Sunny, warm, spring conditions.  That's Snow Paradise Inawashiro today.  With the massive Inawashiro Lake in the background looking down the track from the ski cross start is a cool view.  It looks bigger than Tahoe, but hard to say.  Lots of water to look at and the constant flow from the Japanese volunteers handing out free drinking water at the start, on the bus rides, at the hotel and here in the media room gives me little time to sit and write because I fill up quick.  I'll let the pov video form today do the talking.  Good flow, a big air and fast turns = good times on my Atomic GS12's.  It's a fun ride, but over in under 50secs.  

 Another two days filming with Warren Miller was once again an amazing experience.  I have always wanted to ski more of the Tahoe area and this film project is delivering.  We hit up Kirkwood on Thursday and Friday.  Snow was excellent and our private guides, the Kirkwood Patrol, gave us full access and an escort to all the best terrain the mountain has to offer.  WME power was in full effect and we had the permanently closed area called the Cirque open to us.  This was virtually my first time skiing here.  The last time was at 11yrs old I raced a Far West SL at Kirkwood.  I remember this place being a big area, but I had no idea it had this rowdy of terrain.  This mountain rocks. I like the long runs, wide open bowls, lava rock and all the banked gully runs.  So fun to ski and the snow was perfect dry winter conditions. We stayed on the mountain at The Mountain Club which was a bonus when we had 6:30am ups.  The highlite was skiing off the top for my first film run.  I took a scouting run down to the bottom of the Cirque and picked out the line they call the Hour Glass.  The conditions are pretty lean and lots of rock was showing so it made for a technical and difficult ski.  I viewed the line a number of times through our 300 film lense at the barbi location and could pick out everything I needed to be confident for this one.  Off the top the snow was deep and blower so that boosted my confidence dropping into the more tricky area, but then I started tagging rocks just under the surface with every turn.  I slowed it down and did my best to stay light on my skis.  I got through it and then went for the choke.  Not thinking of anything but where I was headed I got hit by my sluff crossing over.  Not a good move, but I held my ground and made it through clean.  At that moment it was full throttle and it all came together.  Wow, that was a fun one to start the trip with.  Thanks to Kirkwood, Johnny, Burge and I had a successful trip and added some good stuff to our Lake Tahoe segment. 

rowdy Banzai You Tube video 

 Sugar Bowl’s Silver Belt Banzai was rough and wild.  Snow conditions were perfect, but flat light mixed with snow made visibility a challenge.  With a couple feet of snow from this 5 day storm it made for soft, but rough conditions.  Big bumps and bigger holes.  It had the resemblance of supercross style whoops.  The key was staying on your feet and not getting out of control which was tougher said then done.  The Sugar Bowl race dept was mostly concerned with safety.  They were giving it a thumbs down.  Event organizers had a thumbs up.  There was talk among us athletes on safety and a fair race.  Finally we had options laid out and we took a vote. 80% was in favor of making it happen.  Game on!  We rallied to the start and the heats lined up 6 at a time. The starter gave us the go and it was BANZAI time.  I got the hole shot in my heat and straight lined it down the upper powder field.  My new Atlas Atomic pow skis are so solid they were mowing down the piles of snow.  It felt so smooth that I didn’t think of slowing down until the last chance before dropping off turn one into the gully.  Picking out one huge bump to kill all my speed before dropping in I got off balance and was planted on my tails.  I rode the air chair all the way to the bottom.  When the snow cloud cleared after impact I saw Gunnar and Cliff pass me up the bank.  Then Scott and Paul flew by me as I was hiking up to get around the next gate.  From first to fifth I was in the hot seat,  Luckily Teller lost a ski on the first turn so I had a chance. Top three advance to the next round and I had to get it on.  Through the key hole and no intention of turning to slow down I took option left.  At the exit I squeeked by Scott, then through the tight snake gully I rode up on the bank with a ton of speed and slipped by Paul.  That was third so all I had to do now was hold on and let my boards do the work. The semi heat I had a good battle on my hands up top and pulled off the win. The girls final was right in front of ours and it fired me up when I heard my sister Shannon took the title when she straight lined the Steilhang.  She put the pressure on and I was feeling the buzz from the other 5 guys lined up next to me.  For the final start they lit an avy bomb and we were to go on the explosion.  Approximately 30 secs before it was dead quiet and all I could hear was the heavy breathing of my competitors.  BOOM…we were off.  It was an all out war.  I pulled into the lead and fought all the way down.  Legs on fire and out of breath I left it all on the hill and took the win!  Banzai!!!

 http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20090214/NEWS/902149997/1066&parentprofile=1051&title=Silver%20Belt%20Banzai%3A%20Favorites%20Daron%20Rahlves%20and%20Errol%20Kerr%201-2%20after%20day%20one%20qualifying

 I filled up on these snacks all day at the Bowl...and there's more to come.  It's suppose to snow the next 4 days!!! Yeahhhh...

 http://uk.redbulletin.com/articles/in_shape_for_the_x/

 Schedule for the weekend:

    * Schedule of Events (subject to slight change but more-or-less dialed-in)

   
   Friday FEB 13

                 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm

                  Early Registration at Judah Lodge. Payments and waivers MUST be signed to compete.                         
                  Registration includes your lift ticket for Saturday.  Ages 14 – 18 are $50
                  Ages 19 and up are $100.

         

   Saturday FEB 14

                7:30 am – 10:00 am    

                Registration in the Judah Day Lodge.  Payments due at this time and waivers MUST be signed to        compete.  Registration fees include a lift ticket for Saturday.  Ages 14 – 18 are $50
                Ages 19 and up are $100.
 

                 9:00 am – 10:00 am   

                 Athlete course inspection
 

                 10:15 am – 11:45 am

                 Athlete training
 

                12:15pm – finished

                Athlete qualification runs.  6-skier heats, timed for placement in Sunday’s place-based finals

                
                 8:00 pm - ?     

                 Red Bull Silver Belt Banzai Party at Fifty/Fifty Brewery in Truckee
 

          Sunday FEB 15

                7:30 am – 10:00 am

                Registration at Judah Lodge.  Mandatory for all athletes racing in finals.  Sunday lift tickets for finalists will be            provided as part of registration fee.
 

               10:00 am – 11:00 am

                Race inspection
 

                11:00 am – 12:30

                Race training
 

                12:30 pm – finished

                 Finals Racing

 

                3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

                Awards party at Sugar Bowl mid-mountain lodge

I got the call from Tom Day yesterday afternoon to rallying the troops.  We met in Squaw's parking lot at 7:15am boots on.  On the lift to upper mtn it was looking good.  Blue skies!!!  The morning was cold and a bit windy, but with a few inches of fresh cold smoke.  Johnny Moseley boosted back flips and skied pow, Jamie Burge skied pow and popped off some drops and I hit some little airs and skied pow.




POW!!!

 Woke up to 6 inches of cold smoke at the house, but that was doubled and tripled at Sugar Bowl.  Little pov taste for ya on my home page.  Enjoy! 

 My qualifying time of 1:13.28 sec ranked third.  Delbosco posted the fastest time of 1:12.78 and Lewen was 2nd with a 1:13.08. The start is a drop in with two spine like features one after another.  They are tough to get right and not float too far past the backside.  That was where I had trouble by passing up the landing on the second drop.  After that  I dialed in the top section, but had trouble on turn six where I snagged my right hand on the gate panel and got spun off the roller a bit.  I pulled it back and managed to keep most my speed to the finish.  The hill in Cypress twists down a long run with bank turns and lots of jumps.  It's not a fast track, but has good terrain.  A few jumps are dished out with long ramps that send you up and then drop off steep to the landings.  If you make a bad move you end up with some unwanted hang time and come down hard.  Fun to fly, but that's slow.  The unfortunate deal were the conditions.  The elevation is about 3,000 feet so it's warm and wet.  In the turns and landings the snow was like deep sand.  If you came out of the main line it was slow so say goodbye to making outside passes. 

 here's a practice pov run from day one.

Race day I felt good and was ready to go.  Round one I had heat 5 and felt like I had it in the bag.  So I tried a different type of start that would avoid any conflict with the other skiers to see how it would work.  Not so good.  Oh well, I was in 3rd and had only one pass to make to take it to the next round.  I was all over the guy trying inside and outside lines.  Having to check speed before the banks to avoid running into him hurt my chances.  Then I went for an outside move on a right turn before a jump and he veered off in my direction.  That stood me up and blew my momentum.  Back in his draft I made a run for a pass on his left over two rollers coming into a table top jump.  This is where it got dirty.  He felt me coming and then stuck his elbow out and leaned into me and moved to the left across me.  We were heading straight into the jump.  Once he pulled that my speed was gone and he was successful at blocking me again.  So then it came down to one last chance. The second to last jump I was planning on setting him up and then he cut me off and I got stuck between his legs and spun sideways for a nice hit on my side.  That was the only time I liked that soft sand like snow to cushion my landing.  After a protest to DQ the blocker in front of me they ruled for him and said I was doing the grabbing and pulling.  It happened that he had home advantaged being Canadien.  

US Ski Team story.  Pic of the moment before I met the ground sideways.