Crimson Nordic: Dave's One Day Ski Vacation

The title of this post is certainly slightly deceiving, since my entire life has been essentially one drawn-out ski vacation. However, Saturday night I hopped the midnight train bound for anywhere and prayed I'd continue the fun. Actually, it was the 5:30 train bound for Schladming, not quite the Journey I cracked it up to be, but fun nonetheless.

I arrived in the cozy Alpine town of Schladming at 9pm, greeted by lightly falling snow and biting cold temps. I was also welcomed to Steiermark, Das Grüne Herz Österreichs by a British dude who promptly told me that all the buses to Ramsau were done for the day and I'd either have to shell out €30 ($198) for a taxi or risk hitchhiking up the hill to the nordic haven of Ramsau. (20k and 600m elevation gain away). Since having overdrawn my bank account back home, let's simply fast forward to me standing in the middle of an alpine pass with my thumb out, staring down at the twinkling town of Schladming, watching car after car pass. I finally appraised my situation: 9:45 pm. Dark. Holding cross country skis. Wearing Barilla pasta hat.

I decided then to play the "five more cars and I'm calling a taxi" game. It's fun to play, especially while stranded in central Europe with no real plan. After 16 cars, a work van pulled over. Two grizzled dudes told me to toss my gear into the maze of A/V equipment in back and hop in. I did, they offered me a cigarette, and we were off. Turns out Gietsche and Tiete were two good friends of the Mitter family, and Tiete had been a ski coach back in the day, spending two years in Burlington VT, and having spent many a day on Whiteface's slippery pistes.

I arrived wiped at the Bergschlößl, Mitter family headquarters and promptly fell asleep in the basement.

Next morning I squirted out early to enjoy the tracks before the Sprint NC event began, snapping some good photos. Met up with Billy D. during his warmup jog, then had a delicious Wurst and Glühwein breakfast before the jump comp.

Jumps were solid by the US crew, Billy starting out 2oth, 56 seconds/ 300 some odd meters out in the Hurricane sprint start. One of the latest of Joe Lamb's twisted combined format ideas, concocted after several margaritas at the bar at Desperado's. Ummm.... Desperado's. Lake Placid mexican food withdrawal...

Anyhow, got to hop in with Billy and Christoph Bieler during their warmup on the 2.5k hammerfest of a loop and took a spin on Billy's two day old '08 Atomic boards straight from the factory in Flachau. They seemed to work alright, bumping Billy up from 20th to a 6th place finish with the 2nd fastest race time. Solid work, boys.

Cooled down with Johnny, overlooking the beautiful Steiermark Central Alps, then got in a 1.5 hour ski on my own, popping into the Ramsau Rollerski track to say hello. The tracks were thankfully covered with a freshly groomed meter of the white, but nonetheless ready for Team VE RI EURO's arrival next July/August.

Nice work in the TT, guys. It looks like you've all made some great progress, killer job especially to Cara and Audrey, duking it out and negative splitting the last lap. Great pacing, nice job. Keep it up, see you guys soon. Enjoy the photos!