January 14, 2024
The gun laws in Europe require a permit holder for a rifle, and only that permit holder, to transport the rifle. What this meant is that Anna and her teammate were unable to drive with me yesterday to Venecia and had to wait until the team moved to their Airbnb before they could come to Venecia. I had mapped it…
January 13, 2024
I skipped out on the final day of the biathlon races in Ridanna and after breakfast hit the road. It was a smooth drive with no issues (thankfully) and the only surprise was the total cost for tolls. On the drive into the Dolomites I had four or five toll booths and on the drive back only one but the…
January 12, 2024
It was a mass start for the top 60 women from the last race, unfortunately only two of the American women made the cut but on a plus side Anna and I could cheer together. It was a tough day on the range and the snow for the Americans with both getting lapped (you immediately exit the course when that…
January 11, 2024
No racing today, but Anna had training in the morning so after a huge breakfast I headed into Sterzing to explore a bit. Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself… I woke up with the good idea that rather than risk driving up the mountain (something that I went to bed very stressed about) I could ride the bus. Duh…
January 10, 2024
With the next race in Ridanna it was time to leave Cortina with an early morning departure. I still had the chains on the tires so it wasn’t much concern driving down the mountain but reaching the valley off they came and the concern for black ice. Thankfully it was not a issue and with plenty of time I pulled…
January 9, 2024
There are two parts to the ski area in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Tofana and Faloria/Cristallo. Yesterday I skied Tofana and today the plan was to ski the Faloria/Cristallo. It was about a fifteen minute drive from town to the parking lot Rio Gere. The road separates the two lifts and I kicked off the day doing a few laps before the…
January 8, 2024
As suggested by the guy at the ski rental I choose to ski the resort outside of my hotel (which is about 5km from the actual base area). I was glad to have scoped out the nearby trails yesterday as the logistics of this resort are overwhelming. I made it over to a new area and took multiple lifts to…
January 7, 2024
I ate a quick breakfast and was on the road by 9:30am, since I was concerned about road conditions and the trip was estimated to take three and a half hours. I used the chains to get off the mountain and thankfully the roads were in good condition in the valley. From there the driving was good through Bolzano as…
January 6, 2024
After last night’s drama, I was relieved to have the tire chains on the car for the 10km drive up to the biathlon course. But first was clearing the car of a foot of new snow and shoveling out the sides to inspect the chains. Thankfully all looked good. A fuel up of the amazing breakfast buffet before I hit…
January 5, 2024
Anna wasn’t training until the afternoon, so I picked her up and we headed to Rabland. Actually the plan had been to go to a cool town that I passed on the drive from Venice but it turned out to be too far. Not to worry Rabland was a cute town. We walked around checking out the fire station (Anna…
January 4, 2024
After a good night’s sleep I fueled up on the wonderful European breakfast at the hotel. I headed up to the biathlon course early as I didn’t know the layout. Parking was very limited so I turned around and found a side of the road spot about 600 meters down the hill. I had some slipping going up, so before…
January 3, 2024
Well actually the travel started the day before with a 7:30am flight out of Steamboat for Denver and then on to Minneapolis. Of course the bag with all of my winter clothes somehow didn’t make the two hour connection. Ugh. But after a trip back to the airport at 6:30pm I had my bag and was ready for the real…