Here are some photos from the training I did with some of the Canmore Nordic Ski Club Girls… helping them warm up for their stellar 3km race on Saturday. The podium shot shows them proudly sporting their Fast and Female gear. These kids inspire me so much and keep me in touch with la joie de ski.
After the weekend’s racing, Brian and I got a chance to show off some of the trails we grew up on to our fellow SuperTour athletes and friends. This morning a group of about twenty met at the Winthrop Barn and carpooled to the Cub Creek trailhead where we all ventured forth on a trip over the Rendezvous. The snow was rather wet but very well groomed (per usual) and we made good time up to the pass. We made a detour on to Cougar Mountain Loop (yes, THAT Cougar Mountain!) and to the overlook where folks got a taste of where we live. The mountains swathed in fog provided a fitting visual snack before we continued down the other side, then up Fawn Hill, THEN up Sick Joke, and finally descending into Mazama.br /br /What with the incredibly organized and executed SuperTour and the post-weekend 30K point-to-point ski over the mountains, I’d like to think our friends left knowing why Brian and I always talk proudly of where we grew up.br /br /If only someone had brought a camera…div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-3201540064710823130?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
It was an exciting weekend for Methow Valley skiing – we hosted our first national-level event at the McCabe Trails and saw racing action featuring some of America AND Canada’s top athletes. After a nerve-wracking week of above-freezing temperatures and rain, Friday night gave way to cold and clear skies which set the course up nice and firm. Having gotten my soft-snow racing skis prepped in anticipation of slush for the sprint, I showed up to the venue and saw the hardpack. I made sure to give Scott my stiffer skis to get them ready for the heats and prepared for the qualifier. Our 1.3K course was running super fast, with top times for men in the two and a half minute range. Coming off of very little training in the past few months after overtraining, I was happy to post a qualifier result that put me in the mix, 8th place.br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S1VJvzjzOGI/AAAAAAAAAVI/BvVLVISZjx4/s1600-h/Methow+SuperTour2.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 229px; height: 320px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S1VJvzjzOGI/AAAAAAAAAVI/BvVLVISZjx4/s320/Methow+SuperTour2.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428326011508045922″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Getting off the line first – thanks to/spanspan style=”font-style: italic;” friend /spanspan style=”font-style: italic;”and /spanspan style=”font-style: italic;”pro photographer EA Weymuller for the excellent photo!br //span/divbr /It was a real treat for those of us local athletes to be racing on our home turf. With Sadie and Erik gone to the airport for their flight to Europe, Brian Gregg and I got to absorb the wild energy of our home crowd and got huge cheers and support through the heats. I had people tell me afterward that they could barely catch their breath after the semi-final heat with both Brian and I racing together!br /br /After feeling super strong in the qualifer, quite strong in the quarterfinal, and pretty strong in the semi-final, I dropped plow in the B Final. My tank had run dry; I led the heat out and into the first hill and realized my only way to survive was the control the pace at something I could maintain. Well, that ended about halfway into the hill when that pace dropped to pedestrian and everyone behind me realized they should get the heck around me. In the shuffle I got tangled and spun around and was off the back. And stayed that way. After crossing the finish line I stumbled a few feet and, amidst abundant support from friends, threw up everything in my stomach. A hard-fought day.br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S1VI3VpMgXI/AAAAAAAAAVA/iCmhQOLTio8/s1600-h/MethowSuperTour1.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S1VI3VpMgXI/AAAAAAAAAVA/iCmhQOLTio8/s320/MethowSuperTour1.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428325041404936562″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Scott and I talking strategy under the watchful eye of MOD sponsor David Bonnbr //span/divbr /After Saturday’s effort Scott strongly advised, and I agreed on not racing Sunday’s 15K. With only two weeks until I fly to Europe my focus right now is on rebuilding a training base on which I can race for five weeks in OPA Cup action. For now, it’s all about putting in the hours on the hometown turf. Thanks to everyone who put in countless hours to make a spectacular SuperTour, and to everyone who showed up to cheer – what a community!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-634483391278021545?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
My computer hard drive broke and I lost everything. Ever picture since moving to Idaho, every video, all of my music. I will chalk it up to an involuntary and early, yet probably necessary spring cleaning. It is what it is, so I won’t dwell.
I did find two images from Fast and Female on my camera, so I guess I can’t say that I don’t have ANY images left.
Kikkan (shown below with the mic and pink head-band) put together a great day of skiing for over 300 Alaskan girls! I was lucky enough to be asked to help coach for the day and played tunnel tag for 2 hours, as the Fast and Female groups rotated through my station.
Kikkan, leading a post-ski Q&A
This is what PART of the gang looked like!
Still one of the luckiest kids in the world,
`Kate
My computer hard drive broke and I lost everything. Ever picture since moving to Idaho, every video, all of my music. I will chalk it up to an involuntary and early, yet probably necessary spring cleaning. It is what it is, so I won’t dwell.
I did find two images from Fast and Female on my camera, so I guess I can’t say that I don’t have ANY images left.
Kikkan (shown below with the mic and pink head-band) put together a great day of skiing for over 300 Alaskan girls! I was lucky enough to be asked to help coach for the day and played tunnel tag for 2 hours, as the Fast and Female groups rotated through my station.
Kikkan, leading a post-ski Q&A
This is what PART of the gang looked like!
Still one of the luckiest kids in the world,
`Kate
My computer hard drive broke and I lost everything. Ever picture since moving to Idaho, every video, all of my music. I will chalk it up to an involuntary and early, yet probably necessary spring cleaning. It is what it is, so I won’t dwell.
I did find two images from Fast and Female on my camera, so I guess I can’t say that I don’t have ANY images left.
Kikkan (shown below with the mic and pink head-band) put together a great day of skiing for over 300 Alaskan girls! I was lucky enough to be asked to help coach for the day and played tunnel tag for 2 hours, as the Fast and Female groups rotated through my station.
Kikkan, leading a post-ski Q&A
This is what PART of the gang looked like!
Still one of the luckiest kids in the world,
`Kate
My computer hard drive broke and I lost everything. Ever picture since moving to Idaho, every video, all of my music. I will chalk it up to an involuntary and early, yet probably necessary spring cleaning. It is what it is, so I won’t dwell.
I did find two images from Fast and Female on my camera, so I guess I can’t say that I don’t have ANY images left.
Kikkan (shown below with the mic and pink head-band) put together a great day of skiing for over 300 Alaskan girls! I was lucky enough to be asked to help coach for the day and played tunnel tag for 2 hours, as the Fast and Female groups rotated through my station.
Kikkan, leading a post-ski Q&A
This is what PART of the gang looked like!
Still one of the luckiest kids in the world,
`Kate
object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/KzuQyur7I9srel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/KzuQyur7I9srel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/p2006 Women’s Sprint/p
object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/i0VSvLqoYbMrel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/i0VSvLqoYbMrel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/p2002 Men’s 30k/p
object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Ysz8z1X51owrel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Ysz8z1X51owrel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/p1998 Team Jump/p
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SD7BNy4DI/AAAAAAAAB8Y/jEkcIFWdL_U/s1600-h/IMG_2335.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SD7BNy4DI/AAAAAAAAB8Y/jEkcIFWdL_U/s400/IMG_2335.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428108500850106418″ //aMost of the World Jr. and U23 team arrived in Zurich this morning and had a two hour drive north into the southern part of Germany. We had a smooth day of travel and everyone (ooppps..2 missing) got their bags so we’re happy.divThe temps today were in the mid 30’s and there isn’t very much snow where we are staying, but the snow depths change fast as you climb into the hills so we’ll see how it is at the venue tomorrow./divdiva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SDZ_0XV0I/AAAAAAAAB8Q/t5HJl81aycY/s1600-h/IMG_2334.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SDZ_0XV0I/AAAAAAAAB8Q/t5HJl81aycY/s400/IMG_2334.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428107933539325762″ //aHere is a typical German hotel. This one is on the edge of the town green in Hinterzarten.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SCwOkRysI/AAAAAAAAB8I/E1sRSm4wkXI/s1600-h/IMG_2338.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SCwOkRysI/AAAAAAAAB8I/E1sRSm4wkXI/s400/IMG_2338.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428107215943879362″ //aOur hotel complex has 3 buildings, these are the “other two” buildings (pictures taken from our balcony). We are staying about 6 kms from town. We took a stroll around town this afternoon to get a lay of the land and pick up some essentials (chocolate etc..).br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SB-s3kJSI/AAAAAAAAB8A/DkNG9xI6jV8/s1600-h/IMG_2336.JPG”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/S1SB-s3kJSI/AAAAAAAAB8A/DkNG9xI6jV8/s400/IMG_2336.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428106365084378402″ //aI think there might be a glass blowing shop is this building (haven’t explored yet)./divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-2498778050803203082?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LAJLbDXR4b8rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LAJLbDXR4b8rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/p1994 Men’s 4x10k/p
object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rM5rlogOCfwrel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rM5rlogOCfwrel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/p1992 Women’s 30k/p
object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LX5ogfi_MX4rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LX5ogfi_MX4rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/p1988 – Men’s 50k/p
a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qy8LpbgYOag/S1TiLdg7jwI/AAAAAAAAAS4/2TahH98KGUI/s1600-h/20100117-204734-pic-546968943_t620.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Qy8LpbgYOag/S1TiLdg7jwI/AAAAAAAAAS4/2TahH98KGUI/s400/20100117-204734-pic-546968943_t620.jpg” border=”0″ alt=””id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428212137417477890″ //abr /br /Tomorrow, the big announcement: Olympic Team will be chosen.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2691525267872963085-5531332241613001765?l=in-the-arena-torin.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
object width=”400″ height=”336″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/K0Jsu8LD3u0rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″/paramparam name=”wmode” value=”transparent”/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/K0Jsu8LD3u0rel=0egm=0showinfo=0fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”336″ allowFullScreen=”true” wmode=”transparent”/embed/objectbr/br/p1984 Women’s 10k/p
Skiing has always and will always have weather as a variable in racing.br /Last weekend at the Methow Super Tour it was magnified. To begin with, thebr /Methow Valley in north central Washington state has received very littlebr /snow this year. Talking with the locals, seems it hasn’t been this badbr /since the mid 1970s. Secondly, along with little snow and warm temps, itbr /has rained a lot. Last weekend a group of 11 Webskis adventurers traveledbr /up the road to Winthrop for the Super Tour. It was mild and cloudy andbr /sprinkling on the way up on Thursday. On Friday we went out to ski thebr /sprint course and found dozens of volunteers feverishly shoveling everybr /last transformed snow crystal they could find onto the 1.3km course. Theybr /did a great job.br /br /So, I had skied the course, found snow temps to be about -.5C and thebr /forecast was for 34F and chance of rain. I waxed for that condition onlybr /to awake Saturday morning to find it 19F and sunny. As always, I hadbr /hedged my bets and waxed three pairs of skis, one soft pair with F40br /yellow and Flour 100, one medium pair with F40 Red and F40 Yellow mixedbr /50/50 topped with Fluor 100, and one stiffer pair with F40 Red and Fluorbr /100. At race time the stiff F40 Red skis were the best; they were good.br /Another SOLDA athlete was on F31 orange with HP04 and it was running well.br /br /br /On Saturday morning we sprinted ( and I have never been a sprinter) in thebr /sun on frozen snow. It was fun to see the really fast skiers going reallybr /fast.br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-fast-guys2010-776394.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-fast-guys2010-776240.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” //aFast Skiers at Methow Super Tourdivbr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-bert-start2010-785796.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 292px; height: 320px;” src=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-bert-start2010-785367.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” //aBert at start of qualifier.divbr //divdivbr /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-cyn-2010-700810.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 317px;” src=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-cyn-2010-700646.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” //aCynthia Engel at start./divdivbr /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-aaron-start2010-788016.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 294px; height: 320px;” src=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/sprint-aaron-start2010-787856.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” //aAaron Tarnow in qualifier./divdivbr /br /br /After the race I went up to the trails at Loup Loup Ski Bowlbr /(because there was not enough snow in Winthrop for the 15km classic) tobr /ski the long classic course. By the end of the day it was 28F and snowing.br /Good, back to winter I thought. I went home, checked the weather oncebr /more. It was forecast for overnight low of 26, 100% chance of snow andbr /high near 30 the next day. Great.br /When we arrived at Loup Loup it was already 34 and raining. Raining on 3br /inches of new snow. It was one of those nightmares for kick waxing andbr /nothing I tried seemed to work. Even Rex Powergrip was failing me. Zerobr /skis were the choice if you had a pair. Some Crown skis were working. Ibr /tried making “hairies” on my soft cold skis and they worked for a while,br /but after a few kms I was herringboning every hill./divdivbr /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/methow-bert-fin2010-769227.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 285px;” src=”http://www.webskis.com/uploaded_images/methow-bert-fin2010-769051.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” //aGlad the finish is in sight./divdivbr /What did I learn? Not much. We all know how weather can change and howbr /unpredictable it can be in the mountains. If you have the time and placebr /to work, it is always best to glide wax when you are pretty sure of thebr /snow conditions. I know one guy who gets up about 4:00 to check thebr /weather and snow and rewax if necessary. On the World Cup the wax techbr /guys get up at 5 or so on race day to do the last prep over a good base.br /They also go with more than one combination and test to see what runsbr /best.br /Hope you have good racing and are up for the intellectual andbr /organizational challenge of waxing skis.br /br /Bertbr //div/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6589659500745667109-2185357950050088080?l=www.webskis.com%2Fwebskisblog.html’ alt=” //div
img src=”http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kwfva4aDDk1qzvvqho1_500.jpg”/br/br/pPM Training- amazing conditons/p
div style=”text-align: center;”br //divErik and I have just arrived in Germany today- bags and everything. Lucky!! Saturday morning we both started the sprint supertour race on our home course before we took off for the drive over the mountains to Seattle. I was really pleased with the result- first american, second overall to a canadian who posted a time one second in front of me. I felt strong and smooth, which was a great note to leave the country on for these next important and exciting races! Erik has been recovering from a sickness all week, so he wasn’t feeling as good as usual but he posted a solid 15th place finish. As hard as it was we decided it was smartest to skip the heats and get a start on the drive to Seattle. It is never a great idea to have a really hard effort the day before a long travel to Europe mostly because those are the ultimate conditions for picking up sicknesses. Looks like the supertour went well though and Koos and Valaas, hometown heroes, ripped it up!divbr //divdivSunday morning we woke up early and headed to the airport. All the flights and connections were smooth and surprisingly drama less all the way to Switzerland. The flight from Atlanta to Zurich was pretty empty so I was lucky enough to spread out over two seats for the long haul. /divdivbr //divdivAfter arriving in Zurich we drove the two hours to our hotel which happens to be this pull off on the side of the highway. I have yet to go exploring around the area but it seems there are just a couple of hotels that make up the town here. We are staying in a euro Best Western, which is fairly fancy. A lot nicer than you would find in an american Best Western. It looks like the Czech and Polish teams will be staying here with us- so a competitive exciting atmosphere all around!/divdivbr //divdivHopefully tonight I will be able to sleep through what is daytime at home, beat the jet leg as soon as possible. Tomorrow we will head out to the venue for some training and then hopefully some exploring around the area. I will try to remember to bring my camera and take pictures. /divdivbr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S1SRmFClPuI/AAAAAAAAAN4/1jIIxgn1jSY/s1600-h/hinterzarten-winter.jpg”img src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S1SRmFClPuI/AAAAAAAAAN4/1jIIxgn1jSY/s320/hinterzarten-winter.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428123534262353634″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; ” //adiv style=”text-align: center;”A view of the jumps from the town of Hinterzarten- host town for World Juniorsbr //divdivbr //divdivbr //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-2007554854038317897?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div