Jordan Malone and Sho Kashima Article

I wanted to share an article I wrote with you all!  I got the chance to interview Jordan Malone, one of my favorite short track speedskaters, a few weeks ago about a really awesome project he took on to help Sho Kashima, a moguls skiier who was injured right before Vancouver, pay off his medical bills.  I'm pretty excited about finally getting to post the article...so check it out here: http://bit.ly/dk8XmF

Keeping Busy!

I apologize for my extended absence...I have been keeping VERY busy!  Even my weekends have been jammed full of hikes and events!

In some pretty exciting news, my internship has been extended to December...this means I will be here during ski season!  I'm pumped!

This past weekend, I worked at USA Modern Pentathlon National Championships as a photographer...it was pretty cool.  I knew very little about modern pentathlon prior to the weekend, so it was quite a learning experience.  For those of you who didn't know, modern pentathlon consists of fencing, a 200m swim, equestrian show jumping, and a combined 3k run/shoot.  Through each event, handicaps are assigned based on points and the combined run/shoot (the final event) has a staggered start based on those handicaps.  Whoever crosses the finish line first is the winner.  It was particularly cool because two athletes who I've become friends with, Margaux Isaksen and Will Brady, won the women's and men's national titles!  So, here are a few photos from that for you...

The last two are Will Brady, a resident athlete/friend of mine here and the national champ!

Eli Bremer, Will Brady, and Dennis Bowsher, the men's medalists

Margaux Isaksen, another resident athlete/friend and national champion

Suzanne Stettinius, Margaux Isaksen, and Samantha Achterberg, women's medalists

Two weekends ago, I climbed Pikes Peak with a couple of other interns.  We opted to take Crags Trail, the shorter (seven miles) trail up the back side of the mountain.  We had quite an interesting hike!  We got to the summit, but it took longer than we expected and we ended up getting there right as a storm started brewing.  The trail we took goes right through Devil's Playground, one of the most active lighting spots in the world, so we weren't too keen on hiking down the same way.  So, we asked an old couple from Kansas for a ride part of the way down and they gladly obliged!  We made it well below tree line before it started storming and everything worked out great!

That's Pikes Peak behind me...it sadly has no snow right now.

The trail intersects the Pikes Peak Highway, then becomes all rocks...

We carried champagne ALL the way up the mountain with us...then forgot about it and had our celebration at the bottom.

Well, that's my update for now...enjoy this and I'll try to be better about updating from now on!