Hello all! Katharine checking in here from the end of the first period of world cup races. The past month has been a wild ride to say the least, but we have managed to have a lot of fun along the way. We started off in Ruka, Finland for the season openers. The skiing there was incredible, and it was really great to be able to see some of the U.S. Aerials team competing at the same venue. The days in Ruka are really, really short which means that you don’t get a lot of sun but there are really long sunrises and sunsets to enjoy. On our first day there we even saw a reindeer!

The view out our bedroom window at 4:00pm.

Frosty eyelashes after a chilly, masked ski.

A classic 2020 group photo during a birthday party for our head wax tech, Oleg.

After a week and a half spent in Ruka the team moved on to sunny Davos, Switzerland. There we were greeted with a massive 1.5-foot snowstorm, friendly cows and perfect skiing. We were there for two weeks because the World Cups the week after Ruka that were supposed to be in Lillehammer, Norway were canceled. To replace the lost races, we did two time trials with the Russian, German and Switzerland athletes. The next week we raced the world cups, and the U.S. had some incredible results including a double podium in the 10k skate race! I raced in the 10k as well and came in 22^nd, a result that I am proud of!

Greeting the friendly cows!

A very snowy race (time trial, actually) day.

In and around training, racing, resting and fueling we did tons of sledding!

Now we have just arrived in Seefeld and are settling in for a Christmas break. Happy Holidays everyone!