In Search of Snow… and other magical things.

I do realize I promised to write you a post about our time in Utah… but in retrospect that might have been a lie?

Utah was great, the training (albeit frustrating at times) was good, the sun was appreciated and the snow was not.  I got to run in the hills, rollerski in circles, eat too much good food.  I had some of my best shooting ever.  (It’s always nice when you can surprise people by doing what you are suppose to do)

Utah was raw.  It was good and it was bad.  But I feel like I’ve moved on.

While the rest of the giggle gang hung out in Utah for another week I headed back to Lake Placid with Jonne to get in some of the coldest rollerskiing of the season… on our brand new roller loop!  HOT diggity-dog, does that not sound exciting???

Over my two week stint in Lake Placid I spent my time making more baked goods than anyone could eat, drinking an entire bottle of tasty liquid iron, and working on feeling fast while trying not to simply flail my limbs around uncontrollably.  Modest success!

Sick of rollerskiing in long-johns, mittens, and the occasional down jacket I decided it was time to find real winter.  And so the hunt for snow (man made or that natural stuff) began.  You know it is time for winter when you’ve forgotten how many layers of nonsense it actually takes to keep you warm, what snow-baskets are, and when you may or may not have found a dead mouse in your pole tube.  (Hey, my car doesn’t stink anymore….)

One direct flight  and a very generous former team mate later I arrived in Canmore with my rifle and jumbo ski bag.  I’ve been putting around for a few days, getting my feet under me, catching up on some z’s, sipping too much coffee  (that or I’m developing tremors), and logging my first k’s of the season on snow.

I’ve only been here for a few days…. but there is something about this place I’ve discovered over the past few years since I started this whacked out sport that is seemingly magical.  The kind of magical place that every time I get sick of the east and threaten to run to some where far far away… Well, that place is here.

*Photo credit goes to my team mates and their iphones. Yah cell-phone journalism!