Zermatt Day #5

Another day alone, went back up to the samer area as yesterday to begin. There was about 3-4 inches of cowboy powder covering alot of tracks. Not a dream, but enough to get fired up about. I headed over to a cable car that we road on the very first day to poke around a huge snow field and an open bowl. I decided for the bowl, as it looke a little more stable and less rocky. WOW. It was steep and up to the knees. I got totally gripped hitting the freshies and from the snow flying in my face. I did a few more runs in the same bowl, and then headed to Sunegga paridise to have some beers and fondu with my mom. There was a huge area that I did not even touch. I will ahve to leave that for next time.

Zermatt Day #4

Did a half day by myself for the day. I went to a new area that I had not explored yet. Riffelberg. Managed to find the Goods, off pist tracked up snow. Just a slight bit of crust on the top, but not enout to get jamed up about. There was a little snow from early in the morning, but not enough to cover the tracks. The snow was good enough to get some good turns in. It was good enough for spending the afternoon in. I had a Pic Nic that was uncontested on a rock at the top of a nice bowl. Here is a self portrits from the site.

It was pretty cold up high, so I stopped for an irish coffee. This place was unique in that it was an igloo with a bar and outdoor seating.

Zermatt day #3

Sorry for the delay, der internet is kind of sketchy here. Not much to report today. We skied over to Italy today on pretty much the same path as yesterday, but ended up in a different villiage. Valtourneche! The expresso was strong, and the weather sunny and warm. We banged out several runs on the IT side. Steep and fast groomed runs were the name of the game. Everyone here wants to be the next TOMBA da BOMBA. For Christmas Eve it was Lager Bier and Veal Sausage. Not many photos to report the case, but here is what I got!


One other thing! My dad and I did manage to get kicked out of one of the mountain Chaetu's, or whatever you call it in Italy. Evedently, you cannot buy a beer at one of these places and bring your own food. Here is my best try at Itialian. EHH FUCK EWWHHH!!(Itialian accent)

Zermatt Day #2

Today was a full day of skiing. We took three different lifts to the Klien Matterhorn, and crossed over to Italy. This is where the business started for the day. A 7 mile ski run dropped us into the villiage of Cervinia IT. This place was a quaint little ski villiage. I had an expresso to warm up, and relax in the sun.

Here are some Panoramas that I took of the mountains that are right up against the villiage.

After this we got a few runs in before having a Swiss lunch of dried meat, gruyer cheese, fresh bread, and a lager bier. Why not two?

It took the rest of the day to get back to the Chalet. The snow was ten times better than yesterday. All of the skiing around here seems to be groomers, and pists that are super long. The pro Tech over here is the super G style of skiing. Nobody is conserned with off pist or backcountry. But seriously, I have not seen a slow or bad skiier while I have been here. You can tell that these people have been skiing since they were super younge. We did some exploring around town for some biers, and found the tolken Irish pub that seems to be in every international city I have ever been. Lima, Cuzco, Geneve, Basle, Zermatt, none are in Ireland, but all have an Irish pub. Rock on, and drink up.

Zermatt Day #1

THIS PLACE ROCKS!!! A mountain town in its true form. We skied a half day, and only touched 10% of the area at best. There are three areas on the Swiss side, and another two areas on the other side of the mountain, which happens to be in Italy. I plan on hitting that up later this week. The snow was so-so, nothing new to report of. But the thing to report about is the view. It is pretty tough to not take a good picture here. The Matterhorn is in plane sight. It is the center piece of the whole town, and hard to miss. Here are some and night pics. The views are from the Chalet that we are staying in . A few lagers to finish up with made it a good day.

SWITZERLAND

I made it! 24 hours of straight travel, sitting in airports, sitting in trains, and a few plane rides was all it took to arrive to my destenation in Basel Ch. The gear looks like it made it in good shape. Tomorrow I head to Zermatt for a week straight of skiiing. I have not touched a bike since Hermann, only worked out twice in the gym, and got two days of skiing in, so needless to say, I am chomping at the bit to get some action. I managed to snap a pic on the way to Basle.

Grand Targhee

Over the weekend, I was able to get a few turns in at Grand Targhee, in WY. This ski hill is cradled on the western slop of the Tetons. On a good day, meaning sunny and no clouds, the view is like this.

This weekend was a different story. The timing was perfect. Flew into Salt lake on Friday, and was dissipointed with the amout of snow that was on the groud. The same observation on the drive into Idaho had me thinking it was going to be sub-par skiing at best. To my dismay, the next 24 hours brings a foot of snow. The downside was, that the high on Sat was about 20 degrees with a stout wind in the 20MPH range. I truly thought my hands were going to rot off at the end of the day. The wind died down Sunday, but the thermomitor only managed to rise to 6 degrees. The clouds and fog blocked the view for the whole trip. I was pulling some mad G's on the groomer sections, and paying the price with wind burn on my face. No big woop though, the snow was light and untracked. Most of the good stuff was off in the trees, so I spent most of my time there. My tech was a little rusty, but this was only ment as a tune up trip before I attach the ALP's next week. The camera was a little unrelaible due to the temps, but I managed to get a few pics.

Mo CX state champs

Wow!!! Running a little behind here, but I wanted to acknowledge the good times that were had in Herman. I did the race on Saturday, got worked, but also picked up some good intel on the course.

Sunday, was different. Super cold, but sunny. At one point, I questioned weather or not Knee Warmers were going to be the play. But, I stuck to my MANTRA: What would SVEN do? It ended up working well. The race started fast, and stayed that way. I registered late, so my starting position was pretty much last row, in a puddle of Mike Weiss's urine. Any who, I knew that I could not end the season with regret, and shame, so I laid everything that I had on the line for this race. I went down on the off camber turn section, but stayed in motion while putting the chain back on. I passed a few people, and desperately tried to stay on David Stroote's wheel. I knew he would bring the heat, so I did not want to miss that train. The stairs hurt, but there was some time to recover up top. The race ended with my butt cheeks clinched tight with a stelleto guy close behind. I had lost the war, but this battle would be mine!! Bell lap had me gripped beyond belief, but focused on no mistakes. Funny thing about that guy is we battled at the night race also. I took 8th for the day.

Sad to see the season slip away, now I have to find something constructive to do on Sundays. Off season will be super fun and rejuvenating. Congrats and thanks to all that made this a great season. My first full season of bike racing in the books has me fired up for more.

Laugh hard, its a long way to the ground

Sunday was a good race for all! By far the best weather of the year for cross. The conditions made it slick on the corners, but still let the course have some speed in it. As far as layout, the course was super fast, with two extended down hill secitons going into sweeping left handers. One lead into another drop that ended in a 180 turn. Early in the race, I lost my train of thought and grabbed the brakes way to hard going into the 180 and went down pretty hard. I lost some position straightening out my bars and shifter. I tried to focus on staying steady, but took a few more spills, 4 to be exact. I kept thinking that I can still keep the momentom going and have a good race. Still the grifos held up to the conditions well. The run up was a true grind this week. Muddy, steep,unridable, and a strong cheer section made it an instant classic. I felt really good at the end of the race, but was too far from Dan williams to catch up. Ended up 15th for the day, in a smaller than normal field. I am a bit sad to see the end of the season coming up this weekend. No NAT's for me again this year, though it is against my better judgment. I am going to miss the post race scene alot too. It has been a good year for bike racing, I am glad it is a part of my life.