Scenes from the Road: Heading West

The other day I made it up to Alberta mountain town of Canmore for a training camp with Bridger SF. The venue sits just to the south of Banff National Park, and has an earned reputation as a burly, beautiful place full of bears. It's also the hometown of some of skiing's elite. Yesterday, Bettina and I stopped by the Paintbox Lodge to say hi to (2006 Olympic Silver Medalist) Sara Renner. Tonight, its off to dinner at Chandra Crawford's (2006 Olympic Gold Medalist) place in town.

Before leaving Deseret, I had to stop by my friend Colby's new place of employment, Uinta Brewing Company. Colby's a brewmaster there. One day I hope he joins the gold medal winners from the Great American Brew Festival, Icicle Brewing Company in Leavenworth.  

Colby even has a lab, though it doesn't resemble the one I remember in high school. Utah abolished some of the more antiquated brewing laws, allowing certain brewers to begin making higher point beverages, hence the use of old whiskey oak barrels to the brewing process. 

Before moving out, I had to meet up with my old Italian teammate from the University of Utah Ski Team days. When I told Marco what Colby was up to he said, "That sounds about right." When I told Colby about Marco's latest job as the U.S. brand manager for an winery from the homeland he said, "That sounds about right." Go figure. 

Heading north, I was en route to Bozeman, Montana. With Yellowstone and Old Faithful just to the east, one couldn't complain about the drive through the canyon to Big Sky Country. After several days with the ski team, I had one day back home in Washington before catching an aeroplane to Canada. I'm stoked to be in Canada now. I'm also really looking forward to getting back to life along the Columbia River, having a couple days back with the family, and running a bit with the Panthers of Wenatchee High.