Grindelwald, Switzerland
The team is back together. I was on my own for the World Cups in Norway and Sweden and then Jake and Daron joined me in Inawashiro. Daron is finished for the year. He only wanted to do the races in North America and the World Championships. So he is now back in Truckee helping Michelle with the twins. Now we have Jake, JJ Johnson, Biche Rudigoz, John Teller, and Langely McNeal (the only girl). We are on our third, and final trip to Europe. This trip takes us through Grindelwald and Meiringen, Switzerland. Then we head down to France again for the World Cup Finals in La Plagne.
This trip looks promising. The Swiss Alps have gotten dumped on and there is tons of snow. It’s snowing right now but it’s supposed to clear up tomorrow. It looks like there will only be one training run tomorrow before qualifying so that ought to be interesting. We usually have 3 or 4 runs before qualifying.
This is the race last year where I was taken out by Tommy Eliasson in a high speed wreck. You can see it if you go to YouTube and look up casey puckett crash. I separated my shoulder and got knocked out. The medics thought I broke my neck so they put me in a helicopter to Interlaken. So I’m back at the scene of the crime. I have no fear. In fact, I’ve come back to redeem myself and take the win here.
The course looks tamer than last year. The jumps are smaller and more forgiving. We’ll see what the speed is like tomorrow. All the new snow will probably make it slow. Right now I am fifth in the overall standings. I am not far off second but there is a gap up to first. It would be hard to win the overall but not impossible. I’ll give you a detailed breakdown of the points standings in my next post.
I will post frequently for the next two weeks so stay tuned.