One nasty crash.  It's very rare for skis and bindings to blow apart like this.  Especially Atomics.    

Last Sunday's storm in Tahoe gave us a good foot of light and dry pow.  Hard to believe after some rain at the beginning of the cycle, but it was blower.  I got lucky to get the call on Tuesday from Tom Day with Warren Miller Entertainment.  He had it all lined up to film Wednesday at Squaw and Thursday at Sierra at Tahoe.  At Squaw we had first tracks in Silverado of the season.  Squaw patroler Will was our guide helping find the best snow and features.  It's low tide, but that makes for fun skiing with all kinds of terrain. We started off with a few classic shots from the roof of the tram.  First ride at 7am and by the end of the day I scored 5 laps.  My best run was Kimo's Paw.  I got a chance to open it up with an air through some trees, big pow turns and a straight line exit.  Yeahhh!

pic on our way up.  me, Keoki, Sig, Day, Will and Doug  

 Thursday the day began with a 5:15am wake up.  I met Day, Sig, Keoki and Jamie Burge for a drive over to Sierra at Tahoe.  I've never skied at that resort before, but heard it's like my home mountain Sugar Bowl.  Laid back vibe, riddled with lots of terrain and great snow.  Sierra at Tahoe hooked us up with patroler and tele ripper Doug aka "Puddin".  This is Puddin's domain and he took us to all his favorite lines in "his playground".  I was so amazed at the quality of snow after 4 warm and sunny Cali days.  We scored again and had a day full of pillows, chutes, peppered faces and glade skiing with beautiful Lake Tahoe views.  We worked it and when Day sees something he likes he doesn't pass it up.  That meant leg burning climbs, heavy breathing and beads of sweat.  If it wasn't for all our snowmobile tows and that killer Tri Tip for lunch at the 360 BBQ I don't think I could have got those last two runs.  We took it till the sun went down, rolled back home by 7:30 and couldn't  wipe those big smiles off our faces.

pic  below Day, Puddin, Sig, me and Keoki

 Thanks to Squaw Valley USA and Sierra at Tahoe for two amazing days.  After watching this Ski Lake Tahoe segment in next years Warren Miller film you'll be booking a trip here for sure.  And we've only got 2 days of skiing in.  Hey Tom when we going next? 
 

 As you can see on the left side of my home page this is what it was like to run the Skier X on a good day.  Sunny skies and fast Colorado snow kept the speeds just right to run the track the way it was intended.  But we deal with all kinds of variables and snow is one of them.  Sunday's Skier X comp at X Games was pounded by mother nature.  We had a day of warm temps and rain/snow.  Those conditions slowed the skis down and turned a fast and dynamic sport into a battle like roller derby and nordic skiing.  It was the first time I had to skate and pole in a race besides out of the start.  If you watched the first heat and didn't know much about our sport then take a look at last years comp or the video I took from my VholdR on day one of practice.  Here's a quick summary of race day.  My first heat I had a good battle going with Tomas Krauss another Red Bull athlete.  We mixed it up and had a few words exchanged in the heat of battle due to the slow speeds and my concentration being broken by a cased landing off a triple.  Just past the half way mark I got out of my tuck and began to skate and pole over a roller it was so slow.  New wet snow on the ground acts like sand paper even on the best of skis.  In the semi heat I brought out my money Atomic's prepped by Jonathan Weyant of Richter Racing in Breckenridge, CO and they did their job.  I managed to pull into the lead by Benett after the first turn.  We finished ski tip to ski tip.  Flowing with confidence and not having to deal with Puckett, Lewen, Krauss, Fiala and Kerr due to early elimination I lined up on Puckett's (we have the same ski tech, aka Napa) race boards that were fresh and ready.  Conditions were changing and clouds and falling snow turned to sun.  For some reason those skis didn't like it and out of the start I could feel the problem.  They were sticking and not gliding smoothly like they should.  I got into the leaders draft and came through turn one and put a move on him.  I came up on his left side with priority into the next turn and all of a sudden I lost all the speed and dropped back behind him.  In his draft through the rollers I felt like this was my time to gain speed and make another effort.  Patience is key, but the problem was speed.  I had none and was passed for 3rd.  Then 4th.  I worked to maintain what I had and mount a charge, but the guys in front of me kept pulling away.  That was it.  I came across in 4th.  No glory at X for 2009.  Still had fun though.  I love that feeling in the start and then letting it all hang out down the mountain.

us ski team article

Rahlves Skier X preview article from Aspen Times

 http://newschoolers.com/web/content/news/news_id/2473/

I pulled a 3rd today with a 43.84 sec.  The qualifying day is a solo run down to make the seeding.  Out of 73 competitors the top 32 advance to the heat competition tomorrow.  The track is built with some fun rollers and jumps into the turns.  This is where a moto like "bubba scrub" or the skiing  "D Scrub" pays dividens in speed.  The passing zones will be out of turn 2, in the 4 pack doubles and after the last turn to the finish line.  Maybe more, it all depends on how the skier in front executes.  None of those spots will be easy, but I'm trying to be optimistic.  Three Americans of me, Jake Fiala and Casey Puckett are lined up to do battle tomorrow and defend home turf.  The one and only ski cross world cup in the USA. Unfortunately all of us cant make the finals since we will meet before and only 2 advance in each heat.  The Austrians and French seem to have pushed the rules a  bit and are wearing alpine ski racing like suits.  The FIS cant produce enough muscle to enforce the rules when it comes to freestyle too it seems.  Like in alpine racing the Austrians had the upper hand.  The win will still come down to the best regardless.  This track doesn't have the high speeds and long distances to make a big factor with all the form fitting looks out here.

qualifying run:
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2009/FS/8040/2009FS8040QRL.pdf

comp heats:
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2009/FS/8040/2009FS8040SXL.pdf


my view of Fiala, Puckett on course:
http://daronrahlves.loopd.com/Members/daronrahlves/Videos.aspx?resourceId=ac0d8678-0d6d-4c97-8098-edccb32dd0db

 Wanted to let you know that tonight on ESPN, The Winter X Games Classix: Skiing episode will air at 2am, eastern time.  I know it's a great time slot!

Set the Tivo to check out tonight's as well as tomorrows "All Access" episode where I show you some ski cross stuff as well as a walk through skier X finals from 2008.

Daron

 http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3818730

 http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20090102/NEWS/901029985/1066&ParentProfile=1051&title=Ready%2C%20set%2C%20boom%3A%20Silver%20Belt%20Banzai%20returning%20to%20Sugar%20Bowl