So, we on our fifth day here in southern Germany, which is just about enough time to get fully settled in. The weather has been amazing so far, making the skiing really easy. Ok, not easy, but at least really enjoyable. Like I mentioned, the courses are pretty intense; there are basically no flat areas, and the hills are fairly formidable. I’ve never seen a more dynamic loop; the trees along the downhills are padded, and the climbs can’t be strided (strode?) without redlining.

The first race oriented activity was getting our credentials. The US crew pretty much took over the race office and all posed for our mugshots:

After picking those up, a bunch of the crew headed into Freiburg, which is definitely the biggest city in the area. The closest train station is just a little jaunt away, so we jumped on and cruised on down the valley into a very sweet German city. On the train, Erik Bjornsen found a friend; this energetic little German boy who was engrossed in his picture book:

The city was pretty typical of Europe, but we still had a good time checking out the streets and shops:

as well the awe-inspiring church:

This morning we ran a mock sprint race, just to try to get the feel of the course. Everyone was pretty busy, but it turned out as a pretty beneficial workout. People packed up and headed out with the stoke pretty high:

Just a few days to go until the first race, and things are lookin good. The big-time national teams are rollin in all over the place and theres a lot of skiing going on, and we will keep the posts coming hot and heavy.

David and I are here in “Hell Canyon” just outside of Hinterzarten, staying at, believe it or not, a Best Western. Granted, it is not your typical BW, being constructed in typical old-school German style.

We skied at the race venue for the first time yesterday, and wow… if you ski every trail there, it makes a loop of 3.75k total length. Using some higher-level math skills, I deduce that this means an 8 lap course for the U23 Mens 30k two weeks from now. I guess I wont be able to fall asleep in that one.

The course is pretty much either down or up; tuck or stride; rest or hammer. Dave and I chillin near the top of one of the large climbs:

This area of Germany, and Hinterzarten in particular, is famous for its cuckoo-clock production. So the team loaded up the vans and went to investigate. Like pretty much every town, it looked and felt like your typical 500 year old settlement, with cobbled streets and classic buildings:

Tyler Kornfield and Erik Bjornsen checking out the goods:

At 1 am Reese and I left Fairbanks for Germany. Overall the travel time from Fairbanks to the hotel in Germany was about 23 hours. Pretty crazy, but luckily I was born with my dads sleeping genetics and slept the majority of my flights.
The whole US team is here together and our hotel is pretty sweet.
After lunch some of us went for a jog around the little town. We got a lot of looks from the locals as we jogged by wearing our nifty matching outfits. At the end of the run this old guy stopped me on the side of the road and asked where the group was from. Then he went on to ask, “do you think you got a chance at these competitions” and of course I said ‘YEAH’. His response to my confident ‘yes’ was a, ‘yeah right’. So I guess we will upset or surprise this local with some sick American results that are to come.
As for now I am just struggling to avoid naps and am waiting to crash around 9 or 10 tonight in attempt to get on the new time schedule here.

Photo to come -going to the venue tomorrow, should be beautiful

After Nationals, we loaded up the Challenge Life suburban and headed for home. With David and I planning to leave for Europe within a week or so, we were eager to get home and get some things done after being in Anchorage for over two weeks. There was actual training to be done, cars to fix, and Christmas thank-yous to write. We drove as far as Wasilla, where we were informed that it was 30 below in Fairbanks and advised that unless we wanted to turn into gym rats, we should turn around. Long story short, we ended up staying in Anchorage this last week, where we were able to get a lot of skiing in that would not have happened at home. The Treinen family graciously housed and fed us liek they often do, allowing us to focus on getting in some quality hours.

It was fun to ski on some new trails, many of which I have actually never done. Usually if I am skiing in Anchorage, it is because I’m there to race; nine times out of ten, trail explorations get put on hold in favor of learning race courses. However, with no impending races and plenty of time, we branched out and saw some new territory. Well, new for us out-of-towners anyway. And I was many times reminded why Anchorage is so ridiculously sweet!

We found a sweet rope swing out in the middle of a classic only trail; David goes all Tarzan on us

Becca Rorabaugh showed me where we could drop down off of the Coastal Trail and ski around on the ice floe, which I had never done; it was, to beat a dead horse, EPIC!! Mountains, ice, and mountains of ice on all sides.

A lot has happened since the last FAST blog post. Ok, yeah, that’s inevitable, since I last posted almost four weeks ago. But anyway, a lot of things happening is both a good and a bad thing; it means that I don’t have much time to update the blog, but when I finally get around to it, there should be plenty to talk about. And that “finally getting around to it” time is now upon us.

As most of you probably know, we just finished up with Nationals Championships in Anchorage. About a week prior to the first race, it was threatening to get a little cold in Fairbanks, so some of us FAST athletes loaded up and decided to head to Anchorage earlier than we were planning to. It turned out to be a good decision; the cold came in right as we left, and chased us at least to Cantwell. In tribute to Steinbock Racing’s weak -16 car-thermometer-shot, I offer our own version, AK Style:

Being in temperate Anchorage was perfect for our race preparation. We were able to ski the courses many times and familiarize ourselves with them. Since the course organizers thought it necessary to route every single race over the same trails, it wasn’t too hard to learn the ins and outs.

The first race on the schedule was the Skate Sprint. Most of us have skied this course many times at Besh Cups, so it was nice to feel fairly comfortable with it. It turned out to be a pretty solid day; four FAST guys qualifying in the top 30 overall, including my high-school-junior-brother Logan. David and I both notched our best Senior National results to that point, with 19^th and 14^th respectively.

David showed us a little bit of what was to come later in the week, by showin off some manly skiing. He attacked his heats from the gun and gapped everyone; unfortunately, he also paid for it at about 300 meters to go. Here he is leading on the only real climb:

photo credit Bert Boyer

Of the four races, the 15k interval start skate race was probably the most bland. Bland because we didn’t have any headlining results. But maybe, in a way, it wasn’t so bland, because we all had solid finishes and still weren’t that phsyched about it. Finishing 26^th in what is probably my worst discipline seemed great at the time, but by the end of the week, seemed, well, weak.

Things shortly took a turn for the exciting, when the Senior men raced a 30k mass start classic. To steal a phrase from a certain Fasterskier employee, David Norris is a “huge baller”. This is because his points are so good that he actually pre-qualified for the World Junior team before Senior Nationals. And because of this “baller” status, he was able to skip the Junior 10k and enter the mans race. Good thing he did too, because he ended up working over the entire mens field except for James, Kris, and Bryan Cook. Heres a shot of D-Money himself, still a Junior mind you, skiing off the front with the 30k National Champion and the dude who was 4^th at World Championships:

photo credit Bert Boyer

When most people consider you a sprinter, it is difficult to talk yourself into a good 30k result. But that’s exactly what I had to do in order to make the U23 World Championship team; this would be only my second 30k ever, and definitely the most critical. As it turned out, I had a really good race, skiing in the pack that was chasing the leaders for a while, and then skiing through some heavy hitters towards the end to end up 9^th. The best part was that, with David’s 4^th, the two youngest guys in the top 10 were both FAST skiers.

The European travel teams were named based off of these first three races. Each race was scored within the J1, Junior, and U23 categories using the World Cup points system (100,80,60,etc), and then each skiers best two races were kept. Like I mentioned, David was a given for the World Junior team before the week even started. Logan was skiing solid all week, beating many World Junior contenders and finishing in the Top 10 Juniors; all while being a first year J1. He easily qualified for the US Scandanavian Cup team that will be going to Finland in the next few weeks. I was the only one who made things close. Racing insane specialists like Simi, Pete, Tad, and Noah leaves someone like me in the “blah” zone as far as points go. But luckily my sweet 30k gave me the points boost I needed, and I was able to make the U23 World Championship team.

The final race was the classic sprint. David, Logan and I were approaching it with a pretty low-key attitude, since we had already made our goal teams. However, Tyson needed some revenge. David, Tyson and I all made the Top 30, and then in typical fashion, those two got put in the same heat:

Tyson moved on, and made the B Final, which was actually super stacked. I ended up feeling really good, which was a huge surprise after that 30k. What was even crazier was eliminating some Olympics contenders in the rounds, and making the A Final. By eliminating them, I was actually just sending them to Tyson’s B Final, which he wasn’t so happy about.

But the craziest thing was the A Final; there I was, lining up against the other Top 5 sprinters in the country, and they are all from Alaska! It’s like a Besh Cup final! I have sprinted against Tyler and Eric, oh, probably a bazillion times, and then the Nanooks, who I ski with in Fairbanks a bunch, and then Mikey, whos the hometown sprint maniac. It was pretty tight the whole way:

Anyways, as it turned out, I was fourth overall, which was mind boggling. That meant that I had to go do drug testing. As soon as I crossed the line, my “USADA escort” locked on and followed me everywhere, and even had to read me some of my rights:

Because Erik Soderstrom (a Swedish import skiing for UAF) won, that meant I was on the American podium:

Logan just missed the Top 30, and got to do his damage in the Junior heats. He was having some weird stomach issues, and needed a little encouragement:

Even though he felt horrible, he moved all the way through and was in the juniors A Final:

He likely would have won, if he hadn’t face planted himself within the first 300 meters of the course. However, he skied back into contact and couldn’t quite out-lunge Jordan Buetow, who was also sprinting well, for second.

All in all, it was a really great week. Personally, I was jazzed to put together four races that were all good results. If the scenario had been like last year, with only one race being held, I would have been content with any of these four results, and I think most of FAST can say the same.

To cap it all off, I was completely astounded when I heard my name called for the Sprint Team that will represent the United States at the Canmore World Cup. I was absolutely 0% expecting this, so it was a crazy moment. However, it will be the highlight of my short ski career to go and race against the guys we watch on Universal.

All in all, a very successful mission for us. Team FAST has an athlete in all three travel teams (Scando, World Juniors, and U23s). FAST had an American podium and a wicked 30k 4^th. And now, FAST is on the World Cup!

This is ketchup:

But that’s not what this blog post is about. This blog post is about catching up; the difference is in the consonants. The last two weeks after Yellowstone have been completely non-conducive to making blog posts. While it was true that FAST needed a little break from the intense level of focus and taxation that was required to publish our five installments of Da Stone, most of the lack of material was due to academic reasons. To come back from a ski trip behind in the homework game, with wads of finals approaching, didn’t exactly inspire me to whip out some more retarded ski oriented literature. But now I’m back at it.

Basically, here’s a brief photo summary of those two weeks.

As we were packing and preparing to leave West Yellowstone, with its vistas and picturesque scenery:

I realized that something needed to be said regarding the large volume of unbelievable facial hair present in West. Although a large percentage of the men’s field had faithfully stuck to the No Shave November pact, there were a few standouts. Chambo gets props for his win in the FULLEST BEARD category, while James Southam and Gordon Jewett were in a clear battle for the overall title and both using the IMACCULATE MOUSTACHE approach. Incidentally, they also happened to be the two fastest old guys:

And while it was pretty close between these two, I’d have to give the win to James. It was that extra centimeter of vertical on each end that really earned him the title of GREATEST MOUSTACHE OF THE SUPERTOUR:

When we arrived home, it was time to turn up the volume adjuster a little bit in preparation for Nationals. We ended the volume week with a local classic sprint, which turned out to be a game of “how many guys can FAST put in the A final…” Turned out we got 5 of the 8, and myself, David, and Tyson took the top three spots well ahead of UAF.

It was a good opportunity to experiment with racing techniques, and I seem to have been trying out different methods of starting; here, finding the one that is least effective. If there is nothing in contact with the snow, there can’t be much foreword propulsion:

There were also Masters heats… how about this line-up, huh? Terrifying:

At this point, it’s all about intensity and finals. We are starting a massive block of intervals for Nationals, and also taking heavily weighted tests left and right. Should be, you know, fairly low stress…

See you all in Anchorage!!

As some of you rabid Fasterskier readers already know, today was the first real distance race of the season. Although advertised as a 15k, it had to have been more like 12 or 13; although he’s fast, there’s no way Leif was skiing 2 minutes a kilometer to win this first SuperTour Distance race in 32 minutes.

“Meh…”

That’s basically the most accurate description of today’s race for the FAST boys. David was the top Junior male by a long-shot for the second race in a row, a feat which continues to garner absolutely zero attention on this website for some reason. Besides that, there weren’t a whole lot of highlights. Actually, Werner probably had the best race of any of us. He rallied his way into the top 10 Juniors overall, which is pretty impressive, considering the field is pretty stacked and we are racing at altitude.

More importantly, the results to the quiz posted two days ago will now be revealed. I know you have all been holding your breath until this moment, but it has finally arrived. We’ve just been told that FXC coach Peter Leonard has generously volunteered to donate a week’s worth of free technique lessons to the winner, which incidentally happens to be David’s older sister Mishelle.

The winning, and correct answers are:

A = Werner         B = Tyson            C = Reese             D = David

Werner taking it to the line!

Other than the race, there were a few other highlights from the day:

Tyson found a sick brain bucket to cover up that mop

We found the Fischer room-service-racing-cart, in a Carbonlite version!

Wicked-est fanny pack EVER!!!!

To top it all off, we scored some free dessert!! Fried Dough and Chocolate Lava Bomb!

Happy Thanksgiving- Today was an amazing day for testing skis and getting set for tomorrow. My first realization for the day was that the racing tomorrow is going to be awesome.

Everyone seems ready to rock, even my bro who came down from Bozeman, and I think we are all looking good. Well after a rough night with the hole ski I am not sure what to say. They did not perform as well as I was hoping. I had to explain to my Madshus that it was just a one night thing and everything seems ok now and we are ready to race in the skate race tomorrow. I also think that the hole needs to be bigger on the fischers and maybe a bit stronger as well.

The hole ski leads me to my second realization that a ski does not need to have holes in it to make it amazing.

As we were eating Thanksgiving dinner tonight I realized that it was one of the great meals of the year.

Also as we were eating I realized that real men can use straws.

My final realization of the day was that Darth Vader is in fact related to an elevader-(elevator) because of the close resemblance in names. Keep on keepin on—-

Today the Yellowstone Ski Rendezvous opened with a 1.6ish kilometer Classic sprint prologue. D Norris posted the most exciting result with an 11th place finish, ahead of many big names. Over all FAST was happy with their results. The unofficial results can be found here. We are all super excited for the two upcoming races on Friday and Saturday.

Do you think you know FAST? Each one of us has brought or purchased items on this trip that characterize the owner. Can you tell who has brought what? Choices are

1) David 2) Reese 3) Tyson 4) Werner

Section A contains

• Multi-vitamins
• Black Oakley Radar sunglasses
• Taylor Swift poster
• Metal Mulisha T-shirt

Section B contains

• Skippy peanut butter
• Wheat bagels
• Squished Rode Violet tube
• White Electric “Stunna shades”
• Orange tinted Spy eyeware
• Reading glasses
• Toko Tape
• Salami bag
• Start MFW kick wax

Section C contains

• Pink Oakley Radar sunglasses
• Fluorescent yellow and green Oakley Jawbone sunglasses
• Purple and Green “The Joker” Scarf
• Maroon and Gray Scarf
• E’ Klar “Tech” head wear
• E’ Klar Headband

Section D contains

• Skida “Block” head wear
• Orange Spy eyewear
• Raspberry Emergen-C
• Crown Royal bag
• Airborne formula
• Echinacea (organic!)
• Zinc mineral
• Soft and Firm pillow tags
• Purell with Aloe
• Purell

Feel free to post what you believe are the answer to the quiz are. Results will be posted tomorrow.

SCANDAL!!!

Thought to be a loyal Madshus fan, Tyson was seen last night at the holiday inn with Fischer’s newest ski. I think this answers Steinbock Racing’s inquiry on November 21st around 6:24 pm on Twitter.

Happy thanksgiving to all! Check out our blog tomorrow, as Tyson will have some explaining to do…

This morning we did a good Lev III session. As usually Tyson’s self control only lasted for the first three intervals then he busted loose on the final interval. Later we waxed some skis and now the team is surfing the web and watching SpongeBob SquarePants. SpongeBob is having a cook-off with King Neptoon.

Tonight’s project is to tape up a Taylor Swift poster over our coach’s bed. This may put the poster in risk of getting torn up. Reese already has the AK flag up on the hotel door so after tonight all the necessary tagging should be complete.

Here are some pics of the no shave November progress:

Tyson-November plus some

Werner

Reese

 Maybe Coach Bill and I can produce some pictures of our no shave-west trip. Sadly because of an important interview with General Electric for the position of CEO, I had to shave during November. Or maybe some weaker reasons, but that ok.