Since the competition season concluded, I’ve been very busy doing a ton of different things… To start, I completed my fifth quarter at Dartmouth College in the Spring, during which I finally declared my major which will be Philosophy modified with Eastern Religion. In the middle of my term at school I attended a U.S. Ski Team bike trip in Southern Utah just prior to my visit to Washington D.C. with the rest of the U.S. Olympic Team. The trip to D.C. was especially memorable, not only because I met the President at the White House, but because the event helped me truly grasp the fact that I now am, and forever will be, an Olympian.

After I finished up at school I had the pleasure of attending a conditioning camp in Maui with the rest of my teammates, which was definitely the best dryland camp I have ever been to during my eight years on the Team! An extra four days of surfing highlighted my rare trip to a warm place. This summer I also did some coaching with my old race program, CMAC, at Mt. Hood, went on an amazing yoga/surfing retreat on Vancouver Island with Lululemon, and rode my bikes a LOT.

My first on-snow camp in New Zealand in August was productive and fun. I was glad to have many days of good GS training, and succeeded at totally over-hauling my GS technique. Although it’s not quite consistent yet, I am confident that the changes I am working on in GS will help move me into the top tier of GS skiers in the World. It took Tiger Woods a little while to dial in his new swing before he really started winning again, so I am telling myself to be patient with the development of the new technique…

Our second training camp took place the second two weeks of September in Portillo, Chile. Although we were in South America later in the year than normal, there was still plenty of snow and the training was awesome. I had a few really fast days of GS and Super G—I even won the Super G practice-race (the “Portillo Cup”) held among my teammates, for which my coaches awarded me a stuffed animal trophy. The great training in Chile helped boost my confidence going into our final camp before the Soelden World Cup GS at the end of October.