Verbier 09
I am back in Europe and the main event was the Verbier High Five. Its a fun series of five different events, GS, skiercross, speed trap, Carlsberg triathlon, and parallel slalom. You can check out the details http://www.verbierhighfivebycarlsberg.com/high-five/en/home. I was 2nd!! Won some new long johns. The weather was beautiful, and its always nice to have some fun friendly competition after a long season.
Right now I am in Saas Fee testing skis. They are being incredibly awesome. We get on the lift at 6 am and whip tons of runs off by snowmobile, then done by 10. I had a day of GS, and a day of Super G. Tomorrow I am going to try out my new DH skis. Things are good! Hope everyone is enjoying their spring.
I also want to touch on the passing of my friend and ski Legend Shane McConkey. His memorial was this past Sunday and I wish I was able to make it home. I will just share my personal story of how Shane has inspired me.
Growing up in Squaw Valley you get to know your “ski family” pretty fast. Its a small place, full of lots of big personalities. Though I was much younger than Shane, and didn’t get the chance to really meet him until I caught up in age, he was a huge influence on all the kids I looked up. There is something about Squaw Valley, that really inspires everyone there to just love skiing. I along with Marco Sullivan took the path of ski racing, but yet many other of my friends took the path of being kick ass free skiers. We all started in the same place, doing non-stop Kt runs, skiing the fingers, and looking up to crazy guys like Shane who would go out on water skis, and run events like the pain McShlonkey open, where pretty much anything goes, crazy costumes, chinese downhill and basically just have fun on skis. When JT started ski BASE jumping with Shane, I was convinced that would be my next sport. I had dreams of taking off to ski some crazy shoot and off a cliff between worldcup events. Sounds totally crazy I know, like when would I find the time to do that!?!
Well thats what Shane did. He inspired us all to DREAM BIG! So thanks Shane. I can tell you one thing for sure: I will keep having fun with what I do, and keep the tradition of just being stoked everytime I put my skis on!
My heart goes out to Sherry and Ayla, and you can check out more details on how to help out at http://shanemcconkey.org/. You can also leave your comments on how YOU get stoked out there in life…