Above: video of Nathan Crumpton racing to an 80MPH+ finish in St. Moritz on the world's only natural skeleton track.
FROM NATHAN, FEBRUARY 2, 2015 - The second half of the Europa Cup season commenced in the birthplace of skeleton sliding: beautiful St. Moritz, Switzerland. St. Moritz has the world’s only all-natural track. Each winter, it’s rebuilt by a small army of workers. The result: the world's largest ice sculpture. Starting in the town of St. Moritz, it runs over 1,700 metres to the finish--over a mile away in the town of Celerina.
I was the top USA competitor in St. Moritz, finishing 12th of 33 sliders--a result which ties my season best. The final two Europa Cup events were in Igls, Austria, where the first half of my season ended with some strong training results. Unfortunately, race results didn’t match up. I mustered a 15th-place finish in the first race, and a 14th place in the second. Such are the vicissitudes of skeleton racing.
The good news: despite the Igls races, I walked away as the Europa Cup’s top USA finisher, with a 14th-place ranking out of the more than 60 competitors on the tour.
Finally, I returned to Konigssee, Germany, for some less stressful training. That challenging Bavarian track was the season’s most troublesome, so it seemed prudent to spend time trying to nail it. Looking for those efforts to pay future dividends.
Thus concludes 3 wonderful months of sliding, racing, and touring in Europe. Now it's back to North America for more training, equipment testing, and some fun races on tracks that I'm familiar with.
 PHOTO: A still image from Nathan's GoPro in Konigssee |
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