From Davos, we drove to Cogne, Italy. Cogne was definitely my favorite World Cup stop of the season so far. Cogne is a small mountain village with serious old school Alps culture. The entire village was lined with cobbles and the food was seriously delicious.

Thursday before the races I got to reconnect with Jessica after going different ways from her when I left Vermont. It was great to see her, and luckily her accommodation with Australia was only about a 10-minute walk from my hotel. From here on out Jessica and I will be on the same itenary: Cogne-Seefeld-Holmenkollen-Falun-Quebec-Presque Isle-Anchorage.

Only 5 weeks left to the season. BOOM.

In addition to being a fun race weekend, Cogne is where I learned of the traditional Alps region drink: Genepi. Jessica got a bit of a cold and the owner of her hotel told her to drink a shot a day to stay healthy. Apparently, Genepi has 50+ herbs in the alcohol and is made from local mountain flowers, giving it countless medicinal properties. Who knows if these claims are accurate, but sipping the stuff sure is tasty. So cheers to good health.

Jessica and I also scored some genuine Italian Birkenstock-like slippers for 20 Euro/pair. They have upped our hotel apparel game significantly. We also bought matching knives, which we will use while slaying fish this summer.

The races in Cogne were a skate sprint and a 15km classic. I was super stoked for my teammate and longtime Fairbanks bud Logan Hanneman, who qualified for his first World Cup heats. Also, shout out to Kyle Bratrud, who had an awesome performance in the 15k, cracking the top 30 in his first ever world cup. I placed 32nd and felt like I skied pretty well overall- although I definitely think I can improve upon this result in the upcoming races. I feel like I am still on the up and up after a hard camp in Davos and am excited to see how I’ll perform in Seefeld after I give all the training a chance to absorb.