July 18, 2012 – Where to begin…it’s July – something that is not lost on me. The last time I updated my website was a long time ago – over seven months back when I was battling through the Tour de Ski – an event that is so close to my heart it might as well be my skiing’s equivalent of a mitral valve.

I’d love to make the excuse that I was deep in the Himalaya climbing bad ass peaks for months and months on end solo, in true alpine-style, rocking a huge beard, all sinewy and the only form of communication I’ve been able to do is performing charades with Tibetans – but you all know that to be untrue. I was most certainly “in civilization” continuing to race on the World Cup circuit for months, living out of the duffel, training and racing hard as our Canadian team followed along in the caravan of FIS’s Nordic “white circus.”

Seeing how the season ended over three and a half months ago now and with the heat we’ve been enjoying in Canmore lately, I’m about as far away from Scandinavia where the circuit ended as one could be. That said, I’m going to attempt not to get melancholic and sappy. For that reason and others,  I won’t get into it all – most of you know how it shook out. It was a banner year on the results board for our entire team – personal bests a plenty and some legendary races enjoyed by each of us on the team. I am so proud of my teammates, our staff and program. How cool is it that for the first time in history everyone on the World Cup team is now able to be introduced as “World Cup medalists” – that is so amazing! What a year indeed!!

As for myself personally – it was bar-none the most difficult season of my life. Not just from a physiological standpoint (yet having competed in over 40 races, it was!), but more pertinently from an emotional/mental aspect. After finishing 4th in the Tour de Ski it was apparent that I’d be in a tough race to stay in the top 3 in both the World Cup overall and World Cup Distance Cup (a goal of mine for not only the season – but something I’d been dreaming of for years – decades!), all while my nine-year relationship imploded. Skiing was about the furthest thing from my mind and it’s hard to describe how awful the year was. The weird thing was that on the result sheet I was putting up career-best numbers week in, week out.

Contrary to my nature, I’ll leave it there. The season was interesting. Canada raced fast. Really fast. I look back and take little personal satisfaction on my own results and man did it take a lot out of me.

Yet with winter ending came spring. Yes it was full of change and bummed out or not – life continued on. Instead of dragging on, I have decided to post an epic amount of photos  – so let’s just use the rest of this update as a terribly produced “photo-essay” to explain what’s been up.

The first photos you see are from a 12 day backcountry ski trip with some of my best friends up into Northern BC. It was unreal. We hit a huge high-pressure system – enjoying a plethora of sunny days of fabulous skiing with great people. It doesn’t get any better than this – and backcountry skiing is an addiction/passion of mine that I think about from the first snowfall every year. The final weeks of the season are always tough to focus on the racing – knowing that epic skiing in the mountains is just around the corner. This spring, a crew of us decided to do a huge road trip, covering over 4000km – leaving Canmore to explore the ranges near Smithers, Terrace, Stewart, BC and even a day in Alaska in the Babine Mountain Range and Northern Coast Mountain Ranges. Check the photos. I just loved it.

That ski trip brought us to the middle of April, where true to form – I escaped to Hawaii – descending this year on my fav’ – Kaua’i to try and chill out after an arduous season. It’s a truly magical place and this year I needed the islands healing more than ever. It was difficult to leave (ok, it always is, haha)!!

The travel seemed to never stop and after Kaua’i it was back to official training. My season this year started in Provence, France with the organization – GOLD MEDAL PLATES (www.goldmedalplates.com) then things got rolling right along with stints in Bend, OR, Pacific City, OR and then back to Hawaii for our 2nd annual Maui camp.

The idea of “home” hasn’t really existed lately – but I’m very happy to report some positive news – the training continues to be going great. That’s been the constant over these last seven months – I’ve been feeling stellar during both my training and competitions through everything. It’s strange, but I’m grateful for it – deeply grateful.

This season our team has split into men’s and women’s teams – so I can only really comment on how are boys are doing, since the women have been at different locations training (although everything I’m hearing is super positive! They’re fit as can be!!). I really feel as though our men’s team is in a great place these days and the vibe is at a best-ever level – we care and believe in each other so deeply that the training sessions are both high quality and also super fun!

Our staff continue to be world leading and of course are a big reason why we are where we are – and this winter a lot went above and beyond the call of duty to help (you know who you are) and the immense gratitude I have for our wonderful staff, coaches, technicians that are 100% behind me and us continues and seems to just grow and grow.

France was amazing (great food, met great people, and fantastic cycling/training – GMP know’s how to do it up!), the three weeks in Oregon were fantastic and I’m psyched that everyone had a great camp on Maui/the Haig (the altitude camp we just finished a few days ago) – working super hard together, laughing often and pushing the limits.

Ok, and we had some fun in the ocean too (some more than others. Lenny.) – it’s all good. We are all hungry and keen to improve, work on our weaknesses and push it – the competition waits for no one, as we all know!

Sure, last year was great – but last year was last year – and if we want to get even better, then we have to be even more diligent this training season. I can tell you we aren’t interested in resting on our laurels.