Spring Adventures

This spring has been full of many different adventures leading up to the ending of school and beginning of summer here in a couple of weeks!

From burgers, to powder, Utah to Oregon, Climbing to biking, prom to filming, and skiing to kayaking, these past two months have consisted of a lot! I hope to recap these adventures in a photo essay here and talk about my past two weeks. 

Backcountry Power

Last week, we went on experiential education trips with small groups from my school. My group went rafting on the South fork of the American river on Saturday and then spent the rest of the week Climbing in Joshua Tree. 

Me guiding a raft on Saturday

Jeff Bouldering

Me Climbing a face

Classic J-Tree Photo

We returned from Joshua Tree Thursday night. I did a load of laundry, repacked the subi, picked up Louis and we headed up to the Klamath River for the weekend! A big thanks to the Norris family for organizing the trip, and the amazing meals.

Evening Kayak Sesh

Awesome Steak Dinner

This Wednesday I along with 23 other students biked 123 miles. From School, to Tahoe, around the lake and back up the summit. 

The Final Climb Photo: Diego Panasiti

And here is to a summer full of many more adventures! 

Norway Round 2 Is a Wrap!

Well as many of you know, I just went to Norway once again. This time was ski and race specific travel. This will be a bit longer and detailed blog but, I promise lots of details and photos!

Our trip had a bit of a rough start. 5 of us, Brandon, Ryland, Savannah, Caitlin, and I, left the Reno airport Friday morning at 4am. From there we flew to SFO. My teammate Brandon had a different connection to Newark, so he was able to hop on a plane in SFO. Our plane though ended up being delayed due to a late inbound crew. This caused us all to miss our connection in Newark to get to Oslo. So we then had a 24 hr layover in Newark, New Jersey. Let me tell you, that's one hell of a town. Instead of being depressed, camped out in our hotel room, we made the best of our situation and hit New York City for a day! It was not a bad way to spend a day, but we would have all loved to have been in Norway at the time.

New York City Detour

Finally on Saturday night, we were able to catch a flight out to Oslo. So after over 40 hrs of travel time, we finally made it to Oslo! There we were met by my host father for the week, Svend. He drove us all into the city and dropped the rest of my team off at their respective host families'. He then took me to his place where I would live for the week along with Brandon, who had already been there for a day. Upon arrival, I met his son Anders. He was running out the door to go to a relay race that day. That afternoon, we SBA athletes met up and went for a nice skate ski! The trails in Oslo are so much fun. There are over 500K of groomed trails!

For the week, we all had local transportation passes which made life a lot easier. We are all able to hop on the T-bane and meet wherever we might decide. For the most part this was at the end of line 1, which is basically the top of Oslo and a place called Frognerseteren. From here we can access most of the trails.

The Crew after skiing WC trails

Monday morning was probably one of my favorite skis. We met at the top of line 1 and from there skied down to the Holmenkollen trail system. The trails were in the works of being all set up for the biathlon World Cup races later in the week. We were a little skeptical about skiing the trails as there were no other skiers out there, but we went for it. We were doing a speed workout, so we just started following the courses. Whenever we were doing a speed, the volunteers would all yell at us "Heia, Heia, Kom Igjen!". We skied the 5k course twice on perfect grooming.

 That afternoon we went to the city for a while. We found some sport shops which were super cool. Everyone says that Norway is super expensive. That is true except for the nordic gear. It's amazing how cheap all the nordic stuff is here! That evening we went to the Heming sport complex for a easy run and some core.

On Tuesday, we were all suppose to meet at Frognerseteren at 8am. We were all meeting Bjorn for a nice classic distance ski. Well all of us made it on time except for Ryland. After waiting for 40 minutes and having no way to contact him, we decided to just go ski. This was also an awesome ski! I could have sworn we just kept going down and down and down with a little bit of uphills, but somehow we ended up at the same place we started. We skied on a pretty big variety of trails, narrow grooming, wide grooming, and snowmobile trails. Most trails are not groomed every night and get a lot of use. This makes the trails a little rough and more difficult to ski on, but I think this is a factor to why the Norwegians are such good skiers. They are used to rough ski conditions which helps a lot with balance and agility. And then when they are on a nice trail system they are really able to kick it in. Also on this ski we went through a spot where 20 Norwegians took on over 200 Germans in WWII.

Games with Oslo NTG team

Following our ski, we went to the Oslo, NTG school and did a balance and agility workout with Bjorn's NTG team. Following that, we went to town for some sightseeing and lunch. Here we finally met Ryland after finding out he set his alarm wrong and went on a ski with his host family.

We also met up with Hannah and Martin in the city who just came from the U18 Scandi races in Sweden.

The Next morning, our whole travel team together now, met Bjorn and his NTG team at a different trail system down in town. We went for a fun ski with the younger team and played some games and drills with them.

WC Stadium from Ski Jump

That evening we did a interval/speed workout at the Holmenkollen with the Heming team. This was super fun to ski with them during some intervals.

On Thursday morning we went for an easy classic pre-race ski. After our ski, Øyvind took us down to the Holmenkollen to watch some of the Biathlon. Thanks to the US team for some stadium tickets! The fog stayed in the stadium for most of the women's race. After the women's race, we went up to the ski museum and then to the top of the ski jump. The fog cleared just in time! We had a pretty amazing view all around! It was cool to see the difference in this view during winter! We then watched some of the men's races in the afternoon!

Our view of the WC races

Fans

It's so cool to see how much pride the Norwegians take in this sport. We were literally in the heart of nordic skiing all week. Everywhere you go, there are people just walking around with nordic gear and it's normal. Nordic is the lifestyle in Oslo. Everyone knows how to ski and how to use their pride. On race days everyone is dressed in Norwegian colors and cheering everyone on!

Skate Race

Friday was the first day of racing. Brandon, Ryland, and I raced a 10k skate and Savannah a 7.5k skate. Going into the race, none of us knew the course. It was a pretty tough race, but we all were happy afterwards!

These first races really showed us how tough the competition here was. There were over 200 people racing just the 16 yr. old category. It was the biggest set of races I have competed in. I finished close to 5 minutes behind the leader. Thinking back on my race, there were areas I could have made up maybe a minute, but definitely not 5!

Ryland and I after the sprint

Saturday was the skate sprint. There was once again stiff competition for us guys. None of us US guys or the Heming boys moved into heats, but we all had a super fun day.

Wax Techs getting work done

Now I think I need to give a pretty big shout out to our wax techs for the weekend. Heming did all of our glide wax and most of our kick for the whole weekend. They nailed the wax and put some very fast skis on our feet! We definitely
had some of the fastest skis out there for the two skate races. A big thanks for all the time, effort, and wax these techs put into our skis.



I think one of the coolest thing about this sprint day was watching how the parents of the Norwegian skiers partied and cheered on the kids and teammates. We California kids have a very supportive and outgoing parent group but it's totally different than the Norwegians. Their parents go out on course with their chairs, set up camp, make a fire, cook some hot dogs, drink some beer, and yell their hearts out as skiers go by! They don't lack their nationalism or viking pride a single bit.

The Vikings

Hannah Bringing home the Victory! 

Now the actual coolest thing about sprint day was following Hannah's races. She had an amazingly awesome day winning the qualifier, racing all heats and going on to take the gold home! A huge shout out to her for being the first american to win Norwegian Nationals! 

Sunday rolled along and it was the classic day. We boys had to ski a 7.5k loop. I think this was my best race of the weekend. We all were pretty exhausted from a long week of skiing and seeing new things. I skied hard and was happy with my race! Again we had pretty good skis for the day! My favorite thing about this race was all the encouragement random coaches and spectators were giving me. I even got a couple of splits on course, but I couldn't understand what they were saying to me.

Classic race lap 2

A huge shout out to our host brother Anders for a solid race on both Friday and Sunday! Here he is skiing into the last hill on Sundays classic race! I think we are all super excited to have them come race in our Junior Nationals only three weeks from now. 

Anders with a solid race

Some of the Heming boys staying warm

Also a huge thanks to our two SBA coaches Martin and Caitlin for making this trip happen!

Our coaches Martin and Caitlin hanging out!

Overall this was a super awesome experience and trip! I think we all learned so much and are all excited to train hard and open up more doors for opportunities like this in the future!

Currently, Martin, Savannah, Ryland, Brandon and I are all sitting in the Denver airport waiting to get a flight home. We have not had very good luck with connections this trip and spent last night in Denver. We are now going on to 26 hrs of travel. Hopefully we will get out of here soon. 

February 2nd and No Snow

Man, last year I was so on top of my blog. I think its the lack of snow that effects my laziness with blogging this year. Yes it is now February 2nd, and Tahoe still has not had snowfall since Christmas Eve. In fact, we got some rain today on the summit, that should make for some great skate skiing tomorrow. I think it might have to do something with me going to Sugar Bowl. Ever since I started there, Tahoe has not had a good snow year. Sorry guys.

I have done quite a few races between the last time I blogged and now. I will start off with our second CNISSF or school race of the year. This was a 5k skate race held on our own ground at Sugar Bowl. In this race, I tried out some different tactics. First let me describe the course. It was a crammed mass start that was pretty flat. The whole first 2k of the course is slight downhill. At the end of this downhill, the trail opens out from the trees and into a big flat meadow we have to cross. At the end of this meadow is a narrow bridge(mandatory double pole) and then the course turns to head back towards the finish. There is a little bit of rolling terrain with two major climbs and then a slight v2 uphill into the finish. My teammate Peter Carroll took the lead and led a big pack of us racers for the whole first downhill in the trees. The moment we got into the flat meadow, I made a move and went way off the front. I knew this was the best spot for me to do this as I can really push the flat and rolling terrain but my competition can crush me on the climbs. I gained a pretty significant lead over the rest of the pack. On the climbs I was able to hold my gap pretty well but my teammates Sam and Ryland were definitely making up some ground. At the top of the last hill, the course turns towards the finish. There is still probably 300 yards of skiing. I hit a wall pretty hard at this point. I tried to hold off my teammates but both were able to find another gear at the finish and beat me in the last 50 feet. I was super stoked with how this race went though and when thinking about what I would have done differently, I don't think there is anything else I would have changed. I left it all out there. 

Sam and Ryland making moves in the last 100ft (Photo: Stacey H.)

Two weeks ago, we had another CNISSF race. These were the Truckee sprints which were once again held at ASC. The race started in the afternoon and ran on into the evening. Races ran later then expected due to some prelim timing issues. The snow was super hard and one of the downhill corners was crazy icy which made for some sketchy heats. This was the first sprint race in a while that I made it all the way through the A final!

Quarter Final w/Casey Jobe (Photo: Stacey H.)

The beginning of last week, I ended up catching a cold. So many people that I surround my self with have been sick, it was just the matter of time before I caught it. I stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday to try and kick it. I did a pretty good job of getting better fast, but was still a little run down going into my races in Utah this weekend. Because I was sick, I did not travel out with the team on Wednesday afternoon but instead drove out with my parents early Thursday morning. We arrived in Soldier Hollow, Utah around 3pm. I drove strait to the venue to get a easy ski in as I hadn't skied all week. The snow was a little wet and soft but not too bad. I got in a solid hour ski and then went to meet up with the rest of my team for the weekend!

Friday we had a skate sprint race. The worst of our luck came, and it did not freeze the night before. This led too some slow, deep, slushy racing conditions. I had an decent prelim, but I was unable to pull together a fast enough time to make heats. I was not bummed though as I was able to cheer on my teammates and save some energy for Saturdays 15k.

Skate Sprint Prelim (Photo: Stacey H.)

It was a lot of fun to watch many of my other teammates race in the heats. A big shout out to Savannah and Sam for making the heats! On a particular note, It was really cool to watch Sam and Dylan execute a race plan and both move on the semi finals and B finals! It was some super tough snow conditions out there but they managed and were the gravy on top the mashed potatoes.

Dylan(far left) and Sam(far right) making moves to finish 1,2
in there quarter final

Sunday was the classic distance race. Us U18/20 men had to do a 15 K and did not race until 12:55pm. We had a chevron start based off of USSA points. I did not have to bad of a position but I could definitely work for some better points. We had to do 2 laps of the sprint course and then 3 laps going up the hollow. Right before our race it was cloudy and I was worried I might even rain but standing the the chevron, minutes before our race the sun came out and it was hot out! The snow by this time was very very slushy. It was pretty hard to find tracks on the course as 400 skiers had already skied multiple laps over the same courses. During my first two laps on the sprint corse I was feeling pretty strong. I found a pretty good pace and a pack to stick with. I also had an awesome first lap up the hollow. My skies were phenomenal given the crappy snow conditions. On my second lap up the hollow, A lot of mental stuff started kicking in. I started loosing kick, my technique was bad and I was starting to loose it but somehow I found the strength and motivation to push through it. I then was able to have a super strong finish and pull through the end!

Second lap in the Hollow (Photo: Mi Padre)

Peter Carroll charging (Photo: Mi Padre)

My teammate Peter Carroll had an awesome day with a 18th place finish! This photo dose not do justice for how mushy this climb was.








On another note, teammate Brandon Herhusky did not have such a great day. He skied the first two sprint laps pretty solidly with me but then things went downhill. He was able to make it one lap around the hollow but upon going on two, he collapsed and blacked out. Luckily moms were right by his side and medics were there with in seconds. He was taken off the course and by the time I finished my race, was being loaded into an ambulance. This was a pretty scary situation. When I tried to talk to him on the stretcher he was unresponsive and very dazed. I knew he would be in good care though. A couple hours later, coach Jeff and I went to go check on him at the hospital and he was released being told dehydration was a major factor of this incident.

Brandon and I after he was released

Little Hair Straining Action (Photo: Maddie Morgan)

Saturday night, I had some fun hanging out with friends and once again doing some straining work on the head of Sam Zabell.










I am back in school for the next 3 days before taking off for Norway on Friday! Hopefully Norway will have a little more snow then Tahoe...

West Yellowstone 2014

It been a while since I have posted a blog. My fall has been crazy busy! Full of school, training and working. I am going to keep this blog pretty short and sweet! We are back in school now after 3 weeks off. Of those 3 weeks, the SBA nordic team spent the first week in Marin for some low elevation training! Last week we were up in West Yellowstone for over a week of on snow training! The snow was not as great as it had been in the past but it was still awesome to get back on snow! We had 5 on snow training days and ended the week with two Super Tour starts. Even though the snow was a little on the thin side, we got some amazing skiing in.

Here is a photo taken from our first day on classic skies.

Photo: Julien Boards

Sugar Bowl Mens team (besides my self)

One of the cool things I was able to do in West was fly the quadcopter. Even though it took one crash, I was able to get a cool photo and threw together a short little video!

Video here:

On Thursday we got together with the Tahoe XC team to celebrate an awesome Thanksgiving. Its always nice to be with such awesome people. 

Thanksgiving crew

That night I hit the bed pretty early to get some rest for the sprint race on Friday. I was happy with how Friday's sprints went. All the SBA team performed super well. Big shout outs to teammates Dylan Syben, Hannah Halvorsen and Anja Gruber for making the heats! It was so fun watching Hannah compete with such a big smile on her face in the heats. 

On Saturday I raced a 15k skate. This was my first real 15k race I have done. The course was 3 laps of a 5k loop. My first lap was awesome. Going into my second lap I could feel those 23 hrs of training catch up to me from the past couple of days. I still was able to finish the race strong but I think its fair to say I went out a little on the hard side. 

A giant shout out to all of our coaches for helping us throughout the week and for nailing the wax on both Friday and Saturday.

Gus and August perfecting our skis. 

Also I cant forget a giant thanks to our cook and cheerleader, YoYo!

Over all I can't express how grateful I am for all the people that surround me, and the experiences I have.