Greetings from Austria!

Howdy Team Grasshop!

Hope everyone is enjoying a great fall in Lake Placid. Did everyone get out to watch the Flaming Leaves Tourney? Heard there were some great long rides to be witnessed.

Things are going great over here in Austria. I've just wrapped up my third week of teaching English at a local technical high school called the Höhere Technische Bundeslehranstalt Rankweil. Jeez, what a name, huh? Try and say that one three times fast. It's a cool school though, and the students specialize in either electronics, woodworking and forestry, or construction management. It's cool-- I always find the students building some sort of wild bridge, spiral staircase, or treehouse contraption.

View from my house... complete with a castle!

People are getting psyched up for winter over here, and the first Alpine Ski World Cup wrapped up on the nearby Sölden glacier last weekend. Americans Ted Ligety and Lindsey Vonn scored some big early season wins, and I had fun bringing the sports page article into all my classes and giving them a big dose of US Ski Team "Best in the World!" They were not impressed, made all sorts of hasty excuses, and then claimed that the real Austrians are focused on the overall World Cup. Complete bogus. America: 2. Austria: 0.

What else is neat over here? Oh! Toni Innauer, winner of the normal hill competition in the 1980 Olympics in LP, is from this area. He just got a huge project rolling to build a new world class youth jumping and cross country facility in the next valley over. It's way cool, here's a little writeup on the project. They're hoping to host the Youth Winter Olympic Games in 2015, and I'm counting one of you guys to bag a medal or two!

This looks like a great hill setup. But I called the folks up and said,
"What is this, a jump for ants?! The real jumps must be at least... 3 times this big!"

I've been doing a little bit of road biking since I've been over here, and got myself good and lost yesterday during a little ride through Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Turns out they use different money over there as well, so I couldn't even stop to buy snacks. Things were rapidly turning pretty bleak. Totally lost in Eastern Switzerland, I then spotted a neat sign on an old farmhouse, congratulating Simon Ammann on his 4 gold medals. (Note, if you don't know who Simon Ammann is, maybe it's time to start checking out the LP Curling Team Blog instead.) Anyhow, there were neat posters all over the place, check out some of the pics. The town of Alt St. Johann itself was pretty teeny, with arguably more cows than people. It didn't take long to find the jumps, either, and they had a neat little setup with a K40, K32, and K15. Looked alot like the Andover setup!


Fun to see, but also interesting to note that this 4x World Champ came from a pretty humble spot. The Nordic Ski loops there reminded me alot of Dewey Mountain, and the jump itself was pretty basic. Just a tiny clubhouse that served as a changing room, judges' tower, and a few lights. I have to say I saw way more cows than people wandering around town. So consider yourselves lucky, especially with those shiny new hills, which seem to be comin' along really well!

The Wildhaus Jump Complex

Here, as seen from outer space. Er, across the road.

That's all my news. Hope training's going great, and make sure to take it easy on Coaches Bliss and Stone this winter! Remember not to tick Larry off in the van, either, or you'll find your face being ground into the carpet faster than you can say "Padiddle!"

As a true "Star of America", McDonalds has asked Coach Dave to be the face of the new "Miami Speis" sandwich line. Seen here with "Der Miami Grilled Chicken".

Coach Dave