FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Second SuperTour in Bozeman

    We’ve had quite the successful camp. At yesterday’s award ceremony Heidi received two medals for one day of ski racing! She was the third junior in both races.

    Today we headed back out for one more day of racing, though only MK and I were going to jump in.
     Hans was his usual jovial self trailside, cheering us on.
    Racing at altitude is tough!
    MK skied great again, good enough for third junior despite running into an altitude wall on her third lap around in the 10 km race.

    It was an inspiring setting: big mountains and good skiers all around.

     The rest of the team skied in the morning while Coach Beckwith did a superb job with the skis, and then everyone headed out onto the course to cheer. Here MK goes over the top of the final brutal climb for the last time, as Dev offers encouragement.
    Another podium! Nice job, MK!

  • Better Than Kikkan

    Kikkan Randall delivered the win in Düsseldorf today, confirming her status both as the best freestyle sprinter in the world and one of the overall best skiers in the World Cup.

    This is a big “duh,” of course. We knew that. Bearing with me for a minute, I’m interested to see who has beaten Kikkan in a more-or-less head-head-to-head way so far this season. Counting the two sprints, the Sjusjøen

  • Bozeman SuperTour Day 1

    It was a good day on the trails up at Bohart today, with cold temperatures in the teens, sunny skies showing off the Bridger Range, and just enough snow to have ski races for the SuperTour weekend.
    The race format was a little quirky: a 1.5 kilometer skate sprint was almost immediately followed by a distance skate race.
    It was a spectacular day in the mountains, and many of the best skiers in America rocketed around on 0-3 inches of packed powder. It was scratchy in places, but on the whole the course held up incredibly well considering the lack of snow.
    The stadium before the start of the women’s 5 km skate.

    We had four racers today: Dev, Heidi, and MK all skied both races, and Kaitlin just skied the distance race.
     Dev had an unfortunate fall on a brutal corner in the sprint race, but skied great in a field full of the best junior (and senior) skiers in the country.

     Kaitlin skied smoothly and powerfully through the 5 k, and kept the skis moving the whole time. Skiing at altitude is an immense challenge for us Easterners, and everyone has performed great since coming out west.

     MK is skiing all three races this weekend. She was the 4th junior in both races today, a very impressive feat at altitude. She improves technically every day, and seems to ski best when racing!

     Despite not feeling 100%, Heidi was our top finisher in both races. She skied hard and left it out there on the course, executing her game plan in the sprint and the distance race.

    It’s been a great run out here, and we’ve had an incredible training camp, both building fitness and getting good early season race experience. Tomorrow is the final day of competition: MK and I are strapping on the classic boards for a 10/15 km individual classic race. As usual, Coach Beckwith will be manning the wax station and keeping us fast.
    We head home on Monday, and we’re hoping for snow as soon as possible in Vermont!

  • Congrats Shawn!

    Shawn “Degs” Degroot: Blackjack Legend Congrats to our team mate Shawn for racing to 19th at the BC High School Cross Country Running Provincials! Filed under: Race Updates

  • West Yellowstone to Bozeman, Big Sky in the Middle

    It’s been hard to find the time to take pictures these past few days, but we had an excellent wrap-up to our time in West Yellowstone, capped by a moonlight ski alongside the Madison River. We took the time to lie down in the snow and feel the world around us, listening to the river flowing past and the wolves howling in the distance. It is always nice to be able to stop for a moment and try to clear the mind, and what better place to do it than Yellowstone.
    After packing all of our things and our team into the Expedition, we drove to Bozeman for the SuperTour races this weekend. The drive was highlighted by a stop in Big Sky, where we went for a short walk on the South Fork of the Gallatin River.

    As a geologist, it was very cool to see these formations: relics of ocean deposition during high sea level in the Cretaceous, ~100 million years ago.

    Since, the Gallatin River has cut down through the old sedimentary rock and lets us walk through and look up at history. Pretty amazing!
    On a hunch, I wiped away some snow to find interference ripples, showing that there were two directions of flow (probably in an intertidal zone near a beach) back when these sediments were laid down in the Cretaceous.

    We got to walk down the river bed and explore on the way back. It was a great way to stretch our legs on our way to Bozeman.
    I’ll leave off with a video from West Yellowstone. Dev jams on the guitar and we all sing along. What a talented bunch.
    Race day tomorrow! Stay posted.

  • Doozledorf

    I’m not that big a fan of the city sprints, but I do like the annual shenanigans in Düsseldorf, which is especially tight and crashy. This year’s slightly less interesting because of some big names (Bjørgen, Northug, Jönsson) are sitting out, but on the other hand, Kikkan Randall is the odds-on favorite for the win. So says Nordic Xplained and me, via Jan’s Who Wins game.

  • Pre Race Dussledorf Report

  • The Greater World of Ostersund

    This has been a very special week for me.  Yesterday was the first World Cup race of my career; something I’ve been dreaming of and working towards for several years.  It was an exciting race in some rather surprising ways, and I promise I’ll write a detailed blog post about it in the next few days.  However, first I’d like to share some cultural experiences from today.  I apologize in advance for a decline in photo quality- my camera had a little accident and will only work on one mode and without flash (I’ll try to get it fixed over Christmas).

    In Europe, the Advent season is often associated with Christmas Markets and many cities have one of these open air street markets.  I had never heard of them until Haley Johnson, a former member of the US team, had told me about Ostersund’s Christmas Market, which is held during the 2nd weekend of Advent.  From her description, I knew it was something I very much wanted to see, even though I didn’t fully understand what it was about.  This morning, I wandered down to the Market with Laura Spector, Ed Merrins (our team doctor) and Ed’s son Sam.  Imagine hundreds of street vendors selling foods and crafts: artisan cheeses, dried meats, baked goods, glögg (Nordic mulled wine), knit socks, felted mittens, leather pouches, word carvings, wrought iron candle holders, paintings, jewelry, angel ornaments, homemade paper, knives with moose antler handles, straw reindeer dolls, embroidered pillows… you get the idea.  Ostersund’s Christmas Market is held in Jamtli History Land- a museum village much like Colonial Williamsburg or Vermont’s Shelburne Museum.    Between my fascination with historical buildings and the numerous vendor stalls to check out, I could have happily wandered around for an entire day, but I limited myself to an hour and a half.

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    After returning from the Christmas market this afternoon, I got an invitation to share some glögg (non-alcoholic in this case) and tea at the home of a Swedish couple I had befriended earlier in the week.  Nina and Staffan live in a cute house in a nearby residential neighborhood.  Staffan is one of the municipal lawyers in Ostersund and did a lot of permitting work for the biathlon stadium.  He shared stories of skiing down the streets to get from place to place when he was growing up.  Nina isn’t as interested in skiing.  Her favorite activities are gardening in her back yard and working on crafts projects.  They gave me a tour of a “typical Swedish house” and showed me pictures of some beautiful National Parks in northern Sweden.  Someday I’d like to travel to Sweden in the summer and see the Parks.

    My final adventure of the day involved a quick elevator ride to the top of a giant mystery tower called Arctura that sits beside our cabins.

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    When the wind blows (often), the tower shrieks and howls and keeps me up at night.  I’d been told that there was a restaurant at the top but I had no idea what the tower’s purpose was beyond that.  Today I finally put 2 and 2 together and realized that when the coaches have been referring to “the thermos” on the course, they mean the tower.

    Sam Merrins at the foot of the tower. Sam races for Ford Sayre and has been helping the team out a lot this week with race support.

    Sam Merrins at the foot of the tower. Sam races for Ford Sayre and has been helping the team out a lot this week with race support.

    Turns out it’s a giant centralized hot water storage unit for the entire town and its high location ensures good water pressure for everyone below.  It is part of a cogeneration power system capable of storing 26 million liters of hot water and up to 1500 MWh of power.  The energy comes from burning trash and biomass.  Neat.

    View from the top

    View from the top

    And to end with, I’d like to include this pic I took several days ago.  Yes those are poles and skis she is carrying.  It’s just a way of life here.

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  • Toko Wax Clinic, Salomon’s Head of Global XC Product, & Clothing Sale – What To They Have In Common?

    Hint:  The world’s top 4 brands of Nordic skis can be found at Cyclova XC, in St. Croix Falls!

    Question:  What does a Toko Wax Clinic, Salomon’s Head of Global Nordic Product Development, and a 20% Off XC Ski Clothing Sale have in common?

    Answer:  All 3 and more can be found at Cyclova XC in St. Croix Falls this weekend of course!

    That’s right, we’ve put together a big fun Nordic weekend here in St. Croix Falls!  Come on out for a ski on the only good skiable snow in the Midwest at Trollhaugen, and then drive 4 miles north to beautiful St. Croix Falls! 

    This is sure to be a fun weekend for the hardcore Nordic enthusiast, as well as for the entire family!  In addition to the events happening here at Cyclova XC, St. Croix Falls is putting on the “Rivertown Holiday” festival weekend – a fun filled Christmas/Winter season festival for the whole family.

    Here at Cyclova XC, we have a fun weekend planned:

    • All Day Saturday & Sunday:  20% OFF On XC Ski Clothing!  Sales includes SportHill Apparel, SmartWool Apparel (socks, base layers, etc), Bjorn Daehlie Apparel, Hats, Head Bands, Ear Muffs, and more!  20% off pricing excludes Gloves.
    • Saturday Morning, from 7 – 9AM:  Ski on the great snow at Trollhaugen.  Many Cyclova XC team skiers will be out enjoying the snow.  Additionally, Emily Landgraf of Cyclova XC will be leading a beginner to intermediate skate ski lesson, at 8AM.  Look for her in a Cyclova XC jacket near the ski entry area at that time.
    • Saturday Evening, at 6PM:  The first installment of the Cyclova XC Wax Clinic Series – with waxing appropriate bubbly beverages for all!  Mike Lundeen of Toko & Madshus leads a clinic for all levels of skiers – from Olympians to first timers on glide waxing fundamentals.  In this clinic, we will highlight the fundamentals of how to apply glide wax. It is more important to apply wax properly, than to buy the spendy stuff. Learn to make the most of the time & money you spend on glide waxing, by applying it properly. All are welcome and attendees are entitled to a 10% discount on any wax or tool purchase during this wax clinic – including discounts on some very special closeout products!
    • Sunday Afternoon, at 2PM:  A very special, last minute announced visit and presentation by Isaac Wilson (Salomon’s US Product Manager) and Salomon’s Global Nordic Product Development Manager.  Joing us at 2PM for a presentation on the Cyclova XC big screen on Salomon’s Product Development, Factory, and some of their latest and most exciting ski technologies!  How many other opportunities do you have to meet the decision maker of a major ski manufacturer’s Product Development Team?
    World Cup Level Ski Expertise is found abundantly in St. Croix Falls, WI!

  • Last Day of Practice before Fall Camp

    Today was our last practice as a team before we head off for fall camp. Tomorrow the second year J2s, J1s and OJs head out to Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby, CO with Sverre and Matt. The J3s and first year J2s follow on Sunday with Poppet and Liz. Today we had a nice easy classic ski and started off with some no pole skiing (above) and plenty of drills before turning everyone loose to cruise around on their own. The younger kids finished up their waxing before lunch and packed up the van for Sunday and the older kids are just about finished with packing ski bags for their departure tomorrow. Check back for news and photos from Colorado!
    Corky, Gino, & Koby.
    Russell.
    Issy.
    Mackenzie gets some feedback from Poppet.
    Pip’s working on her balance.
    Hamish, Murph, and Paddy lead the team through a no-pole lap.
    Paddy.
    Pip & Alex.
    Sver goes over directions for the next drill.
    Mollie.
    The running drill uphill – run on your rollerskis, run with poles on your rollerskis…. then flow right into a snappy stride.
    Charlie.
    Gino.
    Koby.
    Hamish & Tyler.
    Tess.
    Brooke & Katharine.
    Mac – nice forward position!
    Helena.
    Alex.
    Kate.
    Mollie.
    Pip & Mackenzie.Calvin.
    Anika.

  • Vibeke Skofterud’s Early Season Strengths

    Podcast Shenanigans

    So I tune into the FasterSkier podcast tonight during my run, only to hear that I’m apparently the lead topic, by way of Kikkan Randall’s strong classic sprint (and distance) results in Kuusamo. Fair enough. As fun as it would be to turn this into a full on blog war, I actually think we’re all on the same page here.

    Colin and Christopher had expressed a fair degree of confidence in their first podcast this season about Randall’s chances of winning the overall sprint WC. I disagreed slightly. I guess I’d just point out that they made those claims before Randall’s good classic results, so my point that she’d have to vastly improve her classic results seems pretty spot on to me. Also, one weekend of strong classic races does not a trend make. (But I’m certainly hopeful!)

    And I’m still not sure how Randall can win the sprint WC overall without beating Bjørgen at least once in a classic sprint. But if Bjørgen really does skip two freestyle sprints in December, that will help enormously.

    Vibeke Skofterud

    This is just going to be a Nordic Commentary Project heavy post. Christopher Tassava lays out a fairly good case arguing that Vibeke Skofterud tends to ski fast early in the season, but fades considerably as the season wears on. I’m certainly glad that my new graph making tools proved useful!

    He asked if I’d weigh in on the issue, and I’m glad that he did. You see, statisticians spend a lot of time being Debbie Downers. People come to us with interesting questions and we spend a lot of time, a lot, disappointing them. You don’t have enough data. There’s no clear trend. There’s not much difference. Nothing happened.

    So you can imagine how delighted I was when I sat down to look at Skofterud’s distance results condensed into a single “season” so we can see trends by month:

    She’s had a handful of strong races in early to mid March, but this is a pretty clear picture, I think. The blue line is the median by month. The situation is only marginally less obvious with sprinting:

    That wacky hiccup at the very beginning is because I’m aggregating on month, and there were only those ~3 races in October back in the day. Ignore those for the moment, and you can quite clearly see a distinct shift beginning in January.

    I’m not going to speculate on the reasons, as I’m sure I have no idea. I’m just going to bask in the pleasure of confirming someone’s hypothesis rather than refuting it, or worse, saying that we can’t tell for sure.

    Related posts:

    1. <Does Lukas Bauer Ski Better Early In Major Events?
    2. <Was Bjørgen vs Kowalczyk Really An Issue This Season?
    3. <How’d We Do? USA/CAN Season Review 4


  • December Ski Service Schedule

    Brian Gregg of CXC has well prepared skis.
    Photo:  Ian Harvey / Toko

    You’ve been training to get the most from your skiing, so make sure your skis aren’t a limiter.

    Prepare all of your skis to run their best with a fresh stone grind and hotbox service. At Nordic Ultratune, a stone grinding batch starts every Thursday and those skis are ready for shipping on the following Monday — just 4 days later. Return shipping is FedEx Express Saver, which is 3rd day delivery. So, skis that are shipped out on Monday will arrive back to you on Thursday.
    Here’s the upcoming service schedule at Nordic Ultratune. Use these dates to make sure you get your skis ready before your most important events.
    • Skis in by Dec 1st will ship out on Dec 5th and arrive back to you by Dec 8th.
    • Skis in by Dec 8th will ship out on Dec 12th.
    • Skis in by Dec 15th will ship out on Dec 19th and arrive to you by the 22nd.
    • Skis in by Dec 22nd will ship out on Dec 26th.
    You can see that there are still a few service batches scheduled before Christmas and the post-holiday races (including Sr Nationals!).     There is still time to get a fast grind on your skis before your biggest events! But don’t delay… …fast boards are a joy to ski on, and they’re a real advantage.

  • Super Tour Update

    Well, here is little update from the last couple weeks. Sorry I haven’t been great about updateing my blog. But, with the combination of finishing up classes at Alaska Pacific University online and having limited internet access it has been a little hard. I am at a coffee shop finally getting a decent internet connection. We are currently in Bozeman, Montana waiting for our second weekend of the Super Tour circuit racing. Last week was the first three races of the circuit in West Yellowstone, Montana. I threw down some decent races posting an 8th place and 13th place in the sprints. In the skate distance race I was 33rd, and finishing with my best for the weekend a 3rd in the classic distance. It was the best Super Tour result I have had and I also posted the best FIS points result of my life, 43 points. Pretty sweet! Might have pre-qualified myself for the Under 23 world championships but I’m not sure about that yet. Either way, pretty exciting way to kick of the season. Now we are hoping to race Saturday and Sunday up at Bohart Ranch but there is only about three inches of snow so we will see if they can pull it off. Here are some pictures from last week thanks to Ian Harvey, head of Toko wax and equipment. Just picked up a new glove sponsorship with Toko. They make some really nice gloves you should definitely check them out here.

    Sadie and I are hosting a camp in the Methow Valley when we go back for christmas. If you are a kid that is interested, sign up! It’s going to be a blast.

  • Ruka Triple

    After finishing 5th in my first World Cup sprint of the season, my weekend of racing was far from over. The next day I raced the 10km skate race on one of the toughest courses on the circuit. The weather was super windy which made it hard to ski the flat sections of the course, it felt like I had no recovery time at all. It was hard for me to warm up for this race. After such a hard effort in the sprint the day before my body felt sore and tired. During the race I felt ok, not great but ok. The hills really put the hurt on me and I really suffered out there trying to salvage my overall ranking. I finished the day in 55th spot which bumped me to 17th overall in the mini tour after two races. I was happy to remain in the top 30 leading into the final day.
    The last race was a 15km Classic Pursuit start race. I had a bunch of the best distance skier starting within 15 seconds behind me so I knew it was going to be tough to keep top 30. The pace at the start of this race was pretty ridiculous, I was pretty much going as hard as I could for the first 5km. There was no way I could keep up the fast pace so I was hoping that everyone would start getting tired and slow down. For the next couple laps I skied with Kris Freeman (us), the pace was still fast but it definitely slowed down a bit. I was sitting in 30th place with 5km to go. There was a group of 10 guys about 15 seconds ahead of me, and I could hear the guys pretty close behind me. Pretty stressful… I really wanted a top 30 overall so it was go time. I started picking up the pace trying to catch that group just in front of me. As the race progressed, I started to feel better and I could see some of the other guys hurting. On the final lap, I caught up to two Norwegian skiers and was able to beat one of them to the line. I finished off the day in 29th place! top 30, Yeah Buddy!!!
    Ruka triple treated me well this year.
    Now I am off to Sunny Davos for the week to get some training in before the Dusseldorf city spritns next Saturday and Sunday.

    Harvey pulling me in the final stage.

  • Rocking Ruka & thoughts on confidence

    I’m behind on my blog posts but what can I say? My senses have been completely overwhelmed with Swiss scenery, 1k, 2k & 3k man-made loops of snow (this morning we did 30 looks of an 800 meter track) and new varieties of stinky cheese!  So far, so much of my European skiing experience has been concentrated around Scandinavia and it’s been a while (try 1998) since I’ve been to Central Europe! 

    Big machinery has been making skiing in Europe happen…. dum trucks, back hoes, snow guns, etc

    But, to rewind to last weekend – the Ruka Triple!  Racing the mini-tour in Ruka (outside Kuusamo, Finland) way, way, way up north…. check it out on a map here ….. was an absolute blast.  I had a semi non-spectacular start to me World Cup season in Sjujsoen and was looking to clock a more satisfying result. Because really, shouldn’t 3 x 25 hours of summer glacier skiing and giving up endless backpacking trips and late nights equate athletic improvement? Ideally, yes!  And thankfully, my results (and improvements) from last weekend made it all worth it.  Now the hard part comes: Can I do it again?!  
    If you’re not a Nordic skiing junkie, (which not everyone is!) you may be thinking, what happened? What did she do? Well, the Ruka Triple consists of three days of back-to-back races with cumulative results.  Think Tour de France but Nordic skiing style in Lapland. First of all, I kicked off the day with a World Cup WORST. The first race was a classic sprint and I was horrible. I was 70th place!  I almost fell on a huge downhill leaving the stadium and the conditions were ice-hard and squirrely, my least favorite.  Anyways, I figured that it had to get better from there and it did! 
    The following day I had my best World Cup result ever, 17th place!  I was so fired up!  I was one of the earlier finishers (Thanks to Friday’s poor result) so I had time to hike over to the large hill to watch the top seeded girls attack the finish.  While I don’t know what I looked like skiing up the final decent many of the girls looked surprisingly unspectacular.   I was literally holding my breath as the results flashed by on the huge megatron, 9 skiers at a time.  I made the second “screen flash” and finished EIGHT seconds out of tenth place! 

     A picture of me racing the sprint – compliments of Nordic Focus
    This race was certainly a breakthrough for me.  The crazy part it that it felt like a decent race but if you were to ask me how it went at the end without telling me I would say, “Okay.”  But here’s the important part, I went for it, received a promising result and consequently, gained a MONUMENTAL boost of confidence.  Thank you so much to many of you who have sent congratulatory emails and written on my face book wall!  One email, in particular, really hit home for me.  The email was concise and really hit the nail on the head.  This accomplished athlete said, “Yeah!  Good job 🙂  A little confidence goes a long way. Often times that’s all that separates you 🙂”  And you know what? This is so true! Once you’ve done it once, it becomes real. It becomes a possibility each time you toe the line.  Now that I’ve been top twenty once I know that on a great day, I can be top twenty again. No, not every time.  Competition here on the World Cup is tough and as I was quoted saying, “It’s amazing how here, a bad day can be REALLY bad.  For example, take 1 second to wipe the snot off your face and you lose two places.  Lesson learned: don’t wipe the snot off your face!” 
    What have I learned? As a country I think we can do this.  We simply need more interface and more confidence.  Yes, cross country skiers in Europe are on milk cartons, some drive sports cars, and it’s not unusual to see one of our competitors on the cover of a tabloid.  But, Kikkan has shown that she can beat them and I learned last weekend that I can be in there.  

    My very first college coach, Eli Brown had this theory…. it went something like this: I beat such and such once and they beat this other person – and the other person won an Olympic Gold Medal.  Therefore, I can win an Olympic Gold Medal!  Well….. It doesn’t quite work that way but I think there are some good lessons to be taken from such a statement.  If I can be top twenty on the World Cup so can many other girls in the US.  Caitlin is an amazing skate climber, Jennie Bender can double pole like a crazy women, Kate Fitz can ski “threshold” till the sun goes down and Digger ski races until she cries (literally – DURING races) and I believe that Sadie Bjornsen to this day holds the 100m World Record!  As a nation we are tough, we have talent.  Now we need the opportunity and just a pinch of confidence!  Watch out World!  Team USA is coming on strong! 

    In the meantime, here are some pics from Ruka: 
    This is absolutely INSANE. For only 80 Euros you can float down a river in the middle of winter for TWO and a HALF hours. WOW. 
    Saying hi to the Finnish boys…. 
     The Ruka Jump – at night 
    Finns love their saunas.  This was in our room – and took up a lot of square footage… unfortunately we didn’t have a great opportunity to use it with all the racing on the schedule. 
     In the wax room, in front of the flag! 
     We celebrated Casey’s B-Day in Ruka! 
     I absolutely love Ruka. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m from Alaska and the darkness doesn’t bother me but I loved staying in small apartments literally overlooking the course.  Although we were on a meal plan here we had the opportunity to do laundry (which is rare) make hot drinks, and put food in a fridge!  It was glorious. 
     Here’s the view the other way.  On Thanksgiving we celebrated with a FIRE! 
     Here we are after the the last race… left to right: Me, Kikkan, Charlotte Kalla, Anna Haag & Chandra! 
     Sadie, Casey & Holly in the wax room! 
     Trying on some funny hats with Lars! 
     The “World Cup Version” of the Alaskan packraft. This is a portable cold tub that fits in a backpack – used for recovery. 
     Liz and Kikkan making it a Ruka QUADRUPLE! We went to lift after the third race….. 
    Hauling our stuff up to the World Cup transit bus….. Bye Ruka! 

    Thanks for reading 🙂 
    Holly

  • Skate Intervals/TT at BMD + Strength

    Today we had our last hard practice before heading off to Colorado for fall camp! The first year J2s and J3s did a ~4k skate time trial and got a good hard effort in at that distance, while the second year J2s, J1s, and OJs did L4 4 x 4s. It was a cold morning and the brave folks who sported shorts and no gloves may have been a little chilly by the end of practice. : ) This afternoon we had a team meeting to go over logistics for our Saturday and Sunday departures for Colorado and then hit the gym for strength. Tomorrow we’ll do an easy workout before we finish up prepping skis and packing for camp. Check out the pictures below and more here.

  • Pontresina in the SUN!

    The top of Fluelalpass at about 7500ft.

    The top of Fluelapass at about 7500ft.

    There are three separate and unconnected manmade loops of skiing in town that are each not much over a kilometer in length.  It’s okay for intervals and shorter days of skiing but can get boring for longer distance days.  Yesterday we decided to drive to Pontresina, Switzerland a town near St. Moritz where there was a longer loop of manmade snow.  You know the situation isn’t great when 4km seems like a big loop.  It was about an hour drive from Davos first over the Fluelapass and then along the Engadin valley where the Engadin ski marathonis held each winter.  It was a pretty drive and cool to see some new territory and the skiing in Pontresina was really good.  The best part was having to break out my sunglasses which had been previously hanging out unused in the bottom of my suitcase.  Here are some pictures of the sunny morning ski!
    Simi, Liz, and Sadie getting ready to ski

    Simi, Liz, and Sadie getting ready to ski

    There were ski trails signs pointing towards the different surrounding towns and locations but unfortunately our ribbon of snow didn't extend too far.
    There were ski trails signs pointing towards the different surrounding towns and locations but unfortunately our ribbon of snow didn’t extend too far.
    The loop was relatively flat which was good for acclimating to the higher altitude here but there were a couple shorter hills too.

    The loop was relatively flat which was good for acclimating to the higher altitude here in the alps but there were a couple shorter hills too.

    Liz and Kikkan ski up the valley while Astrid Jacobsen of the Norwegian National Team skis down.

    Liz and Kikkan ski up the valley while Astrid Jacobsen of the Norwegian National Team skis down.

    A great way to celebrate your 28th birthday!

    A great way to celebrate your 28th birthday!

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    It's great to be in the mountains!

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    Skiing a lap with one of our coaches, Chris Grover

    Skiing a lap with one of our coaches, Chris Grover

    Off to watch Susan race live on Eurosport in the first biathlon World Cup of the season!  We are headed to Dusseldorf, Germany tomorrow for a weekend of city sprints!  Thanks for reading!

  • A quick video update I made

  • Finishing things off in Finland. The shape is starting to come…

  • On my way to 48th in the 10km Skate in Kuusamo Finland