The Final Countdown

It's finally (almost) here! The World Cup kicks off in 13 days and I'm excited to get back on snow and head to Europe for a winter of racing. In the meantime, I've been enjoying some much needed home time before heading overseas for the long haul. I had a busy month out west and by the end of October, I was ready to head back to Vermont and breathe some thicker air. Park City camp was the first time our entire women's team was together this year. Having the crew in one place was a good reminder of what a special thing we have going on. We want to be the fastest in the world, but being the best team in the world is so much bigger than good results, and being the best team in the world is exactly what we want to do. It's been so much fun having "the guppies", also known as the D teamers, also known as KO, Julia, and Hannah on our team. They bring a lot of young new energy to our team and we can't wait to follow them this winter.

Dinner with Tiger Shaw and family in Park City!

Fast and Female Park City (Reese Brown photo)

Fast and Female (Reese Brown photo)

OD run with Liz and Jess

Gangs all here!

Rolling up East Canyon with the crew (Liz Arky photo)

TEAM! (U.S. Ski Team photo)

Lizard! (Liz Arky photo)

The morning after I flew back from Utah, I was greeted to Vermont with 6 inches of fresh snow! It has since melted, but it's stayed nice and cold, reminding me that winter is just around the corner. I secretly love this time of year (as long as it's not raining). I can wear long sleeves training, sit by the fire in the evening, and the cold nights are perfect for sleeping. The pavement is slow, which can make rollerskiing frustrating, but at least it makes it so the downhills aren't scary. I completely missed peak foliage in Vermont this year and apparently it was the best one in 20 years, but there was still a little color on the trees when I flew home. Now the trees are bare and the trails are covered in leaves, which can be a little treacherous, but long runs have been doubling as agility workouts!

Rollerskiing at BMD with KO and Annie

Exploring the Catamount Trail

Snow!

Running out to Baker Peak

New warmups! (Sarah Brunson photo)

Suits! (Sarah Brunson photo)

We also had our annual send off dinner for our SMS Elite team up at SMS the other night. This is always my favorite way to head off to Europe. It reminds me of how lucky we are to be in such a supportive community. Thank you to everyone who came to the dinner and an extra thank you to the BKL kids who gave us a send off gift of their very own athlete cards. I will for sure be bringing those with me to hang on the walls of my hotel rooms!

Sim and I went to one of the West River BKL practices for some running and games. Those kids must sleep well after practice!

Athlete cards from the BKL kids

:)

So with less than a week until we head over to Europe, I've finally finished unpacking from the fall just in time to repack for the winter. We received our awesome new uniforms from L.L. Bean and Craft while we were in Park City, so be on the lookout for some flashy new blue U.S.A. suits and warmups. Having three weeks at home was exactly what I needed to relax and recharge before a long winter and I can't wait to be reunited with the team on the World Cup. Now it's time to soak up a little more sunshine before heading to northern Finland, the land of darkness!

(Reese Brown photo)

The Wild West

I apologize for my lack of blogging in the last month. I will be better about it starting NOW! Last time I blogged, we were halfway through our camp in New Zealand and the second half of camp was just as good as the first. I really love it down there and can't wait to return next summer. It's also on my list of places to explore when I've retired from skiing. After camp ended, I flew back to Colorado for Simi's sister's beautiful wedding in southern Colorado. It was a fun week of recovering, spending time with friends and family, celebrating, and going on some mountain adventures. We hit Colorado at peak foliage and the scenery was hard to beat.

Wedding day!

Molly overlooking the golden CO foliage

Celebrating Jenny and James with Kelsey and Sim

After a week in Colorado, I headed back to Vermont for nine days. It was a quick trip home, but it was just what I needed to fully recover from our big camp in New Zealand, get in an intensity week with my SMS Elite teammates, and unpack from one trip and pack up for the next one. There is nothing like my own bed and some home-cooked meals with my parents to help me reset for the next month of camps and adventures. While I was home, our SMS Elite Team also put on a clinic in Hanover, NH and we had a great turnout. I don't know if I've ever seen such a group of motivated kids who are just as excited to hill bound as they are to do an obstacle course.

Relaxing by the fire with Leroy

Post ski walking intervals up Stratton

Peru Fair with my Grandma, Twinkle!

Long run on the AT with my cousins Alexa and Paddy

Visiting one of my best friends, Mae, in her new home

Clinic in Hanover

Fall in Vermont

After my quick trip home, I repacked my bags for a month in the West. The first event on my schedule was the wedding of my best friend from high school, Parker, and her beautiful bride, Hannah, in Park City. I was looking forward to this wedding for many reasons, but one of them was because my whole family was going to be reunited for the first time since spring! My sister and brother live in Flagstaff and Bozeman now, so it's rare that the five of us get to be in the same place at the same time anymore. The wedding was perfect and I was so happy to spend the weekend with my family and some of my best friends.

Family run in Park City

Parker practicing her vows the morning of the wedding

Bridesmaids

Family at the wedding

Wedding morning bike ride to sweat out the nerves

Running in Park City

The beautiful brides

After wedding number two, we drove to Aspen to spend a few days with Simi's family and then went to Fruita and Moab to do some mountain biking before coming back to Park City for our final USST camp before the season begins. We've been taking a short trip to the desert for the last few falls and it is one of my favorite places in the world. Growing up in the East, I had never seen anything like the desert before and even though I've been several times now, I'm still in shock every time I go back. It's always a nice little break from roller skiing, and a good chance to reset before the final push of the training season.

Rollerskiing in Aspen

Desert campsite

Mtn Biking in Fruita with Sim

Snow in Aspen

Mud freckles

Biking under the golden Aspens

Survived wedding season!

Slick Rock lunch break with our friends Megan and Dylan

View from our campsite

Now I'm back in Park City and our camp kicks off on Monday. I'm ready to be reunited with everyone on our team and to put in a couple solid weeks of training to gear up for the season. Thanks for following!

Winter in New Zealand

Last summer was my first time to New Zealand and it quickly became one of my favorite places in the world. I was excited to find out that NZ camp was on the schedule again this year and the Snow Farm has lived up to expectations in every way! It's a long trip to travel over here. The time change is 16 hours ahead of the east coast, or 8 hours behind tomorrow, if that makes sense. So right now it's Thursday morning here and Wednesday evening in Vermont. Even though it takes a long time to get here, adjusting to the time change is relatively easy. I get tired early at night and wake up ready to go in the morning. The sleeping accommodations are dark, cool, and cozy, and I'm always shocked by how easily we adapt to life down under. In addition to the good sleeping, New Zealand has a ton of other things going for it. There is natural beauty everywhere and with only 4.5 million people in the entire country, it never seems over populated or crowded, especially where we are...sitting on top of a mountain above 15kms of switchbacking dirt road to get here. The food is also delicious. It's kind of a mix of asian fusion, lamb, and the occasional American or Mexican meal. What else is good about this place? The skiing! We're here a month and a half later than we were last year, so we're experiencing more early March conditions, but it's still not full blown spring skiing. We actually got a pretty big snow storm over the last couple days and are planning on doing some hard wax skiing this afternoon.

Back on snow with Matt and Liz our first afternoon in New Zealand

Morning view on our walk to breakfast...not bad!

Liz taking in the view on a drink break

Simi, Liz, and me at Bob Lee Hut

Chasing Liz down "The Loop"

We've done a couple intensity sessions, a couple speed sessions, and mostly easy distance training since being here. This weekend we are hopping in some FIS races that are being held at the Snow Farm, so that will be a good way to end the camp with a little intensity. The Snow Farm has basically everything we need up here. We can ski from the door, eat in the same building, and there's even a little gym we can use. Every once in awhile it's nice to drive off the mountain and go to the town of Wanaka, which is about 45 minutes away. Sometimes we go to a bigger gym in town to do strength and we will also go down and walk around town if we have an off day or afternoon. It's a beautiful little town sitting right on Lake Wanaka with a bunch of shops and good places to eat. There are also a ton of good running and mountain biking trails around town that I hope I can come back and explore one summer!

Interval day on a ribbon of snow (Matt Whitcomb photo)

Afternoon ski with Liz 

Bloody hand after getting my lactate taken on interval day

Liz and Jessie racing the Merino Muster

Sim and Hoff showing off their medals

Sunset cruise

Give an american a day off in town and...

Tea pot sweater!

Beach time in Wanaka

Intervals with the girls (Matt Whitcomb photo)

Jess and me at Bob Lee Hut (erika photo)

crust cruising! (Erika photo)

For the most part, we've had incredible skiing since we've been here. We've had the occasional day of wind, rain, or snow, but we have had a lot of sunny days. My favorite ski of the camp so far had to be yesterday morning. A big snow storm was predicted for the entire day, but just as we were getting ready to ski, the clouds parted and we had full blown sunshine and no wind. Plenty of snow had dumped the night before and everything was covered in powder. It had been a few hours since the groomer had been through, so we were making our own tracks for the morning. We explored a trail I had never been on before and had an awesome morning of waddling through the backcountry and making some powder turns. The snow was beginning to get a little thin here, so the storm was just what we needed and it looks like we got even more snow last night!

KO and Grove climbing up the hillside

Erika shredding the downs

Made it to the Kirtle Burn Hut!

Skiing out of the fog

Perfection!

We have five more days at the Snow Farm and I'm sure they will fly by. It has been an awesome camp and I'm hoping we will be able to return again next summer. Huge thanks to everyone at the Snow Farm who helps make this happen!

Happy girls post intervals (Matt Whitcomb photo)