Racing on the CXC Team last season was a phenomenal experience for me. To be surrounded by motivated teammates and a dedicated coach and support staff really helped motivate me to put all of my effort into skiing. The support of the CXC Team was instrumental in having all of that effort culminate in a successful 06-07 season. I certainly adore the people that I got the opportunity to train/live/travel/race/visit with this past year and so, while I'm excited for the upcoming season, I'm also a little sad because I'm going to leave my CXC Team and instead train with the APU Team up in Anchorage this year.

Since there's no reason to leave CXC, there must be a good reason to go to Anchorage. And there is, although it's not very complicated... I like the Western U.S., miss the mountains, want to be near the ocean. Mostly, it simply feels like the right decision.

Now I'm looking forward to working with Erik Flora as my coach, training with the rest of the APU Team members, a little summer skiing on the Eagle Galcier, and summertime in AK. While the APU Team is affiliated with a college (um... Alaska Pacific University, if you didn't already pick that up) it's not a NCAA program so it works very differently than mainstream college athletics. APU is a fairly small, private, Methodist college that enrolls high school students in its Early Honors program, has eight undergrad majors (mostly environmental something-or-other), nine graduate degrees, and also continuing education classes and distance learning classes. Right now I don't have any ambitious get-a-degree plans but I could see myself taking a class here or there!