First Comps of the Year and the Holidays

It has been a busy month with lots happening! To start off we had the first competitions of the year, something I had been looking forward to for a long time. Before those competitions actually arrived my team and I spent about 10 days training in Ramsau, AUT. It was a wonderful week of training with a lot of productive work and amazing weather. Although there was that much snow on the ground, Ramsau had their K90 meter hill open along with about 4km of skiing. With our free time we had a little fun and made a Mario Kart parody type video, check it out below.

After our week of training Ben Loomis, Ben Berend, Stephen Schumann and Nathanial Mah (Canadian Nordic Combined athlete training and competing with out team) and myself traveled to Klingenthal, GER. Klingenthal was where our season would kick off on the Continental Cup circuit, and I was pumped. It was a special three day opener event, the first day was one jump followed by a 5km race and the second two days were one jump followed by a 10km race, a 25km weekend! The first day started off fairly well, I jumped to 15th place and skied to 21st, a good performance on the jump hill but not so much on the Cross-Country course. The following two days did not go as I was hoping, I had what felt like a slump of sorts finishing 45th the second day and 35th the third day. My problem was on the jump hill, my trial round jumps were competitive however I wasn't able to translate that to the competition which is what matters. The one good thing I took away from those days was that I have the ability to jump at a competitive level I just need to keep working to be able to translate that to the actual competition. The weekend as a whole was fun but I left with determination to continue working and have my efforts pay off in the competitions. Check out some photos from the weekend in Klingenthal!

After Klingethal I flew back to Steamboat to spend the holidays with family and friends! It was an awesome week in my hometown where I was able to go tele skiing on Steamboat Resort and jump my home hill with the SSWSC. It was a busy time trying to fit everything in but wonderful nonetheless. Yesterday I packed myself up and drove to Park City where I will be training for the next week. The weather here is perfect for training right now, clear skies, cold temps and lots of snow! I will be able to get several sessions on the jump before I pack up once again. My next travel plans begin on January 6th when I will be traveling to Ruka, FIN for the first Continental Cup competitions of the new year! I am looking forward to the new year and hope this finds you doing the same, check out some photos from my week in Steamboat.