FasterSkier

Tag: Banff

  • May Skiing in Canada (and Abroad) in Photos

    May Skiing in Canada (and Abroad) in Photos

    The BC development team getting ready to ski out of the biathlon stadium at Whistler Olympic Park last weekend.

    While most people have moved on to other sports by May, the more obsessive skiers are starting the new training year on snow.

    Canada’s “first” cross-country ski “races” of the 2017/2018 season were held on May 6. “First” because, while we haven’t exhaustively researched this, it was the first Saturday after May 1, which is the traditional new year for the Northern Hemisphere. “Races” is also a bit misleading as most athletes were viewing the events as an opportunity to do some intensity.

    Here then, in the order which photos arrived, are the places where people are skiing in May. Did we miss one? Share in the comments below or email photos with caption and credit info to info@fasterskier.com.

    Sovereign Lake, Vernon, B.C.

    The Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre (SLNC) re-opened from May 4 to 7 for the Spring Fling camp and the “SLNC 1st Annual Pushups Classic Time Trial” race. The May camp has been running for years, but was moved to earlier in the month to ensure prime conditions. A number of clubs brought athletes out for technique lessons and long snow sessions. Canmore Nordic broke the pattern by focussing on low-elevation training with shorter training sessions. As the Canmore athletes live at 1,400 metres above sea level, the opportunity to train at 400 metres was more exciting than skiing at 1,700 metres.

    Canmore, Alberta

    The Canmore Nordic Centre lost its snow at the end of April, but Sunshine Meadows just a short drive west in Banff National Park hosted a large group of skiers starting May 9. Ivan Babikov is leading a training block for the Canmore-based national team members, Chris Jeffries has the Alberta World Cup Academy crew, and a number of other groups are there as well.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BT7dTJHjPhS/?taken-by=andrewkchisholm

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BT7TVIfFWrc/

    Sjusjøen, Norway

    OK, not in Canada, but Canadians Dahria Beatty and Russell Kennedy went and enjoyed some superb skiing conditions. They raced at Bysprinten in Mosjøen, Norway, and then moved on to Sjusjøen’s 100 kilometres of trails.

    Menihek, Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador

    The Menihek Nordic Ski Club is officially closed, but has snow and will set track for Mother’s Day, according to club president Gerry Rideout.

    Whistler Olympic Park, Whistler, B.C.

    This venue is closed to the public, but has been hosting camps on natural snow. Biathlon got the first weekend of May and cross-country has the Victoria Day weekend. These photos are from the biathlon camp on the Olympic trails, mostly below 900 metres in elevation.

  • Canmore Crowd Lifts Crawford to Sprint Final; Jones Sets Personal Best in 11th

    Canmore Crowd Lifts Crawford to Sprint Final; Jones Sets Personal Best in 11th

    Canadian Chandra Crawford chases frontrunner Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland in Saturday’s quarterfinal at the World Cup 1.3 k freestyle sprint in Canmore, Alberta. Crawford finished third in the heat ahead of Kowalczyk in fifth, and went on to place sixth overall.

    Coverage of the Alberta World Cup made possible through the generous support of Travel Alberta and Tourism Canmore.

    CANMORE, Alberta – It was four years ago, but the memory’s still pretty fresh for 29-year-old Canadian National Team member Chandra Crawford.

    She had been cruising into the stadium at the Canmore Nordic Centre and saw the sun beating down on the final flat. Beyond that, she glanced at the Three Sisters mountains, an iconic range in her hometown.

    Then she won gold in the World Cup skate sprint. It had been a great moment, one she’d never forget, but it wasn’t the end-all.

    The night before Saturday’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprint, Crawford said she didn’t sleep much. Her heart raced thinking about the sprints and what she wanted to achieve. Without an individual top 30 on the World Cup yet this season, she had a big hill to climb – and at Canmore, that’s literal.

    Crawford attacked the challenging course from the qualifier, completing the up-and-down loop with the third fastest time of the morning behind her friend Kikkan Randall of the U.S. and Laurien van der Graaff of Switzerland. Randall won the qualifier in 2:55.48, and Crawford was just 2.94 seconds slower.

    The crowd went wild. Born in Canmore, Crawford was the top Canadian qualifier – female or male – on the day. What’s more, she went on to advance as a lucky loser twice in the quarterfinals and semifinals. She had been third in her quarterfinal by 0.5 seconds to winner Celine Brun-Lie (NOR) and runner-up Ida Sargent (USA), then placed fourth in a fast heat behind Denise Herrmann (GER), Randall and Maiken Caspersen Falla (NOR), respectively.

    Her dad, Glen, a cameraman for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, first told Crawford she made the final. Just like in 2008, he was the first person she saw at the finish.

    “I’m just really lucky I can cross the finish line and look up and see my dad,” she told the Canadian Press after winning in Canmore four years ago. “It’s pretty unique on a World Cup I think.”

    Yet it happened again on Saturday, and this time, it might have been a bit more dramatic.

    “I stumbled out of that tent like, ‘Oh, that was a hell of a day,’ and he’s like, ‘You’re gonna be in the final!’ ” she recalled. As soon as the spectators found out, they were ecstatic, too.

    In the final, Crawford finished sixth behind Falla, Randall, Brun-Lie, Herrmann and Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, respectively. She had been in contention for a podium, following Randall in fourth up the climb. Randall moved from third to first, but Crawford couldn’t answer her push. Randall and Falla skied away from the field, and the remaining four battled for third.

    “I got gapped over the top by Maiken and Kikkan, not enough K’s in my name probably,” Crawford said. “And then I thought, ‘OK, get third. You gotta beat, like, Herrmann or something.’ That was all going pretty well, but everyone had a little more jam than me coming down the homestretch. Being a double lucky loser I think I took it pretty far.”

    Smiling at the finish, Crawford talked about the cowboy-hat-wearing crowd that fueled her.

    “That’s definitely where I got a lot of the positivity from today,” she said. “I was really forcing it this last week to get my mind around some belief and some confidence. It’s been a little bit tricky.”

    At the same time, her form was coming around and the Canmore course suited her, Crawford said. It was drastically harder than the one she won on previously, but the conditions combined with her fast skis and high energy made for her season-best result.

    Perianne Jones (CAN) going for it in the Alberta World Cup 1.3 k freestyle sprint on Saturday in Canmore. She finished 11th overall for an individual best.

    Not far behind in 11th, teammate Perianne Jones notched a World Cup individual best after qualifying in 14th, taking second in the quarterfinal and sixth in the semi.

    A Canmore resident when she’s not traveling the world, Jones showed her knowledge of the course, sitting back in the quarterfinal and catching the slingshot draft on the last hill. She jetted into the stadium and advanced in second behind Falla. In the semifinal, she couldn’t quite hold on and skied alone into the finish.

    “My legs were full of lactic acid and I was working really hard to go up that hill,” Jones said. “I didn’t have it in me. I lost a lot of time over the top. …. I really wanted to be in there in that last heat, and I’m pretty bummed about that, but I was really happy with the way I skied my quarterfinal so that’s the positive thing.”

    Jones has also been dealing with illness since notching her previous best of 12th three weeks ago in Kuusamo, Finland. Last weekend, like Crawford, she failed to make the top 30 at the Quebec World Cup and advance in the sprint.

    “It’s been slow to start. I’ve had to really listen to my body and respect my body,” Jones said. “I’ve had to sit out a lot of races, which is hard when all I want to do is race, but it’s coming around and I think after Christmas I’ll be even stronger.”

    The third woman on Canada’s World Cup team, Dasha Gaiazova placed 20th after narrowly qualifying in 29th. Upset after her run ended in the quarterfinals, where she was fifth, she talked about what the race meant to her, especially so close to her home in Banff.

    “Every sprint, every race is so precious, especially Canmore, it’s so cool,” Gaiazova said. “I think as a team, we all feel like we’re in good shape, just as good as last year, but we just need some results to prove it, I guess. I think everybody’s just getting a little impatient, maybe. I’m sure it’s gonna come. Every little detail out on the race course is so important to execute well.”

    Dasha Gaiazova (CAN) during Saturday’s Alberta World Cup sprint qualifier, where she made the cut in 29th and advanced for the first time in a World Cup skate sprint in Canmore, Alberta.

    She simply didn’t have enough left at the end.

    “When I first started climbing I felt like, I can push harder,” she said. “And [I said], ‘Screw this I’m going to the front and I can do this.’ I felt like, this is great, this is exactly what I want to be doing, so I kept pushing all the way. At the end, I don’t know, the finishing stretch is a little uphill so you really need to push hard through that and I just ran out of gas.

    “It’s unfortunate,” she added. “I’ll try next time.”

    Regardless, it was an improvement since her last World Cup skate sprint in Canmore. Back in 2008 when she was struggling with Celiac disease, she placed 42nd.

    Just outside of the top 30 on Saturday, Heidi Widmer of the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) placed 34th for her best individual World Cup result.  Born in Banff, she’s lived in Canmore for the last five years.

    “I was really rooting for a qualification in my backyard, but it’s also motivating at the same time,” Widmer said.

    Andrea Dupont (Rocky Mountain Racers) finished 41st, Alysson Marshall (AWCA/NST) was 43rd, Kate Brennan (AWCA) placed 47th and Emily Nishikawa (AWCA/NST) was 48th.

    Also racing for Canada, Dahria Beatty (Yukon Ski Team) was 55th, Marlis Kromm (AWCA) 57th, Alana Thomas (AWCA) 61st, Rebecca Reid (AWCA) 62nd, Maya McIsaac-Jones (RMR) was 63rd, Erin Tribe (Thunder Bay) 65th and Zoe Roy (RMR) 67th.

    — Gerry Furseth contributed reporting

    Women’s results

  • Gaiazova on Her ‘180-Degree Turn’ with Training, Team

    Gaiazova on Her ‘180-Degree Turn’ with Training, Team

    Canadian World Cup Team member Dasha Gaiazova takes a break from rollerski training near Canmore, Alberta, while filming the video ‘Dasha2: It Takes More’ by Twin Zebra.

    There’s a video of Dasha Gaiazova floating around the web that opens with the 28-year-old Canadian World Cup Team member doing abdominal rollers with a weighted barbell.

    “I am different because I’m happy with myself and proud of what I do,” she begins the narration. “I take my training seriously because I don’t just want to win, I want to race better than anyone else. Now I ski faster and I race smarter. I have confidence to take risks with no hesitation or doubt.”

    The video is called ‘Dasha2: It Takes More.’ If you talk to the 2010 Olympian, that’s exactly how she’s approached this season.

    After largely training on her own last year, Gaiazova is back in good graces with the Canadian National Ski Team and excited for the season ahead. Instead of living in Banff, about 20 minutes northwest of Canmore, she opted for a change of scenery and moved to Québec to follow an individualized plan while complying with national-team standards.

    In doing so, she chose to train with Louis Bouchard, the World Cup men’s assistant coach and head of the Pierre-Harvey Training Centre (CNEPH) in Mont Sainte-Anne. That required a cross-country move and parting ways with Rocky Mountain Racers and its coach, John Jacques.

    She also signed on with B2ten in Montreal, splitting her time between sprint and strength work in Québec’s largest city with ski and more sprint training in Mont Sainte-Anne (MSA), about 300 kilometers and a 3 1/2 hour drive northeast.

    Dasha Gaiazova (CAN) en route to placing eighth in a World Cup classic sprint in Drammen, Norway, which tied her career best.

    In a phone interview last week from Banff, where she’s spending a few weeks on snow before heading to Sweden on Nov. 13, Gaiazova said she hadn’t spent more than two weeks in one place since last November.

    “It’s the first time I’m trying this and it’s been a nice change,” she said. “I guess I’m at the point in my life and point in my career where it’s working out really well. I’m happy with where I am right now.”

    With Bouchard writing and monitoring her training plain, she said it was much more sprint-focused. At the same time, it was difficult to to measure against her progress against previous markers in Banff and Canmore.

    “I trained in Canmore for so many years and every hill I know how long it takes me to get to a certain place,” she said. “I can’t tell you exactly where I’m at right now fitness-wise, but I feel pretty confident. I feel like I’ve done a really solid summer of work. I’m just curious to see where I’m going to end up and the changes, how they’re going to translate into ski racing.”

    According to Canadian Women’s World Cup Coach Eric de Nys, coaches noted several improvements in Gaiazova’s training throughout the offseason. With the national team based in Canmore, he didn’t see Gaiazova much outside of training camps, but tried to coordinate workouts with her World Cup teammates, Chandra Crawford and Perianne Jones, when possible – especially with Gaiazova around in November.

    During the team’s dryland camp last month in Park City, Utah, Gaiazova primarily followed the men’s schedule to address her specific needs.

    “We’ve identified some things through tests, Dasha needed to work on some different things than Chandra and Peri,” de Nys said. “I saw her in Park City, and I know her double poling and her movements are looking a lot stronger than in the past at this time of year. … While I haven’t seen a lot of the testing that she’s done out [in Québec], I know talking with Louis that a lot of the things that she’s done in the past that she’s a lot further ahead with time trials and different types of tests, so that was really encouraging.”

    After a career-best season with two eighth-place results in World Cup classic sprints, a ninth in a skate sprint and 26th overall sprint ranking, what exactly is Gaizaova hoping to accomplish? She didn’t want to get too specific, but she’s got some races in mind – namely the Canada World Cup sprints and World Championships.

    ***

    FasterSkier: What are you up to in Banff?

    Dasha Gaiazova: Just skiing on snow and training, getting ready, putting finishing touches on my preparation before taking off to Europe. The bulk of the work is done so now it’s getting the feeling back on snow.

    FS: Even though you visited this summer, how does it feel to be back?

    DG: The community’s great. I have so many friends and supporters and sponsors in the Bow Valley, specifically in Banff and Canmore, and it’s just nice to see everyone and be back here.

    It’s a great training venue so I think training wise, it makes sense for me to come back here and train on snow. It’s also nice to go back; Banff is still sort of my home base. I still have an apartment even though I’m renting it for the whole winter because I’ll be racing so much.

    Dasha Gaiazova rollerskiing earlier this summer with a women’s training group while visiting Canmore, Alberta. (‘Dasha2: It Takes More’ video by Twin Zebra: http://vimeo.com/50186972)

    FS: How was training with M.S.A. in Québec?

    DG: It’s a really nice environment to train in. The coaches are excellent and the training group of the athletes is really good, too. Aside from obviously [World Cup skiers] Alex [Harvey] and Len [Valjas], you’ve got Raphael Couturier, Frédéric Touchette and a lot of really promising up-and-coming girls. It’s a cool group to train with, and I really enjoy spending time in Québec and training with them.

    FS: Whom do you train with at B2ten in Montreal?

    DG: Sometimes I’m in a group with athletes from other sports and sometimes I’m on my own depending on what I’m doing and what other athletes are doing. It’s never the same; with every workout it’s different. It’s kind of fun that way, too, because sometimes you get to train with somebody from cycling background and somebody from alpine ski background and somebody from swimming background or diving or something else … soccer. It’s really cool to see all the other people training there, too.

    FS: Where did you spend most of your time?

    DG: This summer I was basically just going continuously between Mont Sainte-Anne and Montreal and coming to Banff once in a while so it was just a repeated circle. It’s hard to tell how much time I spent in each place because it feels like I’m always switching it up. Most of the time it was a week at a place, but never more than two weeks before then I have to go somewhere else (laughs).

    FS: How did your training change?

    DG: If you look at the overall picture, it’s been a lot more sprint focused. There’s been a lot of things I’m doing more with a clear sprint purpose in mind and I think that’s been the biggest shift. This year, it’s like, let’s focus on one thing and do one thing well.

    The whole program, training with Louis Bouchard’s group at Mont Sainte-Anne and B2ten and when I’m with all the national ski team training camps, it was all integrated into working on sprinting and power and speed.

    Dasha Gaiazova snaps a photo of herself enjoying some dryland training. (Courtesy photo)

    FS: How have all these changes – moving, switching coaches and hammering the sprint training – affected you?

    DG: I was thinking a year ago I missed all of the training camps and I was in Banff all summer, and this year is like a 180-degree turn because I’ve done so much with the team and it’s worked so well with everybody on the team and I’m traveling nonstop and it’s working well too. It’s interesting to see how much change there has been, and that’s why I want to get on skis and see how that’s going to translate into ski racing.

    FS: What’s changed with the national team?

    DG: On the girls team, there’s been a lot of changes. We’ve got a dedicated girls coach [Eric de Nys] and some camps are girls specific so I think the team itself is developing and seeing we need to address some specific needs for the girls and work on that. The team has been changing, for sure, for the better.

    FS: Have you missed being in Canmore for some team events, like the Frozen Thunder Classic time trial a couple weekends ago?

    DG: It would’ve been really fun to be part of the sprint race, and I talked to the coaches and it just didn’t work out with the scheduling. I said, ‘You know it’s fine, it’s just a sprint race and I have five months of racing ahead of me and I’ll just focus what I’m working on.’ That was the reason I wasn’t there for that sprint race, but it was really cool to follow it because there was so much feedback on Twitter and Facebook and there were live results updating. There was a really cool video … it was really cool to see everyone racing and follow it.

    FS: Whom do you train with at CNEPH?

    DG: I train with girls, with boys and some workouts I have to do on my own, so it’s a variety of everything. When I go train with the girls I can grab slower rollerskis and they can go on a little faster rollerskis, if it’s a speed workout we get staggered starts. When I train with the boys I do it the other way around. I grab my fast rollerskis and try to hang onto the boys as much as I can, and the boys have been really nice to me about it, and the girls are always thrilled when we can all do our workouts together.

    I feel like I’m able to be an inspiration for developing girls. A lot of them are juniors, the youngest one is [16], Anne-Marie Comeau, so it’s really cool to train with them and provide inspiration. On the other hand, I feel like I’m learning so much from the guys as well.

    FS: Do you think you’ll continue training with Bouchard and B2ten in the future?

    DG: I don’t really know. I have to see how the winter goes and what comes out of it. I don’t have much time left so I have to make the right decisions. I can’t plan so far in advance. You’ve got to be quick and agile and changing directions and adjusting to situations, but I think for this year it worked really, really well, like incredibly well.

    All the summer of training and all the dryland training went really well, and if it all translates into great results, better results and faster performance, then for sure, I think this would be the path for me to follow. It’s easy with cross-country skiing, you get results and a number and you know if you did well or not so I think it will be easy to see the changes.

    FS: What are you hoping to accomplish this season?

    DG: We’ve got these two weekends of world cups in Canada and one is in Québec and that’s a brand new venue on the circuit, nobody’s raced there before. Two weeks ago, I drove down to Québec City because the sprint is going to be downtown. I had a race profile and I actually jogged and walked the race course, and it looks really fun and I got so excited. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t wait to ski this.’ It’s gonna be so cool and the venue is incredible, and the people who are organizing the event put on a great show. I’m really looking forward to racing in Québec; it’s a sprint so it’s going to be perfect for me.

    Canmore World Cup as well, it’s always such a treat to be back in Canmore and race in front of old friends and supporters and family and all these people who watch us train here actually get to see us race live. That’s an important race for me. And then of course the World Championships, the sprint and the classic, I love classic skiing and I love Italy so it should be a good match for me.

    FS: How are you feeling with the season about to start?

    DG: Looking back a year ago, there was a lot of doubt and a lot of uncertainty about my season after a not-ideal summer of training and this year I feel like I couldn’t be more prepared. So it’s easy to get excited and it’s just like everything’s been going so well. I can put all my energy into ski racing and just enjoy the ride.