 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Can't believe no one else on here follows this guy. 
After meeting him in Coronet, I was left with a lasting impression of a guy who truely loves his sport and won't let anyone or any beaurocracy get in his way... he's just following his dream living one day to the next...however best he can. Just goes to show you don't have to be British to have financial problems.
I'll be cheering for him on Sunday... Go Warner... 
A really good write up about him today...
Warner Nickerson
American Warner Nickerson, ranked 33rd in the world in giant slalom, tunes his own skis, scavenges for training opportunities, and believes hitchhiking is a viable means of navigating the globe. His plan, at times, is to have no plan, and it usually works out for him.
If you’ve never heard of him, you probably don’t keep up with the Norwegian tabloids, where he has been known to make occasional appearances between races in Europe. Whether training alongside Swedish freeskiing superstar and close friend, Jon Olsson, or running gates with the German women’s Europa Cup team, Nickerson has carved out a spot for himself on the World Cup tour.
This Sunday, when Nickerson steps into the start gate at the season’s opening World Cup in Sölden, Austria, it will be a judgment day, of sorts. If he manages to notch a top-30 result and scores World Cup points, he’ll set his sights on Beaver Creek. If not, well, then plan no-plan kicks into high gear.
Denied an official spot on the U.S. Ski Team, because he has not met its age-specific criteria, Nickerson has fought his way to the brink of success numerous times, perhaps culminating in gaining a spot on the 2011 World Championship team. In that fight, Nickerson has gained a following among fans for the way he approaches the sport and his light-hearted attitude despite the obstacles that come with making a go of it alone.
Nickerson’s path to the World Cup was ambitious and circuitous. After graduating from Colby College in 2005, he competed in 2006-2007 as a non-funded member of the USST B Team. Each year since then, Nickerson’s ski racing career has been marked by falling just shy of national team qualification.
Now, at 31 years of age, he needs a world ranking of 30th or better in order to make criteria. While that seems painfully close, during his junior year at Colby he missed being named to the national team by 18 hundredths of a second. It takes longer to blink an eye, so it is unsurprising that he continues in his quest as an independent and unfunded athlete.
Although Nickerson secured protected giant slalom starts for every World Cup in the 2011-2012 season, a bulging disc in his back prevented him from taking advantage of that breakthrough. Despite not competing last winter, his world ranking only dropped two spots to 33rd, but he lost all of his starts. Through some confusion, the USST believed he still had one protected start at the 2012-2013 season opener in Sölden. In an uncharacteristic turn of good fortune, when that turned out to be false, men’s team head coach Sasha Rearick decided to honor it anyway.
“Like we do before any World Cup, we look at the quota spots we have and we look at who is skiing fast,” Rearick said of the decision to start Nickerson this weekend.
Rearick explained that though Nickerson’s FIS points were protected last season because he was injured, he was bumped from a quota spot he had created for the U.S. Rearick said he has looked into it to see if there is any way to fight around losing the spot, to no avail.
All of this means Sölden could be Nickerson’s last chance to punch his ticket aboard the World Cup train.
“There aren’t that many guys focusing on GS who have good enough points to have much of a chance, and that’s kind of why I get this spot,” Nickerson explained.
Although pressure appears to be on for the opening race of the year, he has remained focused and calm.
“Whenever I’ve created a sense of urgency, it hasn’t worked. At one point I’m going to stop, and I don’t know when that’s going to be. I’m going with more of an Erik Schlopy approach of you’re going to find out halfway down a course somewhere, and that’s going to be the end of it,” he remarked.
Nickerson was referring to Schlopy’s epiphany in the middle of the 2008 World Cup in Val d’Isere, France when he pulled off course and decided to prioritize family life over continuing one of the longest running careers in the sport. Schlopy departed on his own terms, and one can expect Nickerson to do the same.
His departure from ski racing, however, still looms in the distance at this point.
“I had a really good camp in Hintertux where I worked in with just about any ski team who would let me. It’s a huge bummer not to have a team, though. Not only do you have to ask to train with them, you also have to ask if you can borrow their physio. But I’m skiing well, and I’m excited to start,” Nickerson said.
One of the teams Nickerson trained with was the Canadian men’s technical group.
“Ski racing is an extremely difficult sport, physically, mentally, and logistically. Even World Cup teams are working together in the off-season. Seeing someone like Warner with a true passion for the sport is inspiring, and it’s always been a pleasure to be able to help out such an athlete,” remarked Canadian team coach Johnny Davidson.
Rearick echoed those sentiments, pointing out that Nickerson has improved his ranking as an independent racer.
“We have extended invitations to him to train and race, but he hasn’t been on a full-time schedule with the team. He has been doing things his way and he’s had success. I have unbelievably high respect for what he’s done,” Rearick said.
Nickerson’s previous go-to training plan frequently involved Swedish freesking star Jon Olsson, who has pursued an alpine racing calendar since 2007, when he bet friend Jens Byggmark the equivalent of $6,000 that he could qualify for Sweden’s 2014 Olympic alpine team. Olsson is known for cruising into resort parking lots in his €300,000 Audi R8 Razor GTR. Last winter, Nickerson was lucky to hitch a ride to Aspen in a 1984 Chevy Suburban nicknamed ‘The Beast’. If the Nickerson-Olsson bromance has splintered some this season, that is only on the mountain.
“The main difference between the two of us is our budgets. It’s always fun hanging out with [Jon] and training with him. But right now he’s with the Swedish team, and I’m trying to work in with the U.S. guys. Turns out, you kind of have to focus and be with a national team to really make this stuff work,” Nickerson admitted.
Not only are Nickerson’s travel plans unconventional, his equipment choices have also fallen victim to the same label. After missing the cut for the Vancouver Olympics, he contemplated calling it a career. But then he tried the new Dodge carbon fiber ski boot, appreciated its torsional stiffness, and started winning races. He traveled to New Zealand and scored two six-point results at Coronet Peak, while sporting a relatively unknown brand.
Two years ago in Sölden when Nickerson debuted the boots on the World Cup scene, Italian giant slalom specialist Max Blardone could not stop staring at them. Through the language barrier it was difficult to tell if he was being mocked, but Nickerson just smiled back because he was content with his equipment selection.
“These new skis aren’t very aggressive, so you need to make everything else more aggressive. The Dodge boot is actually the most aggressive boot on the market, so I’m really psyched with my set up right now,” he said in the days leading up to the first race with newly mandated sidecut restrictions on giant slalom skis.
His back feels strong and the health problems that plagued him last season appear to be behind him. He has spoken with Austrian skier Christoph Nösig who had the same injury at the same time, and Nösig returned to skiing at the end of last season.
“I’m not quite 100 percent, but I expect to be there in a week. My left leg still isn’t as big, as strong, or as powerful as my right, but I haven’t noticed it while skiing,” Nickerson said.
As for a plan if things do not go his way at Sölden, Nickerson is decidedly undecided.
“You know your plan right after the race. I’ve done a lot of planning in the past, and it never worked for me. So now, I literally have no plan at all. But I bought a car over here recently, an Opal Zafira. It’s like a soccer mom minivan. It’s no Audi, that’s for sure, but it’s a gem. And it’s not just a car, either. I think of it more of like a storage unit.”
The vehicle he just purchased would be all for naught if he has to return to North America to pursue the NorAm circuit as a path back to the World Cup.
“I don’t have a car in the U.S. I only have one in Europe, so you can see which way I’m leaning,” he confessed.
There is a bit of The Little Engine that Could in all of us, and maybe that is why we continue to root for Nickerson’s determined, albeit unplanned, persistence as he bounces around the ski racing world from Europe to Colorado and all points between in an Audi R8 Razor GTR, a 1984 Chevy Suburban, or any other car with room for a steadfast hitchhiker and his quiver of skis.
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