From the Vallee Blanche to the Stade..

Continuing with the active theme over here in Chamonix, yesterday I met fellow telemarker Ed Bonnar and a few of his friends for a day on the Vallee Blanche. Staying in Argentiere for a long weekend, Ed was keen to do something a little different on his last day – so we took a ride up to the top of the Midi and had a very leisurely ski back to Cham!

 

Heading down the arête

On top of the world!

Taking the classic route via the Col du Gros Rognon, we had perfect views over the north-east side of Mont Blanc du Tacul as we descended past the first heavily crevassed zone. After taking in the views we made a quick stop over at the Requin hut to re-fuel and take a few photos before negotiating our way down to the Mer de Glace, where we had lunch.

Conditions on the whole were pretty hard-packed and icy but we managed to find some good spring snow a little lower down which made for some enjoyable skiing.

Unfortunately the Montervers train was not running as a result of a big wet slide which went across the tracks – but luckily there was enough snow to ski all the way back to Chamonix.

The boys having a break

The Requin hut in the sun

Making our way back to town we hit the Après hard in McDonald’s with a cheese burger and coke before heading back up the hill to Argentiere.

Today I have also been skiing ice – but a very different type… Having made a few changes to the set-up of my Kneissl race skis I headed up to Le Tour this afternoon for a play. Jeremy Fournier from Fresh Tracks (the best telemark shop in the region), spent a couple of hours last night working hard mounting my new, pink Rottefella risers!

There she is! Beautiful..

Up at Le Tour I had the stade to myself today. With the run roped off to the public because of a race that’s due to take place tomorrow I took advantage and laid down some massive arcing turns!!

That’s all for now. But tomorrow I will be heading back into Chamonix for more skate training with a couple of laps of the track in the morning before going back up to Le Tour to carry out some drills and more freeskiing in preparation for the Chamonix World Cup – info to follow soon.

Back to Training in Chamonix

With the next World Cup only two weeks away, I am back home in Argentiere and training for the next set of races in Chamonix and Les Contamines. With the majority of the racing taking place in Les Houches, only a short drive away – I will be heading down there as much as possible over the next couple of weeks to get a feel for the hill.

Today however, I met teammate Jasmin Taylor at the Maison du Nordique (just outside Chamonix) for a skate training session. Being relatively new to nordic skiing it was great to have Jas at hand, throwing a few tip my way!

After a quick 2 hour session..

After our adventure through the wood we retired back to the chalet for some banter and luncheon before heading downtown to run a few errands before going our seperate ways.

The Grands Montets ski area in the afternoon sun.

Bye Bye USA

Finishing off the Steamboat World Cup with by far the most exciting of the three telemark disciplines, the ‘Telemark Parallel Sprint’ – we saw an amazing display of high-octane skiing and cunning tactics. The top 16 men and 8 women battled it out one evening, on Howelsen for the ultimate prize!

See here:

In the tightly fought womens race, Zoe Taylor (USA) finished in first place followed by Laura Grenier-Soliget (FRA) and Julie Duedahl (DEN). And Phil Lau (FRA) took gold in the mens race, closely followed by Bastien Dayer (SUI) and Tobi Müller (GER).

The Ladies..

Coaches, hard at work…

The cool kids!

Following on from Steamboat I made my way over to Vail, to stay with family friend, Kim Gustafson – Vail ski instructor and co-founder of Opedix.

On my first evening we were kindly invited to join Kim’s bother David and his wife Chris (also good family friends) at the lodge where they were staying, for the weekend with friends. Having had the heads up in an earlier email from David – I was ready for just about anything: ” There are two beautiful Stanford coeds here visiting this weekend. I think you’ll find them delightful” – bonus! Absolutely delightful they certainly were, I had a cracking evening eating, drinking, playing poker and spreading the British love.

The next morning I staggered up the mountain with a slightly sore head to trash out some turns on the beautifully groomed Vail pistes.

After a hard days skiing at the base of the mountain.

That brings me to the end of another amazing skiing adventure… Thank you America!

Slow Sprint but Big Jump

After a pretty chilled out rest day yesterday with some training on Howelsen – we were back today for the first of two Telemark Sprint races.

Starting bib number 20, I had a messy first run before stepping it up in the second to finish in 24th position. Here is some video of todays racing:

After the race had taken place – Chad (the organiser) took to the piste-basher to prepare the rap for tomorrow’s Parallel Sprint.. While the US Team where still in it, taking photos!

This evening we joined some of the teams ski jumping after dinner – which was pretty sweet!

The British Ski Jumping Team

And the video to follow..

17th in the Second Classic..

Today we had our second race in Steamboat and after the long, tough first Classic yesterday everyone was feeling tired this morning and slighty anxious to see the Norwegian course – set by coach Jo Mork.

Again the weather was less than ideal with another 4 inches of snow which had fallen overnight and poor visibility. During the inspection I felt confident with the course which had a few less gates after the jump and a shorter skate.

Starting 19th out the start gate I felt stong in the top section of the course and tried to preserve energy as I came out of the rap and into the first skating section before the jump. The second set of gates came quickly after the fast jump and I tried to ski as cleanly as possible, not collecting too many gate penalties.

Crossing the finish line I skied into 17th position which I am happy with but even more pleased having received only one penalty on the jump for not landing in the telemark position. When compared to six, yesterday – this is a big improvement and I made the jump line finally!

Team captain, Andrew Clarke commented, “Once again challenging conditions in the States but Jack skied especially well, putting down the hammer in the gates and finishing in a very creditably position”.

 

18th in the Classic

Today we had our first race here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado – the Classic. With over 4 inches of snow last night and bad visibility it made for difficult racing conditions.

The course, set by Swiss coach Michael Bonny included 46 gates, over 306 vertical meters and at over 2,000 meters the skating section was no walk in the park!

Andrew and I at the bottom of the hill.

After a tough race I finished in 18th position, in a time of 2:31.09 which is my personal best finish in the classic. In the mens race – Bastien Dayer (SUI) took the gold, followed by Tobias Muller (GER) and Thomas Sand Nordberg from Norway. Also a very well done to Cory Snyder (USA) who I have been training with in Steamboat last week who came in a creditable 8th place!

Thomas, Bastien and Tobias

And in the girls race Madi McKinstry (USA) got her first podium finish, coming in 3rd place behind Amelie Reymond (SUI) and Anne-Marit Enger (NOR) – congratulations Madi!

Madi, Amelie and Anne-Marit

That’s all of the news from today. Another Classic tomorrow before a rest on Wednesday.

Ready to Race

With the arrival of the Canadian, Dane, French, Swiss, Germans, Norwegians and my teammates: Andrew and Ian – the World Cup is ready to begin.

Starting off with the opening ceremony last night which was combined with the Steamboat Springs 99th Winter Carnival, it wasn’t like any other World Cup opening ceremony I have ever attended! Over 7,000 came together at Howelsen Hill to watch a spectacular display of skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping through rings of fire, fireworks and much more..

The evening show, was quite amazing and certainly beats any other ‘Opening Ceremony’ I have ever been to during the last few years.

Ian, me, Julie

The French..

Today, we had our first training day in preparation for the first of two Classic races here in Steamboat. Having skied on the race piste for the last week I was feeling confident on the varied pitch and felt solid on the jump and in the rap during practice.

In town the Winter Carnival continued today with men on horses towing small children on skis along the road. This is quite a scene – especially the kids which stacked it at speed and ate snow!

Still upright..

Go Fast or Go Home!

Today I was back at Mt. Werner with Cory, Madi and others tele racers skiing GS gates. Accompanied also by a handful of alpine racers, we skied two course: the first a tight rhythmic corridor followed by a super fast/straight second course (similar to something you may find in the parallel sprint).

With two very different sets – it took me a bit of time to really get into it, but by the end of the afternoon I was starting to feel much more comfortable on the hill where we will have the classic race next week.

See today action here:

 

The United States of America

After an interesting last night in Rjukan, it was time to make my way across the pond to the US. Meeting Cory Snyder at Heathrow T5, early on Monday morning we departed England for the next World cup stop – Steamboat Springs, Colorado!

Staying with US Telemark Team member, Madi McKinstry, for a few days before the racing starts – I drove up from Denver to Steamboat in my pimping Dodge hire car.

Having driven 150 miles North West I eventually arrived in Steamboat and it was not long before I saw blue and red flashing lights behind me on the highway… Pulling over to see what all the fuss was about, I was greeted by the Sheriff who kindly shouted at me to “get back in your vehicle Sir” – as I got out to enquire what I had done wrong. After inspecting my licence and making sure I was not on his ‘wanted’ list of hard criminals he was very helpful, in helping me find Madi’s house in the dark. Phew!

Downtown Steamboat

Since my encounter with the Sheriff I have been trying to stay out of trouble and ski fast. The first couple of days I trained with the American kids on Howelsen Hill (where the Sprints are to be held). This is a small ‘ski hill’ which is owned by the local community but perfect for gate training. At 1pm everyday, the High School children in the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club descend upon the hill by the masses and it was truly amazing to see such a diverse mix of wintersports being carried out including: nordic, alpine, telemark, ski jumping, freestyle.

Howelsen Hill

Today I have been up at Mt. Werner (the main ski area in Steamboat) for a recce of the Classic course with coach Ty and the other American racers. Having received a few inches of fresh snow overnight we could not set any gates but had a good ski around the resort which was nice. In the afternoon we heading back to Howelsen Hill to kick-start Steamboat’s 99th Winter Carnival with a telemark fun race. With a good number of spectators and Madi on the mic, commentating – there was a great atmosphere as we raced a short parallel GS.

Well, that’s all for now – back to training tomorrow and hopefully fellow GB teammates Andrew and Ian should arrive in the evening!