New Beginnings

Long time no see! Last time I checked in here I was about to graduate from UNH, well quite a bit has happened since then:

1. Graduate from UNH
   
2. Move back to Franconia, NH
3. Internship at Littleton Regional Hospital Cardiac Rehabilitation
4. Hike LOTS and LOTS of Mountains
5. Hike the "Top Notch Triathlon" (3rd fastest hiker and 3rd fastest team, go Hillbilly Hill Humpahs!!)
6. Pack my entire life into a trailer
7. Spend 42 hours in a car driving 2500 miles across the country to Bozeman, Montana!
8. Start working as a personal trainer at HealthBalance, Bozeman! 
9. Graduate for real....
10. Explore Montana

My summer was quite a whirlwind of fun.  Driving cross-country was an unforgettable experience, but one that I hope not to replicate anytime soon - my hamstrings are still recovering from that one.  Now that I am here, I could not be more excited.  I'm actually using my degree, personal training and teaching fitness classes, I am living in the most exciting city in the country, and I am surrounded by incredible mountain playgrounds.  I've been staying busy out here, working at HealthBalance, serving beer and amazing food at Montana Ale Works, and most importantly preparing for the upcoming ski season.  My physical preparation is going better than ever before.  It's amazing how much more time I have when I'm not taking classes!  

The coming season is incredibly exciting for a number of reasons, the least of which being my physical conditioning.  First, I am excited to be able to live and train in such close proximity to my teammate Tanner Visnick.  Tanner is not only a brilliantly gifted athlete, but he is a genuinely upstanding individual and fierce competitor.  Along with Jeff Gay, Tanner and I have battled for national supremacy for the last few years, and I suspect that training together for the first time since 2012, when he was but a rising star, should be a mutually beneficial situation.  Second, I could not be more stoked to contend for my second national title on home turf at Cannon Mountain in March.  There is a lot of work to be done before then, but bringing telemark ski racing to Franconia has been a dream of mine ever since I joined the US team way back in 2008. I have no doubt that I will have a little home-hill advantage there even though I am living in Montana.  Cannon has a rich history of ski-racing.  Jean-Claude Killy swept the World Cup Downhill, Giant Slalom, and Slalom races in 1976, and the Franconia Ski Club has churned out top notch skiers for over 80 years, including the likes of Joan Hannah, Caitlin Ciccone, Ronnie Berlack, and most notably the legendary Bode Miller.

I'm a Montanan now, and I could not be more excited for a new start, a new race season, and more adventures!