Well, the time has come and I’ve hung up my skis for the remainder of the year. I have moved back to Dartmouth, and I am currently out in Arizona for some warm weather running. Switching between the two sports has been something I’ve had to deal with ever since high school and have learned from experience that these transitions need to be done with caution. Running is hard on the body and joints, and it takes awhile for your bone density to increase, the bursa sacks in your knees and hips to expand, and for your overall body to get use to the pounding and jarring of the sport.

Sorry for the wait. I’ve finally reached the land of reliable internet, and after three days, received my luggage. Gotta say, Italy was fantastic. Not only did we get to see Otzi, the 5000 year old man, we got in some great skiing and some good old fashion team camaraderie. Only way to properly bring you along on the journey would be through pictorial depictions, so here it goes…

I’m in the land of “ini,” you know: linguini, zucchini, tortellini –Italy.  Skiing here is real sweet.  The race venue is in this tiny town perched on the edge of a sweet mountain range, littered with ancient castles and family farms.  This beautiful Italian town does have its downsides however, foremost being the lack of internet access.  Supposedly due to tough anti-terrorism laws, it is very difficult to gain access to the internet and those luck ones would lose their privilege if unauthorized personnel (namely us) were to use their internet.  To get around this, we have to drive to nearby Switzerland to poach off of unsuspecting hotels and cafes.  The other downside to this conundrum is that my computer’s battery only lasts for roughly ten minutes, so these few and sporadic posts will be short and sweet, but I promise more depth and pictures will follow with my return to the states at the beginning of March.  Until then sorry to leave you hanging…

Just learned today that the U23 and World Junior Championships, which due to lack of snow in Poland were suppose to have already been completed, have finally been rescheduled (again) and moved to a small town in northern Italy. The new dates for the races are the 23rd-29th of February with a slight change in race format with the 30km pursuit race being switched to a 30km freestyle. This means that myself, along with fellow Sun Valley ODT members Mikey Sinnott, Reid Pletcher, and Morgan Arritola, will be departing on Thursday the 14th to get our ski on and show the Euros we can ski, snow or no snow. More to come with travel and race updates as we cruise around Europe in search of snow and rock and roll…

Mikey getting his patriotism on at last year’s U23 Championships