The Start of Another Year

 Hello, people. I told both myself and whoever reads this that I was going to be more active with posting updates to let you know what I've been up to but I have done a terrible job of that. So, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to start with a paragraph to wrap up the winter and then start fresh with what I've been up to this spring. Here goes somethin'. 

Winter Wrap-up: 
I finished out the winter by competing at the World Championships in Seefeld, Austria and then at the Continental Cup Finals in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. World Championships in Seefeld was my first big championship event (aside from World Junior Championships) and it was overall an unbelievable experience. I didn't have quite the results I was hoping for but I also went into the event mostly looking to gain the experience of competing in that scale of an event. I ended up finishing  45th in the individual event and skied to 10th place in the team event. Nothing special results-wise, but getting the chance to represent my country and compete in front of 13,000 people was a great experience that I'm happy I got to have at just 19 years old. Next time I'll be there to win.
After World Championships I competed at the Continental Cup Finale in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. I had a pretty bad weekend and had some bad jumps and below average races. I think I was a bit burned out after a long season, but thankful that I got the chance to travel and compete at that event. I finished 21st overall in the Continental Cup Rankings, much higher up than the 110th place from last year!

Here are some pictures from the World Championships event (Courtesy of Romina Eggert). 

Springtime to now: 
The day after I came home from spending three months in Europe I drove with a friend down to the desert of southern Nevada to go on a rock climbing trip. It was a super nice change after finishing out the winter in icy, cold Russia. We did a few days of rock climbing and met some new friends, and overall I had a blast! Here are some photos from that week. 

After I came home from the desert I got to spend a lot of time backcountry skiing which is a new activity for me that I really enjoy. Skiing at the resorts is still super fun, but I really enjoy the exploration that backcountry skiing brings. I took an avalanche course as well so that I gained some knowledge in order to stay safe in the backcountry. 
We started our next training year in the beginning of April with a new coach and a revamped team spirit. We are all looking forward to the future and are excited to work our asses off to be the best team in the world. 
Currently we are on our first team training camp of the year in Bend, Oregon. We come up here to ski on snow at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center as well as bike on all of the sweet trails in the area. This is one of the most fun camps of the year and I'm psyched with how it has gone so far! We'll be here for about another week and then its back to Park City to dive into more training at home. Like I said at the start of this, I will try my best to be a little bit more frequent with my posts! In the meantime, here is a vlog from our Bend camp.