Squaw Nationals

  This was the best US Nationals I have ever been to. At first, it was looking like none of the races were going to get off. It snowed about 20 inches the night before the first day, and was so warm in the morning that it was pouring rain. I went up skiing anyway and it was pretty fun, but the race trail looked impossible to have any races on. Fortunately, it got colder and the clouds cleared, allowing the snow to turn rock hard. 

The Giant Slalom went quite well as I got my first top 10, 8th place, with decent sized mistakes. The Slalom was very fun because the snow was perfect. I had some trouble my first run, then got the feeling back and crushed the second run finishing 11th. 

The Super-G was the highlight of my Squaw Nationals with a 2nd place. With my win at the Copper National Downhill earlier in the season, the pressure was definitely on to be top 3 in the Super-G. The snow was so good everywhere but the first three gates. Right out of the start, it felt like I was racing a Banzai Race with very soft snow and holes. After the 3rd gate, it was perfect hard snow the whole rest of the way. There were three critical blind rolls, that you really needed to nail. I did the first two very well. Near the bottom, there was a road that I got way more air than expected. I flew so far that I landed at the gate, and had to make all my pressure on a dime to make the next gate. I threaded the needle and made it to the finish. 

After the Super-G race, Audi let a few of us take out R8's. They gave us the keys and said have fun, and you know we had a blast. Being able to take out a $100,000 car and rally around was so epic. 

Next, I head to Mammoth for Spring Series Races, along with some speed training. It's a good time of the year to work on getting new equipment dialed in for the next season. 
/JG

  

Rippin around R8's

Day out in the boat

Looking down the SG

NorAm Overall Title

A few days ago I wrapped up the Overall NorAm title. The Overall was one of my objectives of the season, and it's very rewarding to have met my biggest goal. The title guarantees me a World Cup spot in every event next year. I also won the Downhill Title and was second in the Super-G Title. 

We started NorAm finals at an interesting place for racing called Nakiska. The resort was made solely for the Olympics in 1988, so it's a bunch of race trails cut out of thick trees. The mountain we race on is surrounded by beauty everywhere you look, they just happened to pick a flat one for the ski resort. No worries the view never disappointed, and made it a much more positive experience. The Super-G's were set very turny, too turny for the Americans longer next years skis. This year has been the same story over an over. The Canadians set turny and the Americans set straight. All this aside, all of us will be on the same length skis next year so the setting wars are finally over. Giant Slalom was feeling a bit weird since I just went 1 1/2 months without skiing the short GS skis. I finally got dialed on the longer 35meter radius skis in Sochi, and the old skis just felt sketchy now. I finally figured it out again last run which will help me through my last few races coming up.      

The slalom was at a new venue that has never been ski raced before, called the Calgary Olympic Park. Located just out of downtown Calgary, it was built for the Olympic ski jumping and luge etc., but it was never tall enough to have a legal race. Last summer they piled 100 ft of dirt on the top to make it tall enough to have a sanctioned high level slalom. I must say it's one of the most fun slaloms I have ran. The snow was injected, but super grippy. You could literally lay the ski over as far as you wanted. It was hero snow and was epic to ski, not to mention everyone was ripping. There was big sharp terrain changes, including a drop at the bottom where people were getting pretty good air off of. It was so bizarre getting off the lift with miles of the same exact houses right near the race start too. 

This week I am in Tahoe racing US Alpine Nationals in Squaw Valley. I'm very excited to ski Squaw, as I've heard it has awesome freeskiing. It's always fun to go to a sweet ski resort that you can actually go rip around the whole mountain. 

/JG

Nakiska GS

Overall DH Title 

COP Slalom

Norway World Cup's

Norway is insane. What a great place to go after Russia. The food was better and it was actually cold. The snow on the race hill was perfect. It was the superb snow conditions to be a serious threat even starting outside the 30.
There was a problem though, there were gale force winds up top. There was also side winds throughout the course too, which was unfortunate because we weren't able to go off the big 70m jump. It was such a weird feeling the first training run with swirling winds, you would be all over the place trying to land off the bigger jumps. The race officials decided to shave the jumps down a lot to keep people from getting messed with by the wind in the air.
The second training run went from the top and the wind was the best of all three days. Running from the top is so much better with some solid turns and some weird terrain, which favors my style. I had much better run and was 14th in the training run. This is a big step and shows I can really be in there.
The race day was so windy they had to go from the lower start again. It was blowing ice chunks side ways and it was a white out looking out of the gate. I nailed all my lines and was having a great run, when I got squashed in the Datona Turn. Since they were shaving this jump down, I left the snow earlier than I expected, getting a bit back seat. In the air the inconsistent wind caught my chest and threw me back. It felt like someone pushed me in the chest with both hands, there was no way I could have safely pulled that off. There's a lot of G-forces on that turn as well and the position I landed in was far from ideal. I got a lot of coverage for the fall and how funny it was when I was stuck in the net. Got some good days on the hill to get experience, and feel super comfortable on it now.
The Super-G was set super straight. The amount of terrain the course weaved through was huge compared to what I'm used to. A few of the blind bumps I could have skied way more direct, and I over skied the course a lot. Being a little shaken up from my crash the day before, I was making sure I made it to the bottom. It's crazy how confident I feel after just one run down a new hill. I still skied really awesome, and learned a lot about the hill this week for years to come.
/JG

Olympic Training Camp in Sochi

Russia is the most bizarre place I've ever been.  The town we stayed in was brand new. Imagine a big canyon of ablsolutely nothing, at most a few houses. Two years later there are high rise hotels and stadiums. The Sochi Olympics will probably go down as one of the largest projects ever built in just a few years. One problem though is that hardly anything is finished. It's as if your in a hollywood movie set, with only the outside looking inviting. Workers work around the clock trying to get everything finished. Luckily for us we stayed as far up the valley as possible, where it was the safest. The tap water was so bad we had to go fill up water from a bubbler on the top floor everyday. There was definitely an unwelcoming feeling when you walk around outside and there's military walking in pairs with machine guns. You even had to go through security to get on the gondola every morning. 

The actually mountain is probably among the coolest places I have ever been. It rivals Snowbird and Jackson Hole terrain, and thats something I never thought I would say. It's pillow heaven, its steep, it has spines everywhere, and there is some amazing tree skiing. The Downhill track is also world class with big jumps and huge drawn out turns, that screams fun. Unfortunately, they have a problem with warm weather about half way down the mountain. The top is great and winter conditions but the bottom is similar to how Whistler-Blackcomb gets at lower elevations. With over 6,000 ft vertical, there's palm trees at the bottom and powder skiing up top, it's very strange. 

We got a little speed skiing in, but Giant Slalom was working much better with the snow conditions, so we trained a lot of GS. Getting any training at all this time of year was great and I was able to make big steps in my skiing. Although we raced some suspect "races"as well, it was good to get time on the hill which is a nice advantage for next year. I have heard that Russia is the Wild West of racing so it wasn't much of a shock. 

I'm in Norway right now, starting downhill training runs tomorrow at Kvitfjell (Kev-it-ville). The snow is cold and grippy, so it's similar to Colorado snow. So psyched to ski a new mountain. 
/JG

                                  

Private jet on the way to Sochi #lotsofbags