THE ADVENTURES OF PAT DURAN

US SKI TEAM IS CRUSHING IT, NO ONE CARES

2011-12-08T17:03:00.010-07:00

So the past week the US ski team has really crushed it, My favorite and Tim Tebows future EX Wife Lindsey Vonn's has done OK and won four of her last four races in North America all in the past week. Ted Ligety won one and was runner up in another, and Bode also got a win, and lets not forget Julia Mancuso got third in the SG up at Lake Louise, and Nolan Kasper just missed the slalom podium in fourth place. SO.. the US Ski Team made some big plays this weekend and still no one in the country seams to care. I think that we missed a big chance to get us skiing into the big time sports picture for a week, and I think that the Birds Of Prey Venue is the problem.
Beaver Creek is not the place that we should should be having all of our big ski events. Yes the Birds of Prey Down Hill track is great, its better than great it really is a unbelievable race trail. But once again, we don't need to be racing on great race trails, we need to be racing on "OK" race trails that are spectator friendly. The finish of beaver creek could not be in a worse spot. For those of you who have not been to the finish of the World Cups let me explain it to you. There is one spot one can watch the races and that is at the finish, and that is fine because there is a Jumbo Screen and the announcers. To get to the finish and the only viewing area of the race one must chose one of two options. Option one, Ski to the finish of the race. This is not a easy feat, the trail is sketchy, and there were snow guns blasting all week, so if you could make it down this trail, you might as well start training for the Sochi Olympics because if you could ski that, your pretty much good enough. Now for option two, If you don't have like a million dollars you can't stay in the Beaver Creek Village, so you would have to park way down in Avon. Then wait in line and take your first bus up to the Village, Once reaching the Beaver Creek Village in that sardine can they call a bus, you still have to take a another stomach wrenching bus up the side of Beaver Creek towards the finish of the World Cup. Then once you get of this bus you have to walk a few hundred yards in snow up a hill to the finish, Dodging the FUXI tent if at all possible.
So if you got up to the finish of the race hope to hell that you have a VIP credential because that's where the BOOZE is. And if you started your journey up there at like 4 am and somehow made the first run, you don't have anything to do until 2nd run so you might as well booze it up.
Why cant we just have races finish at the base of the Ski Areas. No one cares that the hill is super hard and demanding on that side of the mountain its cool yea but I also think that it is really not that cool that there are only 2-3?? thousand people at the races(a few hundred at the SL). Why not just have everything at the base of Vail so that maybe normal people could come watch the race and enjoy it. lets be honest the only groupies who make the journey all the way up to Beaver Creek are the hardcore people like myself. I just think that if we have the chnce to show the world that we care about our skiers we should at least have a venue that a ton of people could get to easily. I'm sure all the athletes would have loved to have a much bigger crowd cheering for them.
I just think that with all the races we just had at Beaver Creek we should have tried to get more people involved, and the Beaver Creek Venue is just not the spot for this to happen. Lets get real, more people needed to see Lindsey Vonn pull her "TEBOW" move out when she was walking to the podium..

Slammed in Beaver Creek

2011-12-04T19:05:00.006-07:00

So, I was offered the POV (wear the cameras)position for NBC or whoever is covering the Beaver Creek World Cups. I gladly took the position because I was guaranteed to run the track... I also told everyone that it will be a great when I nail the fence going 65. Little did I know I slammed.

Here is how it went down

10:30-AM- Mount 3 GOPRO cameras on me boot,helmet and chest.

10:43-AM- Get the word that they just want everyone fore running to take it easy and stay out of then nets.

10:44-AM- I enter the start house.

10:44.30-AM- they tell me I will be skiing down the course in 30 seconds.

10:44.45-AM- I tell everyone in the start in a joking manor that if I hit the nets it will be some great footage.

10:45-AM- I leave the start gate like a bat out of hell, for some reason I think I can win the race, Funny because I was not even wearing a bib let alone in the race.

10:45.22 -AM- I am actually convinced that my top split will be the fastest of the day, and I line up the first turn on the "Brink".

10:45.25-AM- I think that I can some how turn my 215cm DH boards like Ted Ligety turns his GS skis.

10:45.26-AM- I think that I am actually making a turn like Ted and get a little to much out of the ski, cant recover and am now sliding head first down the steepest part of the course and picking up speed faster then I would like.

10:45.27-AM- Still sliding.

10:45.28-AM- I am hauling ass, and the first thing to hit the A NET was my head shoulder area, I think of how funny the camera footage is going to be and almost start to laugh.

10:45.29-AM- I have stopped moving, I am fine, skis are still on my feet but I only have one of the three cameras still attached. I figured I had to ski to the bottom so why not just run the rest of it.

10:47:30-AM- I made it the finish. I am Alive.

10:47:45-AM- I need a Drink, ASAP.

10:55-AM- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

I would like to thank: Joey Swensson(sorry about your DH skis), POC, thanks for the helmets and back protector, the stuff works great. GOPRO-please release the footage.

later,

Beaver Creek

2011-12-01T17:49:00.004-07:00

So I got a call from Sasha Rearick(head coach of the US SKI TEAM) and upon answering the phone I figured he was going to ask me one of two things, the first and most unlikely was that the USST needed a forerunner for Beaver Creek World Cup Downhill and they couldn't find a dumb ass stupid enough to do it, or the more likely thing he was going to ask me if I wanted a spot on the USST alpine A Team.
Well Sasha threw me a huge curveball and asked me to forerun the Downhill. I said yes and I am still alive. It was super sweet and the snow is killer, I missed a gates today but totally piped a few turns it was quite fun. As far as events that make you really pucker up in the this is one, and the Xgames SKicross event is another, and since Xgames aren't for a few months I figured I could use the speed and of course the extreme puckering of my bum to get me ready for it.
Beaver Creek is about to become a meca for all the best skiers in the world because of canceled World Cups in Europe so the chicks are coming here for a SG and the men have added another GS and a Slalom so its going to be super sweet. Everyone is coming here and its going to be a really sober week for all extreme ski fans. The skiing is going to be great and the partying is going to be of epic proportions.
The first training run was cancled here at Beaver Creek because everyone on the hill had more important things to talk about, (I.E. the Family formerly know as the Vonntourge). From early on in the day everyone was talking about what they know and what they did not know, and what we do know is that no one except those two know what the hell is going on. Thats it for now, its time for me to go to the Coyote I mean bed and get ready for another terrifiying day of forerunning. wish me luck fools.

No more Vonntourage. Will she be TEBOWING

2011-11-28T09:14:00.004-07:00

Holy shit, So lindsey Vonn is no longer married to Thomas, what is she going to change her last name to??? Well the rumor mill is ripping right now with some good shit. First of all there are a few rumors that her EX canted her boots out four degrees,(that is so much that they will not stand on a table strait up, they will fall over). I hope he did not do that, if he did he is a big time prick.
But the other rumor is that she is seeing MR. NO Pass, Tim Tebow, I think it is bullshit but fuck, I also thought you could only cant boots to three Degrees,,, so you just never know.
I hope the best for Lindsey, She is great for the sport and is a pretty cool chick. I hope she starts having more fun and wins 25 races this year, and lets hope to god Thomas Vonn does not try to start dating Mikaela Shiffrin.

TED LIGETY ON FIS BEING NOT THAT COOL:

2011-11-21T10:29:00.002-07:00

11 | 20 | 2011 Tyranny of FIS
FIS’s tyranny has gone on long enough. It seems FIS is going out of their way to ruin the sport. FIS runs a dictatorship. They demand absolute control then try to butter their will in a fake cloak of benevolence. Athletes, SRS (Association of Ski Racing Suppliers and NGBs (national governing bodies) are completely impotent in their ability to create positive change in our sport or to stand against rules FIS imposes.

I feel like I might be beating a dead horse on this subject but it is paramount for the future on ski racing. The new rules imposed on ski regulations can’t go through in their current state. They will eventually ruin this sport. As most people already know FIS is imposing new ski regulations that turn back the clock on the evolution of this sport. Giant Slalom has been unfairly targeted. Current rules are >27 meters radius (more sidecut) and minimum length of 185cm, new rules will be >35 meters radius (straight skis from 80’s) and minimum of 195cm. (I currently race on 29-meter radius, 191cm in length skis.) FIS has put together a study that has recorded injuries from 2006-2011. A time frame for which did not allow for any correlations to build between injuries and eras in equipment. We’d need the same info dating back to the early 80’s to see any injury to equipment correlations, not the last 5 years. In FIS’S study they say 36 skiers were “severely” (out for 28 days or longer) injured in downhill, 9 in Super G, 16 in GS and 11 in slalom. They didn’t not take into account that GS is the most skied event, everyone from downhillers to slalom skiers train GS. There are probably 200 GS runs skied for a single downhill run skied and in races there are 2 runs in GS as opposed to one in downhill. Without even doing math it is obvious that the injuries per run in GS are far less then downhill. This begs the obvious question that goes unanswered; why was GS targeted?

On the World Cup it is pretty rare when the vast majority of the athletes agree on anything. The ski regulations, particularly in GS have brought together the athletes like never before 41 out of the top 50 men signed a petition against the rules and in Soelden 15 of the top 20 men in GS (Austrians didn’t come) met to discuss the rules. (It should be noted that only 2 racers have advocated for the rules; Hannes Reichelt and Benjamin Raich along with one Ski Company Amer Sports or also known as Atomic and Salomon.) In which we all opposed the imposed ski regulations and agreed that the ultimate goal was to eliminate FIS from equipment regulation. As athletes we have the greatest incentive to be safe and healthy. We all know how short our careers can be and very few of us are compensated for the risks we take. Therefore, we currently and in the future choose equipment that not only allows us the ability to be fast but to make it to the finish line safely. I have on many occasions chosen skis that were slower but had better control instead of faster and uncontrollable skis. The equipment companies are highly incentivized to keep their athletes healthy as well. They have far more invested in us then FIS and NGBs so they want to protect us as their asset. FIS has shown that they don’t value athletes, as seen in this instance in their complete disregard for our input. FIS’s study was based around 2 on snow sessions with several Europa Cup skiers. Suffice to say that is not nearly enough data to come up with such dramatic conclusions. With just those two tests and with no input from athletes or coaches they pushed the rule though so that there was no opportunity to debate the proposals. The athletes, SRS and the coaches protested and have since proposed a World Cup test where the top 15 athletes would test the new equipment on a World Cup slope but FIS denied this opportunity to evaluation their hypothesis. Proof that FIS has little confidence that their research will hold up under further testing. FIS’s only goal it seems is to look like they are being proactive safety wise though they won’t bare the brunt of the consequences when they don’t work. By making these rules they can say they tried and that may somehow elevate them of any liability.

FIS has already shown their incompetence in coming up with safer rules in the past. In 2007 they made a rule that made the skis wider which made the skis more aggressive which may have led to injuries by extending the lever arm thus putting more force on the knee. The new rules will make the sport more not less dangerous. Not only did FIS’s study say that there was no statistical difference in force between current skis and new skis but they didn’t measure the torque that will be needed to twist the ski around in a clean manner. Thus creating a larger force on one’s knee. The law of unintended consequences will kick in and most likely create more injuries. The latest generation of World Cup racers has never skied on straight skis so these new skis will be completely foreign (less controllable), making them/us get into awkward body positions and ski in a “jumpy” manner so that we can create enough force to turn them. We will also take a straighter line in which we will slide the top of the turn then hit the edge hard, creating a higher peak force (mostly centered around the bottom of the turn where force is highest already), while leaning back to get the radius needed, since the sidecut in the tip will not allow the ski to turn in a forward/centered body position. Outside of the injuries this type of skiing will create by creating a higher sheering force on the knee (commonly associated with ACL tears), it will also cause greater fatigue, which is one of the leading injury causes. The ski industry has produced many studies tracking millions of skier visits over the last 30+ years in which they have found the advent of sidecut has juristically reduced injuries (mainly to the knee). I’m more inclined to believe a study that has tracked millions of skiers over 30+ years then a study in which testing was concluded in 2 days with less then 10 athletes. Injuries happen when the athletes are taken out of their comfort zone and we will not be in our comfort zone with these skis.

So how will this ruin the sport? The new skis will make skiing at the World Cup level less enjoyable to watch and perhaps more importantly far less enjoyable to participate in while making it more dangerous. Arcing clean turns is a joy everyone racing now days can enjoy. That feeling will be gone. First World Cup athletes will suffer this fate then in a couple years when the rules become FIS wide 15 year old kids will have to turn in their “old” carving skis for long straight skis. This will give the big kids an even bigger advantage and will drive kids out of ski racing; into freesking or the copious amount of other sports kids have available to them. Another way it will ruin the sport is the economically side. Ski racing is to ski technology as Formula 1 is to car technology. This new rule will take that away from ski racing since anyone will be able to buy better skis in a store then we race on. Why would ski companies stay in racing if it were no longer driving technology and sales? Ski companies are the main financial supporters of this sport; the athletes make the majority of their income for their ski companies and the amount equipment built for World Cup skiers is astronomical. If the athletes are no longer driving R&D and sales, the companies will eventually pull their support. Most athletes struggle to make a living at this sport already and without the support of the ski companies most won’t be able to afford to continue racing. And there goes the sport of ski racing.

FIS’s tyranny doesn’t just cover ski regulations but all sponsorships too, from the size of your headgear sponsor to the speed suit to the logo on your goggles. I am particularly concerned about the goggle logo issue for the obvious reason that I own a goggle/helmet company; Shred. FIS has long had a rule that the logo on the goggle strap could not be larger than 15 square centimeters. The rule has been ignored for just as long as it’s been around and for good reason, you can’t read a 15 square cm logo on someone travelling at speed and it was never enforced. This fall, out of the blue FIS decided they were going to enforce this rule, for seemingly no reason. Enforcement now is apparently, first a warning followed by not being allowed to start the race on the second offense. Most logos currently are 40-50 square centimeters. There is no point sponsoring a ski racer let alone start a company based around ski racing when one’s logo is too small to be noticeable. This hurts small companies like mine the most since it greatly takes away Shred’s ability to get valuable impressions to break through. Outside of this rule’s enforcement being a bad idea, it was not made known to companies early enough so they could put together the logistics to comply or what will likely happen in the future, decide their marketing budget is better spent else where. Which gets me to the greater point of FIS seemingly trying to drain the pockets of the athletes, since a large portion of athletes’ income is derived from helmet/goggle companies. I would think it would be in the sports, therefore FIS’s best interest to create value for not only FIS’s sponsors but also the sponsors that allow the athletes to compete at a high level.

Not only will FIS not listen to rejections from SRS and NGB’s on the ski regulations and logo issues as a show of complete power. It wants to fine athletes for speaking out against FIS. I was threatened several years ago for wearing a “FIS SUCKS” sticker on the back of my helmet. (I was 2 minutes late to a pre bid draw meeting and forced to start 45 while I was leading the standings hence the sticker.) I was told that a similar action would result in a 5000 CHF fine. Most recently word is that FIS is thinking about suing Jon Olsson for his choice comments he made on his blog about the ski regulations and posting “FIS SUCKS” logo on his site. At the most recent FIS meeting they discussed punishments for athletes speaking out against them. I quote an excerpt from that meeting, “The Council agreed to develop a “Code” to deal with cases of improper behavior that fall outside the competence of the competition jury to augment the existing rules, such as blasphemy on social networking sites or bringing the sport into disrepute.” Who would have thought that being a ski racer you lose your right to free speech.

One would think there would be some discourse to combat these atrocities but there is not at this point. Apparently Bill Marolt; the President of USSA and Vice President of FIS doesn’t even have the ability to bring these subjects up for discussion, let alone reversed or revised. The athletes to this point have had zero representation in the decisions FIS makes. When we hear of FIS’s decisions and we disagree we are ignored as shown in Soelden. Faceless committees make these decisions, and once the mandates are passed down their ego doesn’t allow them to admit wrong and reverse rules that are so obviously wrong. Unfortunately for alpine ski racing FIS monopolizes the sport so any and all changes will be hard fought or take FIS vastly rethinking their position in how the sport processes or more likely regresses. Perhaps it’s time to unionize the athletes or start an alternative tour. (An athlete union is now developing but it remains to be seen how effective it will be.) This should serve as warning for sports like freeride skiing and snowboarding, don’t let FIS monopolize your sport. FIS will bleed your sport dry of what has made it so cool.

Ted Ligety

PS Feel free to repost this anywhere and everywhere.

Is the USST Speed Center at Copper really a "Game Changer"

2011-11-15T18:19:00.006-07:00

OK So the US Ski Team and Copper teamed up and spent somewhere in the range of 4.5 million bucks on the new speed training venue, and everyone seems to think that this thing is a game changer. From the outside it looks like it should be, there is a great gliding section up top and then some great terrain for the rest of the way to the bottom. Access is also great with a high speed lift that brings the athletes right back to the top of the trail in no time. There are tons of A and B nets to make it really safe, It is really an ideal setup for speed training.
The US Ski team should have a leg up on all the other countries right? We have this speed training venue in our backyard and the US Ski Team has some sort of ownership of it so we can use it whenever they want to become better than the other countries, right?
I thought that it really was going to be a "game changer" and it was going to be the start of something great. Untill I saw who was on the hill!! Benjamin Fucking Raich, and all his other schnitzel eating teammates. What the fuck, I thought we were trying to beat theses guys, instead were letting them train on our new "game changer". Why dont we just let everyone in the top 60 of the world come over and train on it. Or better yet anyone who wants to win a World Cup speed race and lets let them train on it whenever they want, Hell, we can setup a Nastar booth at the top and you can pay five bucks a run, or for 20 bucks you can buy a punch pass ski all day on our "game changer".

Total bummer for Nyman

2011-11-09T19:55:00.003-07:00

It toataly sucks when a guy like Steven Nyman gets hurt. First off he is in the best shape of anyone around. So if a guy like him has a crash and is done for the season what they hell would of happened to the rest of us, how are you supposed to prevent injuries. Its just a total bummer when a really good guy gets hurt, your hoping its some shithead when you hear someone is injured. Nice guys finish last so oh well. Maybe Nyman will get some supermexicotreatmentinjection on his Achilles and will be able to make a race or two towards the end of the year. We can only hope. Good Luck Steven.

Ligety Should be pumped I was a no show in Solden.

2011-11-08T16:33:00.006-07:00

I trained some GS today with Team Summit at Copper. I have not really had any GS training in a few years due to being injured and/or hungover, but today was totally sweet. I took about ten runs and thought I was kinda crushing. The only thing that sucked was wearing a GS suit, but it was worth it. Team Summit was really nice and seemed pumped that I was there training with some of the younger athletes, and that made me feel really good because lets be honest, I just do it for the kids.
The past few days Joey and I have been skiing a ton and hitting big jumps so it really has been a dream plus the fact I kicked his ass in one game of racket ball today so its been great.
We cooked a turkey and made all the stuff that goes with it read about at joeswensson.com if you give a shit. The only cool thing is that we had to finish the turkey in a Coors box(we got it from the recycle bin outside) because it was browning a little fast. Here is the picture, and from this picture we got a email from Coors and they said that based on what we did they are coming out with a Coors Light box for thanksgiving that you can cook your turkey in for the perfect bird. Pretty cool.

The most Influential Man in American Skiing.

2011-11-05T15:23:00.002-06:00

Who is the most influential MAN in American skiing? Bode Miller? Simon Dumont? Ted legity? Tanner Hall?

Think again, were giving this title to Thomas Vonn, Born December 3rd 1975. Member of the 2002 Olympic team, Racing both Super-G and Giant Slalom, He placed 9th in the Super-g. Still don’t know him??? Think again, this is the husband of the former Lindsey Killdow, now the one and only Lindsey Vonn.
Thomas is the one guy who we think has the biggest influence on Lindsey, therefore the biggest influence on American Skiing. Lindsay is killing it, with big time deals from Red Bull, Under armor, Vail Resorts and Dicks sporting good. These big name deals along with picking up a few ESPY’s that mind you are based on fan votes makes her the biggest name is skiing.
We all know that behind every good woman stands a great man, it is once again true in this case. Thomas is that man, maybe the main stream media does not see him standing strong but us in the industry sure as hell do. He is on the hill at most if not all of the races that Lindsey competes in, and seems to keep her positive and upbeat, and were glad he is there keeping her on track.
The only time that the rest of the world may have had a glimpse of how much Thomas is doing for this relationship is when Lindsey broke out in tears on his shoulder to show her thanks after she just won a Gold medal in the 2010 Olympic Downhill.
Thank you Thomas, we owe you a beer.

Copper Day One

2011-11-04T12:45:00.002-06:00

Picked up Joey Swensson at the airport in Denver yesterday. It confirmed my definition of I-70, and that is that it is the sketchiest place to drive in the world. Even when the road is bone dry its still just a sketchy road and I hate it. You have people driving like assholes(me included) and it always seams that there is construction going on. From Glennwood Springs to Idaho Springs it sucks, I know that without Interstate 70 skiing in Colorado would be imposable to get to but man it sucks.

JOKE: Whats the best Apre ski bar in Vail????? I-70,,

Skied a few runs at Copper this morning, it was pretty busy as it was the first day that Copper is open to the public. Its really cool being at here in Summit County right now because it is just a meca for a lot of skiers. Every big team in the Country is here or is coming here soon, all the Academy's and College ski teams, along with parts of the national ski team from US, Canada. I also assume that a lot of the European ski teams are scrambling for flights to Colorado due to Levi World Cups being canceled. Its just a fun place to be.

Intrawest to start running Aspen?

2011-11-03T08:53:00.004-06:00

There is a interesting Press conference between, Winter Park Steamboat and Aspen that is going to be held today in Denver at the Denver Ski and Snowboard Exbo. Jeff Hanle from Aspen Ski CO said it is a "strategic partnership" But that is about all the information that anyone has given.
Are they going to do a joint pass, Because we all know that every resort in the county is getting beat up by the cheap price of the Epic Pass. Hard to say because of the huge difference in all three of the pass prices. A Aspen pass is around 1600 bucks depending on when you buy it. A Winterpark, Copper and six days at Steamboat is 500 bucks. A Steamboat pass is somewhere in the middle of all of these prices. I don't know how the joint pass could work out but this might be what is going to go down at this press conference.
Another thought is that the Crown Family that owns and runs Aspen Ski CO, is a extremely wealthy family out of Chicago, will give up the running of the resort to Intrawest. This is really not that far fetched, Intrawest already runs Winterpark that the city of Denver owns. Also owns and runs Steamboat, another player in this deal.
Or is there a total curve ball and does Aspen and the Crown family sell Aspen? Or does the Intrawest lighten there mountain presence like they have been doing recently and unload Steamboat to Aspen?
Who knows, lets just hope Vail does not somehow jump in on this action and really make some plays.

--Update- its just a stupid triple pass for 300 bucks that gives you 2 days at Aspen, Winter Park and Steamboat.

Scrabble

2011-11-03T07:40:00.003-06:00

I have been skiing at Loveland and staying in Copper. Loveland has been getting a little more busy, I think because there has been some snow in Denver and on the Front Range so it gets people thinking about skiing. Staying in Copper seams like it is going to work out great because in the next few weeks I will be skiing a lot more here at Copper. Its also really close to all of the resorts that are opening up in Summit County.
On to more important things, I beat Cody Marshall and Alice Mckennis in Scrabble. I have been playing a pretty serious amount of scrabble and I think I am getting pretty good for this GMVS/University of Colorado vocab. Beating Cody was great, because he plays a lot on his phone, one of the people he said he has beat once is Chip Knight, who is a Williams College graduate, and a Current Coach at Dartmouth. Ergo I am better than most Williams graduates and Dartmouth faculty. Not bad, I'll keep working on my game, but Its pretty good.
Not skiing today, I am going to drive down to DIA (Denver Airport) and pick up one of my partners in crime for the year, Joey Swensson.

Drove Past Vail Again

2011-10-31T18:44:00.005-06:00

Here are some photos of my day.. Vail, Copper, and some women with a really weird helmet with built in goggles combo.

YoYo. I decided to drive to Loveland again, and once again drove past the lifts at Vail and guess what they were not turning... but there is a little rumor going around that the VONNTOURAGE might have a little SL session up there in the AM to get ready for LEVI. But really who gives a shit??
Loveland kicked ass again today, they opened up another chair so now they have 3 legit lifts running so it spreads out the yahoos a little better. It was a great day, took about 13 runs did one spread eagle and about pulled my groin so I called it a day. I also forgot my ski pants in Aspen so I just went a little New York City style and skied in what I drove to the slopes in,, my sweats.. Not bad they were a little tight so I just told everyone it was my Halloween costume and I was a D-bag EURO.
Loveland is totally going up in my book the place is super chill and pretty fun. In my two days at loveland there has been some great Celeb siteings, including but not limited too, Brandon D-style Dyksterhouse, Seth Morrison, Stacy Cook, Alice Mckeniss, and the one and only Caroline Lalive. So with no lift lines and the chance that you could ride up the lift with one of these clowns, I think it is a no brainer for early season ripping. The one downside to the place is that you can tell that most of the people who ski at Loveland are on a budget, because it seams that they can only afford one pair of skis, and the pair that they chose to buy in early 2006 was a pair of rockered 196cm reverse sidecut death traps. Not to name any names(Seth Morrison) but Ligety could not arc a pair of these rockered skis, so you charging down on the early season boiler plate trying to lay one up like your on the Streif at Kitz does not really have me that pumped on being in you line of travle.. Besides that, Loveland totally kicks ass and I love the place.

-Get Weird

First Day Skiing in Colorado

2011-10-26T11:14:00.000-06:00

I went skiing at Loveland, Colorado yesterday. It was suprisinly good for October. There was about one and three quarters runs open top to bottom plus a lift and one trail open for private training over at the Loveland Valley.
I think I took about 12 runs, I ripped them all, and made very few turns, pretty ideal if you ask me. There was a Seth Morrison sighting, skiing solo. I thought that was pretty cool that he was up there.
The reason that I chose Loveland over Arapahoe Basin because there tends to be a few less drunks at Loveland early season because they do not honor the EPIC pass like Arapahoe Basin does.
I was not planning on skiing for another few days but decided last minute to make a run over there with some friends from aspen because the weather did not look great for the rest of the week. It appears it was a good choice because parts of Vail Pass are closed today. And let me tell you something, there is nothing worse than being stuck in Vail, In a snowstorm when the lifts are not turning.

Ready for Snow

2011-10-23T15:52:00.000-06:00

The only reason that I am writing this post is becasue Ted Ligety toataly ripped in Solden, Austria and Won the opening world cup yesterday and it got me thinking about skiing again. It was also cool that LV took the W and now has won every alpine discipline.
Hope everyone is doing well after the long summer. I'm ready to get skiing again even though I have not had a ton of time off. I went to MT, Hood twice once with a bunch of ski and boarder cross guys and hd a great camp, private course, private lift, private hot tubs and one private helicopter. The hot tubs and helicopter never worked out but maybe next year. The seconde time I went back to Hood was with my good friend Cody Marshall, We drove out from Park City, He got some Slalom training and I got a few days of GS.
In between these trips I was living in Park City working out at the Center Of Excelence. It was great, It kept me prety focused on working out and not doing other useless things.
Now I am back "where the beer flows like wine and the beutifull women flock like the salmon of the Cappistrano" A little place called Aspen. It has been great, My brother and I both shot our first Elk. It was really fun hunting for the hairy guys but once you take your shot the fun is pretty much over, becasue hours and hours of cutting, packing and cutting the Elk some more is ahead of you. But never the less we have a new freezer and its full with a few hundred pound of meat so the BBQ sessions will be on my brother and I for a while.
Stay Classy.

-Pat

The Swedish Women are Smoking Hot

2011-03-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Made it to Sweden, the landscape and buildings are scary similar to Vermont, I keep thinking I'm driving on Route 100. I feel like any minute I'm going to get a call from Kirk Dwyer and get kicked out of BMA or something. But I'm not in Vermont I'm in Sweden so I doubt he can get ahold of me.
We had our first day of training today it was super cool, pretty easy but is fun and really works with the natural terrain that they have here.
Three days ago we flew from Zurich to Oslo, spent one night in Oslo and then spent the last two nights in Carlstad, Sweden, It was my teammates birthday so we went out and had some soda then came home. It was safe and everyone appeared to wake up in there own bed. The Soda shop we hit up was just stacked with hot Swedes so that was appealing, But they did not really start showing up until we were on our way to bed so I will have to wait till next time for the chance for me to meet my futuer Ex-Wife.
I'm thinking about growing a mustache, But every time I think of doing it I think of the stache that TJ Lanning has been spotted with in recent months. And I realize that I am not capable of growing one of that nature, therefore my starch with be laughable. So for now I'm going to hold off,(screw you Mr. Lanning) The picture of him is below, I stole it from Chelesa Marshalls Blog,(Cody her brother had his first race today for a while and that kicks some serious ass)
I'm running number 29 for qualifying tomorrow, so I'm hoping to come in just ahead of the guy who gets second place.
Oh yea the skiing NCAA championships are in Stowe VT right now, and the Buffs are leading, so im pretty pumped. GO BUFFS!!!

BIRD IN THE SKY

2011-03-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just when i thought the transportation in Grindelwald couldn't get any dummer they do something like this and totally redeem themselves. The assholes over there must have been reading my blog about the sketchy transportation because we showed up the next day and they were flying the athletes to the top in a frigging helicopter. NO SHIT it was some bomb ass stuff. They brought everyone from the quarter finals to the finals from the bottom of the track to the top in a Helicopter. I was so pissed when I got eliminated in the first round, because I missed out on my ride in the "bird" it look like a hell of a good time. Anyway I ended up getting 19th, so I was also pissed that 18 people beat me. Screw them. And I am really pissed that I'm still not in the top 32 because the top 32 get invited to World Cup finals. By my calculations I need to move up another 3 spots and then I will be the 32 people invited. I gain a few spots because some people in front of me in the ranking have gotten hurt and what not. I have a few options, I can continue to ski fast and move up a few spots in the overall. Or I could drug a few of the top guys and hope they get drug tested and then they will be banned from the finals, therefore making room for the guy you know and love, ME. I'm still thinking about what to do.

Right now I am in Meiringen (just over the mountain from Grindelwald(i think, I'm not a weather man)) its pretty sweet, huge mountains and sick skiing, and it seams like they know how to apre ski, I will maybe have the chance to get a inside look on the "apre scene" after this race because we have a few days off before the next race in Sweded.

We have qualifying in the morning and I am running 36. I'm just going to pin it.

-Pat

Its about to get weird

2011-03-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

Today was kinda a shitshow, to get to the top of the skicross track from the bottom you had to ride all these buses, and by buses I mean in the back of pickups or in little vans. The guys driving these vehicles had to still be drunk because they were driving like assholes. They would rally up this little road for a little, stop, and have to back up like 25 yards and let a trucks coming down the road get past them it was horseshit for sure. When you unloaded the trucks is where the real fun started becasue the guys who were too drunk to drive the trucks were hired to drive us the rest of the way up to the start in snowmobiles. You had to risk your life to ride with these clowns It was a total shit deal... That's what everyone else thought, I personally thought that it kicked ass it was ghetto as ever but I love this type of stuff.
Anyway I started 40 and ended up getting 9th. The heats start tomorrow around 11, Swiss time. Its going to get weird.

2011-03-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

DAY TWO IN SWISS ARMY KNIFE LAND.

Yes I have been here two days and have yet to purchase any sort of Swiss Army knifes. I don't know if I can walk by any of the stores selling them(every store in Switzerland sells Swiss Army Knives) another day without buying one. Its like sex to these people.

Last night we had a situation, here's how it played out. After a pretty kick ass dinner around 20:30, most of the team reported back to our hotel(I remember this because diner is one of my three favorite meals of the day). After returning back to the Hotel Cabana I decided that I would report to my bed, at about 21:30 hours I decided that it was time that my eye lids get some rest.
The next few hours I can not vouch for anything for I was sleeping, But I distinctly remember the time of 24:27 for it was the moment that I realized that I may be under attack. I was woken by the sudden movements of my roommate who I happened to be pretty much spooning due to these super sweet Euro ass beds. He soon informed me that there were two unidentified suspects trying to climb into our window. Due to my experience in these situations I quickly picked up on the language that they were speaking, I narrowed it down to a language that is primarily spoken north of Mexico and south of the Canadian boarder.
The suspects soon retreated from my window and made a successfull attempt entering another window a few rooms down. The suspects soon gained entrance into the Hotel Cabana, once inside they and brought flower pots and fire extinguishers into my room and threw them onto my bed, I think that it was a nice jester after the failed window entrance.
The suspects were never apprehended but the search will continue, if you have any information on the whereabouts or who the suspects possibly could be please write the information on the back of a 20 dollar bill and send it to c/o Pat Duran 0133 Prospector Road, Aspen Colorado 81611.

Thanks,

As for the real reason that I am over here. We went up to the course and checked it out today. It was pretty interesting, snow sucked so there going to put all these chemicals like HGH and stuff onto it tomorrow and pray it works out. There are some cool jumps nothing super sick but it should still be fun. We have qualifying tomorrow and I start bib 40, so if I beat 39 people in front of me it will be a super sweet day and its a race so someone has to win.

-Pat

Switzerland Kicks Ass

2011-02-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty hectic day of traveling, My plan was to grab the 7:00 am flight out of Aspen, Colorado down to Denver. Well I sorta missed that flight, but it was not my fault here is the list of reasons that I missed my flight.

Red Onion- got overserved.(above pic)

Erics Bar- also got overserved.

Hot Chick in the back of Erics Bar- I really thought that we had it going on, your loss.

Aspen City Law- If they let bars and resturaunts stay open to a later hour maybe to about 6am, then I could have just got a cab straite to the airport.

Distance from my house to the airport-I live about a 7 minute drive from the airport so when was woken up my the snores of my roomates at 6:45 am I thought that I still had a chance to make my flight. Nope, sure didn't, but I charmed the check in dude Andy and he got me to my next flight on time.
Im sure if none of the above facts would have happened then I would have made my flight no problem, but they were all things that I could not controle so im not to worried.

Bamm made it to Denver, Washington DC, Zurich no questions asked untill Customs office, they were a little pissed about the quality of my passport, but come on I like to throw mine in the wash every few months just to be safe.

We flew in yesterday without a hich and everyone got all of there luggadge. It was all going well untill I tried to buy a RedBull at the first gas station that we stoped at and the stupid credit card machine ate my card. When this was happening I remembered that card was the only form of curency that I had, so it would be pretty essencital for the success of my trip. I took matters into my own hands with the help of the cashier girls. After about a hour with a toolbox I was able to remove my card, the machine will never work again, my bad. They did hook me up with free RedBulls and waters for my trobles, Thanks. I think they felt like it was their fault that the machine ate my card, but im pretty sure, ok im really sure that I pushed my card into the machine before it was ready to read it because I thought I could speed up the process(this I did not admit to the checkout lady).

After this small detour we got from Zurich to Grindelwald, and checked into our hotel. I then though it would be best for me to take a little nap, 6 hours later I woke up, got some food, went back to bed around midnight and woke up again at about 2:30 AM. Yea might not be the best way to deal with jetlag. Oh well.

Here is a view from our hotel.

-Pat (sorry about spellcheck this computer is all in German)