First two JNQ's, Check!

       Its been a while... I would probably be speaking for behalf of the Far West team if I said we miss the snow in West Yellowstone. As thankful as I am for what we have, the skiing honestly sucks. I still have not taken out my Hard Wax race ski since West. We could definitely use some snow from them snow gods! Maybe a Christmas present? Looking at the forecast, there is nothing in sight...

Missing West Yellowstone.

       Upon returning home, The following Friday we had our first CNISSF school race. It was the Kirkwood relays. My team was Peter Sam and I! Sugar Bowl had a super good day. Our A team (my team) took the win and same with the girls A team! 

SBA A Team. Left to Right Peter Carroll, Sam Zabell, and Skyler Mullings

Post Race Celebration

The Snow Was also thin in Kirkwood. 

        I do love where I live though!

Lake Tahoe

        Even with the snow being so thin, Sugar Bowl, Royal Gorge and Auburn Ski Club have done an awesome job keeping us skiing!

Casey, Caitlin, and Dani

Snow is Thin

       Last Tuesday our school came together for a holiday formal dinner. This formal dinner was surprisingly fun compared to others! It was filled with some great food, music and gifts!

The Nordic Team

Me and my Reindeer! 

       This past weekend, Far West had its first two Junior National Qualifying races. Saturday was a Skate Sprint race and Sunday (today) was a Classic 5k. Both were held had Auburn Ski Club and Bill Clark deserves mad creds for pulling these off! Also a big thanks to all of the volunteers. 

       Saturdays race was a little rough for me. I had an awesome warm up and was extremely prepared. SBA also had some madly fast skis but during my race I was simply not able to push it to the level I should and could. When I finished, I knew I did not leave it all out there but, I was still happy with my race! I moved on to the next set of heats. Those also didn't go to well for me but I still had an awesome time! Overall, I was the 3rd J2 of the day for qualifications! That evening I went for a easy 15 min jog. 

Skate Sprints (P.C. Mark Nadell)

Todays race was a lot different for me. My warm up was not quite to par but that didn't hurt me. 

When I got my skis from the coaches, they were a little draggy so I had them shorten my kick zone a little. Right out of the start, everyones skis were super grabby. It happen to be the snow in the 100 foot starting lane was totally different then the snow anywhere else on the course. When racing, my skis were awesome! I definitely held back a little to much on the first lap, but the second lap I left it all out there. It ended up going well for me as I swept the J2's so I was happy about my race!

5K Classic (P.C. Mark Nadell)

Left to Right, Brandon Herhusky, Skyler Mullings, (Peter Carroll Photo Bomb) and Casey Jobe (P.C. Stacey Herhusky)

And for those photo lovers, a little through back to a Tahoe fall up in Coldstream Canyon!

Coldstream

And as always, #BeHereNow

West Yellowstone Recap

       Well what can I say, I love skiing! Last week was an awesome week of on snow training and seeing friends in West Yellowstone!! If you have not yet seen my midweek update from Yellowstone, check it out here! I left off on Thanksgiving's morning classic ski.
       That evening Our team gathered in our house for a big feast prepared by Johannes and Holly! A big shout out to them for preparing us food the whole week and also having some awesome race results! The sunset this night was also pretty cool from our house!

View From out House!

       As a team we had a pretty standard thanksgiving feast with a couple turkeys, tons of stuffing, potatoes, corn, beans and don't forget an Apple Crisp!

Only about 1/4 the team could sit at the table.

       We had a fairly early dinner as we needed time for it to digest before our first race the next day. On Friday, most people raced in the season kickoff race which was a 1k skate sprint on the classic sprint loop that we skied our intervals on earlier in the week. Fridays race went great for everyone especially for it being after a long week of training, being on snow for 5 days, and it being the first race of the year! I had a relatively well race but could feel my body from the past week of training.

Coach August Teague

Hannah Racing in the Senior Heats!

Hannah Halvorsen

Lizzie Larkins

        That afternoon I went for a nice sunset classic ski. It was one of my favorite skis from the week because of the awesome skiing conditions and sick sunset! I skied Saturdays, 5k race course once and then did another bigger loop.

Classic photo from Telemark Hill

Photo from the Sprint Course

Bottom of Telemark Hill

       On Saturday, my race didn't start until 1:30. I spent the morning packing all my stuff up and travel waxing skis from the week. The 15k went first and then the 10k. All the racing was on the 5k race course. By the time I started my race, all the hills were very mushy. Skiing out to the venue I felt very tired. My whole body was beyond tired and I did not feel energized at all. Even through out my warm up I felt tired. I ended up feeling all right and putting out a good effort. I did end up placing 4th in the race so I was pretty stoked on that result with how I felt! After the race we packed the vans and took off for Twin Falls.

Gus Packing the Van With Ski Bags

       We ended up spending the night in Twin Falls and finishing the rest of the drive Sunday Morning.

Driving Into the Sunrise

Team Sunrise Shot!

Check out a video recap from west That Julia Kern made!

HERE!

       Monday came along fast and that meant it was time for school to start back up. No one was to stoked for the academic aspect but we did have something to look forward to. Monday marked the opening of Sugar Bowl Academys new Campus! It is very cool to finally be in a real school!

Student, Athlete Body Gathers for Ribbon Cutting

Thats all for now! Now i'm off to San Fran again in the morning for some Model UN conferences the rest of the week! 

#BeHereNOw