Today was another exciting day here in Adelboden. The slalom ran as tough as it always does, with the dramatic contrast between the rolling terrain up top and the near-vertical pitch on the bottom covered in blue-ice. It's even more difficult than the GS because you have to make twice the amount of turns on such critical terrain, which doubles the chances of an explosion! Needless to say, the extreme conditions caused many in the field to do just that. And even the ones who made it all the way, excepting Giorgio Rocca, had to make their fair share of recoveries along the way.

After some acrobatics on the upper section of the first run, and a hefty 2.2 second deficit at the split timer as a result, I skied the bottom 10th fastest and qualified for the second run in 21st place. The second run was better top to bottom for me, with no major mistakes and the 7th fastest time on the run. All of which left me in 17th place overall. It was a good solid result to start the month on, and I was psyched to have finally earned some slalom points!

Still, the major highlight of the day for the American cause was Ted Ligety finishing 2nd, despite a sizeable mistake at the bottom of the last pitch. He one-upped his previous best 3rd place results from earlier this year, and confirmed the fact that he should be the one to end Rocca's reign - whenever the Italian chooses to relinquish it!