Maybe Next Time
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I was lucky enough to spend my holidays back home in Ireland again this year; it has now been 4 years in a row I've been back there for the Christmas period! As always it was great to see family, friends, and the missed views of the countryside. There's nothing like being home.
Tradition for the last 3 years has been to go to Dingle for the New Year's Eve festivities, which is always quite the affair. It's becoming a bigger and better spot in Ireland, and the world, to go for NYE, and this year certainly didn't disappoint.
After New Years it was time to head back to the States for the first race series of the season. My brother and I currently fly standby, so we had to bounce around a little before making it back. We finally made it on a flight from Amsterdam to Portland, and then from there to Salt Lake City. I'd never even flew into Portland before, and the views were quite remarkable.
Unfortunately I was quite sick upon returning to Salt Lake, so I wasn't in the best condition to race for the week. However, I went out there and gave it a shot. The Snowbird/Park City Tech Series was renamed to the Bryce Astle Memorial Tech Series, after Bryce passed away in an avalanche accident last year. I had the pleasure of getting to know Bryce at my first year skiing at Snowbird back in 2011. I didn't get to know him as well as others, but the way he loved and pursued skiing changed my outlook on the entire sport, and ultimately pushed me harder in the years prior to the Games. He will always be missed, but of course remembered when sending a steep line or pushing out of the start gate.
This week of racing was quite difficult for me, as I could not put two runs together. The GS series was quite tough due to conditions, and I had several major mistakes in the slaloms that contributed to a slow overall time. The intensity just isn't there, and hopefully I can bring that back with more training over the next few weeks. The next series looks like it's going to be in Colorado in about 2 weeks time, so I'll be looking for a little redemption when that comes around.
After a few shallow winters, it looks like the snow is going to keep on coming! I'm back up in Logan for the weekend and I might take a spin to the old stomping ground, Beaver Mountain, for a few turns. I'll let you know how it goes!
/CL