A few things have changed since I wrote my last blog. I had great help from our physio the first four days after I injured my shoulder. He taped it well right away and by the time I returned to the States I started to feel like I could finish out the season in Sun Valley. I went to the Steadman Hawkins clinic and saw Dr. Millet. After looking at the x-rays and the MRI he confirmed I had a grade 3 AC joint separation and he also confirmed that I had torn my labrum from the dislocation I had in February. Millet wanted to do surgery right away but I told him I wanted to finish out the year. He said if I could handle the pain he could clear me. So he gave me a cortisone shot and sent me on my way.

Sun Valley was great fun. A lot of people asked me “why are you doing this” because it was apparent I was in pain. My answer was a) I didn’t want to give the overall to Kraus without a fight. I know a lot of things can happen in Ski Cross and if something happened to him I wanted to be there to take the win (I followed him down in the quarter- final and watched him almost run into the fence too). b) I wanted to show everyone what I could do with a bum shoulder…and next year I will come back twice as strong. As far as my shoulder pain, it was very difficult to get out of the start. The initial pull didn’t hurt but the last push killed. My start was so much worse for this race.

The round of 32 was no problem. I followed Eric Iljans down the course and passed him at the finish line. The rest of the course I was trying to figure out places to pass. In the quarter-final I had Eric again and Kraus. Kraus was impossible to beat out of the start and also difficult to catch. I passed Eric half way down the course which gave me a ticket to the semis. In the semi-final I had Kraus and Hayer. I had a flashback to one year earlier when I was in the final with Kraus, Hayer, and Gavaggio. Kraus took me out, I blew my knee, and I got a concussion. Fast forward to the semi-final; because of my shoulder I had no chance out of the start. I did have one chance to pass Stanley but I messed up due to the flat light and lack of visibility. I didn’t make the final. Kraus took the overall, and I went onto the small final. By the time I was in the small final I was done. I had no more fight in me and I finished last which put me in 8th place for the race. Considering my ailments, I think 8th was pretty good. The year was over, my shoulder hurt, and my 48 Straight was about to begin.

My season has been cut short due to a shoulder injury today. In the first heat (round of 32) of the day I was completely blindsided by another competitor. I took the early lead and held it until the bottom. I went over the last jump and into the last 90-degree turn when suddenly I saw out of the corner of my eye one of my competitors barreling towards me. I tried to move to the right and avoid him. I also tried to outrun him. I felt like I was attempting to avoid an avalanche. Right when I thought I was in the clear, Tommy Eliasson’s body wrapped around my feet and took me down. The next thing I remember was seeing a Swiss medic hovering over me. I thought he said, “Do you have any nose hairs?” I started cracking up and I asked him “Did you just ask me if I have nose hairs?” Luckily the U.S. Ski Team doctor was there and he said, “no, he asked if you have any numbness.” And to that I replied, “no, I can feel everything, unfortunately.’ I then looked up at Jake who told me I had just been taken out. I then looked over at Lloyd Tucker who was staring at me wide-eyed and I passed out again. Lloyd told me later he was the first one to get to me. He said I was laying there face down, nose bleeding on the snow, snoring like a baby. I was out for close to a minute. The Swiss medic then loaded me onto a helicopter and flew me to Interlaken. Just my luck! My first helicopter ride in the Swiss Alps and the only thing I can see is the ceiling of the helicopter and one other thing, the medic’s nose hairs. It was such a beautiful day too.

I just talked with Jake and he told me I came to and said slowly, “Dude, something bad just happened didn’t it? I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be lying here like this.” Jake also told me what had really happened. Apparently the guy in third place landed on Tommy, who was in second. That shot Tommy like a rocket towards me. He missed the gate, cut off my angle, and took me out.
After a CT scan and some x-rays they determined my head was fine but I have a grade 3 AC separation. That’s much more serious than what I had before so it looks like I’m done for the year. It’s such a bummer too. I just started feeling healthy and 100 percent. I was ready to go claim another Jeep King title. I really felt I was on my game and ready to post some victories.
Oh well. I have a lot to be thankful for and I know it can always be worse. I had a pretty good year and I look forward to the next. Right now I’m just going to take some percoset, read a book, and try to sleep through the pain.

We have been in Switzerland now for 4 days and we haven’t even touched the snow. Since we arrived we have seen only rain and high winds. The weather is so bad that the whole mountain shuts down. We have done a great job passing the time, however. The fist day I was here I found a nice little mountain running trail with exercise stations. The Swiss call it a vitaparcourse. There are stretching, strength, plyometric, and balance routines. So far we have run the course every day. It has done wonders for my jet lag and I think it will help me a lot with my balance. I am predicting strong results this trip for the American team…that is, if we actually race. Other than daily exercise we also have, thanks to the internet, lots of new movies that are still out in theatres. We’ve watched Fool’s Gold (fun flick…love Kate Hudson), Vantage Point (not great) and Jumper (terrible). Also we just got back from bowling in Interlaken, which is always fun. Unfortunately I was betting Jake $1/pin. I got really cold in the third game and it was right at the time Jake was heating up. After he took me for $50 I wasn’t too stoked on bowling anymore.

Since it was a day off I scheduled a meeting at Kjus headquarters in Cham. I checked out the new line for next year and decided on the color for next year’s uniform. I ran into Karin Roten while I was there. She was a Swiss Alpine racer who is now doing TV commentary for Alpine events. She, along with Bode Miller, is a fellow Kjus ambassador. I had lunch with Didi Serena and his son, Nico, who run the company. Also I met with Silvia Wespi, the marketing coordinator. We came up with a good design for my uniform next year. I will be much more colorful than my usual black. They also showed me their “Spirit” collection, which is an off the hill, après ski clothing line. It takes the spirit of skiing and brings it to every day living. It’s great stuff! We are supposed to start training tomorrow in Grindelwald but it is pissing rain right now. We better start skiing soon or we could see some Jack Nicholson scenes from “The Shining.” ‘Til next time. **Click above to see pictures**

Casey

We just arrived in Wilderswil, Switzerland for our World Cup race that is being held in Grindelwald. I can’t seem to sleep on the flight over so I am feeling the jet lag. Our team has thinned out since the last trip to Europe. The only athletes here are Jake Fiala, Errol Kerr, Biche Rudigoz, and myself.

We have a couple of days on snow before we start training for the World Cup on Thursday. I thought I would post a picture of the guy we saw in the airport in Denver. He makes the mullet of the day for sure. Then I took some pics of our homebase for the next week, and of my way of trying to get through jet lag. I’ll try to post these blogs frequently so stay tuned.

Casey

Considering my body is falling apart, this week has been a much needed rest from the dangers I subject myself to; whether it is hurling my body down the course against 3 other guys or simply walking on a slick surface with no-traction boots. Whatever the reason, I always seem to end up back in physical therapy at the Aspen Club when I come home.

A great thing about being home is spending time with my girls, Riley and Annalisa. Last week I went to Denver for a “Care Conference” at Children’s Hospital regarding Annalisa’s tests. As I wrote before, she was just recovering from her 2^nd biopsy surgery. The doctors biopsied some lung tissue from the non-functioning part of her lungs and they were just starting to test it and get another look at what is going on in there. Although it was difficult for Annalisa to recover from the operation, her wounds are now healing well and she is back to her wonderful self again.

This is a synopsis of what I learned at the “Care Conference”:

As I said before, one of the concerns the doctors had in Annalisa’s case was that she had a surfactant gene mutation. She has been tested and re-tested with the leading researcher at Johns Hopkins University and has come up negative for any of the known genetic problems. Bonus!

The reason Annalisa has to be on oxygen 24/7 is because there is something in her lungs that the body is identifying as foreign and the body wants to snuff it out. So the body is sending lymphocytes (white blood cells) to deal with the problem. Annalisa’s airways have been, and are still clogged with these lymphocytes.

Since the airways are clogged we have to send more oxygen in to push through those lymphocytes and get O2 to the cells. Off oxygen Annalisa’s O2 saturation is around 70-80%. On oxygen she is at normal to above normal levels of about 95-99%. At 75% oxygen saturation, not only do you have brain problems, but the heart starts beating harder to get oxygen to the blood and you get right ventricular hypertrophy, which can be irreversible and certainly detrimental to the heart.

The problem the doctors have been facing from the start has been: Why is her immune system acting like this? Is it fighting infection? Does she have a hypersensitivity to something in her environment? For God’s sake, what is her body trying to fight???? If they figured this out, they might be able to help her. At the moment they believe her immune system could be malfunctioning. They think the T-cells (these are the generals in the white blood cell army) could be misguided. The body sees a lung infection, then it sees that the lymphocytes aren’t working, so the body sends more, but it doesn’t get rid of the stimulus so it keeps sending more. Just like any injury, the body tends to over do it when fighting infection. That’s why we ice when we hurt ourselves – to slow down the healing response. Nothing is slowing down the army of white blood cells to her lungs.

One of the results of this onslaught of white blood cells, and this is the scary part for us, is that she now has scarring in some of her airways. Some of her airways have scarred and have been shut down forever. This has been irreversible damage. She will never use those airways again.

This is a serious problem that requires immediate action. The doctors now have Annalisa on immune suppressing drugs, including prednisone steroids and another, more accurate drug – Cell Sept. And since she is on immune suppressing drugs, they also have her on antibiotics in case of any other infections she might acquire along the way. The poor thing is on so much medication it’s frightening.

Another problem she is facing now is that she has flattened out on the growth curve. She is expending so much energy to breathe because of her condition that she requires more than twice the caloric intake of a normal 2 1/2 year old. Considering she is 2 and has strong opinions on what she eats and, more importantly, what she does not eat, this is a problem. So she may also have to get a stomach tube so that we can feed her enough calories to keep growing, because growth is one of the most important things she needs to get out of this problem. If she stops growing her chances of healing are drastically reduced.

I have been blessed in my life for a number of reasons. I have never lost anyone near and dear to me except my grandparents who all led very full lives. The only person I can think of that I loved very much and she died young was Laura Flood (by the way Laura, if you’re up there with your wings listening in, we sure could use your help). The idea of losing Annalisa is a reality. We are doing everything humanly possible to make her better. It’s been the biggest challenge of my life and of Kate’s life to watch our daughter, who is so full of life, so beautiful, so loving, so vibrant, such a 2-year-old, lose the function of her lungs. I’m not one to cry, but you so much as say her name and I am apt to break down into tears. My cheeks are soaked with tears as I write this. This is actually therapeutic for me to write this stuff. I hope it’s not too heavy for you folks.

She is going to be fine. All we can do right now is pray. Pray that the doctors solve this problem. Pray that the medications are effective. Pray that she grows out of this and that her lungs function well enough to live a normal life. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

We were treated to a typical warm and sunny day in Squaw Valley for the 2^nd Jeep tour event of the season. The bad weather passed, the qualifying was over, and the brackets for race day were set. It was so interesting how the brackets got worked out. Normally the fastest guys have the best qualifying times, but sometimes the best guys are slow in qualifying which messes with the brackets. The Squaw Valley race was a great example of this. Somehow the quarter final heat in Squaw looked exactly the same as the final heat in Deer Valley. The final in Deer Valley was Daron Rahlves, Davey Barr, Michael Schmid, and myself. We had the same names in the quarter finals in Squaw. That’s crazy but it turned out to work really well in my favor. Daron was the tour leader going into the race and now he is 3^rd behind Kraus and me in the overall. We are all fairly close in points so there is no clear winner right now. It will all be decided in the final event in Sun Valley.

My shoulder held up great! I was not expecting to be able to race at all in Squaw and I thought the rest of the season was questionable. Thankfully it was just a low-grade dislocation and the pain I felt on race day was manageable. I was most worried about my starts and I didn’t have any problems there. It’s a good thing too because Michael Schmid and Tomas Kraus were powering out of the gates all day. The final was very exciting. Kraus beat me to the first corner but I held off Schmid. As I was trying to make a move on Kraus Schmid overtook me but he didn’t hold the position long. He out-shot the next jump which allowed me an easy pass. Then I had Kraus in my cross hairs. My skis were faster at the bottom of the course and I caught him quickly. Unfortunately I ran out of real estate and I ended up 2^nd again. In the last three races I have been 3^rd, 2^nd, 2^nd. Each one of those races I was beat by different people. So at this point I am the most consistent top finisher. I just need to turn that consistency into wins. I’m hungry for a win.

The next stop is a World Cup in the Czech Republic. I have never been to the Czech Republic before so I am excited to go. We are going to spend a little time in Prague and then we head to Spicac for the race. I can’t wait to take a win from Kraus on his home turf. After that we go to Switzerland. We will be in Meiringen and Grindelwald. I will be updating this blog so you can follow the U.S. Team on our 2^nd European tour this winter. After the Swiss stops we’ll go straight to Sun Valley for the Grand Finale of the 48 Straight Jeep Tour.

After a long drive from Park City to Reno and after a crazy night in Reno we finally made our way to Squaw Valley. The race organizers had a difficult time building the course due to the blizzard of ’08. We heard they weren’t going to get the race off at all. Luckily we are racing but the course isn’t what anyone really wanted or expected. It’s short and flat and it has a lot of whoops. The course is never exactly what we want but someone is still going to walk away with the win tomorrow and $15,000. My hat goes off to all of the course builders. They spend hours in the cat trying to put together features that will work well for everyone and it’s not easy. Then the athletes roll in and start complaining about this feature and that feature. It’s a thankless job so, if any racers are reading this blog, make sure you go and thank your course builder. I know I don’t do it enough.

We had an opportunity to go to Marco Sullivan’s coming home party at the Chamois two nights ago. It was a lot of fun. Congrats to Marco on his first World Cup win in Chamonix. And thanks to Junior and Katja for putting on the party. The cat got Marco’s tongue at the party so Daron Rahlves had to give the speech for him. It was well done and everyone got to cheer Marco on at the bar.

Qualifying went well. I was third. My shoulder is still pretty sore but I think I will be able to race relatively pain free. I’m shocked that it feels this good after only six days. It’s the best it could have possibly healed so I’m psyched. I didn’t think I was going to race here and I was actually questioning the rest of my season. Because of that I will be appreciating every moment I’m out here doing what I love and loving what I do.

The snow let up for one day in Deer Valley to make for a great race day. The course was a little faster, the sun was out, and I was hell bent on breaking through for my first win of the season. I watched Jake Fiala get tangled up in the first heat. He was cut off by Stanley Hayer going into the first jump, got twisted in the air, and landed sideways. His day was done. Then I watched Daron Rahlves in his first three heats. He was back to his old starting habits, meaning he was last out of the gate every time. Somehow he was able to go from 4th to 2nd and advance to the final. A lot of his moves were skill but he also had luck on his side. He hung back and waited for guys to screw up in front of him. Daron is so fast on course but it is difficult to win Ski Cross when you are last every time out of the gate.

The final heat was Daron, Davey Barr, Michael Schmid, and myself. I was first out of the start but Schmid caught me over the first jump because I flew too far. Schmid beat me to the first corner. I put a lot of pressure on him in the next corner, we had contact, and we both got pushed up high on the bank. Davey took advantage of our screw up and shot out in front. I followed Barr and Schmid through the next set of features and pulled in tight through the uphill part of the course. Then Schmid screwed up on a right hand turn over a jump. I took advantage and passed him and almost got Barr too. Barr stayed in front of me and I ran out of passing opportunities. Barr took the win, I was 2nd, Schmid 3rd, and Daron 4th. It was the first World Cup Ski Cross held in the U.S. and I think we put on a pretty good show for the folks in Deer Valley. You can catch the action on February 10th on NBC.

The night after the race we decided to go up and watch the dual mogul compitition and the De La Soul concert to follow. I was talking to Steve Porino and Heidi Voelker as we walked down to the base from the concert when I slipped. I had boots that had no traction and in a split second I was down on my elbow. When I landed I actually heard a crunch and a sharp pain shot through my arm. Porino said with surprise “Oh my god, did you just dislocate your shoulder?” I screamed in pain “I don’t know, I’ve never done it before. I just know it hurts like hell.” We managed to get the ski patrol over and they diagnosed me with a separated shoulder. I was shaking uncontrollably and had terrible pain. I got a ride down on a snowmobile and Heidi rushed to get her car and take me to the clinic. Porino came with us and we were off to the clinic. On the way to the clinic Heidi was calling to try and get her favorite doctor to have a look at me. She asked Porino to look up his phone # and as he was looking for the doctor’s number he said inquisitively “who carries a phone book in their car?” We finally arrived at the clinic and as I was sitting there in excruciating pain the doc said “this is really going to hurt, it’s not going to be very pleasant” and I told him I thought I might vomit. First we needed to take off my jacket, which was really awkward. We finally got the jacket off my left arm and then we had to tackle the right arm. They started taking the jacket off my right arm and I started screaming. I told Porino I need counter pressure to pull off the jacket. So he grabbed my elbow and started pulling on the jacket. I screamed in pain and suddenly my shoulder, crackling, popped back in. I said “oh that’s better” and Porino goes “are you screwin’ with me?” The doc said “Oh it’s back in, let’s get some x-rays to make sure there are no breaks.” Porino said laughing “you’re welcome, I’ll just charge my regular fee and I’ll be on my way.”

Every time someone points out the danger of Ski Cross I tell them that you can hurt yourself just walking down the street. I just proved my point. I fought a hard battle all day risking a lot and ironically I ended up dislocating my shoulder walking a slight, yet slippery grade. I’m going to hang out and watch the Super Bowl with D Rahlves and his family, Jake Fiala, and Jonathan Weyant. We’re off to Squaw Valley for the next big event – 48 Straight.

It seems everyone here wants to know how the course is here in Deer Valley. Ski Cross is something they have never seen around here and they are very excited. I’m trying to stay positive but I’m not very happy with the course. It’s narrow and slow and I think it will be difficult to pass. The course builder is the same guy doing the course in Vancouver and this is my first time on his course. My first impression of his course is it has a strong Boarder Cross influence. He builds big berms and the jumps have steep take offs and short landings. On the Ski Tour we have gotten used to less berms, bigger jumps, and more speed. Corley Howard, the builder for the Jeep Ski Tour, did some radical changes in his course building last year. He started building big rolls on the inside line. The idea is to make the outside line easier and the inside line more risky. It is supposed to eliminate the single file line that you get when there is just one fast line. When there is nowhere to pass it’s not fun for the racers or the spectators. I think the two course builders need to work together to come up with great courses. Hopefully the action will be good on course tomorrow and the powers that be on the U.S. Ski Team will get excited to build a strong team moving forward.

Today was the qualifying time trial and it was a good day for me. I was 2^nd behind Michael Schmid by 2 hundredths. I will have my pick of the gates in every heat until the final. Kraus was 4^th, Daron 8^th, Jake 12^th, and Errol was 28^th. I think Errol missed the wax. The weather should be good tomorrow and I look forward to a great race. I’m still searching for my first win of the season.

One thing I love about Ski Cross is the events always have great entertainment. We always have great music at the Jeep Tour, now called 48Straight, which means 48 straight hours of sports, music, and partying. Well we got to watch my favorite AC/DC cover band, Hell’s Belles. I watched them on New Year’s in Aspen, they played at the XGames, and I just watched them at Deer Valley after the Aerials competition. I was there with Heidi Voelker Brennwald and she said “Deer Valley isn’t used to this kind of entertainment.” The Hell’s Belles rock and I think I’ll win tomorrow after checking them out.