Steamboat for the 4th

Life's been pretty crazy lately, not that that's any news. Last week we were in Steamboat Springs for the annual 4th of July training camp and competitions. I actually had more downtime than usual in Steamboat, but it was nice to spend it hanging out with my family and friends, so I slacked a bit on schoolwork, blogging, and such.

Anyways, a quick recap of Steamboat:

My parents and little bro Ben came in the day after I did, so I stayed with them on the ski mountain. I hadn't seen them since early May, which of lately isn't too bad, but it was great to see them and catch up.

Kerry Lynch and Hans Berend, along with the other parents and athletes in Steamboat organized a wine-soiree and Calcutta fundraiser to start the week off. Sounds a little strange? Here's how it worked: the wine tasting part was pretty simple, a nice evening event in a park. They spread the word beforehand and we had a solid turnout of supporters. Then, while at the wine-tasting, the attendees could bet on individual athletes for the long standing jump competition the next day. I don't think anyone picked the 3 top finishers in order in the Calcutta betting, but there were some pretty good bets, and the winners had prizes including a back-country hut trip, and stays in Capitol Reef National Park, Moab, and my family's cabin in northern Wisconsin.

On the Monday before the 4th, we raced the annual Fishcreek rollerski time-trial. I was glad that this wasn't my first hard-effort since winter, as it often has been in the past, because this uphill time trial is tough! Taylor Fletcher put down the fastest race. I ended up 5th, but most importantly I was much closer to the fastest times than I've been in the past.

On the 4th of July, Todd Lodwick defended his numerous titles in the annual sprint rollerski race downtown. He won the jumping the day before and held the rest off in the 2km race. This quick and chaotic race isn't exactly my forte, but I always enjoy the energy and the enthusiastic spectators lining the street. (There are a lot, partly because the main street parade is right after us).

Later that day, we had one last competition, a 3 jump elimination competition. We always get a good turnout for this as well, and it's a real fun time with many long jumps! I didn't quite throw down like last year in the final round of 6 and couldn't top Johnny's winning jump of 75 meter jump.

After the jumping, we loaded up our cars and booked it back to Park City. That gave of us 3 days to put in some long training hours, study away (at least speaking for myself and my roommates) and pack up for the trip. The first day I was home I did an awesome four hour classic rollerski on a nice calm, cool evening. The following day, Erik, Michael, Nick and I rode down to and around Salt Lake City, then up Big Cottonwood Canyon past Solitude and Brighton ski area, to the top of Park City Mountain and then back home. Big Cottonwood alone took close to two hours to climb to the very top, and the total ride time was over 4 and a half hours. It was a good prep for the riding this week!

 Packing the bike boxes is a project and learning experience! Michael and I were fortunate enough to find a double box to borrow, which was great because they're hard to come by and expensive to check in at the airport.

Getting there.

Finished!

 At first, I thought packing the bikes would be a breeze, and then I realized we still had to fit our 4 wheels in. Bikes would be so much easier to pack if they didn't have wheels!

I wrote this on the plane to Zurich. From Zurich, we drove out of Switzerland to Courchevel, France. The traffic was a total mess (very un-swiss like) so the drive took about 5 hours. That's the life of a skier though!