FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Tor Arne Hetland Retires

    It was announced today that Tor Arne Hetland is retiring from competitive skiing and a long and illustrious career. Hetland was one of the first sprinting stars of cross country skiing after is was introduced during the 1999 World Cup season. The 35 year old veteran of the circuit decided to hang up the skis after ending the season this past season early to have knee surgery to remove cartilage on the back of his left
    knee. He cites on of the reasons to retire as he wanted to go out while still on top.

    This season Hetland was a very impressive third overall in the World Cup Sprint rankings. There is already talk that Hetland will stay with the Norwegian squad, but hold the roll as mentor to the women’s sprint team in an attempt to replicate the dominance that has been shown by their male counterparts.

    I’m very surprised with his decision, with the Olympics only 10 months away I thought Hetland would’ve retired next year. It would’ve been great to see another Zorzi/Hetland show down on North American soil one last time. It must of been a tough decision whether to continue training or to call it quits. I have a strong feeling that his rehabilitation after knee surgery had a large influence on his decision.

    In other news, France has named their male and female 2009-2010 national teams. They can be found here. Also, it appears that Arild Monsen will be the new sprint coach for Sweden, not the head trainer as initially thought.

    If you’ve ever visited the site before you might notice that the site is totally revamped. The first template that was being used couldn’t encompass what I wanted in this site so I opted to go and change it to make the site a little more practical and aesthetically pleasing. Hope you enjoy it.

    Enjoy your weekend.

  • SMS bikers hit the road to Waterville Valley

  • INFORMATION

    Dont mess around.  Now is the time.  Info inside.

  • INFORMATION

    Dont mess around.  Now is the time.  Info inside.

  • INFORMATION

    Dont mess around.  Now is the time.  Info inside.

  • The Last Temptation of Crust

    Attention: Everyone who selected April 22 in their office pool for “the day that Cory finally ignores Doctor’s (and wife’s) orders and goes skiing,” please pick up your winnings at the front desk.
    Monday of this week was the first day of excellent crust ski weather we’ve had so far this spring. Blinding sunshine, frozen […]

  • No Downtime for Monsen + Northug’s a Football Star

    It’s been almost three weeks since Monsen was relieved of his duties as the head trainer for the Canadian national team. According to NRK, Monsen is within days of signing a contract with the Swedish ski federation to be the new head trainer for the Swedish national team. Originally, there was going to be talk that Bråten might of taken that job, but he eventually filled the vacant spot left by Monsen.

    In other news it appears Petter Northug is taking Bjørn Dæhlie’s advice that soccer makes for great cross-training. After finishing his 2008-2009 season by winning the Bruksvallarna 33km, Northug is now joining the local Mosvik football team in Norway’s prestigious Division 5 in an attempt to help the team get promoted to Division 4 football next season. In addition, John Kristian Dahl, Johan Kjølstad, Chris Jespersen, and Petter’s little brother Thomas will also be playing for the team. At least the team won’t have to worry about stamina during matches.

    Lastly, it appears Anders Sodergren is recovering successfully after having back surgery at the end of the season. Near the end of the Tour de Ski this past season, Anders felt severe pain in his back near the end of the 15km in Nove Mesto and subsequently dropped the remainder of the races. The pain was coming from a moving disc in the lumbar region and was stabilized by some heavy physiotherapy so he could race the rest of the season. However, a nerve became pressed against a lumbar vertebrae which caused excruciating pain. Just before he went into surgery on March 26th, the pain in his back was so intense he couldn’t even sit up! The surgery successfully eased pressure on a nerve that had been squeezed against a disc in his lumbar region. It’s been about four weeks since his surgery so hopefully he will be able hit the ground running and have a successful summer of training in his pursuit for an Olympic medal.

    Til Next Time.

  • No Downtime for Monsen + Northug’s a Football Star

    It’s been almost three weeks since Monsen was

  • Californ-i-a

  • WTF Wax Mix #3

    pPatrick Moore contributes from the Whistler World Cup:/p

    pGrind – XC02br/br/Base hardening – Solda S30 (two applications)br/br/Parafin – Ski*Go HF Bluebr/br/Shell – Solda S30 (this stuff is magic)br/br/br/The snow was new and cold, so the glide was easy and everything was kicking. The real question was what was also fast for grip…br/br/The answer:br/br/Binder – Swix blue extrabr/br/Cushion – Magnar 2br/br/Grip wax – Magnar 1br/br/Cover – Guru Black (for speed)br//p

  • (Mundahl photos)

    img src=”http://23.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422mjzathtmVTGr4Kzo1_500.jpg”/br/br/(Mundahl photos)

  • Photo

    img src=”http://5.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422mjz9j0slA7R0yUno1_500.jpg”/br/br/

  • WTF Wax Mix #2

    pMTU Contribution from J. Cork and E. Mundahl/p

    pRace: NCAA 20k Skatebr/br/ Grind: Sports Rack NCbr/br/ Layer 1: Start Graphite (ironed twice)br/br/ Layer 2: Toko HF Red (2 Layers)br/br/ Layer 3: 2 parts Start Graphite, 2 parts Toko HF Red, 1 part Toko HF Yellow (Applied Simultaneously, ironed twice, See photos)br/br/ Layer 4: 25% Toko Jetstream Red, 25% Toko Jetstream Yellow, 50% Toko Jetstream Old Snowbr/br/ Hand Structure: Swix 1.0mm Roller over Swix 0.5mm Roller/p

  • Cue up the Tom Petty

    I thought I was handling my Achilles injury pretty well.  
    Even though March and April are my favorite months to ski in Alaska, I haven’t been too depressed.   Maybe the fact that volcanic ash has slightly tarnished the snow conditions has helped me from being disappointed.  But I’ve been focusing on doing what I […]

  • Season in Photos 2.  Team USA van at the World Championships. …

    img src=”http://15.media.tumblr.com/COiZNt422mjb561gKV9BlRfwo1_500.jpg”/br/br/Season in Photos 2.  Team USA van at the World Championships.  (Phil Bowen photo. Follow him on twitter: FakePhilsGood)

  • WTF Wax Mix #1

    pCaldwell Reports:/p
    pWhistler Nor Am (moved to Vernon) 20K skate mass start./p
    pGrind: CV0/p
    pBase Treatment: Heatbox saturation. Heatbox conditioning with LF6/p
    pBase hardening: CH4 (3 applications)/p
    pParaffin: LF4/p
    pHardner: LF3/p
    pPowder: HP04/p
    pShell:C380/p
    pCold rub: HP04/p
    pHand Structure: Speedy SSM/p
    pOptimizer: Foxgel Med/p

  • Tin Can Mountain

    span style=”font-size:85%;”There is a great group of cross country skiers who stuck around after the week of racing in Fairbanks. 11 of us went out to enjoy a beautiful day on Turnagain Pass. Including fellow In The Arena Athlete

  • Night Skiing

    span style=”font-size:85%;”Alaska is my favorite place to be in the spring. The snow is great, my fitness is near it’s peak, my schedule is open to play, and it is light until 10:00pm. We have been trying to get out early to ski everyday but it takes a while to get equipment sorted out for everyone. Luckily we can still ski late in the day./span p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy8rqvcBI/AAAAAAAAAKw/1NwKTDQ6g6g/s1600-h/ak09+009.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy8rqvcBI/AAAAAAAAAKw/1NwKTDQ6g6g/s400/ak09+009.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829214856343570″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”Waist deep POW/span/p p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy8r_bddI/AAAAAAAAAK4/zlG44_VPoNY/s1600-h/ak09+014.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy8r_bddI/AAAAAAAAAK4/zlG44_VPoNY/s400/ak09+014.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829214943114706″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”Torin and Lars Climbing out of a bowl in Artic Valley. /span/p p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzkko7C9I/AAAAAAAAALY/OQKCX4Lc6Ik/s1600-h/AK09+007.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzkko7C9I/AAAAAAAAALY/OQKCX4Lc6Ik/s400/AK09+007.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829900164434898″ border=”0″ //a/p p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzke3oc2I/AAAAAAAAALQ/18h-t_yMvi0/s1600-h/ak09+004.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzke3oc2I/AAAAAAAAALQ/18h-t_yMvi0/s400/ak09+004.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829898615518050″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”Low Grade but Awesome Snow/span/p p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy808cDrI/AAAAAAAAALI/442lG2ZXiLU/s1600-h/AK09+013.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy808cDrI/AAAAAAAAALI/442lG2ZXiLU/s400/AK09+013.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829217346490034″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”8:15pm and leaving the car to go ski Peak 3/span/p p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzkt6crcI/AAAAAAAAALg/XqxPtWSh75g/s1600-h/AK09+019.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzkt6crcI/AAAAAAAAALg/XqxPtWSh75g/s400/AK09+019.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829902653861314″ border=”0″ //a/p p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzk12BuZI/AAAAAAAAALo/2bK36HGckSQ/s1600-h/AK09+034.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyzk12BuZI/AAAAAAAAALo/2bK36HGckSQ/s400/AK09+034.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829904782801298″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-size:85%;”Andre and the 2010 Black Diamond Justices/span/p p align=”center”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy87epl-I/AAAAAAAAALA/h5tf7B_r9T4/s1600-h/AK09+029.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M9ps8F85nS0/Seyy87epl-I/AAAAAAAAALA/h5tf7B_r9T4/s400/AK09+029.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326829219100596194″ border=”0″ //a/pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8083254037538554650-6063171007802467111?l=in-the-arena-brian.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Ridge To River

    -Sadie Bjornsen came over Friday night and took me to the airport. I flew all night and Saturday morning
    -Valerie Valaas and
    -Susan Valaas picked me up from the Wenatchee airport. After some time at home I borrowed
    -Tom Feil’s surfski and ran the Wenatchee river (dumping TWICE). Later, picking up my registration which
    -Biosports had sponsored and taken care of, I finally made it home to find
    -Chad Gregg,
    -Aleeta,
    -Simon, and
    -Tara Gregg had not only brought food to our house but were cooking us dinner. Entertainment was, as usual, provided by
    -Kirsten Valaas and her posse. It was a frantic, frantic day and I was starting to get frazzled so I was glad to have my
    -Dad and my
    -Mom around to keep my calm and make me feel like everything would go smoothly. Sunday morning was race day. After sleeping through my alarm (due to not sleeping Friday night) I headed up to Mission Ridge. Until the car had a mechanical 2miles from the parking lot & we unloaded our gear and a white
    -F-150 pulled over and we hopped in the truck bed.
    -Hugh Owen took my xc skis and poles up the chairlift for me in his ski bag. I set up my exchange zone and ran into
    -TJ Owen on my way to the start and she rubbed some jet stream into my skis. At my xc-alpine exchange
    -Sean graciously stepped in at the last minute and baby-powdered my alpine boots and pulled open the tongue so I could get my feet into them. Sweet boots given to me by
    -David Tewell and skis borrowed from
    -Michael Hansen. At the ski to run exchange,
    -Aleeta had my shoes and even had a gel with the top torn off for me already. Mid way through the run
    -Mark Broberg caught me (as usual) and gave me a good pace for the rest of the run. I was super psyched when I heard my old running coach
    -Kelso cheering. At the run-bike exchange I was super happy to see
    -Emily Martin with my helmet and
    -Barb Braley with a stool for me to sit on, my bike shoes and my beautiful time trail bike. I caught
    -Broberg and teased him about putting a 13 on the cassette on his wheels which I had on my bike so I wouldn’t be able to peddle down the (long) hill. It wasn’t a 13, but I was using a sweet set of his wheels. Then we hit Saddle Rock and stopped talking. And then he pulled away from me. At the bike-paddle exchange, the lovely miss
    -Kari Koos had my shoes for me and picked up the front of my boat and ran full tilt into the Wenatchee River, handed me my paddle and sent me on my way. My mom had my lifejacket for me. Of course the lifejacket and paddle were borrowed from
    -someone-who-doesn’t-know-I-borrowed-them and the boat belonged to
    -Greg Harnish and was one of the very coveted Futura IIs, which are nice and fast and I couldn’t have flipped it if I’d tried. Post race a cold, stiff & soggy LAV got a ride home to a shower and dry clothes from
    -Barb Braley.

    I did, incidentally, win the race (Max Christman, one of the junior nordic skiers in town won the Overall!!!) but before you tell ME good job, count the number of dash marks in my race report. And those are only the obvious contributors on this particular day.

  • Ridge To River

    -Sadie Bjornsen came over Friday night and took me to the airport. I flew all night and Saturday morning
    -Valerie Valaas and
    -Susan Valaas picked me up from the Wenatchee airport. After some time at home I borrowed
    -Tom Feil’s surfski and ran the Wenatchee river (dumping TWICE). Later, picking up my registration which
    -Biosports had sponsored and taken care of, I finally made it home to find
    -Chad Gregg,
    -Aleeta,
    -Simon, and
    -Tara Gregg had not only brought food to our house but were cooking us dinner. Entertainment was, as usual, provided by
    -Kirsten Valaas and her posse. It was a frantic, frantic day and I was starting to get frazzled so I was glad to have my
    -Dad and my
    -Mom around to keep my calm and make me feel like everything would go smoothly. Sunday morning was race day. After sleeping through my alarm (due to not sleeping Friday night) I headed up to Mission Ridge. Until the car had a mechanical 2miles from the parking lot & we unloaded our gear and a white
    -F-150 pulled over and we hopped in the truck bed.
    -Hugh Owen took my xc skis and poles up the chairlift for me in his ski bag. I set up my exchange zone and ran into
    -TJ Owen on my way to the start and she rubbed some jet stream into my skis. At my xc-alpine exchange
    -Sean graciously stepped in at the last minute and baby-powdered my alpine boots and pulled open the tongue so I could get my feet into them. Sweet boots given to me by
    -David Tewell and skis borrowed from
    -Michael Hansen. At the ski to run exchange,
    -Aleeta had my shoes and even had a gel with the top torn off for me already. Mid way through the run
    -Mark Broberg caught me (as usual) and gave me a good pace for the rest of the run. I was super psyched when I heard my old running coach
    -Kelso cheering. At the run-bike exchange I was super happy to see
    -Emily Martin with my helmet and
    -Barb Braley with a stool for me to sit on, my bike shoes and my beautiful time trail bike. I caught
    -Broberg and teased him about putting a 13 on the cassette on his wheels which I had on my bike so I wouldn’t be able to peddle down the (long) hill. It wasn’t a 13, but I was using a sweet set of his wheels. Then we hit Saddle Rock and stopped talking. And then he pulled away from me. At the bike-paddle exchange, the lovely miss
    -Kari Koos had my shoes for me and picked up the front of my boat and ran full tilt into the Wenatchee River, handed me my paddle and sent me on my way. My mom had my lifejacket for me. Of course the lifejacket and paddle were borrowed from
    -someone-who-doesn’t-know-I-borrowed-them and the boat belonged to
    -Greg Harnish and was one of the very coveted Futura IIs, which are nice and fast and I couldn’t have flipped it if I’d tried. Post race a cold, stiff & soggy LAV got a ride home to a shower and dry clothes from
    -Barb Braley.

    I did, incidentally, win the race (Max Christman, one of the junior nordic skiers in town won the Overall!!!) but before you tell ME good job, count the number of dash marks in my race report. And those are only the obvious contributors on this particular day.