Well it’s been approximately forever since I wrote a blog, and I feel bad because I feel I should do a better job showing what professional cross country skiing looks like. When I was growing up, I had the daily Noah Hoffman blogs that were sometimes boring, but that was actually cool and important to see. It helped give more of an understanding of the whole picture because of his honesty and consistency. I won’t do what he did. I hear everywhere he went he would set up a “Hoffice”, and get shit done. That’s not really my thing, especially on the road. Plus, I don’t love sharing everything about what I’m doing. But, I also don’t love just sharing the cool things, which is where I feel like the blog is actually really nice. That’s why I’m bringing it back after a few years of once-a-year postings

I also have a desire to do some sort of social media, but can’t really figure out what’s always fun or feels good, and maybe the answer is something different for different times and scenarios. As it pertains to skiing, you have Ben and Zak’s youtube channels, Jessie’s instagram, FIS’ trend-following reels, and the technical prose of Nordic Insights. I’ve started doing some youtube videos too, but they’re less ski related. And I feel like my Instagram is as inconsistent as it can be without our team’s Press Attaché, Leann Bentley, telling me I need to step up. I don’t like influencing in the definition that it currently carries, but I do enjoy sharing the stories of our team and my own life because I think it’s important for our sport and community to understand what world cup life is like! Sponsors also depend on my sharing of their products doing cool things in cool places, so I’ll continue to hold up my end of the deals. :)

By now you’re probably bored of my two-paragraph reckoning with my relationship to media, and want to hear about what I had for breakfast.

Orange juice, coffee, 2 pancakes with jam, cheese, and fried eggs on them. A croissant filled with chocolate, and an orange. Pretty good stuff, and also what I had every day of the last 7 days during a camp in Livgno, Italy with Ben and Kristen. If you’re new to this, Ben Ogden is a long-time teammate from Vermont, and Kristen Bourne is our D-team coach who spends much of the winter with us on the World Cup. She is from Tahoe, California.

I was home for a bit after the tour de ski and came here to naturally fortify my blood in order to help me up some hills in Val di Fiemme in a few weeks. Livigno at 6,000ft is one of the highest places you can live and nordic ski in Europe, so it is a common spot for many nordic skiers, biathletes, and double polers to camp out.

Going kindle-less this period. East of Eden is insanely good.

An alpine hut that I’m tempted to sleep in next week when we’re back

Camp was good, now we’re driving to Goms, Switzerland for the last World Cups before the Olympics start. It’ll be a nice tune up and revisit to the place where Ben and I skied together in the Skiathlon at 2018 World Junior Ski Championships.

And more famously won our first worlds relay medal, a silver, along with Luke Jager (Leg 1), and Hunter Wonders (Leg 3).

waiting for the furka car train in realp

The races this weekend are a skate team sprint, classic sprint, and classic 20km mass start, all good ones to watch! They are available in the U.S. as always on skiandsnowboard.live. Check it out and get psyched for Milan-Cortina!

Thanks for reading, and if you want a touch more olympic-adjacent media, check out my 7 minute youtube video from an afternoon jog from our hotel that we’ll stay at in a couple weeks.