Val Cartier, Quebec - NorAm Cup 7

Hello again. I'm busy taking advantage of a day off from training to get caught up on some chores after another hard weekend of racing. We traveled to Quebec City on Friday for the races on Saturday and Sunday. There was well over three feet of snow on the ground when we arrived Friday and by race time on Saturday another several inches had fallen. The tracks were consequently soft and made for some very tough skiing.

The Stadium in Val Cartier

After a disappointing weekend in La Patrie a week ago I knew that I needed to have good races this weekend in order to qualify to race in the Canadian National Championships at the end of March in Vancouver, British Colombia. I skied well in the sprint race on Saturday and recorded no penalties in my prone shooting. In standing I had hit three for three when a piece of snow got stuck in my rear sight. I was forced to break position to get the snow out and then missed my last two shots. I left everything on the trails in the final lap, narrowly capturing second place overall (first US racer).

A view of the range

Sunday morning dawned clear and sunny. We arrived at 9 am in plenty of time for the 11am start only to find that the race start was moved to 10am. Race officials had failed to notify a couple of coaches, ours being among the unlucky few. Needless to say, we had a very stressful hour run-up to race time but still managed to get our rifles adequately zeroed and the skies waxed. Sunday's race was a 12.5K pursuit with starters leaving every five seconds in the order of finish from the prior day. I skied hard throughout the race, recording 7 penalties for the day. Despite less than perfect shooting I shot better than most of the other competitors in the field and narrowly secured another second place finish.

A lot of snow - volunteers in a timing shack

My results from the weekend were good enough to comfortably qualify me to race in Vancouver later this month. I have about two weeks of training now before heading to Minnesota for the US National Championships and then on to Vancouver for the last races of the season.

Last week my teammates and I took the opportunity to visit the jumping complex near the Training Center. The pictures below were taken from the top and bottom of the K120 jump. I always knew that Nordic Combined skiers and Ski Jumpers were crazy, but after visiting the top of the jump I can confidently now say that they are certifiably loco.