Steven's Community: June 2008

Back At It

I'm back in the great land of America. Peru was incredible and full of stories from taxi drivers hitting people, to mind boggling Inca ruins. But I need to track my photos down, 4 gigs of them, and sort them out before I post them.

Currently I am in the 2nd Annual Hockey camp the US Ski Team holds for the men's team. We are working ourselves in double hockey sessions every day and on Monday we are going to have the final game. They say team bonding is why we do this camp but personally I think it is because we are sick of getting whooped by the Canadians when we play in the winter. And I can say our skill improve each day on the ice along with the lump I have in between my foot and shin from lace rub in my skates. If anyone has any pointer on how to treat this, let me know.

Steven

VIVA PERU!

Im off to South America for one of my three journeys to the southern hemisphere this summer. This one is for pleasure while the other two are for business.

I have been busting my butt in the gym for the past three weeks and now its time to take 10 day journey to see the land of the Incas.

The plan is to land in Lima, take a hopper to Cusco, then hike the Inca Trail, see Machu Pichu, Rinu Pichu?? Moto Tour and it just so happens that we are down there for the summer solstice festival. All of the natives get dressed in their traditional wear and dance, sing and do what ever they do then slaughter a black lama. I get to watch it and I will document it via digi cam so visit again for some true south American lama gore and some incredible sights.

Green Macine

Check out this "reverse graffiti".

Everyones into green, this guys into clean.

Spiral Jetty

Last weekend Mr. Pete (my web designing pal) his wife Thea and my friend Christen made our way to the north end of Great Salt Lake to see the Spiral Jetty.

The Spiral Jetty was created by Robert Smithson in 1970. Smithson used mud, salt crystals, basalt rock, earth and water to create this earthwork. It was not only cool to see the Jetty it was also my first time to take a dip into the Great Lake itself.

To also top that on the way to the lake we passed the Golden Spike National Monument so we got to see this National Treasure.

Enjoy the pics

My Canvas

Check these mod artists out. theworldismycanvas.com and biggestdrawingintheworld.com

I will give it to them, they are creative but I do have to say snow sliders have been doing this for centuries, by leaving lines in mountain ranges worldwide. Like street artists our art is temporary and will eventually be destroyed and her blessing of a fresh blank canvas for us to leave our mark on once again. So keep producing art PEOPLES!

Up and Rollin!

The Nyman Clan before the plunge

Summer training is underway and it feels good to finally push my body. After being in the trunk cast through the spring I was becoming quite agitated. I have to say my body feels great and it is responding quite well to the loads I have put on it. This past Friday Per (US Ski Team Trainer) put Me, Ted, Cody, Schlopes, and Will through a grueling single leg explosive progression. It has been a long time since I have felt this sore, but I enjoy the feeling, it means progress.

This summer I am going to be sticking around Utah and training. I bailed on the Maui program. It involved too much travel and not enough consistency. It was either move there or not. I chose the latter. I believe in where I am headed with the Ski Teams program and Per knows his stuff. It is great to work with him once again.

Over the memorial day weekend my family and our good friends the Tolberts made our way to Southern Utah to hike a slot canyon called the Black Hole. The Tolberts and the Nymans met down there so this was a sort of reunion type trip. You usually hike the canyon when it is 100 degrees out but it happened to be 70 which isn't good because a little over half way through the canyon you plunge into 45 degree water and swim for 500 meters. When you reach the end you usually bask in the sun and warm up but there was little warming up to be had.