Welcome to the beginning of the 2019-20 season!!! I hope your summer is off to a fantastic start!

For me, these past few months have been home to lots of personal reflection in addition to restarting the training season all over again! Looking back, I honestly can’t believe I’ve already spent 3 full years skiing on the World Cup Tour while representing the USA. It’s wild how quickly time passes and makes me even more motivated to take advantage of the fleeting moments that lie ahead. 

With all of the reflection that traditionally comes about at the end of the ski season, so does figuring out how I’ll strategically approach what’s ahead. After taking stock of last year’s performances, it became apparent to me that the biggest part of my skiing that needs attention is just that — my turn technique.

I immediately began to make improvements on my turns at three separate on-snow camps in Steamboat (April), Squaw Valley (May) and Snowbird (end of May).

At each camp, I was coached by a different coach and skied with a different team, which made for a whole host of valuable experiences and feedback. (For instance, I had the honor of being coached by one of my previous US Team-mates, Mikaela, a couple of weekends ago while at Snowbird!)

I’ve always found that working with several different coaches deepens my understanding of turn technique in general, and is also a great point for me to figure out how to adjust to different situations and scenarios while staying true to me and my skiing style. I love throwing myself into various environments to challenge myself to learn beyond the scope of my comfort zone.

All 3 camps I’ve done thus far consisted of much of the same: skiing in the morning, working out and/or water ramping in the afternoon (as well as a little bit of sightseeing on the days off!). In Squaw, we also had two of the four rookies join us for their first US Team camp, which was incredible! I’m super excited to see how the team will progress over the upcoming. I believe we have a bright future ahead of us! Below are a couple of my favorite photos from skiing and exploring over the course of the past month…

Between on-snow camps, some of my teammates and I began water ramping in all the sleet, snow, hail, and low temperatures you could imagine. The first day in particular was the earliest I’ve ever water ramped (May 25th) and was probably the coldest at a balmy 35 degrees… Despite that, fun company made for an enjoyable training environment!!

For a little sneak peek of what I’ve been up to so far, below is a new trick — a cork 14 — I tried a few days into ramp training!! (Essentially, the trick is one step up from a cork 10 with the addition of another 360-degree rotation.)

Beyond the confines of training, I’ve also taken the time to freeski much more than I generally have at this point in the prep season. Of course, the continuous snow and cold temps have allowed for awesome conditions at Snowbird with no end to the season in sight!

At the beginning of April, my family and I did a road trip down much of the East Coast for my younger brother to start looking at some universities!

I’ve also spent time over the past few months with family, rediscovering what Park City has to offer, catching up with friends new and old alike, and volunteering at the local thrift store/boutique.

As for what’s next for me, I’m embarking upon a new journey this summer… I’m taking an in-person fiction writing program through New York University for the duration of June. In fact, as this is being published, I’m about to embark upon my first day of classes… I’m pretty ecstatic to start up my studies again and plan to use this as a jumpstart to refining and rediscovering my writing within a creative scope. I’m also pretty nervous, as this will be my first true university class I’m taking — and it’s in an unfamiliar physical landscape where I’ll be surrounded by unfamiliar faces. However, I’m thrilled by the prospect of it all and absolutely up to the challenge!! I’ve gotten to explore some of NYC over the past few days; here are some of my favorite pictures!

That’s all for now; I’ll be back at the end of June with another update 🙂

All the best,

OG