We’re finally racing, baby. Took a minute, but it couldn’t have worked out better to kick the season off at a venue where this team has always felt so at-home. That said, definitely feels weird racing in mid-December for the first time. Normally the World Cup circuit warms you up nicely into the season, starting with Lake Louise and Beaver Creek on friendlier snow before coming over to the big jumps of Gardena and the steep dark battle that is Bormio. And races always feel different than training runs, so pushing out of the gate for the first time here was a bit of a shock to the system already being at the classics with no warm-up. But I, and I think just about everybody else in the world, was ready to get on with it and race.

Gardena is special to this crew because it’s unlike anything else you’ll ever see in a ski race. There’s such an incredible amount of terrain and jumps that it feels more akin to freeskiing than anything else, and many of us, having grown up in the West skiing more powder than gates, feel right at home there. The US Team has stayed in the same hotel for probably as long as I’ve been alive, Hotel Alpino Plan, with a woman named Babs running it who is as close to a mother to some of the guys as you’ll find anywhere. So it always feels like coming home for Christmas to a place you know and love, where the good is good and the people are nice. Doesn’t take much more than that.

And you can see this comfort when you watch guys like Bryce or Steven ski here. There’s a different level of focus, and it brings out their best skiing. To watch Bryce have the weekend of his career was so special, especially given last year having barely scored any top 30’s the entire season. Losing your spot in the top 30 start list and then returning to back-to-back podiums starting the season is crazy, and makes me proud to watch since I’ve seen all the work that went in to making it happen this summer. At the same time, Sam Dupratt returned to the track that almost ended his career three years ago. This is just from my perspective obviously, but it seems like this would be the final hurdle to being fully back mentally, and he approached it with confidence and crushed it this weekend. So much fun to watch.

And personally to round out the weekend, I’m still looking for the love that the older guys have here. It’s a track set-up for gliders which is typically my biggest struggle in World Cu downhill, but I’m trying to put my head down and chip away until I make it to the top here. I know it takes experience, but hopefully we can expedite that process a bit. The Super G was one of the weirder races I’ve ever been a part of, with so many guys coming in from the back of the race into top positions. This SG is always fast and straight, and generally quite easy to ski. That said, sometimes the easier tracks are the hardest to be fast on, and I just didn’t nail the amount of risk that I needed to be on the right side of the hundredths that day. And then the final downhill, from the top, ended up being my first ever DH top 30. In a place where I feel like an outsider amongst the best gliders in the world, I was proud to have that here since I feel like if I can do it here, then I can do it anywhere. However I caught an edge coming across the finish line, again. Felt almost the same as what took me out three years ago, except this time I got away lucky. Partially dislocated my shoulder and pretty much everything in my upper body has some bone bruising or sprains, but I’m resting up here in Innsbruck and hopefully it will buff out by Bormio next week. So dumb to lose focus right at the end and let that happen though; you only get so many of those stupid mistakes, so it was a good wake-up call to stay locked in till the end.

Anyway, sports require a short memory, both in victory and defeat, so it’s on to Bormio now. Can’t wait for the fight, and soon we’ll have the annual tradition of making the trip Christmas morning. Let’s have it.