Leaving the access road at 4am on the dot I beat the first rays of sun to the fourth floor of the parking garage at the Portland Jetport. Portland was just lighting up and the sliver of the moon that had hung over my drive had just disappeared..

It had been a quick turn around to the valley and back to the airport after last weekend's World Cup in Argentina. Two nights in my own bed, 54 holes of golf and it was back to the road for a night to fly down to Dallas for a fundraiser for USSA. Here it comes, that hectic pace of a preolympic fall. It was reading 32 degrees this morning on the dashboard of the VW as I sped through the early morning. It's coming everyone.. It won't be long..

On the podium with Pierre Vaultier, Graham Watanabe, and Markus Schairer

Sipping coffee in the dulles red carpet club, tired from the travel this morning and looking forward to a shower and home..

Argentina was a great start to the year. I made the right call in delaying my trip south. I got to enjoy a beautiful week in Maine while my teammates went stir crazy in the rain in South America. I showed up in Bariloche along with the sunshine and got my first two days back on snow there. A short training course brought the feeling back and let me test run my new board shapes which turned out to be amazing.

We packed up and headed north to the town of San Martin de Los Andes and settled in for the kickoff World Ccup week. After a couple of rest days the clouds cleared to a foot deep powder day and a lot of fun riding with Ross Powers and my Italian friend Alberto Shiavon ripping around finding little stashes.

The next three days were all business as Curtis Bacca (my was tech) and I set out to glide test my new boards and see which ones were up to speed. While our days on hill got eaten up by counting hundredths of seconds, I had neglected to check out the construction of the course. When I showed up on the first day of training I was dumbfounded to see what looked like an unridable opening roller section. This was not what I had hoped to see. What I soon came to realize though was that when things look unridable, my experience can allow me to best the rest of the field. Two runs later I was linking the section that was knocking my competitors to the ground.

The rest of the course ran well and I went away excited for the Friday time trial. As I crossed the finish line for the first time of the season the next morning under a clock I looked at the Swatch score board to see my name back atop the rankings. A few minutes later Pierre Vaultier of France edged me out by a 13 hundredths of a second but no one else got within half a second. The sun was beating down and changing the snow consistency but I executed the second run even better and posted the fasted second run despite the deteriorating conditions. At the end of the day it was Vaultier 1, me 2 and last year's World Cup champion Marcus Shaierer in 3rd. I can't help but feel that I will be dueling with these two the rest of my career.

Race day and I started to get that great inner feeling going again. I breezed through winning the first three rounds including taking down Marcus in the semi final. The line up for the final went 1,2, and 3 of us from the prior day's trial, and a truly motivated graham watanabe. Full all-stars. I had a horrible start in the final and colided with both Marcus and Graham in the opening roller section but stayed on my feet and started hunting down Pierre. On the course's third straight away I closed a thirty yard gap and had the chance to pass on the third turn but I got bucked by a rut and botched my toeside turn. Pierre pulled away again and I went back to work, railing the next two turns and gunning it into the two final kickers. I juiced the final landing and closed to within a foot at the finish line, Pierre and I both wheelieing across the line fighting to push our board noses across first. He held on for the win but I went away with my first Olympic qualifying result in the bag as the top American and my tank of confidence topped off as I head into the next two months of training at home. The mission was accomplished as the Olympic clock is ticking down every second in downtown Vancouver. My quest to February in going to be an amazing journey, but I am well on my way!! See you all at the rack over Homecoming weekend. I am pumped to be headed home to the Loaf for the fall and as I saw spring blooming in South America, winter is just around the corner for the rest of us. Bring it on!!