I am spending the holidays in Minnesota at my in-laws, cheering on my wife and the rest of the MWSC biathletes at the team trials here in Grand Rapids.  It has been a week of down time for me, and a week of craziness for the biathletes.  I didn’t arrive here until early last week, since then I was able to watch a sprint and a pursuit, tomorrow is the last race, another sprint.  Even though my in-laws live here in Grand Rapids, I have really only skied at Mt. Itasca in mid January, when the snow is good and the air is cold.  It seems to me that the folks at the Itasca ski club pulled off a miracle to get these races underway.  On the side of the trails are only a couple of inches of snow , but for three kilometers of skiing up from the stadium there is a trail that is World Cup worthy.  Every morning before the events I get up early and head to the venue to ski around and around the loop, but I am not complaining, the skiing is very good.  I can’t imagine how many man-hours it took to blow the snow and get it in place, my thanks go out to the crew that is taking care of the trails here. 

Also I have to send a shout out to the rest of the Maine Winter Sports Center crew back in Presque Isle.  From the looks of things it was a stellar weekend at the first eastern cup for everyone, bravo!

The last of what must have been a monster pile of snow.

Earlier this week Will and I made the trip from Bozeman to Kelowna.  I have trained and raced in Silver Star almost as many times as I have been to Yellowstone, and every time this place never fails to inspire me.   What is it that inpires me? -  the skiing is great, nine times out of ten this place is a winter paradise, and the main street of the village is a ski trail.  I get psyched about ski racing everytime I come here.

This weekend we have two skate races on the plan.  The venue is pretty electric at the moment.  The 15k skate race on Saturday is a one and out qualification race for the Canadian olympic team.  Whoever wins gets to go to Vancouver.  The course is difficult, it is the same course used for the pursuit race at the 2005 World Cup here.  One of the things that makes the skiing here so good is that Sovereign Lake does an unbelievable job with grooming.  It is fun to ski here.

With the ski festival over in West Yellowstone, last night I made the trip back to Bozeman to train for the week before the races coming up this weekend.  Right now I am staying with MWSC alum Brandy Stewart, her apartment is a short walk to the site of the sprint race this coming weekend. 

Before leaving Yellowstone yesterday I took a ski into the park, to Madison Junction and back.  Even in the winter the place is amazing.

To tell the truth my real reason for skiing into the park was to see some buffalo.  I had to ski all the way to Madison Junction and hike through the trees and snow for a couple hundred yards to snap a picture of these bison in the distance.  I also saw some elk, eagles, and a wolf.