Czech Republic (belated)

In January I was in the Czech Republic. I didn't take many pictures, but luckily Barbara did! It was fun to meet up with her in Nove Mesto at the races.

Next week I head to Lahti, Finland so it seem like it was time to post a few of these.

It was pretty green around the ski trails. You can see the ribbon of snow in the background.

Our hotel was right at the venue. That almost never happens. This was standing on my balcony surveying the scene early one more.

This is Kikkan. She won the skate sprint this weekend in Nove Mesto. As of today she has 19 World Cup podiums (including 10 victories) and 2 World Championship podiums (including 1 victory). She skis fast.

Wax trucks.

Testing, hours before race time.

Our hotel. A 90 second walk from the wax cabin to my room.

Nove Mesto drew one of the biggest crowds I have ever seen. And they were LOUD!

On course.

Saying something important on the radio.

At one point the giant inflatable banner fell down... MID RACE! Someone had to take charge.

Wheeew.....

Where's Waldo?

Cheering for Sophie.

Later we went to Prague. That was pretty neat. This is Cory (one of the other waxers) and me in the main square.

Davos

Davos might be my new best place. Needless to say, it has been pretty pretty awesome here.

Amazing tracks, sun, and the entire valley to ourselves. Thanks Simi and Andy for bringing me along!

Sun, bomber tracks, and striding on Rode Super Extra.

Hands down the best day of classic skiing of my life. No question..

Yeah... this was fun!

It's not all striding in the sun. There is still work to be done.

Even more sun today! What a classic ski.

A cool picture that Sophie put together. Seriously... how cool is this place.

Tour de Ski - 2014

My time at the Tour de Ski 2014 has come to a close. Tomorrow I head to Davos, Switzerland with Chris Grover (USST Head Coach) and most of the athletes for a pre-Olympics camp. Here is what happened so far.

The Tour venues for this year. I was in Oberhof and Lenzerheide.

Some new technology coming to light, invented by Oleg.

Wax truck central. Also, mud central.

Oleg, mating irons to obtain the most desirable characteristics of each.

One Way poles - useful for propping up the low end of a wax truck. At least they are good for something.

Not the most snow in Oberhof. But the rain stopped a while.

Ready to make a test.

Oberhof, back to normal. Where is the stadium?

It's a blockade of Leningrad. You can have only 200 grams of bread.

Cory and me. He's a good dude and great waxer - watch for some more pictures of him down the page. He has had an amazing Tour.

Oleg and me. Love this guy.

Classic Oberhof. All the wrong weather at all the wrong times. Now it snows. Awesome.... on the road to Swiss.

It was dark when we arrived last night. Opened the curtains this morning to find this. I love Switzerland.

This morning I test with Sophie.

The testing went well. Sophie had a big day and made her first appearance in a World Cup sprint final! A huge accomplishment. She is bib #9 (the middle skier) in this photo.

Cory and me enjoying some sun.

This is Simi Hamilton. He also made his first appearance in a World Cup sprint final. As it turns out, he WON the race. It's hard to overstate how big of a deal this is.

You can watch the video of Simi's race here - http://youtu.be/TH2dTchUxqs - I highly, highly, recommend that you take two minutes and check this out.

Post race. World Cup gold medalist.

So proud of this guy!

Enjoying some downtime with Cory.

Jessie is a World Champion (2013, team sprint). She wanted to see what it was like to be a waxer.

Tomorrow morning is going to be awesome. Our departure isn't until 10:00, so we get to sleep in and leisurely pack.

Site update - Where's Patrick?

Remember summer? It looked like this:

It isn't summer anymore. Strictly speaking, I guess it isn't winter yet either!

Anyway, I've updated the "Where's Patrick" section on the left sidebar of the site. Now you don't have to lie awake wondering which country I'm in.

Boom.

Sovereign Lake NorAm - 2013

This past weekend Jack, Reid, and I took in the NorAm at Sovereign Lake (near Vernon, BC). It was a great weekend. Here are some shots.

Reid, pre-race.

Jack, pre-race.

Testing skis. It was super cold out.

Reid, post-race. "I felt rough there when I was laying on the ground. Everything was spinning." As told by Reid.

Great team! Such a fun weekend.

Taken Sunday morning. The views were not bad!

Again, Sunday morning. Great place to be.

First Lake Weekend!

Some shots from the first weekend on the water. Really awesome to have Paul, Tyla, and Brian out too!

For those of you only interested in skiing posts... well, this is still technically a skiing post!

Getting loaded up to go!

There was an insane thunderstorm on the way to Boyle. Something like 90mm of rain feel in just a couple of hours.

Maryann enjoying the warm water. And her ridiculously floaty life jacket.

Getting things dialed in.

With the water looking great, Paul was the very first person to ski behind the new boat. Here he is in the water getting ready to go.

Paul pulling out. He got up the very first try!

We used up every last shred of daylight. Here is Paul laying down one last pass.

First ski of the year for me!

The next morning, Maryann woke up early and noticed that the lake was absolutely flat. Luckily, she woke me up and we were on the water by 7:30AM! We had the entire lake to ourselves. Amazing!