World Cup

The Women's World Cup was in town for a weekend race at Crans Montana. We had a great view of training runs from the lift above the course.

When I was young (and dumb) I so wanted to race Super G or Downhill on a big mountain. I guess you do change as you age because not for a million dollars would I want to race that course. Ok....for a million dollars I'd make a million slalom turns and collect the cash. It's always struck me as funny when people comment on triathlon is "Gee, your brave". Looking at what those athletes do in that course makes me shake in my boots.

I like how it is the duty of the Swiss Army to put on a good race!

National Pride.

One of those pairs of Head's won the race.....they would belong to American Lindsey Vonn.

She's now a resident of Vail but grew up skiing on a tow rope hill. Who doesn't love that? Rumor has it, after teammate Julia Mancuso dropped her on a bike ride she changed her training regime. Then Lindsey became the best in the world. So much for the notion "It's Not About The Bike" . I'd argue that. I hear Lindsey is riding the Vail pass this summer. Maybe we should invite her to San Diego to ride with us.

I enjoyed watching from the lift but I plead guilty to not standing around watching. On the actual race day I fled to the other side of the valley to avoid the crowds. I am not a fair weather skier. I am a fair weather fan I guess.

To the skiers right below that cliff is a nice gully where all the snow blows in to. You can find fresh powder days after a snowfall.

We got to meet some of the World Cup contestants. I never thought I would feel sorry for a professional athlete. I sort of did though. They had to stand around in spandex waiting for their turn to risk life and limb. I, on the contrary, got to spend all day playing in the powder.

I don't think they minded too much. They have lots of days on snow and love what they do.



The Swedish Women's ski team stayed at our hotel. Of course the joke when identifying any of the ladies was " you know she's the blond one"

That is us with Jessica Lindell Vikarby. Since my mother in law didn't join us we thought it would be funny to get a picture of Bruce with the entire Swedish women's team. Then we thought there might not be a return trip.

Arguably the best perk of having the ski team at our hotel was that breakfast began an hour earlier. If I lived in a ski town I might be different. Only having one week to ski, it feel slightly shameful for me to allow the lifts to run without me. The earlier the breakfast the better.

That's Frau

The staff at Hotel Du Lak were so amazing and helpful except Frau. Frau is probably one of the hardest workers there is but she did not like me coming to breakfast early and scolded me. Two minutes later Tim and Bruce showed up and they were scolded too. Frau was not happy with the over eager Americans. We managed to win her over though.