2013 Season in the Books

 Nearing the finish of the Super Tour Finals Hill Climb and Series. Photo: Mike Nadell

The ST Finals hill climb went really well for me and I was able to gain back a bit of time on some of the other racers from the previous three races.  I skied the second fastest time of the day which put me in the money for the day which was really great.  I moved up from twenty first to tenth in the tour too which I am really happy with.  Hopefully in the future I can limit the time loss on the earlier stages of the tour.

Sharing the podium with Kris Freeman (1st) and Tad Elliott (2nd) Always an honor to be in the mix with these guys.

First set of podium flowers for the series.

Things just kept getting better with a 7 letter word in our scrabble tournament.

The 2013 race season concluded with the 50km Classic National Championship.  I really love the 50km races but had a rough day falling off of the pace early.  This is the longest season I have ever raced and it feels good to wrap things up and head home to Minneapolis.

Great to be back with the Boys and Girls Club kids.  They were excited to show me how many push ups and sit ups they now can do.  Spring is still waiting to come to Minnesota so we have mostly been inside. 

One the plus side, the skiing is still quite good.  This is the most snow I have seen in Minneapolis since I moved here.  Can you believe this is April 21st in Minnesota?

I finally had the chance to try skijoring.  Lahti, Caitlin and I went our and enjoyed the aftermath of the big snow storm.  We skied right from the house.  Can you tell who is happier?

Sugar Bowl Hill Climb

Two more ski races to go in the 2012/2013 ski racing season.  The final two races include two of my favorite events.  Tomorrow we race the 'Hill Climb' up the Sugar Bowl downhill resort.  We ski about 3 km of rolling terrain before making the 1,000' climb up Mount Disney.  We go up the easiest downhill run, but it is quite steep when you are climbing up on cross country skis.

Caitlin and I looking over the edge at the top of Mt. Disney

Going down on the skinny skis is sure exciting

A few weeks ago we came out to Sugar Bowl early in the morning to preview the hill climb. We chose to use kicker skins on our classic skis. This worked really well and we had a really good workout climbing up to the top of the mountain.  We lucked out when we ran in to Kurt, one of the Sugar Bowl staff helping set up gates for the alpine skiers.  He was snowmobiling the downhill coaches and the gates to the top of the mountain.  He offered to help us out with  shuttle ride to the bottom of the mountain.  This allowed us to get down quickly so we could do our next interval.  

We skated up the course this morning and I wish that I had my kicker skins. Turns out in looking out the rules that kicker skins are not allowed.  Tomorrow will be hard race but I have always enjoyed climbing and have had some of my strongest results in this unique event.  We start based on our finishes in the previous three races and I have a lot of time to try and gain back.  

The final race of the year will be the 50 km National Championship on Thursday.  This year we race classic which I have struggled with this year, but I am excited to cap off the season with my favorite distance.