpack that I got for Christmas, it is AWESOME!!

Some icicles on hanging on rocks I found while snowmobiling 

More snowmobiling 

Stuck in a wind drift while snowmobiling 

It was hard to keep the powder snow off of the snowmobile hood because there was so much 

Getting our Charlie Brown tree with my mom

Training at home on the range in Mazama

Crossing a bridge on a ski in Mazama

While at home we had to deworm our two steers as well as our sheep

Family Christmas card picture out with the sheep

An amazing sunrise one morning outside my front door

While out skiing with my mom I found some Methow Valley Biathlon teammates 

IBU cup trials

I have been putting off blogging for a couple of weeks. There was quite a bit that happened but I am going to keep it short. I finished up my trip in Canmore with with three Noram races. They were all pretty solid, the skiing was strong and I hit all my targets in the first race. 

After Canmore I traveled to Grand Rapids, Minnesota for the IBU cup trials. These races went well, my skiing was on and my shooting was solid but more importantly I was very consistent throughout all four races. I was second place in 3 races and and 3rd place in one race. It is not official yet but because of my good results I will be traveling to the IBU cups in Europe after New Years.

Racing in Canmore

First shooting of the Mass Start race in Canmore

Start of the Mass Start in Canmore

We had some cold weather in Canmore leaving frosties on the beard

One day there was avalanche control work going on near the nordic venue, it was pretty fun to watch  

Maddie and I in Canmore

Mass start podium in Canmore

Flying out of Calgary a man at the gate next to ours was arrested because he threatened to bomb the plane

Flying out of Calgary I was upgraded to first class, keeping track of air miles is finally paying off

On the flight from Denver to Minnesota we had to turn back and make an emergency landing in Denver because there was  burning smell in the cabin of the airplane, we were greeted but about 5 or these guys