Davos

Thu, Dec  24, 2009 - By Pete Vordenberg

the number 7

 

View at night of Davos from the ski trail right outside the hotel Kulm.

Davos Wolfgang - this is the part of Davos where the Hotel Kulm is.  That is the local train station.  Local busses and trains make getting around easy.

Here is a view of the general area from way above.  Davos is over the near mountain and down in the valley out of sight.  From the Kulm you can take a 10 minute bus, jump on the train and be at those huts in another 10 minutes.

A bit more time and you are up here... taking a personal day.

And it was good!  (Barb Jones enjoying the Davos powder - top to bottom)

The first week we were in Davos it was Davos Ski Week.  There were supposed to be around 5000 skiers in town just to ski, take lessons and drink coffee at the Coffee Klatsch downtown.  It seemed like there were more than 5000.  But it wasn't hard to escape off into the expansive Davos trail system.  Seemed like Bjorn Daehlie ski wear was the clothing of choice for this crowd.  So are we going to get to some racing shots?

Kikkan Randall in the sprints.  So far the first World Cup period has had some near misses.  This day was no exception.  But even if you win a race every weekend that is only one day out of seven.  Better make the most of all seven and enjoy each as much you can.

This is the hill where the girls in Kikkan's second heat (she won the first) got tangled up and all but the first two women came to a ski over ski, stepping on pole stand still.  Kikkan was strong enough to go a long way in this one.  How many 7th place finishes did we get?

A lot of them.  Kris Freeman heading for 7th and his best individual skate race ever.  Besides steadily moving up the result sheet, we're getting better at going 7 for 7 good days a week too. 

And I know we're getting fit and fast enough to do better than 7 on the result sheet.  Looking to me like it'll be right on time.  Liz Stephen doing what she does best - charging.  Regardless of the splits you get, how you feel, how good your skis are on the day, the answer is to go as fast as you can.  That's how you get faster.

If you aren't going as fast as you can you have no chance.  Because going as fast as you can is what everyone else is all about.

Morgan Arritola in her best race of the first World Cup period.   Perseverance pays.

Andy Newell after getting a new pole from Matt Whitcomb who did the froger dash hand-off to get the pole to him.  Newell fought back on to the pack in what was the fastest heat.  These things happen, are part of the challenge.  Like Kikkan, Newell was in fine form for this one.

When they say go, they mean it.  There are cheaters and accidents and tough luck but there will be no excuses on the result sheet.

And none coming from us either.  We're going to keep charging.  Can't say what the end result will be but going our fastest is 100% certain.  And even while we are going to try to win every weekend we'll pay as much attention to how we try to win as the winning itself.  We'll never cheat, we won't make excuses

and we'll do our best to go 7 for 7 good days a week.

 

 

Photos by Barb Jones and a few by me too.  Special thanks to Brett Hanson from Ketchum, ID who volunteered his time to do massage and recovery for us for two full weeks in Davos.  He does great work and I highly recommend his services for elite athletes, weekend warriors, injured players or anyone that wants to feel better and do better doing what they do.

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