The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s ski season. We’ve got the snow, the rain, the fog, and (we hope) the snow again to prove it. It’s also time for me to crank up the keyboard for some ski talk. First (just to prove I’m not a total slacker), here’s the scoop on what I’ve been writing while NOT updating this blog. This year I am totally psyched to be back atcha as a columnist for Ski Racing. Gary Black threw me a bone as a writer way back in 1993, when he invited me to write my very first published piece, Racer eX for Ski Racing. That veritable vent fest, threaded with enough humor to make it print-worthy, became a column by the same name. This time around the column is called Racer Next, and comes from my perspective of an ex racer (always at heart) but also a coach and parent.

I’ll post the links here, starting with Tiger’s New Tale, a piece on Tiger Shaw’s evolution from ski racer to top dog at USSA.

If you read my stuff, you know that I yammer on about sportsmanship a lot, because it’s a topic that can’t possibly be overyammered. The Wide World of Good Sports goes into that.

Towards the painful end of dryland training season I celebrated the sheer ability to suffer (moreso than actual physical greatness) in The Suffer Gene.

And as the racing season got started I offered Timing isn’t Everything as a reminder to everyone out there that results aren’t the be all end all of a ski day. The next pieces take a look at two of the big “F” words in ski racing: Fear and Frustration. Stay tuned to Ski Racing for all the latest, because web editor Christine Feehan is out there surfing all kinds of great skier blogs to find some real gems of perspective and humor.

I’ve also been very fortunate to have a lot of articles in SKI magazine recently (another serious chunk of my writing roots) , so if you get SKI check out the December pieces on famous ski families including the Cochrans, Dupres, Mahres and Stieglers. In January I’ve got an essay about the lifelong bennies and burdens of being an Olympian and a feature called Attitude Adjustment on the big changes back home in Squaw Valley (the greatest place on earth, other than Etna, NH). If you get Ski Heritage—and subscribing is the right thing to do if you love this sport and its history—you can check out my Where Are They Now pieces, which recently have included the Wenzels, Annemarie Moser Proell, Maria Walliser, Kjetil Andre Aamodt and a whole mess of other greats.

Also, when you get hungry you can check out Bring It!  the food blog I started with my friend Sue. And finally, if you need a little visual to get you over the edge and get psyched for ski season, check out Hansi Hinterseer in Ski Twist. All I can say is ausgezeichnet!