October 3, 2015

Another Year!

I ski race because I really love skiing. The downside of being a ski racer is that it is dependent on snow which only falls half the year, if we're lucky. The upside is that I get the opportunity to go to more extreme measures to get on snow whenever possible. This is one of the many reasons I moved to Alaska. With APU's glacier training facility and the relatively cold climate of Alaska, I have many more opportunities to ski than most, which not only makes me very happy and enjoy my job a whole lot more, it makes me better at that job.

As we rollerskied across wet leaves in the pouring rain, turning to sleet, turning to snow, going absolutely as hard as we can crushing some interval training, I maintained a constant shiver and truly couldn't imagine anything much worse than what I was doing. With snow continuing to fall throughout the day and night, my pain suffering the day before was rewarded with a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. I gathered some ski equipment and headed up the mountains to find even more snow. We skied in a lovely track and were reminded quickly, why we do this. Skiing is FUN! That day was September 30th so with that, I successfully skied at least once in all 12 months of the year! Now that is worth a little celebration!
October 2014: Girdwood grooms us an awesome 5k
November 2014: Racing starts!
December 2014: Racing in the U.S. gets me a ticket to Europe

January marked my most successful month ever and a lot of frigid weather.
February: World Championships
March: Finishing out the race season with APU
April: Skiing on sea ice in Barrow, Alaska 
May: Crust cruising around Hatcher Pass
June: Back on the glacier!

July: Glacier round 2
August: Glacier Round 3, sun, sun, and more sun

September: early snow in Anchorage

Happy Fall!