KETCHEN UP.......

As usual, things are stupid busy. And even though I'm not working my true winter gig yet, winding up the announcing season has me all over the place. There is something pretty sweet about having "World Cup Announcer" on your resume, and there is more of that to come this week at Beaver Creek and the Birds of Prey men's FIS Downhill. Always have to start things off with obnoxious selfies on the chair lift on A2B....

The inaugural women's Nature Valley Raptor Downhill took place last week on a brand new course for the women. I was very fortunate to be able to announce the first two training run days. Part of announcing properly and having some base of knowledge is checking out the venue which included an early morning chairlift ride up Chair 8 at the Beav to observe the course from above....it was technical and steep in the middle portions of the course, very.

Course volunteers and ski patrol getting their shit together at the top of chair 8 prior to the first day of training...Lara Gut was fastest for the Swiss.

Above, downloading on chair 8 prior to training, this is the section of the course just below the Predator traverse which leads into the Kestral section, where skiers were moving at 80 mph. Below, the media room where announcers sit with a bunch of computer and television screens that are supposed to feed us all the information we need to announce, on day one NONE of this technology was working, and I was rolling solo, which left to some interesting and very late commentary, but it got taken care of...as always. Day two was perfect, with all systems go, which made it a blast to be in  the hot seat on the mic.

Thanksgiving was spent with my significant others, which include my girlfriend and her four hell on legs crtitters....it was a grand day starting with Mila and Mike in the Morning on ESPN, which the dogs dig, and a great day of skiing at Vail where early season conditions are pretty good but deteriorating quickly until the next snowfall, it's also going to be freezing balls off this week which will sour everyone quickly and make the World Cup not so much fun for skiers and especially fans this week. No big deal for me, I'll be in a very warm timing building.

Then it was back to Denver to turn on the lights and announce CX. Here are random photos from the weekend. All this took place around the most ridiculous ending to a college football game I've ever seen. War Eagle.

With all the Chaos on the college football gridiron, Florida State is once again #1, this duct tape has been used every Saturday during the season while I've announced on Saturdays, making it lucky duct tape.

World Cup Downhill delirium at Beaver Creek this past weekend, with more coming this week.

And by the way, suck it Gators. FSU is the State Champion of Florida.