The Search Begins

It was a rare opportunity. The chance to explore the best outdoor towns in the United States, looking for the perfect place for an avid xc ski racer to live. I made it my goal for the entire off-season: to find XC Town USA. This is my journey.

Last spring, my life was in transition.

I had spent the past six years devoting my life to cross country ski racing. I had been living in Park City, Utah, training full time, as well as working a full-time job. When the 2002 season wrapped up, I was feeling burnt out. My results had been stagnant for three years and the frustration over lack of improvement was keeping me from enjoying skiing. Deep down, I knew that I still had a love of ski racing and I was not ready to give up the sport, but I knew I needed a change if I was going to regain the spark I had enjoyed years before.

At the same time I was having all these feeling, I also got laid off from my job as a software engineer. My job was essentially the only thing keeping me in the Park City. My girlfriend and I had talked about moving somewhere new, but I was reluctant to leave a well-paying job. But once I was cut loose by my former company, we both quickly decided that a change in scenery might be exactly what we needed.