Hey guys...here's a little video a good friend of mine put together while we were recording our second album "Matchstick Memories."  Hope you enjoy!
Bryon

Hey everyone...I know I've been a bit of a hermit this winter but it was necessary for me to hibernate from the cyber world and focus on one task...skiing.  All things considered I had a good season, not great, but good.  Unfortunately I was not given many opportunities on the world cup this season as I only raced Lake Louise, Bormio, and Kitzbuhel.  It's extremely tough to perform on the world cup circuit unless you are on it full time, and I fell into the part time category (I was racing europa cups and nor-ams as well).  The good news is that I had a very successful europa cup and nor-am season, and earned a world cup spot in downhill for next season.  If I want it, it's there! 
As for music, once the season ended I started playing a lot of shows and put together a short Mountain Tour through Colorado and Utah to promote our new album "Matchstick Memories."  So far we have received a warm response and our first single "Spring Cleaning" is getting some play time on Sirius/XM's Coffeehouse channel!  I you want to check it out you listen to some songs on myspace or order it from our website.  We are also playing at the Desert Rocks Music Festival in Moab, Utah on May 24th!
As for the in between, I'm planning a surf trip to Nicaragua with some friends in May, which is going to be unreal!  I can't wait to get back on the board and let the snow melt back home while I surf some warm water.  It's often overlooked how important it is to decompress after a long season and hopefully it will inspire me to write more songs as I've already started writing for the next album.     
Hope this finds you well...
Bryon

So do you want the good news or the bad news first??? ?Bad news...ok...the bad news is I missed the podium by .10 seconds and ended up 4th today. ?The good news is the field was stacked with a few world cup skiers including Marco Buchel, Manny Osborne-Paradis, and a few others so the competition was tight. I was also 6th in yesterdays race and I'm currently 2nd in the Europa Cup DH standings so I will be training for a spot to race in the World Cup in Wengen next week! ?The other good news is that I'm in one of the most beautiful ski town in the alps. ?Wengen is a tiny village tucked away in the Swiss Alps that makes you feel like you are living in a winter fairy tale. ?For one, the sled is the favored choice of transportation (there are no gas powered vehicles except tractors that the farmers drive around and the occasional snow blower, and each hotel has a courtesy taxi powered by electricity. ?There is one grocery store, a couple bakeries, and a number of small pubs that cater to the predominantly English band of tourists. ?The other selling point is the Eiger towers over Wengen, which is one of the most prestigious mountains in the alps. ?Since I'm coming back next week for the world cup I promise to post some pictures soon. ??

It was rough day at the office last Sunday in Bormio. ?After a rugged start and a couple costly mistakes throughout my run, I made the costliest mistake of them all when I lost control and crashed into a fence going 65 mph. ?Normally I wouldn't be that happy about crashing but this crash was an important one for me. ?Not only did I walk away virtually unscathed (a few bumps and bruises), but it was the first time I've crashed since I broke my leg 4 years ago. ?I needed that crash to trust that my body is capable of taking a heavy impact without injury and that is exactly what happened. ?It may sound like a strange concept and it's hard to explain but when I got back up and collected myself my mind was, "set free," in a way. ?I skied to the finish, waved to the crowd as they cheered for my being healthy, and immediately started thinking about the next race in Wengen, Switzerland. ?So...next week it's onto Wengen! ?
You can check out the crash at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxFxkL4JSMQ

First of all merry xmas and happy holidays to everyone...wherever you are, I hope you're enjoying quality time with your family and loved ones! ?As for me, I am enjoying this xmas with my family on the road ie...the World Cup Downhill Team. ?We are in Bormio, Italy and have a World Cup Downhill this Sunday which means we don't have time to go home for the holidays. Although I miss my friend and family back in Park City xmas in Bormio has a number of fun traditions. ?Some of these include: "borrowing" a xmas tree from the local market, a secret santa for the whole team on xmas morning, a White Elephant gift giving game, and our newest tradition....an 8 course Italian meal on xmas eve. ?
Today we also splurged and went to an old thermal spa in the mountain which has been around in some form since the 1300's. ?They had natural hot and cold baths, steam rooms, saunas, mud baths, the works! ?So if you ever make it to Bormio, Italy I highly recommend checking it out. ?
So...I will post some pics and video from our festivities and keep you informed about the race this Sunday. ?Once again...merry xmas and happy holidays!
Bryon ?

Hey all...
Just wanted to send a quick update from Austria. ?After a hellacious travel day (or days i should say...it took two days to get here after getting stuck in Atlanta for a day) I started my first Europa Cup of the season and placed 2nd! ?It's a great start and this finish will allow me to race the next World Cup. ?We have another race tomorrow and then I head back home to Park City to spend some time with the fam over the holidays. ?Hope this finds you well...
Bryon

This week I'm referring to Lake Louise as Lake Bormio. The reason: Lake Louise is traditionally one of the easier downhills on the world cup circuit while Bormio is arguably the hardest...don't worry Kitzbuhel, you're hard too. Either way, Lake Louise is far from easy this year as the course crew has prepared the hill a little differently this year. They injected water into the hill nearly the entire way which makes for rock hard ice and bumps along with added terrain from the man-made snow. Today the course was littered with ruts and holes from the ice breaking up after each skier and made for a rough day for a lot of us. There were a number of crashes due to the tough conditions which prolonged the training run and made for an interesting psychological experiment going up for my run...it's never fun to watch your competitors crash! The good news is regardless of the tough conditions I put down a solid run and qualified to race my first world cup in two years to the day. Going into tomorrow the Americans are looking strong. Bode Miller has won two of the three training runs and Marco Sullivan, Scott Macartney, and Steven Nyman have all posted top ten results in their training runs. Andrew Weibrecht has also been putting down some fast runs into the top 20 along with T.J. Lanning. Also, be sure to check out World Cup rookie Jeremy "Worm" Transue in his debut performance tomorrow. Race coverage starts at 1:30pm est. and will be viewable live online at www.universalsports.com (here is the actual link: http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?CLIP_ID=48961&_MODE_=EVENT&db_oem_id=23000). Hope you had a happy thanksgiving!

Its been too long since my last post but I have some good stories and pics to share from our second trip to the Southern Hemisphere this year. After a month off snow we flew back down to Chile and hung our hats in a place called Portillo. Portillo is perched high on the Andes Mountains (10,000 feet at the base) and is home to 5 chairlifts, 4 rocca jacks (I'll post a picture to give you an idea but it's basically a 5 person palma lift), one hotel, and some of the best skiing in the world. Aconcagua, the largest mountain in the Americas, towers over Portillo at 22,841...it's a special place. Fortunately we had two weeks of training all to ourselves and we took full advantage of the epic spring conditions from a strong Chilean winter. I personally had a great camp and skied well throughout so I'm excited for the upcoming season, which is just a month and half away (The World Cup Downhill season starts Thanksgiving weekend in Lake Louise, Canada). Check out some pics from Jonathan Selkowitcz (www.selkophoto.com) who was there the entire two weeks documenting our camp.

Hey everyone, Just wanted to give you a heads up that the SFI Foundation (a non-profit for winter athletes) and the Park City Ski Team are co-hosting a Golf Tournament Fundraiser in Park City, Utah next Monday...September 15th. Most of the Mens Alpine Ski Team, including Gold Medalist Ted Ligety, will be in attendance, so if you play golf or would just like to hang with the Ski Team guys this is your chance. All proceeds to go funding unfunded athletes as well as the Park City Ski Team program. You can find more info on our website: www.mensalpine.com or for registration contact: Ciara Bell 801 891-9679 ciarabell1978@gmail.com www.mensalpine.com I will be traveling to Park City for the event so I hope to see some of you there! If you have any further questions don't be afraid to ask.

Although 3 feet of fresh Chilean Powder isn't ideal for training, it's ideal to appease the mind and soul. During our training camp in La Parva we were lucky enough to get both decent Downhill and Super G training as well as some great days of powder skiing! After a big storm socked us in for a couple days we were antsy and ready to take advantage of the blue bird day and we charged the mountain as a team. Even though there are "no friends on powder days;" Marco Sullivan, Scott Macartney, Steven Nyman, Erik Fisher, Chris Beckman, Rewk Patton, and I stuck together for most of the day. After a few runs in bounds we decided to take our chances off piste and head over to some steeper and more challenging terrain in the Andes back country. It was so good we kept going back for more and I couldn't help but throw on the head cam and capture it. The video is of our hike that took us above 10,000 feet and into some chutes and bowls you dream about on a powder day. The view was incredible and we could still see Santiago, Chile's capital, below. After a few runs we decided to stick around and do one more sunset run before dark. Enjoy...