FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.

  • Holmenkollen 2011 in Photos


    Bird’s eye stadium view of Holmenkollen.


    The crowd’s along Gratishaugen.


    The sign translates to “2012 Swedish Snowmobile Technology.”


    The trail Lars and I take back from a distance ski to Nordmarka is now overrun with crazy Norwegians winter camping for weeks along the course. For weeks! Seriously.


    Two hours out, the crowds really start rolling in.

  • Holmenkollen 2011 in Photos


    Bird’s eye stadium view of Holmenkollen.


    The crowd’s along Gratishaugen.


    The sign translates to “2012 Swedish Snowmobile Technology.”


    The trail Lars and I take back from a distance ski to Nordmarka is now overrun with crazy Norwegians winter camping for weeks along the course. For weeks! Seriously.


    Two hours out, the crowds really start rolling in.

  • Pictures from Slovenia

    View from the ski trails, which are awesome! The snow was a bit thin when we first got here, but with a little shoveling the course is perfect now.

    View from the ski trails, which are awesome! The snow was a bit thin when we first got here, but with a little shoveling the course is perfect now.

    View over the sadium, with the crane thats building the stadium building. This is a 5-minute walk from our little condo. If you look really closely, there are some really big, faraway mountains in this picture!

    View over the sadium, with the crane thats building the stadium building. This is a 5-minute walk from our little condo. If you look really closely, there are some really big, faraway mountains in this picture!

    Some Slovenians going down the alpine rollercoaster thing. It was over 1k long, and went reallly fast and I thought it was one of the more terrifying things I've ever done. In retrospect it was fun, but I think once is enough for me!

    Some Slovenians going down the alpine rollercoaster thing. It was over 1k long, and went reallly fast and I thought it was one of the more terrifying things I've ever done. In retrospect it was fun, but I think once is enough for me!

    The closest "bungalow" is ours. Its very cozy for the five of us.

    The closest "bungalow" is ours. Its very cozy for the five of us.

    We’re in Rogla, Slovenia right now which is a ski resort way on top of a mountain.  At first it was really clouded in and windy and snowy, but today it cleared up and was beautiful!! We’re here for OPA races, which are sort of like the SuperTour of central Europe.  Most of the big teams are here, and the races start tomorrow!

  • Northug: Jævle Barnunge

    Or “jävla barnunge” in Swedish – a fucking brat.I had built up a tiny bit of respect for the guy over the course of the current season, but it was pulverized by his pathetic display of poor sportsmanship and raw arrogance at the end of the men’s relay. After lying in wait through most of the last leg, Northug launched a characteristic attack inside the last 500 meters. It was clear to everyone

  • Northug: Jævle Barnunge

    Or “jävla barnunge” in Swedish – a fucking brat.I had built up a tiny bit of respect for the guy over the course of the current season, but it was pulverized by his pathetic display of poor sportsmanship and raw arrogance at the end of the men’s relay. After lying in wait through most of the last leg, Northug launched a characteristic attack inside the last 500 meters. It was clear to everyone

  • Northug: Jævle Barnunge

    Or “jävla barnunge” in Swedish – a fucking brat.I had built up a tiny bit of respect for the guy over the course of the current season, but it was pulverized by his pathetic display of poor sportsmanship and raw arrogance at the end of the men’s relay. After lying in wait through most of the last leg, Northug launched a characteristic attack inside the last 500 meters. It was clear to everyone

  • Northug: Jævle Barnunge

    Or “jävla barnunge” in Swedish – a fucking brat.I had built up a tiny bit of respect for the guy over the course of the current season, but it was pulverized by his pathetic display of poor sportsmanship and raw arrogance at the end of the men’s relay. After lying in wait through most of the last leg, Northug launched a characteristic attack inside the last 500 meters. It was clear to everyone

  • World Champs has begun!

    Even though Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia east of the Ural Mountain range in Russia seems far away and foreign, with lots of fur, an indecipherable language, constant military presence and today a cold wind, it is so very authentic and more familiar than I thought. I suggest playing Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” and in particular this one YouTube clip from Fantasia to set the scene and drink a cup of instant coffee with condensed milk, because apparently that’s their thing around here. 
    I had my first individual World Cup start here in 2008 and this is my first time back. There is plenty of snow and I like the race course, just as I remember. The stadium has been redesigned since I was here and I am curious to experience it at full capacity during the Sprint on Saturday. The crowds are very close and the high stands create a dome-like feel around this clover leaf shaped stadium. The race roster is long – 103 women and 125 men!
    World Champs Poster
    Welcome to Khanty: daily beautiful sunsets, the race course and metal detectors greet you at the venue’s entrance.
    Tchailovsky’s waltz accompanied swirling snowflakes, intricate folk costumes, sleighs of reindeer and this dance on skis which told the story of the native reindeer herders of the Ugra region hunting on skis. 
    Looking down into the shooting range during Thursday’s Mixed Relay from the staircase that connects the hotel and the venue. 
    Same view during the day time.
    On the eve of the first competition all I can say is that I’ve had a good week of training and preparation for the Sprint race and feel as ready as I’ll ever be. 
    Watch us LIVE Saturday morning:
    Women’s Sprint 8am EST
    www.biathlonworld.com

  • World Champs has begun!

    Even though Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia east of the Ural Mountain range in Russia seems far away and foreign, with lots of fur, an indecipherable language, constant military presence and today a cold wind, it is so very authentic and more familiar than I thought. I suggest playing Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” and in particular this one YouTube clip from Fantasia to set the scene and drink a cup of instant coffee with condensed milk, because apparently that’s their thing around here. 
    I had my first individual World Cup start here in 2008 and this is my first time back. There is plenty of snow and I like the race course, just as I remember. The stadium has been redesigned since I was here and I am curious to experience it at full capacity during the Sprint on Saturday. The crowds are very close and the high stands create a dome-like feel around this clover leaf shaped stadium. The race roster is long – 103 women and 125 men!
    World Champs Poster
    Welcome to Khanty: daily beautiful sunsets, the race course and metal detectors greet you at the venue’s entrance.
    Tchailovsky’s waltz accompanied swirling snowflakes, intricate folk costumes, sleighs of reindeer and this dance on skis which told the story of the native reindeer herders of the Ugra region hunting on skis. 
    Looking down into the shooting range during Thursday’s Mixed Relay from the staircase that connects the hotel and the venue. 
    Same view during the day time.
    On the eve of the first competition all I can say is that I’ve had a good week of training and preparation for the Sprint race and feel as ready as I’ll ever be. 
    Watch us LIVE Saturday morning:
    Women’s Sprint 8am EST
    www.biathlonworld.com

  • World Champs has begun!

    Even though Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia east of the Ural Mountain range in Russia seems far away and foreign, with lots of fur, an indecipherable language, constant military presence and today a cold wind, it is so very authentic and more familiar than I thought. I suggest playing Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” and in particular this one YouTube clip from Fantasia to set the scene and drink a cup of instant coffee with condensed milk, because apparently that’s their thing around here. 
    I had my first individual World Cup start here in 2008 and this is my first time back. There is plenty of snow and I like the race course, just as I remember. The stadium has been redesigned since I was here and I am curious to experience it at full capacity during the Sprint on Saturday. The crowds are very close and the high stands create a dome-like feel around this clover leaf shaped stadium. The race roster is long – 103 women and 125 men!
    World Champs Poster
    Welcome to Khanty: daily beautiful sunsets, the race course and metal detectors greet you at the venue’s entrance.
    Tchailovsky’s waltz accompanied swirling snowflakes, intricate folk costumes, sleighs of reindeer and this dance on skis which told the story of the native reindeer herders of the Ugra region hunting on skis. 
    Looking down into the shooting range during Thursday’s Mixed Relay from the staircase that connects the hotel and the venue. 
    Same view during the day time.
    On the eve of the first competition all I can say is that I’ve had a good week of training and preparation for the Sprint race and feel as ready as I’ll ever be. 
    Watch us LIVE Saturday morning:
    Women’s Sprint 8am EST
    www.biathlonworld.com

  • World Champs has begun!

    Even though Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia east of the Ural Mountain range in Russia seems far away and foreign, with lots of fur, an indecipherable language, constant military presence and today a cold wind, it is so very authentic and more familiar than I thought. I suggest playing Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” and in particular this one YouTube clip from Fantasia to set the scene and drink a cup of instant coffee with condensed milk, because apparently that’s their thing around here. 
    I had my first individual World Cup start here in 2008 and this is my first time back. There is plenty of snow and I like the race course, just as I remember. The stadium has been redesigned since I was here and I am curious to experience it at full capacity during the Sprint on Saturday. The crowds are very close and the high stands create a dome-like feel around this clover leaf shaped stadium. The race roster is long – 103 women and 125 men!
    World Champs Poster
    Welcome to Khanty: daily beautiful sunsets, the race course and metal detectors greet you at the venue’s entrance.
    Tchailovsky’s waltz accompanied swirling snowflakes, intricate folk costumes, sleighs of reindeer and this dance on skis which told the story of the native reindeer herders of the Ugra region hunting on skis. 
    Looking down into the shooting range during Thursday’s Mixed Relay from the staircase that connects the hotel and the venue. 
    Same view during the day time.
    On the eve of the first competition all I can say is that I’ve had a good week of training and preparation for the Sprint race and feel as ready as I’ll ever be. 
    Watch us LIVE Saturday morning:
    Women’s Sprint 8am EST
    www.biathlonworld.com

  • World Champs Briefly

    Team Photo in our sweet new BD sweatshirts.

    The best Parmesan cheese I have ever tasted! AMAZING! Straight from a local Italian farm with 200 Buffalo. Cool.

    Ice Caves at the Holmenkollen Venue. Pretty sweet looking, though I never went in them.
    Bird in the skate portion of the pursuit, just off the lead pack.
    The Hoff hassling any and all he could.
    Harvey and his gap on the rest of the field. Gutsy move that day, really impressive, and one of these years he is going to hold it the whole way.
    Feed zone in the pursuit. Total craziness.

    Mens pursuit day. Crowds were huge and only got bigger through the week.

    Norwegian Fans. They would cheer for everyone really loudly and cause deafness if you were Norwegian.
    View of the ski jump and some of the stadium
    Spectators were literally everywhere, and not just one row, but 50 rows deep and along the entire course. They packed into the woods, between trees, anywhere they could possibly be, they would go. Every day. For 10 days. It must have been exhausting. The day of the mens pursuit 3,000 people missed the race because they were in line for the trains for so long. So, they started hiking to the venue 5 hours before the races would even start. It was nuts. Camping would for sure be the way to go, for the added fun factor and the time saver!
    Steph (our awesome volunteer massage therapist from Caribou, Maine), Kikkan, Sadie, Jessie, Holly, me, and Nancye Rahn (USST staff member who took her vacation to come watch our races!)
    Me, the US Ambassador to Norway, and Nancye. The Ambassador and his wife invited us to their house one night to mingle a bit. Super nice.
    A very cute, very fired up Norwegian kid, of which there were many.
    Medals Ceremony entertainment the night of the Canadians win in the Team Sprint. We were extremely fired up and I for sure thought I was Canadian that night. So psyched for those guys!
    Medals Ceremony. Awesome singers and performers.
    And extreme costumes!
    No words. This guy is into it.
    The Swedish Princess and Prince who came to watch the Swedish women receive their gold medal.
    Pretty psyched Gold Medalists!
    More pretty pumped Gold medalists, Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey. Congrats guys!!!
    Billy Demong being honored for his 6th place finish
    Todd Lodwick celebrating his 5th place
    And more fans just celebrating anything and everything they could.
    I have lots more to say, and will continue to post stories from the Championships, but wanted to get something up before everyone got sick of waiting and spammed my blog or something! Sorry for the long waits…..more soon! Final World Cup for me in Lahti, Finland tomorrow then flying home to Park City. Super psyched to see some friends and get ready for spring series in Sun Valley at the end of March.

  • World Champs Briefly

    Team Photo in our sweet new BD sweatshirts.

    The best Parmesan cheese I have ever tasted! AMAZING! Straight from a local Italian farm with 200 Buffalo. Cool.

    Ice Caves at the Holmenkollen Venue. Pretty sweet looking, though I never went in them.
    Bird in the skate portion of the pursuit, just off the lead pack.
    The Hoff hassling any and all he could.
    Harvey and his gap on the rest of the field. Gutsy move that day, really impressive, and one of these years he is going to hold it the whole way.
    Feed zone in the pursuit. Total craziness.

    Mens pursuit day. Crowds were huge and only got bigger through the week.

    Norwegian Fans. They would cheer for everyone really loudly and cause deafness if you were Norwegian.
    View of the ski jump and some of the stadium
    Spectators were literally everywhere, and not just one row, but 50 rows deep and along the entire course. They packed into the woods, between trees, anywhere they could possibly be, they would go. Every day. For 10 days. It must have been exhausting. The day of the mens pursuit 3,000 people missed the race because they were in line for the trains for so long. So, they started hiking to the venue 5 hours before the races would even start. It was nuts. Camping would for sure be the way to go, for the added fun factor and the time saver!
    Steph (our awesome volunteer massage therapist from Caribou, Maine), Kikkan, Sadie, Jessie, Holly, me, and Nancye Rahn (USST staff member who took her vacation to come watch our races!)
    Me, the US Ambassador to Norway, and Nancye. The Ambassador and his wife invited us to their house one night to mingle a bit. Super nice.
    A very cute, very fired up Norwegian kid, of which there were many.
    Medals Ceremony entertainment the night of the Canadians win in the Team Sprint. We were extremely fired up and I for sure thought I was Canadian that night. So psyched for those guys!
    Medals Ceremony. Awesome singers and performers.
    And extreme costumes!
    No words. This guy is into it.
    The Swedish Princess and Prince who came to watch the Swedish women receive their gold medal.
    Pretty psyched Gold Medalists!
    More pretty pumped Gold medalists, Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey. Congrats guys!!!
    Billy Demong being honored for his 6th place finish
    Todd Lodwick celebrating his 5th place
    And more fans just celebrating anything and everything they could.
    I have lots more to say, and will continue to post stories from the Championships, but wanted to get something up before everyone got sick of waiting and spammed my blog or something! Sorry for the long waits…..more soon! Final World Cup for me in Lahti, Finland tomorrow then flying home to Park City. Super psyched to see some friends and get ready for spring series in Sun Valley at the end of March.

  • World Champs Briefly

    Team Photo in our sweet new BD sweatshirts.

    The best Parmesan cheese I have ever tasted! AMAZING! Straight from a local Italian farm with 200 Buffalo. Cool.

    Ice Caves at the Holmenkollen Venue. Pretty sweet looking, though I never went in them.
    Bird in the skate portion of the pursuit, just off the lead pack.
    The Hoff hassling any and all he could.
    Harvey and his gap on the rest of the field. Gutsy move that day, really impressive, and one of these years he is going to hold it the whole way.
    Feed zone in the pursuit. Total craziness.

    Mens pursuit day. Crowds were huge and only got bigger through the week.

    Norwegian Fans. They would cheer for everyone really loudly and cause deafness if you were Norwegian.
    View of the ski jump and some of the stadium
    Spectators were literally everywhere, and not just one row, but 50 rows deep and along the entire course. They packed into the woods, between trees, anywhere they could possibly be, they would go. Every day. For 10 days. It must have been exhausting. The day of the mens pursuit 3,000 people missed the race because they were in line for the trains for so long. So, they started hiking to the venue 5 hours before the races would even start. It was nuts. Camping would for sure be the way to go, for the added fun factor and the time saver!
    Steph (our awesome volunteer massage therapist from Caribou, Maine), Kikkan, Sadie, Jessie, Holly, me, and Nancye Rahn (USST staff member who took her vacation to come watch our races!)
    Me, the US Ambassador to Norway, and Nancye. The Ambassador and his wife invited us to their house one night to mingle a bit. Super nice.
    A very cute, very fired up Norwegian kid, of which there were many.
    Medals Ceremony entertainment the night of the Canadians win in the Team Sprint. We were extremely fired up and I for sure thought I was Canadian that night. So psyched for those guys!
    Medals Ceremony. Awesome singers and performers.
    And extreme costumes!
    No words. This guy is into it.
    The Swedish Princess and Prince who came to watch the Swedish women receive their gold medal.
    Pretty psyched Gold Medalists!
    More pretty pumped Gold medalists, Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey. Congrats guys!!!
    Billy Demong being honored for his 6th place finish
    Todd Lodwick celebrating his 5th place
    And more fans just celebrating anything and everything they could.
    I have lots more to say, and will continue to post stories from the Championships, but wanted to get something up before everyone got sick of waiting and spammed my blog or something! Sorry for the long waits…..more soon! Final World Cup for me in Lahti, Finland tomorrow then flying home to Park City. Super psyched to see some friends and get ready for spring series in Sun Valley at the end of March.

  • World Champs Briefly

    Team Photo in our sweet new BD sweatshirts.

    The best Parmesan cheese I have ever tasted! AMAZING! Straight from a local Italian farm with 200 Buffalo. Cool.

    Ice Caves at the Holmenkollen Venue. Pretty sweet looking, though I never went in them.
    Bird in the skate portion of the pursuit, just off the lead pack.
    The Hoff hassling any and all he could.
    Harvey and his gap on the rest of the field. Gutsy move that day, really impressive, and one of these years he is going to hold it the whole way.
    Feed zone in the pursuit. Total craziness.

    Mens pursuit day. Crowds were huge and only got bigger through the week.

    Norwegian Fans. They would cheer for everyone really loudly and cause deafness if you were Norwegian.
    View of the ski jump and some of the stadium
    Spectators were literally everywhere, and not just one row, but 50 rows deep and along the entire course. They packed into the woods, between trees, anywhere they could possibly be, they would go. Every day. For 10 days. It must have been exhausting. The day of the mens pursuit 3,000 people missed the race because they were in line for the trains for so long. So, they started hiking to the venue 5 hours before the races would even start. It was nuts. Camping would for sure be the way to go, for the added fun factor and the time saver!
    Steph (our awesome volunteer massage therapist from Caribou, Maine), Kikkan, Sadie, Jessie, Holly, me, and Nancye Rahn (USST staff member who took her vacation to come watch our races!)
    Me, the US Ambassador to Norway, and Nancye. The Ambassador and his wife invited us to their house one night to mingle a bit. Super nice.
    A very cute, very fired up Norwegian kid, of which there were many.
    Medals Ceremony entertainment the night of the Canadians win in the Team Sprint. We were extremely fired up and I for sure thought I was Canadian that night. So psyched for those guys!
    Medals Ceremony. Awesome singers and performers.
    And extreme costumes!
    No words. This guy is into it.
    The Swedish Princess and Prince who came to watch the Swedish women receive their gold medal.
    Pretty psyched Gold Medalists!
    More pretty pumped Gold medalists, Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey. Congrats guys!!!
    Billy Demong being honored for his 6th place finish
    Todd Lodwick celebrating his 5th place
    And more fans just celebrating anything and everything they could.
    I have lots more to say, and will continue to post stories from the Championships, but wanted to get something up before everyone got sick of waiting and spammed my blog or something! Sorry for the long waits…..more soon! Final World Cup for me in Lahti, Finland tomorrow then flying home to Park City. Super psyched to see some friends and get ready for spring series in Sun Valley at the end of March.

  • Best (Most Extreme) WC Performances

    Yesterday’s post sparked a little bit of discussion about how to measure the “best” performances. That wasn’t what I really intended, I was just trying to give a sense for some of the most extreme performances, relative to the median skier.

    No matter what you do, events will conspire to put some “weird” races on lists like these that don’t necessarily match up with our notion of best performances. Frankly, I’m fine with that. Cross-country skiing is, as a coach of mine used to say (quoting another), “an outdoor sport”.

    If you’re unsatisfied with my previous measure, we have a few options. We can either concoct some new and fancier way of measuring performance, or we can simply limit our original list in an ad hoc manner. For instance, we could measure the percent back from the median skier, the 25th percentile skier and the 2nd place skier and then take a weighted average of these values. This way we could give greater weight to performances that not only outpaced the field (median) but also outpaced the front of the field (25th percentile) and even the entire field (2nd place).

    Or we can simply look at subsets of out original list. For instance, here’s the top thirty restricting ourselves to regular World Cup events:

    Best 30 WC Performances

    Date Race Gender Length Name Rank Value
    1995-01-29 WC Men 15 SMIRNOV Vladimir 1 -3.29
    2008-03-08 WC Men 50 SOEDERGREN Anders 1 -3.17
    2001-01-13 WC Men 15 MUEHLEGG Johann 1 -3.16
    1992-12-12 WC Men 10 ULVANG Vegard 1 -3.03
    2007-02-16 WC Men 15 ANGERER Tobias 1 -2.95
    2009-01-17 WC Women 15 KOWALCZYK Justyna 1 -2.94
    2008-02-09 WC Men 15 BAUER Lukas 1 -2.93
    1999-03-20 WC Women 30 TCHEPALOVA Julija 1 -2.89
    2002-03-09 WC Women 10 BELMONDO Stefania 1 -2.84
    2009-01-17 WC Women 15 LONGA Marianna 2 -2.82
    2007-02-16 WC Women 10 NEUMANNOVA Katerina 1 -2.82
    2003-01-04 WC Women 5 SMIGUN-VAEHI Kristina 1 -2.8
    1994-12-14 WC Men 15 PROKOUROROV Alexei 1 -2.79
    1993-12-18 WC Women 10 VAELBE Elena 1 -2.79
    2010-12-18 WC Women 15 BJOERGEN Marit 1 -2.79
    2007-02-16 WC Men 15 VITTOZ Vincent 2 -2.78
    1993-12-11 WC Women 5 VAELBE Elena 1 -2.78
    2010-12-18 WC Women 15 KOWALCZYK Justyna 2 -2.78
    2009-03-14 WC Men 50 JAUHOJAERVI Sami 1 -2.77
    2004-02-06 WC Men 15 VALBUSA Fulvio 1 -2.76
    2010-01-16 WC Women 10 KOWALCZYK Justyna 1 -2.76
    2008-02-16 WC Men 11.4 GAILLARD Jean Marc 1 -2.75
    2001-11-24 WC Men 15 AUKLAND Anders 1 -2.75
    2002-01-12 WC Women 5 TCHEPALOVA Julija 1 -2.75
    2007-02-16 WC Men 15 JONNIER Emmanuel 3 -2.74
    2002-12-21 WC Women 10 SKARI MARTINSEN Bente 1 -2.74
    2010-12-11 WC Women 10 BJOERGEN Marit 1 -2.71
    2010-01-16 WC Women 10 BJOERGEN Marit 2 -2.69
    1991-12-14 WC Women 5 VAELBE Elena 1 -2.69
    2009-11-21 WC Women 10 BJOERGEN Marit 1 -2.68

    Now we’ve eliminated all those WSC/OWG 10/15km races, many of which have weaker fields, and some by chance had bizarre weather. That Smirnov performance stands out to me. If you go back and check the results you’ll see that he won by over a minute. Over second place! Mühlegg’s pre-Olympic WC is still there, of course.

    And now we see a bunch of other “unusual” races that we’d probably like to exclude. Six of these races had notably weak fields (the China and Canadian WCs). And so on. But the list is still kind of interesting.

     

    Related posts:

    1. <Rybinsk: Does Anyone Care?
    2. <Drammen 10/15km Classic Recap
    3. <Putting WSC Sprint Results In Context


  • Getting things going in Siberia

    Greetings from the cold north!

    World Championships is underway with last night’s mixed relay. It was a mixed bag for me, with great skiing and mediocre shooting, but it was a good way to find my race legs again and get psyched for Saturday’s Sprint race. Having to use 5 extra rounds didn’t set the team up very well, but my team had an overall solid day, finishing 13th. Feeling so good on skis gave me confidence going into tomorrow, and hopefully the shooting will go a bit smoother!

    Opening Ceremonies in the stadium.

    Out on course in Khanty.

    Siberia has been fun so far. Warmer than anticipated weather and sunny days have allow us to really enjoy the World Championships atmosphere. While this definitely isn’t Central Europe and far from the US, the differences aren’t too stressful. Military presence around the whole venue is perhaps the most obvious change, but for the most part the guards are friendly, even stopping me on my ski today to ask to take a picture together!

    A beautiful (and huge!) Russian Orthodox Church just down the road from our hotel.

    A view over Khanty-Mansyisk…then out to the Siberian tundra!

    The adventure continues with the Sprint and Pursuit races this weekend. I’m looking forward to both-hopefully my luck from Maine has followed me almost halfway around the world!

  • Getting things going in Siberia

    Greetings from the cold north!

    World Championships is underway with last night’s mixed relay. It was a mixed bag for me, with great skiing and mediocre shooting, but it was a good way to find my race legs again and get psyched for Saturday’s Sprint race. Having to use 5 extra rounds didn’t set the team up very well, but my team had an overall solid day, finishing 13th. Feeling so good on skis gave me confidence going into tomorrow, and hopefully the shooting will go a bit smoother!

    Opening Ceremonies in the stadium.

    Out on course in Khanty.

    Siberia has been fun so far. Warmer than anticipated weather and sunny days have allow us to really enjoy the World Championships atmosphere. While this definitely isn’t Central Europe and far from the US, the differences aren’t too stressful. Military presence around the whole venue is perhaps the most obvious change, but for the most part the guards are friendly, even stopping me on my ski today to ask to take a picture together!

    A beautiful (and huge!) Russian Orthodox Church just down the road from our hotel.

    A view over Khanty-Mansyisk…then out to the Siberian tundra!

    The adventure continues with the Sprint and Pursuit races this weekend. I’m looking forward to both-hopefully my luck from Maine has followed me almost halfway around the world!

  • Getting things going in Siberia

    Greetings from the cold north!

    World Championships is underway with last night’s mixed relay. It was a mixed bag for me, with great skiing and mediocre shooting, but it was a good way to find my race legs again and get psyched for Saturday’s Sprint race. Having to use 5 extra rounds didn’t set the team up very well, but my team had an overall solid day, finishing 13th. Feeling so good on skis gave me confidence going into tomorrow, and hopefully the shooting will go a bit smoother!

    Opening Ceremonies in the stadium.

    Out on course in Khanty.

    Siberia has been fun so far. Warmer than anticipated weather and sunny days have allow us to really enjoy the World Championships atmosphere. While this definitely isn’t Central Europe and far from the US, the differences aren’t too stressful. Military presence around the whole venue is perhaps the most obvious change, but for the most part the guards are friendly, even stopping me on my ski today to ask to take a picture together!

    A beautiful (and huge!) Russian Orthodox Church just down the road from our hotel.

    A view over Khanty-Mansyisk…then out to the Siberian tundra!

    The adventure continues with the Sprint and Pursuit races this weekend. I’m looking forward to both-hopefully my luck from Maine has followed me almost halfway around the world!

  • Getting things going in Siberia

    Greetings from the cold north!

    World Championships is underway with last night’s mixed relay. It was a mixed bag for me, with great skiing and mediocre shooting, but it was a good way to find my race legs again and get psyched for Saturday’s Sprint race. Having to use 5 extra rounds didn’t set the team up very well, but my team had an overall solid day, finishing 13th. Feeling so good on skis gave me confidence going into tomorrow, and hopefully the shooting will go a bit smoother!

    Opening Ceremonies in the stadium.

    Out on course in Khanty.

    Siberia has been fun so far. Warmer than anticipated weather and sunny days have allow us to really enjoy the World Championships atmosphere. While this definitely isn’t Central Europe and far from the US, the differences aren’t too stressful. Military presence around the whole venue is perhaps the most obvious change, but for the most part the guards are friendly, even stopping me on my ski today to ask to take a picture together!

    A beautiful (and huge!) Russian Orthodox Church just down the road from our hotel.

    A view over Khanty-Mansyisk…then out to the Siberian tundra!

    The adventure continues with the Sprint and Pursuit races this weekend. I’m looking forward to both-hopefully my luck from Maine has followed me almost halfway around the world!