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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Bridger Ski Foundation

  • Tim Baucom and the Art of Making Hand-Structured Skis

    Tim Baucom and the Art of Making Hand-Structured Skis

    This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.

    Tim Baucom mountain biking with his parents on the Bangtail Divide Trail in Bozeman, Montana. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    After a historic day like yesterday, there are so many possible stories, some big, some smaller, but all important. It is easy to get lost in the moment, the history, and the meaning, but we also cannot forget about how it happened. Not just on the race course, but bigger than that, how did the team make it happen, specifically the service team?

    A lot of credit should be given to Eli Brown, who is the tech for both Ben Ogden and Julia Kern. Clearly, Brown, a self-proclaimed golf caddy for his athletes, provided some special magic, as did Oleg Ragilo, who leads the kick team, and Chris Hecker, who leads the glide team, but what makes the US Cross-Country Ski Team service team special is that they know they work best when all of their pistons are firing in sync.

    One of those pistons is their head of hand structure, Tim Baucom. His route to the wax truck bench was less predictable than you might expect.

    Baucom’s first ski race. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
    Just a Kid Who Loved Sports

    Like many who stay in coaching and the industry, Baucom loved all sports growing up.

    “Sports were definitely my biggest focus when I was young. As soon as I started playing Little League baseball, soccer, and stuff, it was definitely all I thought about, in school too. Gym class and recess.”

    For a long time, Baucom played all the sports he could, but he was definitely into soccer, which was probably his favorite, and he played through high school.

    Middle School State Championships with his coaches Kate and Chris Northcott. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    Baucom grew up in Walpole, a small town in southwest New Hampshire, but cross-country skiing wasn’t on his radar as a child. Though he tried it in fifth grade and continued through high school, he did not approach it with the passion one might expect from a story about someone at his current level.

    “I didn’t really have much of a community for it where I grew up. It’s funny because New England’s so small.”

    Little did Baucom know he was just across the Connecticut River from the epicenter of American Nordic skiing.

    “I was 15 or 20 minutes away from Putney… but the communities in New England are so removed from one another. My dad even worked in Putney, and I didn’t really know those kids or race against any of them, or know the coaches.”

    While he loved soccer and other ball sports, skiing seemed to fit best.

    “Once I started skiing, I realized it was probably my best sport, at least the one I was more naturally adapted to.”

    But that didn’t mean he was fully committed to training like the top juniors in the region.

    High School State Championships with teammates Brenden Short, Morgan Brown, and Tyler Westover. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    “The first time I roller skied was my freshman year at UNH… There were three or four of us who had grown up in the New Hampshire high school skiing world and played other sports and never thought about roller skiing.”

    And while that might sound surprising to some people, it is not something Baucom regrets at all.

    “In most ways, I’m super thankful that I had a very diverse sports background… competent at ball sports, and alpine skiing—I alpine skied a ton—and telemark skied and ice climbed, and rock climbed. I’m definitely thankful for that.”

    Racing for UNH in Houghton, Michigan. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
    Moving West and Almost Choosing a Different Path

    After high school, Baucom chose to stay in-state and attend the University of New Hampshire, where he majored in anthropology and had minors in history and music. Skiing became a big part of his life through connections and friendships, but he admits he probably wasn’t fast enough to make the team now.

    After graduation, he spent the summer helping build houses up in North Conway, but as fall approached, he left Durham, North Conway, and southwest New Hampshire behind.

    “I moved out to Bozeman the year after graduating… planning on being a ski bum for a little bit and then probably going back to grad school. I was very interested in public health, and medical anthropology really interested me.”

    But Baucom needed to find a way to support his ski bum lifestyle:

    “I started coaching that winter for Bridger Ski Foundation because it was an easy job. I could go ice climb or ski all day, and then at 4:00 show up at Lindley Park and ski around with some kids for a little bit and get paid a little money.”

    He figured that, between the money he had saved that summer and what he was making as a coach, he would be able to make his lifestyle work financially, but he didn’t expect to enjoy coaching so much.

    “I started dryland training… working with younger kids who were just starting to roller ski and just starting to learn how to bound and ski walk. We played soccer and speedball, mostly, which [was] awesome.”

    Working in Quebec with fellow UNH alumni Nick Brown and Andrew Morehouse. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
    First Real Exposure to Waxing

    At BSF, Baucom found mentors to guide him in waxing.

    “We had a few coaches and techs who were quite experienced… Floyd Rieshus… he was probably in his 70s when I was working with him, and he was so dialed.”

    But it wasn’t just the technical side of waxing that was appealing; there is something about the physical labor of being a cross-country ski coach that draws in a certain type of person.

    “We’d show up in West Yellowstone, and he’d have his big sled that he’d hauled his elk out of the woods with—still covered in blood—and we’d throw all the waxing tables and gear into that, and the generator, and he would slowly trudge from town all the way out to the stadium.”

    In addition to Rice, Bjorn Bakken was heavily involved in BSF, and Baucom was willing to take on whatever they suggested.

    Baucom must have been doing something right because when the opportunity presented itself, the head coaches threw him into the deep end of the pool to see if he could swim.

    “[U.S. Nationals] was in Rumford, and [my boss] called me, ‘one of the people couldn’t make it,’ and they were like, ‘We really need extra help.’ So I went there and really got thrown into it.”

    When he arrived in Maine, conditions were, to say the least, challenging, but the rest of the BSF service team didn’t question his ability. They put him in charge of kick, even though Baucom felt as if he had imposter syndrome.

    “I think I was honestly in charge of kick—which was a joke at the time—because I had no experience making skis for that quality of athlete and that high level of race.”

    Baucom knew the stakes were high and that he had better figure out what to do quickly, but then the weather of New England did what New England weather does in January and tossed a wintery mix classic race day at everyone.

    It was situations like that that Baucom loved, having to get creative when there was no other option.

    Baucom and Jason Cork on top of Stratton Mt. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
    How He Made it to the World Cup

    As a parent, you try to teach your child to advocate for themselves, and clearly, Baucom was taught that lesson well.

    “For a few years, politely persistent. I emailed [Chris] Grover a few times, being like, ‘Hey, I’m interested in this job.’ I emailed [Jason] Cork [on the tech side] and was like, ‘Any advice if I want to be a tech on the World Cup?’”

    The message back was simple: keep doing what you are doing, it is really the only way. What Baucom may not have realized about the impression he was leaving wasn’t just that he was skilled when things got unpredictable, but that he brought the right ‘vibe’ with him to the wax trailer.

    “I think if you have the right personality, and enough people see that, I think that helps. That is huge for a team like this. We’re living together for four or five months… one of the most important aspects is to be able to work together.”

    Eventually, that persistence with the right vibe got Baucom to Europe to start lending a hand.

    Simi Hamilton and Baucom in Quebec. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
    Baucom’s Role: Manual Structure

    For people who don’t know what manual structure is: basically, the base of any ski has structure in it, small etch marks that help move water through the base or over snow crystals, depending on the temperature and the sharpness of the crystal.

    When World Cup skis come from the factory or, more directly, from the brand reps at World Cup races, they are ground, which creates a more permanent structure cut by a machine. What Baucom and the rest of the team are trying to determine on race day is whether adding a different pattern over that grind with a hand tool improves speed compared to the structure already on the ski from the brand.

    “The idea is to find something that’s durable, lasts the duration of the race, doesn’t pick up excessive dirt, works well with the grind that’s under it, and works well with the base material.”

    The US Cross-Country Ski Team has five different ski brands represented, and “they all have factory grinds that are great, and we use them. So we need to find something that works well for everyone.”

    In the days leading up to a race, the team will run a structure test or two and another on race morning before both the men’s and women’s races, “depending on conditions, it could be eight pairs, it could be four,” said Baucom.

    “We’re trying to narrow a giant box of different hand structures down to eight on the morning of, and then from there down to one—or maybe two options—that could work with different grinds.”

    Hailey Swirbul and Baucom on a ski in China one of their first days on the ground OWG 2022. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
    Trial, Error, and Evolution

    Not everything Baucom and the team do works, so they have to catalog the results and move on with that knowledge for the next time similar conditions arise.

    “There are certain structures we stay away from that we’ve had bad luck with… and there are certain grinds from different ski companies that we pretty much won’t ever put manual structure on.”

    That’s the tricky part: not all athletes ski the same way, are looking for the same feel from a ski, or ski on the same brand of skis.

    “The most important thing is for each individual tech to have an idea of what works with their athlete’s skis.”

    Baucom and his partner Brooke Segerberg in Davos, Switzerland. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)
    A Historic Day

    Elite skiers train nearly a thousand hours a year, year after year, which is the required ante chip to line up at a race, especially an Olympic one. For Baucom and the rest of the US Ski Team service staff, the skis raced on World Cup weekends and at these Olympics did not come together the way you might prepare them for a Saturday morning ski. It, too, took thousands and thousands of hours of work over decades of involvement for the entire service team to put world-class skis in the athletes’ hands so they could realize their dreams.

    Another historic day might materialize at these games, and one thing we know for certain is that the service staff is working hard to make it happen.

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  • Corners and Confidence: Kate Oldham’s Steady Rise to the U.S. Ski Team

    Corners and Confidence: Kate Oldham’s Steady Rise to the U.S. Ski Team

    At the World Championships last winter, a slushy, rutted corner near the finish line became a proving ground for precision and poise. The turn was taking down skiers all week — an icy edge here, a soft patch there — the kind of technical trap that can shake even the most seasoned racers.

    On the U.S. team’s final course preview, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Rosie Brennan, and newcomer Kate Oldham took turns testing different lines. It was part of their customary pre-race ritual — playful, low-stakes, but essential.

    “And you know,” Kern recalls, “when we do race prep, we make sure anyone who wants can join. I think those moments are really cool. Like this year, Kate [Oldham] at World Champs — we did race prep together, Jessie, her, and I, and maybe Rosie too. We were practicing that final corner because it was so slushy and tricky, and Kate ended up being the best one out of all of us in that corner.”

    Kate Oldham (USA) during the Individual Sprint at the FIS Cross-Country Ski Championships in Trondheim (NOR) last season. (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)

    It was a small moment, but it spoke volumes — the rookie demonstrating to her mentors not through bravado but through calm instinct and feel. For Oldham, it was proof that she belonged.

    “Pre-race days are really fun,” she says. “It’s a time to try stuff out in a low-stakes way. You don’t necessarily want to be experimenting once the heats start, so we’ll trade off who goes in front and see how different approaches work. That corner was taking people down left and right — and none of them were Americans, so that was cool.”

    For the team, it was just one corner on one course. For Oldham, it was the quiet confirmation that her precision and poise could stand alongside the best in the world — that she could carve her own line through the sport.

    From Carbondale to the World

    Oldham, who was recently named to the U.S. Ski Team, grew up in Carbondale, Colorado. In this mountain town, Nordic skiing runs through the community as naturally as snowmelt through the Roaring Fork Valley. “My parents just introduced me to it as a little kid,” she recalls. “We played sharks and minnows on skis.” She skied with the Aspen Valley Ski Club (AVSC) development team, more for fun than ambition—until a trip to West Yellowstone changed everything.

    Her dad was helping the high-school team with meals, and Kate got to tag along. “I thought they were the coolest kids ever,” she laughs. “I got a little taste of what it was like to train more seriously—but in a really low-stress way. I could ski when I wanted to, hang out with my dad when I didn’t. I just started liking it more and more.”

    By freshman year, she had joined AVSC’s National Comp Team, with coach August Teague guiding her progression. “He had a big hand in shaping my love for training and the structure that cross-country skiing brings to your life,” she says. “I love being able to map things out and plan.”

    Teague’s wife, Kara LaPoint, became another key influence. “She’s a pro triathlete and just a really badass person,” Oldham says. “We love training together when I’m home.” From the AVSC coaches to her parents to the national-team staff she works with now, Oldham has always been surrounded by people who bring joy and perspective to the grind of elite sport. “The whole community fuels my fire,” she says.

    Oldham recharging back home with good friend Kara LaPoint. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    The College Shift

    Oldham began her college career at Middlebury but transferred to Montana State after two semesters, drawn by the environment and energy of Bozeman. She completed a degree in environmental studies with a minor in sustainability. “I absolutely loved MSU,” she says. “Being in Bozeman just fit me.”

    The NCAA circuit gave her a crash course in balancing intensity and independence. “It’s extremely competitive now—good skiers in every region,” she says. “You’re racing against Scandinavians, Europeans, all kinds of strong athletes. It’s a great way to get better.”

    Equally valuable was learning to juggle priorities. “That balance between school, life, and skiing teaches you communication and time management,” she says. “It’s the same skill set you need later, navigating different coaches and support staff.”

    Oldham’s affection for the Bobcats remains strong. “I’m still really close with the team. Sometimes I’ll text my old coach, Sam Benzing—’Hey, do you remember what we were doing at this time last year?‘ They’re always willing to help, and I’m super grateful for that.”

    Oldham celebrates making First Team All-American at the 2024 NCAA Championship. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    A Pro’s Life in Bozeman

    When she graduated, Oldham decided to stay in Bozeman and train with Andy Newell and the Bridger Ski Foundation. “Andy’s a great mix of laid-back and professional,“ she says. “He’s flexible with what I want to do but still really on top of things.”

    Without classes or side jobs, Oldham has ramped up her training—but carefully. “We’ve been cognizant not to make big changes when what I’ve been doing has been working,“ she says. “There’s already a lot of change in an Olympic year. I wanted to keep what I could the same.”

    Her days follow a rhythm familiar to many full-time athletes: morning training, lunch, laptop chores, a second session, and quiet evenings. “I like to have a routine, but I also adjust based on life,“ she says. “That’s a good skill, especially once you’re on the World Cup. Travel, fatigue, sickness—you have to be adaptable.”

    This summer included a mix of Bozeman training and U.S. Ski Team camps. “It’s nice to get new perspectives, new venues, and then come home for family time,“ she says. “I love riding my bike, hanging out with my family—just that balance.”

    Oldham’s focus on recovery is equally pragmatic. “A lot of my body care happens in the gym—PT and strength work. Tschana [Schiller], our strength coach, does a great job keeping us balanced and mostly injury-free,“ she says. “Then it’s good food, good sleep, and time to unwind. It’s simple, but it adds up.”

    Oldham and BSF teammate Emma Albrecht. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    Lessons from the Veterans

    One of the most significant changes this past year was joining a national team full of skiers she grew up watching on TV. “It’s wild,“ she admits. “They’re all so different in great ways. Seeing them up close, you realize—they’re real pros. It’s their job. But they’re also incredibly humble and welcoming.”

    She has learned as much from how Diggins, Kern, and Brennan think about training as from what they do. “They all pay close attention to what they need on a given day,“ Oldham says. “At a camp, they might all have slightly different plans. Not because they’re doing something special, but because they know what works for them. They balance that with the team sessions so everyone gets what they need.”

    It’s a lesson she wishes she’d known earlier. “Even though it’s scary sometimes, it’s okay to be confident in yourself and your plan,“ she says. “Doing what you need is a huge asset. Trusting yourself can be hard, but it’s worth it.”

    That self-trust carries into her goals for the season. “Obviously, I’d love to make the Olympic team,“ she says. “That would be an incredible experience. But I’d also be really happy with some top-30s on the World Cup.”

    After spending time with Kate, it quickly becomes apparent that she is cooler than most of us. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    More importantly, she wants to manage the grind. “I learned a lot last year, and I’m still figuring out what I need to stay happy and motivated through a long season of travel,“ she says. “That’s a big process goal—dialing in what works for me.”

    She’s also been working on how she handles the inevitable rough patches. “My tendency can be to isolate when something goes wrong,“ she says. “But I’m learning to use my support team. There are people who want to help, and when I let them in, they always have a great perspective. Sometimes it’s just someone saying, ‘What did you learn today?‘ That can shift the whole mindset.”

    Looking Ahead

    Oldham envisions a long career—but only if she keeps loving it. “I want to love skiing forever,“ she says. “As long as my body’s healthy and I’m enjoying it, I’ll keep going. But not at the expense of that joy.”

    Her advice to the younger version of herself, and to the next generation coming up through AVSC, is simple. “Don’t count yourself out,“ she says. “So much can happen in a race that you don’t expect. Sticking with it is the only way to find out. Enjoy it, and pay attention to the relationships you build along the way—they’re what you take with you.”

    Kate and her father, Nelson, out on a hike. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

    The Roots That Keep Her Grounded

    When she’s not training or racing, Oldham gravitates back to Carbondale, where her family’s restaurant—Dos Gringos Burritos—is about to turn twenty-five. She’s been part of it since before she can remember. “I’ve been around it my whole life,“ she says. “It’s a pretty important staple in our town, and my parents are huge role models for me.”

    Working at the restaurant keeps her connected to real life. “The service industry teaches you a lot,“ she says. “Everyone should do it once—how to deal with people, how to work hard behind the scenes. It grounds you.”

    Her go-to order? “The summer salad wrap,“ she says instantly. “But after twenty-three years of hanging around the place, you have to keep it fresh.”

    Outside the restaurant, she finds calm in the same things that shaped her childhood: horses, bikes, and the Colorado mountains. “I grew up around horses and hope to return to that life after skiing,“ she says. “Being outside, cooking, baking—it’s all part of keeping balance.”

    That balance, she’s learning, is the fundamental foundation of confidence. It’s not just about speed through a corner or times on a results sheet—it’s about knowing where you came from and who you are when the racing stops.

    Oldham loves getting outside, especially on horses. (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

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  • In Bozeman, Jim Bridger Rollerski Races Look to Bring Summer Competition to the West

    In Bozeman, Jim Bridger Rollerski Races Look to Bring Summer Competition to the West

    Logan Diekmann, Nina Seeman win on the streets of Bozeman, and BSF’s Rollerski races look to harness the momentum of summer training out West. Featuring Results and Video Highlights.

    Men’s Open field rolls out at last weekend’s Jim Bridger Rollerski Races, held in Bozeman, MT (Photo: Jenny White/BSF).

    BOZEMAN – Jim Bridger was a mountain man. One of those figures born firmly entrenched in the old ways back East, before he split for the Mountain West for something new. A character to chart a theme pervasive through the American vision of the West – that ability to make something new and pursue it with everything you got.

    It’s a tortured and uncomplicated metaphor (Bridger was one of the first white men into the intermountain West, but of course, wasn’t the first person to exist there). But if you were going to distill that character, and tap in purely to that “Pioneer, O Pioneer” spirit, you could do worse than the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) Pro Team Head Coach Andy Newell.

    For most of the 21st century, Andy Newell was a metonym for the very top of American men’s skiing. Through four Olympics, 220 World Cup starts, and breakthroughs every step of the way, Newell was there, making the in-roads that a generation of men’s skiers is now picking up on. Newell retired from racing in 2018, and in just four years has quickly transitioned his ebullient energy into setting up a coaching consulting business, Nordic Team Solutions, expanded BSF’s Nordic programming to include a successful Pro Team, and made Bozeman’s mountains and plains a popular training ground for collegiate athletes during their summers.

    Andy Newell in his latest roll as Race Director last Saturday in Bozeman. (Photo: Jenny White/BSF).

    Long home to an established nordic community with Montana State’s NCAA program and BSF, the efforts of Newell and the athletes he works with have been based in an effort to re-think and try out approaches to skiing development, training, and culture in Bozeman, and in the larger U.S. Ski Community. And in the latest example, that meant looking at a nearly 30-year-old BSF-held running race and saying, why not add a rollerskiing event?

    The 29th annual Jim Bridger Trail Run last weekend then, also marked the 1st annual Jim Bridger Roller Ski Races. And the impetus, as for many things with Andy Newell, was to simply go all in on nordic in the pursuit of promoting the sport. “I’ve always loved racing the big European rollerski races like Blink and Toppidrettsveka. I thought this would be a fun opportunity to pair a legit rollerski event with a trail run and host them back-to-back. Having races like this is a great development tool for athletes” said Newell, in an email to FasterSkier. The races also acted as a fundraiser specifically for the BSF Pro Team, which has been one of the fastest growing and competitive programs in the U.S. since it was founded. Something that Newell talked about at length with FasterSkier earlier this summer.

    Andrew Morehouse, BSF’s Nordic Program Director also added that the impulse to bring rollerski races inspired by those in Scandinavia to the United States is one that has been successful in the East and Midwest, but hasn’t found its way out West quite yet, “We’ve seen the success of roller ski races in the East and have talked within the Intermountain Division of how we can create a meaningful roller ski race series for our athletes in the West. I think this race, along with the Schutzenski Festival in Utah (to be held at Soldier Hollow during the US Ski Team’s Fall Camp there this October), is a great step towards that goal.”

    The Women’s Open field goes into a corner during their 12 k race in Bozeman last Saturday. (Photo: Jenny Smith/BSF).
    Inaugural Jim Bridger Rollerski Race Report

    In the pursuit to bring top-level rollerski racing to the hot, dry, and high Mountains out west, BSF’s efforts were a success.

    A field full of BSF’s Pro and Comp (U14-U20) program athletes, along with racers from across the Intermountain West and a strong contingent of collegiate racers sure to show up on Eastern Carnival result sheets this winter made for an incredibly competitive and robust field.

    They raced distances of either 6 k for the U16/U18 fields, or 12 k for U20/Open field on a 1.5 k loop that took them around the streets south of the Montana St. campus in Bozeman. The design was in line with the vision of promotion for the event, “high speed, multi-lap races right in [town] to make it spectator friendly and exciting,” said Newell. As with many roller ski events, racers also were provided matched skis, in this case from sponsors Swix and Solomon.

    All races were skate, and with relatively flat terrain on course, that made for an event in which there was hardly a V1 to be seen. This was a day for V2, and a great opportunity for athletes to work theirs at max-effort next to other skiers and see where they can tweak their power application and tempo. Rollerski races, by design, are meant to be a stepping stone in training on the way to next winter, after all.

    The early going in both the men’s and women’s open field were tight-packed affairs. Racers hemmed and hawed through tight-corners to bring the top-end of the field together, until slowly but surely, those lead packs became smaller and smaller.

    In the women’s field, the last couple laps saw a group containing Dartmouth College (DAR) skier Nina Seeman, along with BSF Pro members Mariah Bredal and Sarah Goble gain an advantage. There was nothing between them until the race’s end, when Seeman and Bredal broke for a final sprint, and Seeman came away the winner (27:58). Bredal finished second (27:59), with Goble coming in shortly after (28:07) to complete the podium.

    Mariah Bredal (BSF) leads the Women’s field. Bredal finished 2nd overall to Nina Seeman (Dartmouth), tucked in 2nd place here. (Photo: Jenny Smith/BSF).

    The men’s field saw a similar battle at the finish between three of BSF Pro’s leading lights. Into the final lap, Logan Diekmann, Finn O’Connell and Reid Goble were locked into a pack, with the promise of a true sprint all but assured for spectators. Goble found himself leading the pack for most of the lap, with O’Connell taking second wheel and Diekmann in third. Diekmann and O’Connell then launched their attack from behind their would-be lead-out, with Diekmann putting just enough gap over the line that the rare (and dangerous) rollerski lunge finish wasn’t needed. Diekmann in first (24:44), O’Connell in second (24:45), with Reid Goble rounding out the podium in third place (24:57).

    Above – Reid Goble (BSF) leads Finn O’Connell (BSF) and Logan Diekmann (BSF) in the final lap of the Men’s Open 12 k. Below – Diekmann takes the sprint finish ahead of O’Connell. (Photos: Jenny White/BSF).

    In the 12 k U20 Women’s race, St. Scholastica (CSS) skier Mia Case took the win over Park City’s Elena Grissom in second, and Sidney Benyon. The 12 k U20 Men’s race BSF’s Phin Fischer took first place ahead of Sumner Cotton (BSF) in second and third place Soren Davidson (BSF).

    The inaugural BSF roller ski races were filled with fields of those who will find themselves at the top of NCAA, SuperTour, and even perhaps a World Cup this winter. That’s not bad for an inaugural running on the southside streets of Bozeman, and is yet another marker of the city, and Bridger Ski Foundation’s growth and development into a leader in the country’s ski community.

    Many skiers then showed up to put impressive results up in Sunday’s Jim Bridger 10-mile Trail Run. Reid Goble (BSF) placed second overall (1:20:24), Peter Wolter (Sun Valley) was third (1:21:17), and Finn O’Connell (BSF) fourth (1:22:24). Mariah Bredal won the Women’s race (1:26:59), with Hannah Rudd (BSF) third (1:35:03), and Sarah Goble (BSF) fourth (1:37:37).

    The BSF, and Bozeman, Nordic community together in Bozeman for some rollerski racing. (Photo: Jenny Smith/BSF).

    Junior Rollerski Results:

    U18 6 k Women:

    1st Natalie Nichols

    2nd Elsa Futch

    3rd Keely Fischer

    U18 6 k Men:

    1st Woody West

    2nd Jasper Jacobson

    3rd Nate Strubel

    U16 Women:

    1st Izzy Waters

    2nd Necia Nichols

    3rd Olivia Nelson

    U16 Men:

    1st Lucan Fascio

    2nd Colton Petsch

    3rd Ian Carmack

    Full Running Results here

    Video Highlights!

    Men’s Open Field podium. 1st – Logan Diekmann (BSF). 2nd – Finn O’Connell (BSF). 3rd – Reid Goble (BSF).
    Women’s Open Podium. 1st – Nina Seeman (Dartmouth). 2nd – Mariah Bredal (BSF). 3rd – Sarah Goble (BSF). (Photo: Jenny White/BSF).
  • Two Years In, the BSF Pro Team is on the Rise: An Interview with Head Coach Andy Newell

    Two Years In, the BSF Pro Team is on the Rise: An Interview with Head Coach Andy Newell

    In the spring of 2020, the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) launched a new professional racing team, led by Andy Newell, who spent nearly two decades on the U.S. Ski Team as a staple and leader of the American men’s program. Launching early in the pandemic, the BSF Pro Team had few opportunities to show their strength in the first race season, but they came on strong in 2021-22. During U.S. Nationals in Soldier Hollow in January, the BSF Pro Team had at least one athlete in the top-10 in each race, except the men’s 30 k skate, with podium performances by Mariah Bredal in the 10-kilometer classic (3rd) and Logan Diekmann (2nd) in the 1.3 k skate sprint. 

    After growing up in Vermont and developing as a skier at the Stratton Mountain School, and later training with the SMS T2 elite team through most of his professional career, Newell moved to Bozeman, MT in 2018 with his wife and former SMS T2 teammate Erika Flowers, who had grown up in Bozeman and taken a job there. Both at a transitional point in their ski careers, Newell would continue to pursue World Cup skiing for another two seasons, while Flowers continued to train with her sights more focused on domestic racing.

    Inside the wax cabin, Andy Newell prepares skis for his athletes during the 2022 U.S. Cross-Country Championships in Soldier Hollow, UT. (Photo: Arlin Ladue / BSF Pro Team)

    Over the last four years, this transition has seen Newell race his final World Cup events and officially leave professional ski racing behind, only to launch and support the thriving BSF Pro Team, alongside his online coaching business, Nordic Team Solutions. In this interview, which took place on Friday, June 3rd, Newell provides insights into this transition from athlete to coach, while also adding behind-the-scenes details of getting the Pro Team off the ground. He also speaks to the challenges of elite training groups, their role in supporting the trajectory of U.S. skiing at the international level, and what’s in store for the BSF crew this summer. 

    This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

    FasterSkier/Rachel Perkins: Starting with the timeline, in the spring of 2018, both you and Erika started to transition to ‘retirement-lite‘. And at that point, you were already talking about doing some coaching and working in athlete development. Is that when you guys moved to Bozeman? And from there, what was the evolution of your relationship with the BSF program?

    Andy Newell: Well, I was actually still on the U.S. Ski Team in 2018, but we did move to Bozeman that year. I was still racing essentially full time, but at that time I started a business, Nordic Team Solutions, and with that, I launched a summer training program where I was coaching college kids, so summer of 2019 was my first year where I was kind of stepping more into a formal coaching role. Which for me felt natural because I’ve always kind of participated in and loved the whole training camp vibe.

    Growing up at Stratton, Sverre [Caldwell] always had these amazing summer camps for juniors that I participated in my entire life. And then, as I became an older athlete and a U.S. Ski Team athlete, I would actually help with some of these training camps as well. And then in my years with the U.S. Ski Team, I had this program that I started calling “speed camps,” which a lot of people might remember. We would host these free clinics around the country that would coincide with the U.S. Ski Team training camp. Basically we would reach out and have a bunch of juniors come and join us for an afternoon of rollerskiing and agility courses and fun stuff like that.

    So to me, it felt like a natural progression to take that a step further – once I launched the Nordic Team Solutions business, where I was running the website, to then pair that with a summer college training group. So my first year here in Bozeman, I actually ran that group independently from BSF… so I was actually not part of BSF in that first year of 2019. I was planning to race some World Cups, did race some World Cups in 2019-20, and then COVID put a quick end to our season when we were getting ready to race in Quebec and Minneapolis.

    I had planned on those being my final World Cup races as a professional, to go out racing in Quebec and in Minneapolis and had spent all year preparing for those specific races. And sure enough, they were canceled. So it was like, ‘Surprise! You’re officially retired now.’ And at that point is when I signed on with Bridger Ski Foundation to be the elite team coach.

    BSF Pro Team athlete Hannah Rudd races the classic sprint qualifier during a post-U.S. Nationals SuperTour event. (Photo: Arlin Ladue / BSF Pro Team)

    FS: The announcement of your hiring went out in April 2020 – which kind of feels like a lifetime ago, but it also seems like it would have been a somewhat challenging time to launch a new elite team. Was the foundation already there with the BSF program or was this the onset of the elite team program?

    AN: There was an elite team in 2018, but it disbanded because the coach, Rogan Brown, went on to [coach at Denver University], and there were only a handful of athletes here in Bozeman at the time. So in 2019, there was no elite team tied in with BSF, and then in 2020 when I was hired, it was essentially my job to kind of relaunch this program, and to make it a successful program.

    There’s no reason why BSF should not have a successful elite team. The Bridger Ski Foundation has been around for over 70 years. It’s very well established here in Bozeman; we have a great pool of young athletes that participate in the youth skiing program – hundreds of athletes.

    Andrew Morehouse was signed on as the new nordic director in 2019, and then I came on in 2020. And we shared a vision that, in order [for BSF] to be a premier club, we should have an elite team. And then basically, I had free reign to kind of do what I wanted, which I’m super grateful for – that BSF has kind of given me the ability to choose the team makeup the way I see is best, and to choose how I run the program.

    We work closely with the juniors and Andrew Morehouse and the youth programs in town, so I very much have taken the model that I learned growing up at Stratton and tried to implement that here in Bozeman.

    At that point [in 2020], I basically just got on the phone and started calling some different athletes that I had met or worked with through NTG camps. The US Ski Team in 2018 and 2019 would hire me to come to NTG camps or development team camps – that was part of my business as well – so I started reaching out to different athletes and mentioning to them that we were going to start a new team here in Bozeman. So I was able to recruit nine athletes initially to come to the team, which was great.

    Here’s a preview of the 2021-22 BSF Pro Team. Note that one of the original 2020-21 athletes, Leah Lange, stepped back from her racing career after the team’s first season to begin coaching in Big Sky, MT. 

    BSF Pro Team athlete Finn O’Connell welcomes his teammate to the line during the U.S. Cross-Country Championships in Soldier Hollow, UT. (Photo: Arlin Ladue / BSF Pro Team)

    FS: Can you say more about getting the team off the ground?

    AN: So we launched [the Pro Team] in 2020 in the midst of COVID, which – there were so many unknowns and unique circumstances to try to convince these athletes to move to Bozeman and train here in the midst of all that was going on. And we essentially only had very unofficial racing our first season of 2020-21. Kind of a mismash of some official races, some non-official. But in hindsight, it was a nice opportunity for us to just build a team and spend a lot of time training with one another. 

    When you name a team like this as a coach, you have no idea what type of team culture or team vibe there’s going to be – you’re bringing all these different athletes from different colleges or different programs around the country. You want to create a team that really acts and feels like a team and you have no idea what type of form that’s going to take. So in hindsight, to have that COVID year where we just spent a lot of time training with one another, building the team here in Bozeman, was nice to lay that foundation so that we could have what was a very successful season last year in 2021-22.

    FS: You’ve still got Nordic Team Solutions going on also. Has your work there shifted in any way and how do you balance your time between both of those?

    AN: It has shifted in that, my first few years with NTS, I would actually hire [myself] out and go to more training camps. As I mentioned, I would help the U.S. Ski Team out with some of their NTG camps, or I would be hired by a club to go do a two or three-day training camp with them. And that has pretty much stopped, because my priority time-wise is with the BSF Pro Team. So I don’t travel so much for any other coaching duties, I mostly just travel to training camps with the BSF Team and work with them here in Bozeman.

    But I do still run the website, which is a great resource for training information for ski clubs, high school coaches, college coaches, or any individual that’s looking to learn more about training. I still run that [program] on a weekly basis and in published training plans and right strength plans for various individuals.

    BSF Pro Team athletes (l-r) Hannah Rudd, Mariah Bredal, and Erika Flowers celebrate Bredal’s third place finish in the 10 k classic during the 2022 U.S. Cross-Country Championships in Soldier Hollow, UT. (Photo: Arlin Ladue / BSF Pro Team)

    FS: In terms of Bozeman: you spent most of your career based in Vermont, though Erika has roots in Bozeman. How have you found that setting for leading this Pro Team and what are your thoughts on the training environment there?

    AN: The environment for training is fantastic here in Bozeman; we have access to mountains, access to a long season of skiing. We’re just an hour and a half away from West Yellowstone where we often have early FIS races, or we’re within driving distance of Sun Valley, Canmore, all these other places that historically have early-season racing. The rollerskiing is quite good here and there’s already a great support network within the Bridger Ski Foundation community.

    What is tough, with any elite team, is the fundraising aspect. I actually rebranded it as a Pro Team for a reason, because I want these athletes to be not scraping by, but to be actually making money while pursuing their dreams of being an Olympic-level racer. I think they deserve that, and I think that’s what all professional skiers deserve in the U.S.

    But it’s taken us some time to get there, and we’re not there yet. Fundraising is a huge part of my job on a yearly basis; we essentially have to fundraise from scratch all the money that it’s going to cost to travel around the country, or travel to Europe with these athletes who are making World Cup or World Championships. All the wax, all the hotels, all the logistics – all of that falls on a single program budget, basically.

    And I think there’s a huge potential for that in Bozeman. Bozeman is one of the fastest-growing towns in the U.S. and there are a lot of new businesses here, so I think our fundraising potential is huge. But given the fact that we started in COVID, and we’ve only been here for two years, we’re still trying to figure that piece out. And so that’s a place where we still have room to grow.

    And I would encourage anyone out there who’s reading this to realize the importance of these pro teams that we have in the country… We have Stratton, we have Craftsbury, we now have the Birkie Team, we have Sun Valley. And these clubs are essentially responsible for the development of the US Ski Team. This is the club model that we have adopted. Now, you know, it’s now been 30 years since we’ve, more or less, adopted this model. And we’re not getting any money from the U.S. Ski Team to develop these athletes. These clubs are and are all self-funded. APU is a little different since it’s tied in with the university.

    Unless you have a massive endowment or some other amazing bankroll that I am not familiar with, these pro teams and elite teams are fundraising their entire budgets on a yearly basis. Every single year, you have to raise the amount of money to send these [athletes] to these races. And that’s challenging, but it’s a hugely important piece of our development, because we wouldn’t have the U.S. Ski Team that we have now – we wouldn’t have the depth or the success on the U.S. Ski Team level – if we didn’t have these clubs as feeder programs. So I think it’s important that people help support these teams.

    BSF Pro Team athletes Lauren Jortberg and Logan Diekmann earn their first World Cup starts in Lahti, FIN in Mar. 2022. (Photo: BSF Pro Team)

    FS: Looking back over the last few years, what are some of the indicators of success that you look at in identifying what’s going well for the program? And what are some of your objectives in terms of heading into the next few seasons?

    AN: That’s a great question. The goal we have here with the Pro Team is international success, and that means I don’t bring someone onto the BSF pro team [whose only] ambitions are racing SuperTour and winning the Birkie, although those are amazing achievements. Those are, for sure, stepping stones in our development. But my goal is to put people on the U.S. Ski Team, and to qualify people for World Championships and Olympics.

    So international success is what we strive for, and that’s how we measure our season, and how folks are doing. Last year alone, we had three athletes achieve their first ever national podiums in Soldier Hollow. We actually qualified four different athletes for World Cup, although two of them – Finn O’Connell and Mariah Bredal – did not get to start there because they were canceled. But both Logan Diekmann and Lauren Jortberg started their first ever World Cups, which is great. We finished the year with Logan Diekmann as the overall sprint champion on the SuperTour. Finn O’Connell was the second best ranked distance skier on the SuperTour, and he also qualified for the U.S. Ski Team [as a B-Team member]. So for us, that was a solid year, and I was very proud of the way the team performed and much of the team, if not half the team, was able to have personal bests and be called up for some type of international racing, whether that was through World Cup or Opa Cup, and that’s exactly what you know I want to do. That’s my mission: to get these kids into those big international races and have them perform well.

    FS: Can you speak a little bit about the depth of the team, too? Momentum seems like an important thing with elite or pro teams. Just having that critical mass of athletes that are on the same level, or have similar objectives. Is that something that you’re seeing with the BSF crew?

    AN: Yeah, absolutely. I think the phrase ‘critical mass’ is for sure something that you see with these pro teams. I mean, it’s hard to deny the Jessie Diggins/Julia Kern effect that Stratton has right now. That’s a huge draw to their program.

    I think, for us, considering we started with zero members of the U.S. Ski Team on our pro team, and now we have one B-Team member – I’ve just been really excited with our success so far and how the team has stayed driven and motivated and helps push one another. That’s why I do this job – I love the team environment. That’s what I lived in my entire life; I was on the U.S. Ski Team from when I was 18 years old until I was almost 36 years old. 

    So the concept, the feeling of being part of a team, where people are genuinely supportive of one another you share in the training process and learning process, and you’re pushing one another, that’s the most valuable and successful scenario you can have. So I’ve been glad that we’ve somehow been able to find that nice mix of motivated individuals that genuinely get along and have fun with one another, and are able to travel the country and have put together successful race weekends.

    The BSF Pro Team out for a rollerski during a June 2022 camp in Lillehammer and Sjusjøen, Norway. (Photo: BSF Pro Team)

    FS: Last program question: what’s new and what’s on deck for this summer? You mentioned that you guys are heading to Norway. What other summer/fall camps or projects are you guys working?

    AN: [Starting with the team roster:] so far this year, we’ve added Sarah Goble to our squad squad. She’ll be a new athlete with us next year. We also have her brother Reid Goble on the team, who has been great. I think those two have a ton of potential.

    We did lose Lauren [Jortberg] to Stratton – and you know how these clubs work, it’s a very friendly exchange. I’m sure we’ll find ways to collaborate, and that’s honestly what I find a lot of value in is elite teams collaborating with one another. Last year, we did a bunch of training camps with Sun Valley [Gold Team]. We joined Stratton and Sun Valley in Lake Placid training camp. We did some camps in the Midwest where we’ve had overlap with some Birkie athletes. And so I’ll continue to do that this year.

    We are scheduled to go to Norway next week for a two-week camp where we’ll be in Sjusjøen for five days, and then on Sognefjellet ski fields for five days. We’ll try to overlap with some fast foreign skiers while we’re there and try to learn from some folks over there, and we’re bringing a handful of college skiers with the Pro Team as well on that trip. After that, we’ll be back here in Bozeman for the main summer training block and that’s when we do our BSF college training group as well. That runs through the end of June and into the first week of August.

    So we have a solid six-week block of training here in Bozeman, which has been the staple of the BSF program the last couple years – having this really competitive college training group. It’s been so fun to see that program grow and see the success of the college training group. The first year with BSF, we had folks like Sophia Laukli on the team, and so many talented individuals. It was great to see them develop here in Bozeman and then have such amazing seasons that winter. So we’ll continue that program where for six weeks we’ll have a team of 12 collegiate athletes that join the Pro Team on daily training all the way through August.

    After the summer training group ends, we’re planning to head to the Midwest for another training camp, like we did last year. We try to get to low-altitude in August. Right now we’re looking at Marquette as our training destination, and we’ll try to collaborate with Team Birkie on some sessions out there. And then we’ll be going to Park City camp in October, like we always do, to join the many clubs from around the country and the U.S. Ski Team for their [fall] camp. And then we’ll probably get on snow early here in Montana or in BC as the snow flies.

    FS: How much crossover is there between the collegiate group that you have joining in the summer and the Montana State University (MSU) program?

    AN: Historically there are not many MSU kids that stay in town [over the summer]. This year I think we have two MSU kids in the college training group, so that’s great. If there are MSU athletes in town, we try to prioritize them to get them onto the team to keep them within the community. But a lot of college kids go home, whether it’s Alaska or back east or the Midwest. But we do have some good crossover and I have a good relationship with Adam St. Pierre and the university. We use their facilities all the time – we just did a round of testing on the rollerski treadmill at MSU – so it’s handy to have those types of resources nearby.

     

    Logan Diekmann bites his medal after finishing second in the US SuperTour standings in the classic sprint in Whistler, BC during Canadian Nationals/US SuperTour finals in Mar. 2022. (Photo: BSF Pro Team)

    FS: I know you’ve also got the Jim Bridger Trail Run coming up this summer, and there is a new rollerski race component. Can you share more information on that?

    AN: We’re doing our first ever Jim Bridger Rollerski Race at the end of July, which is paired with our annual trail run. I’ve been working with the town of Bozeman to shut down a city block behind where the MSU campus is, and we’re going to be hosting a crit-style rollerski race on the weekend in downtown Bozeman.

    We have prize money for that, and we’re getting some great sponsors on board. So that’ll be a cool event.

    FS: Can you also talk about how that event supports the BSF Pro Team?

    Yeah, absolutely. Like I mentioned, we as a Pro Team essentially need to raise $150,000 each year just to get the [athletes] to all the races and try to cover their expenses. That is a travel budget, a wax budget, everything – and that needs to be raised on an annual basis. For us, the Jim Bridger Trail Run is one of our biggest fundraisers.

    It’s an incredible amount of work. It’s a weird part of my job to be a coach, but also an event organizer. There’s a lot of weird things that go into being a ski coach. But, if we can make the Jim Bridger event big and successful, we can actually raise a lot of money for our budget. So that’s why we put so much attention and effort into it. It’s also a good chance for us to partner with local sponsors to raise money for the Pro Team, because all proceeds from these events go directly to the Pro Team.

    So historically, it’s just been a trail run, but this year I wanted to add a rollerski event for a couple reasons. One: I think it’s a huge development tool for BSF. We have so many talented youth skiers in this town. I want them to kind of be exposed to this type of high-level rollerski racing that we see in Europe. We see it all over Norway and Sweden and Germany; we need to have high-level rollerski races here in the U.S. So my secondary goal is to have this be an annual thing, where people know there’s going to be a quality rollerski race that’s super exciting to watch, fun to participate in, there’s going to be prize money and sponsors, so we can make it an annual thing and have it tied in with all the different clubs throughout the West. I’m hoping teams from Sun Valley, Park City, and all over the West will bring their athletes here to compete in this rollerski race on July 30th in downtown Bozeman.

    FS: And they’re staggered, right? So people could do both theoretically?

    AN: Exactly. The rollerski race is on Saturday, running races are on Sunday. The running race is 10 miles, but we also have a 5k option for the younger kids. And we have U16, U18, U20 and open class for the rollerski race. Swix and Salomon are sponsors of the event, and we’ll be getting a race rollerski fleet from Swix, so these are going to be matched rollerskis for the open men and women, so it’s going to be a legit rollerski race.

    We’re hoping to livestream it too. TBD on that, but check the BSF Facebook page for live streaming.

  • Elite Team Preview: Bridger Ski Foundation Pro Team

    Elite Team Preview: Bridger Ski Foundation Pro Team

    Bridger Ski Foundation athletes, 2021. (photo: courtesy BSF)

    Team name and location: Bridger Ski Foundation Nordic Pro Team (BSF); Bozeman, Montana

    Coaches: Andy Newell (Nordic Pro Team), Hannah Cole (Post Grad Team)

    Current roster: Finn O’Connell, Graham Houtsma, Hannah Rudd, Lauren Jortberg, Leah Lange, Logan Diekmann, Mariah Bredal, Reid Goble, Simon Zink, Erika Flowers

    Who’s still on this team, or otherwise involved in American skiing, from when we did this in 2012: No one; Torin Koos and Leif Zimmermann haven’t raced in years, though the third athlete on that team, Sawyer Kesselheim, was the guide for Paralympian Jake Adicoff in Adicoff’s silver-medal performance in the B3 classification 10-kilometer classic in PyeongChang

    Bridger Ski Foundation athletes, 2021. (photo: courtesy BSF)

    Top results last season: While the SuperTour obviously didn’t happen, BSF sent a strong team to the American Birkebeiner, the closest anyone came to a nationwide domestic field last year. BSF athletes came away with a combined four top-10 finishes in the skate race, including O’Connell in 4th, Flowers in 5th, Jortberg in 7th, and Rudd in 9th. Graham was 12th in this race, and Diekmann 23rd. In the classic race, O’Connell was 11th and Diekmann 15th. O’Connell had a pair of podium finishes in Sun Valley in March 2021, against a loaded regional field with multiple RMISA athletes, and was third in a RMISA race in January. Diekmann tied for first in a RMISA sprint qual in January, while Jortberg was second among the women. Flowers was 6th in a separate January RMISA race. Finally, going back to the ill-fated spring of 2020, Diekmann was scheduled to make his World Cup debut in the Québec City sprints before the races were cancelled, while Flowers was among the starters for the women.

    Andy Newell, Bridger Ski Foundation coach, 2021. (photo: courtesy BSF)

    Coach’s comments: Andy Newell wrote:

    “Off-season training for us has been super fun and productive. I’m really proud of the way the team has come tougher over the past year and a half. It’s always a risk when you create a new team from scratch, you never know what kind of team dynamic will play out. But this group does an amazing job working together, pushing one another, while also showing authentic support. We have a lot of fun.
    BSF athletes on snow in Bend, May 2021. (photo: courtesy BSF)
    “Our summer preparation started in May with our first ever team Bend camp with the US Ski Team. During the months of June and July we try to focus on solid, steady team training here in Bozeman alongside the BSF collegiate group and comp teams. This is an important time for the Pro Team to connect with the community and the younger members of the BSF club. Since then we have tried to prioritize high quality training camps each month. In August we had a great low altitude training camp in Cable, Wisconsin, an intensity camp with rollerski TT’s in Lake Placid in September, and our annual October training camp with the US Ski Team. I think because last season was so isolating we’ve tried to collaborate with the other elite teams as much as possible and have had a fun time working with Sun Valley, SMS, Team Birkie and others.
    “The Pro Team is itching to get on snow and get the season started. We will travel to Canmore in mid-November for more on-snow training and TT’s, then focus on our final preparations for the first SuperTours in the Midwest. The athletes have big goals this year so everyone is excited to return to a legit race calendar. Although we need to prioritize SuperTour racing our ultimate goal with this team is to get everyone racing in Europe whether that’s in World Cup starts, U23s, or other championship races.
    Bridger Ski Foundation athletes, 2021. (photo: courtesy BSF)
    “Folks can follow along from our team blog.”
  • Domestic Teams Preview: Introduction

    Domestic Teams Preview: Introduction

    The 2021 Bridger Ski Foundation squad. (photo: courtesy BSF)

    We tend to highlight World Cup races on this website, but those results, and those athletes, don’t happen in a vacuum. Skiers are made in the summer, as the well-worn saying accurately has it, and summer training means time spent with a domestic ski club. So we’re going to be highlighting the athletes on several prominent American ski clubs over the next few weeks, only a small portion of whom will be starting on the World Cup this fall.

    If World Cup skiers are the pinnacle of a pyramid, then their club teammates are the indispensable supporting layer just beneath them. Go back and peruse one of Jessie Diggins’s multiple posts highlighting the importance of her team. Diggins doesn’t say, “I’d like to thank my teammates who ski with me on the World Cup, and only those teammates.” Diggins instead, of course, just says, “I’d like to thank my teammates.” There’s not much place for pedigree when you’re digging deep in bounding intervals in July, months and miles away from snow-covered European race courses.

    Stratton Mountain School athletes, including Alayna Sonnesyn, far right, rollerskiing in Vermont in summer 2021. (photo: courtesy SMS)

    This isn’t just an attempt to make club skiers feel good, either. Consider Caitlin Gregg’s World Championships bronze in 2015, Chelsea Holmes’s 13th in the 2017 World Championships 30km, Rosie Frankowski’s 21st in the 2018 Winter Olympics 30km. None of them was on the national team at the time of this breakthrough result; all of them were “just” club skiers. There are larger, complicated questions here about the interplay between the domestic race circuit and the World Cup when it takes so much time and money to travel between America and Europe, and World Cup–based skiers seldom race SuperTour-based skiers head-to-head, but it seems fair to say that some Americans racing at home are comparable to some Americans racing overseas.

    (It also seems fair to say that the fact that Holmes was the third alternate on that memorable day, and got the start only after two U.S. Ski Team athletes, who were also her club teammates, turned it down, speaks to some of these larger questions.)

    All that said, please enjoy our preview of six domestic ski clubs and their athletes, starting tomorrow and continuing over the next several weeks.

    From left, APU athletes Rosie Frankowski, Sadie Bjornsen, Hailey Swirbul, Becca Rorabaugh, and Caroline Brisbois maintain a healthy distance while skiing at Hatcher Pass on May 13, 2020. (photo credit: courtesy Sadie Bjornsen)
    APU athletes maintaining early-pandemic social distancing, Hatcher Pass, May 13, 2020. (photo: courtesy Sadie Maubet Bjornsen)

    This is not the first time that FasterSkier has written such a preview, but it is the first time in a few years. And compared to prior installments in this series, the ecosystem of American skiing has become notably more homogenous, at the same time that American skiing has become more successful. Here are the six clubs that we will preview this fall:

    • Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center
    • Bridger Ski Foundation
    • Craftsbury Green Racing Project
    • Stratton Mountain School
    • Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation
    • Team Birkie

    And here are the twelve clubs featured in, for example, summer 2012 (links to the whole series are at the bottom of this article from November 2012, if you’d like to really go down memory lane for a bit):

    • Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center
    • Bend Endurance Academy
    • Bridger Ski Foundation
    • Craftsbury Green Racing Project
    • Central Cross Country (CXC)
    • Far West Farm Team
    • Maine Winter Sports Center
    • Methow Olympic Development
    • SMS T2 Team
    • Ski and Snowboard Club Vail Team HomeGrown
    • Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team
    • XC Oregon

    Twelve is, obviously, more than six; spare a thought for Bend Endurance Academy, Far West Farm Team, Maine Winter Sports Center, Methow Olympic Development, Team HomeGrown, and XC Oregon as high-level American club teams (and, sort of, CXC Elite, though Team Birkie is in many ways its spiritual heir, with Caitlin and Brian Gregg as the through line).

    The men’s podium for the 2019 15-k mass start classic during the Super Tour Finals in Presque Isle, Maine. Erik Bjornsen (USST/APU, center) took the win ahead of Simi Hamilton (USST/SMST2, left) and Gus Schumacher (USST/Alaska Winter Stars, right). (Photo: U.S. Ski & Snowboard – Reese Brown)

    We’ll leave it to you to debate whether this is “good,” “bad,” or neutral – whether it is good that more high-level skiers are training in consort in larger groups; bad that fewer coaching ideas or philosophies may have the chance to be heard, and that athletes outside four regions of the country have to travel to find a team (those members of the U.S. Ski Team A-Team who originally hail from Utah, Colorado, California, or Minnesota, for example, which currently describes four-fifths of the A-Team, had to leave home to find a club team); or neutral because improved American results justify a homogenization of the domestic training landscape, regardless of what might have been lost along the way. Maybe some of all of the above.

    But regardless of the merits of this shift, it’s worth noting that things change. At the turn of the century, the best ski program in Alaska was the college team at University of Alaska Anchorage. In summer 2010, an ascendant Diggins was the nucleus of a strong CXC team, alongside Caitlin Compton (now Gregg), Jennie Bender, Tad Elliott, Garrott Kuzzy, Brian Gregg, and Matt Liebsch. In fall 2012, this site wrote, surveying the prior season’s SuperTour racing, “Central Cross Country (CXC) was indisputably the best all-around team last year.” And it alluded to the potential of a new group forming at Stratton Mountain – which was at that point still just potential, because the team had officially formed only earlier that year. Indeed, this article, entitled, “With Elite Team, Stratton Aims To Create ‘Hotbed of Skiing’ in Southern Vermont,” was published in 2012. (Spoiler alert: this worked.)

    Craftsbury Green Racing Project athlete Susan Dunklee (bib 17) leads a pack including multiple CGRP suits at USBA Nationals in March 2019. (Photo: John Lazenby/lazenbyphoto.com)

    Now we’re at a point where APU* or SMS frequently send six athletes each to a World Cup race or global championship, where there are currently eight national team athletes in one club alone (APU), and no current U.S. Ski Team members primarily based in the Midwest. No one knows what this list will look like in another decade, but for the time being, six clubs is decidedly fewer than twelve clubs.

    Please enjoy the first preview, coming tomorrow.

    * Disclaimer: I live in Anchorage, and have trained with the APUNSC Masters program for eight seasons and counting. On the one hand, the Masters group has been an important part of my personal and athletic life for many years now; on the other hand, on a day-to-day basis the Masters team has little to do and no overlap with the APU Elite Team, and is not coached by Elite Team Coach Erik Flora. I don’t receive free gear from APU or easier interval assignments from my Masters coach, or anything in that vein, in exchange for writing about the APU Elite Team.

  • Wildfires, Smoke, and Air Quality: A Survey of Programmatic Response in the West

    Wildfires, Smoke, and Air Quality: A Survey of Programmatic Response in the West

    Smoky haze. Not quite the bold and crisp view expected on this ridgeline near Carbondale, CO.

    Spinning past the autumnal equinox into fall, the West looks back on a summer marred by wildfire smoke. Here in Colorado, the Aspens have dropped their golden leaves, snow encrusts the high peaks, and I’m struck by the beauty of my backyard, which spent the majority of June, July, and August muted by smoke that — thankfully — blew in from elsewhere. 

    Over the last six weeks, checking AirNow before training has been phased out of my morning routine, and there is a palpable sigh of relief within my community as rain and high country snow frequent the forecast. The fire danger is not gone, but the threat feels less omnipresent.  

    A screenshot of active fires and subsequent air quality taken in August from Fire.AirNow.Gov.

    While regions like California, the Pacific Northwest, and Montana perhaps faced the longest durations of acrid high-AQI haze, cross country ski communities nationwide experienced its effect. As particulates from these fires were swept across the country, even air quality in the Northeast dipped into unhealthy zones for periods of time. 

    This phenomenon is not new, and as the planet continues to heat up, the West will be faced with longer and more devastating “fire seasons”. While sport might seem insignificant relative to the scale of issues at play, learning more about the modifications teams and athletes might consider can support the cross country ski communities overall health and wellbeing. 

    FasterSkier connected with coaches from areas heavily affected by fires and smoke to hear more about how they managed the impact in terms of protocol and adjustments to training with their athletes. Coaches also spoke to the increased frequency that these decisions will need to be made as climate change progresses. 

    BSF Pro athletes train in hazy yet safe conditions in Bozeman, MT. (Photo: Andy Newell)

    First up is Andy Newell, head coach of the Bridger Ski Foundation Pro Team in Bozeman Montana. 

    “Air quality and training is definitely a concern particularly because there’s not a ton of research about how smokey air affects high level athletes. We know a little bit about the short term implications but not much about long term exposure for athletes. The reality is this is something a lot of western clubs have been dealing with for a while but now we are seeing a lot of smoke in the midwest and even the east too.

    “On a typical year in Bozeman we usually don’t see smokey air until August and even then it’s not as bad as many other parts of the Northwest. This year we saw smoke earlier than ever, around the middle of July and early August, but much cleaner air than normal in the last few weeks. It really depends on wind, the jet stream, and where the big fires are burning. So far this year we have had to adjust about 3 workouts to bring athletes indoors when the air was bad. I’d say that’s about average for us, 3-6 workouts per year disrupted because of smoke.” 

    Newell continued by discussing the tools his program has used for decision making with regard to air quality and athlete safety. 

    “One of the things I have learned is that air quality can change very quickly and iPhone readings are not always accurate. We use the VisualAir app for forecasts and to find training areas that might provide better air for training. In this app you can see which sensors are gathering data from satellites and which ones from the ground. We’ve found obviously that the ground readings are a lot more accurate. Another thing we notice here in Bozeman is that the air quality can be very different even within the same region depending on high or low pressure, inversions, etc. So if you notice poor air at low elevations we might modify training and go up into the mountains and this can make a big difference.

    “We do use general guidelines at BSF to keep the athletes safe. If the AQI is above 100 we’ll start to monitor things and potentially modify training. If we are between 100-150 we will cut out L4 training or consider bringing athletes inside on treadmills for aerobic training. Also in this 100-150 range we’ll consider using KN95’s while out for easy distance training. Luckily we’ve only had to do this once this year so we’re hoping we make it through fire season without much more disruption.”

    BSF Pro athletes wear KN95s in order to safely train outdoors when air quality is above the safe threshold. (Photo: Andy Newell)

    A long-time advocate for climate policy and spokesperson for Protect Our Winters (POW), Newell closed with a statement on the impact of an ever-warming planet. 

    “As an athlete that has worked on a lot of climate issues this is definitely a scary reality, it goes to show you we are all affected by climate change.”

    Heading Southwest, FasterSkier also corresponded with Will Sweetser, Director of Nordic Programs for Sugar Bowl Academy (SBA), northwest of Lake Tahoe. The Tahoe region was struck hard this summer, as the devastating Caldor fire ripped through nearly 220,000 acres and destroyed over 1000 structures. 

    Now 98% contained, the Caldor fire remains active, over two months since it began on August 14th. It has burned over 220,000 acres, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Although the fire is still active, most evacuations and closures have been lifted. 

    A map from October 11th of the still-active Caldor Fire south of Lake Tahoe, California. (Photo: Screenshot InciWeb.nwcg.gov)

    Sweetser first outlined the nuts and bolts of air quality considerations. For those unfamiliar, AQI considers the concentration of fine particulate matter in the air. Particulate matter, like wildfire smoke, that is 2.5 microns or less (PM 2.5) is most concerning, as it can penetrate deeply into the lungs. 

    “Train as usual if school is in and AQI is between 0-60; offer optional/slightly modified training — consider shortened length first, and reduce continuous intensity — when AQI is between 60-120. Optional training is reduced, and outdoor training is only recommended for healthy, unaffected individuals when AQI is 120-150. Sessions are capped at 1 hour, and intensity capped at L2.”

    While indoor recreation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic poses its own set of complications, Sweetser explained that indoor training is preferred when the AQI is above 150. To support the health of its athletes, SBA has integrated air purifiers in every indoor space on its campus, including classrooms, common areas, dining halls, and the gym. These filters help maintain an indoor AQI of 25 or below. 

    An SBSA athlete moves his training indoors with an air filter when AQI plummets. (Photo: Will Sweetser)

    “In heaviest smoke events, we encourage families with the capacity to travel to cleaner air for the week to do so within the confines of school requirements. If we are in a remote schooling period, which was precipitated by Tahoe area evacuations last week, many families simply move to second homes in the Bay area or elsewhere in CA. We write individual suggestions for each athlete to meet the training options in that area. Our general week plan (MON–OFF, TUE-WED-THU–heavier training 1-2x daily, FRI–recovery, WEEKEND–high training load/family outings) readily allows families to take weekends away for cleaner air.”

    When Sweetser was first contacted in late August, he responded that he was with the team on the coast enjoying a training block in fresh air. In his email afterward, he included the purpose of this camp. 

    “Last week, we utilized our first planned smoke escape team training weekend. It was in the school travel calendar. Teachers prepared some work in advance. The entire team went to the north coast of California for FRI-SUN. We had 5 excellent training sessions, including 1km L4 repeats, pure speed double pole session, 2 technique sessions and a 15-20-kilometer run. AQI in the Mendocino area varied from 8-43 during that time and was a great reset for us. Extremely valuable to get to clean air, sea level and group training in a pretty stressful time. We are lucky to be able to do so with just 4-5 hours driving.”

    The smoke filters over the ridge line in Tahoe’s Carpenter Valley last August. This day was relatively mild, with AQI readings remaining below 200. (Photo: Will Sweetser)

    When the team is not able to travel and air quality is poor, Sweetser explained how they approach indoor training to achieve similar stimuli to those they’d seek in “normal” conditions outdoors. 

    “When we are on Donner Summit with poor AQI, we utilize gym time and treadmill/SkiErg sessions to offer modified indoor sessions that still reflect each athlete’s goals — often these sessions are shortened and feature slightly more L2, or intermittent work, than we might normally do outside — although looking at HR data, the planned intermittent nature of these sessions is not totally different than sending the crew for a trail run through rolling terrain.”

    Sweetser also reflected on the learning curve for appreciating how quickly AQI can change based on wind and weather patterns. He recalled leading an OD training run with a couple of his athletes and assistant coach David Sinclair that began at a borderline AQI of 120. As they progressed toward the objective, Hawks Peak, the air quality plummeted.

    “We could see smoke pouring in from the north as we headed across the ridge… We called parents for pick up and dropped down as quickly as we could.”

    SBSA athletes climb a ridgeline as AQI shifts rapidly from a safe level. (Photo: Will Sweetser)

    By the time the athletes reached their pickup point, the AQI was over 400, which is considered emergency conditions.

    “Since then, myself and much of the region have become much more savvy about using real time AQI monitors such as PurpleAir, wind and smoke forecast apps like Windy and Dark Skies, and I’ve purchased a handheld AQI monitor.”
    Sweetser added that he coughed for at least a week after this singular session.
    Brown air and minimal visibility atop Hawks Peak. (Photo: Will Sweetser)
    Lastly, FasterSkier connected with Dylan Watts, new head nordic coach for the Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation (MBSEF) in Bend, OR. At the time of his response, Watts had only been in his role for a month and thus could not speak to the program’s response to smoke levels in Bend throughout the summer. His perspective spoke to a broader philosophy regarding athlete development, particularly at the junior level. 

    “What I keep in mind is that we are really training for a healthy body and mind for the long term. That no one day, week, month, or even whole season is so critical that we potentially sacrifice our long term health for a short term result. In this sport, any short term results we achieve are very unlikely to bring us any benefit other than good health. Cold weather injury is a serious consideration in skiing. Regular exposure to air pollution, wildfire smoke included, is just as — and I would argue more — serious.

    “You don’t know what sort of interruptions you will face in a year. Modifications to training happen for conditions all the time. It is built into our sport. Weather, lack of snow, too cold, not cold enough, smoke. Add sickness, a hard semester, family needs, and so on. For those reasons it is always a good idea to work ahead. When it is good you go and that way when conditions are bad you don’t have too. You don’t need to feel the pressure to make up for something you didn’t do.”

    The MBSEF programs had been following similar guidelines to SBA, however, Watts responded that after the World Health Organization’s release of new air quality guidelines at the end of September, the program further tightened its tolerance of poor air quality. With mounting evidence of the increase in all cause mortality risk due to prolonged exposure to pollutants, the WHO drastically reduced the acceptable levels of PM2.5 and other pollutants individuals should be subjected to in both short and long term settings. The 300 page document also calls for a global response to air quality improvement. 

     

  • BSF Hires Four-Time Olympian Andy Newell as Elite Team Coach (Press Release)

    BSF Hires Four-Time Olympian Andy Newell as Elite Team Coach (Press Release)

    PRESS RELEASE

    April 6, 2020 

    BOZEMAN, MT – Bridger Ski Foundation is pleased to announce that Andy Newell is their new Nordic Elite Team Coach, effective April 1, 2020. 

    He’ll work with the competitive Nordic racers, collegiate skiers, and the incoming Elite Team to help these athletes bridge the gap between domestic racing and international success. “BSF is excited to rebuild the Nordic Elite Team under the leadership of four-time Olympian Andy Newell,” said BSF Nordic Program Director Andrew Morehouse.

    Andy Newell, BSF Nordic Elite Team coach. (Photo: BSF)

    Newell said, “I’m thrilled to start this full-time coaching position with the Bridger Ski Foundation and work even more closely with the ski community here in Bozeman. We have incredible ski training and racing resources in Montana, which is a real draw for me. In addition, I think BSF has the potential to be the strongest ski club in the US.” 

    Morehouse and Newell are excited to team up with a vision that will give cross country skiers a clear development pipeline from introductory youth racing all the way up to the Olympic level. “More importantly,” says Newell, “ we see the value in a positive and supportive ski culture that helps bring a community together, creating life-long outdoor enthusiasts. My goal is to ensure all BSF skiers have the opportunity to reach their potential in a professional and fun training environment.”  

    The BSF Elite Team is a community-supported Olympic development program that gives serious athletes the support they need to pursue their dreams. The new Elite Team will focus on the highest level of competition here in the U.S. while trying to qualify for international competitions such as U23 World Championships and World Cups. 

    Morehouse added, “I see this program as an important pillar on which BSF can build a culture of community engagement, healthy lifestyles, and pursuit of athletic excellence. I believe that under Andy’s leadership, it will have tremendous benefits to our Junior and Adult programs as well as the Bozeman Nordic community as a whole.”

    Newell is a four-time Olympian and spent 16 years racing with the U.S. Ski Team with multiple World Cup podiums in that time. Considered to be one of the best technical skiers in the world, he’s regarded for teaching technique to skiers of all ages, and he has run a successful coaching program for the last two years called Nordic Team Solutions, which he’ll continue to operate, offering support to skiers around the world. 

    “Andy brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the program, as well as a passion for building a strong Nordic community in Bozeman,” said Morehouse. “I’m excited to work with him to strengthen our connections within the community while developing world-class athletes.” 

    In addition, Newell will bring his Nordic Team Solutions summer collegiate training group under the umbrella of BSF this summer, working with some of the best collegiate skiers in the country. Newell said, “These athletes will be in Bozeman from June to August and will be working alongside the Elite Team and BSF junior programs.” 

    Morehouse also plans to begin building up a post-grad (PG) team, providing a space where high school graduates can continue their athletic development before heading off to college. 

    I see this as a long-term position for me, and I can’t wait to do everything I can to support these athletes,” said Newell. “BSF is already a very established club with a great record, which makes me even more excited to start this role.” 

    ABOUT BRIDGER SKI FOUNDATION

    Bridger Ski Foundation is a nonprofit community ski organization, with programs for Nordic, Alpine, Freestyle, and Freeskiing, based in Bozeman, Montana. They also groom an incredible community trail system of 70+km of trails, all under a voluntary trail pass system. BSF is a Gold-Certified Club by U.S. Ski & Snowboard.

    Questions? 

    Andrew Morehouse, BSF Nordic Program Director andrew.morehouse.bsf@gmail.com

  • Longtime XC Coach and Community Member, Floyd Bernard Reishus, 88, Passes

    Floyd Bernard Reishus  passed away on Dec. 26. He was 88 years old and a longtime member of the cross-country community in Alaska and Bozeman, Mont. (Photo: Bridger Daily Chronicle)

    On Dec. 26, longtime cross-country skier, coach, and wax tech Floyd Bernard Reishus passed away in Bozeman, Mont. Bernard was a fixture from Alaska to Bozeman as he dedicated his time to enriching lives through cross-country skiing.

    You can read a complete obituary from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

    Reishus was a U.S. Marine, a high school teacher, and “wax guru”. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

  • Wednesday Workout: Sizzling Hot 30/30’s with BSF’s Nick Michaud

    Wednesday Workout: Sizzling Hot 30/30’s with BSF’s Nick Michaud

    BSF’s Nick Michaud (red suit) at last season’s Senior National Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. Michaud qualified 4th. (Photo: Gilbert Michaud)

    This Wednesday Workout was provided by twenty-six-year-old Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) skier Nick Michaud. Bates College educated and raised plumb-line north in Fort Kent Maine, Michaud has emerged as a sprinter to watch on the SuperTour. He’s a gritty, salt-of-the-earth athlete who barely missed a nomination to the 2018 Olympic Team.

    Michaud offered FasterSkier a menu of options for the 30/30 workout — 30 seconds on 30 seconds off. From junior athletes to masters in M8 and beyond, Michaud has you covered with these training session variants.

    Let the gains begin.

    Backstory of the Sizzling Hot 30/30’s from Michaud:

    “Short, explosive movements are like bacon for me. I’m thrilled to eat bacon anytime, anywhere, with anyone. With vegetables, grains, and most foods that are really important for function, it can feel like a chore. That’s what a lot of nordic ski training feels like for me. My body, my mind, would prefer to just do speed work, lift heavy weight, and play basketball — and eat bacon. But in order to meet my performance goals, I have to eat vegetables and grains: aerobic base, lactate threshold, energy management, mindfulness and so much more. For these reasons, I love 30/30s.

    30/30 home terrain for BSF’s Nick Michaud in Bozeman, Montana. (Photo: Max Lachance)

    The execution is very simple: 30 seconds “on”, 30 seconds “off”. The effort and duration can be customized for the purpose of the workout. There should always be a purpose!. For athletes with periodized training plans, 30/30s can be used in different cycles of training to meet different goals. For a more casual athlete, 30/30s can simply be an extremely fun way to get in some higher intensity training.  

    Dragan Danevski, BSF nordic program director, began using 30/30s eight years ago. There was a study in Europe focusing on track and field and how to improve efficiency of running economy, improve aerobic capacity, and reduce the recovery time in a 30/30 workout. The original study tracked mainly 1500m and 3000m runners. Danevski adjusted the workout for skiers here at BSF.

    Danevski said BSF has used 30 by 30s for a few different goals: improving skier’s economy, stimulate good technique, and shortening recovery time for lactate clearance. Originally it was for improving threshold.  For his skiers, Danevski saw the potential to improve anaerobic capacity.

    Throughout summer Danevski follows the study and uses 30/30s to improve threshold.

    For the following age groups, the coach prescribes one 25-30 minute block of 30/30s for U16 and U18s. U20s go for a 30-35 a minute block of 30/30s. Some older skiers are ready for a 45 minute 30/30 session.

    Danevski said these 30/30 training days need to be disciplined by monitoring heart rate.

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    In the past, the 30/30 workouts were used only during intensity blocks. Recently, we’ve started using it throughout the whole training year: on skis, foot, and rollerskis.

    Psychologically, Danevski said the 30/30 is a more tolerable intensity session, especially for kids, since they can focus on high-quality efforts for 30 seconds each time. It’s easier to focus.

    As we transition into fall here at BSF, we also use 30/30s to improve anaerobic capacity. One basic example we use are three to six sets of a 15-minute long 30/30s — with appropriate rest between each set.

    Nick Michaud (BSF) in bib 302 putting those 30/30s to good use at the Sovereign Lake NorAm in 2017. Michaud was the second fastest qualifier. (Photo: Forrest Mahlen)

     

    The 30/30 Workout Menu Starting with Michaud’s Favorite Variation:

    Nick Michaud: 3 x 5 minutes, sprint pace. So we are all clear, this means a five minute long  30/30 excecuted three seperate times. During each five minute period, that’s a total of 2.5 minutes “on”, and 2.5 minutes “off”. For the entire session, the athlete is “on” for 7.5 minutes, or half the total elasped time. I rest for five minutes between each set.

    Notes: I use this two days before a sprint race, increasing my effort each set. It’s a great way to get a feel for speed, technique, and effort in all areas of the course. I take five minute breaks between sets. I leave the venue with a good understanding of the course and excited to move fast on it two days later. Using this training sessions at different points of the year is a great way to practice understanding the critical difference between effort and ski speed — which I think is crucial.

    Favorite 30/30 Variations from Others:

    Gary Colliander, US Paralympic Biathlon Coach: 4-8 x 6 minutes. Number of blocks depends on L3 or L4.

    Notes from Colliander: “Focus on quality of movement through the interval and a slightly higher turnover. With the short ‘on’ time I think you can hold the technique together better and because there is a short rest you can potentially push the pace and thus the level a bit. They’re still very tough, but that short rest just seems to offer bit of recovery while allowing the heart rate to remain high.

    Another way to look at the short 30 second rest is like it’s a downhill. Anytime you get a downhill it’s a chance to grab some O2 and recover although for a very short bit. But it always feels good when you come out of that tuck.”

    Lina Hultin, Bridger Ski Foundation Development/Competitive Team Coach: 5×6 minutes.

    Notes from Hultin: “What I like with 30/30s and 45/15s is that it allows the athletes to ski more efficiently. Since you have that shorter break, you tend to have better and more efficient technique since athletes ‘dare’ to push it a little harder when they know they will have a shorter break. Good technique requires strength and power and the shorter interval allows athletes to keep good technique for a longer time.

    The closer you get to the season you can dare to let go of that shorter break and hopefully you can maintain that good efficiency in you technique in a continuous time trial or longer intervals.”

    Akeo Maifeld Carucci: Craftsbury Green Racing Project Athlete: 2-4  x 10-15 minutes at L4+.

    Notes: “Terrain wise, I like small rolling terrain or maybe gradual uphill with some bumps. I believe in keeping it between L1 and recovery pace during the rest phase, but it is important that it keeps moving at the least.”

    Seth Hubbard, Bridger Biathlon Club Head Coach: 15/15s for sets of 4-8 minutes at race pace +

    Notes: “This workout is altered depending on an athlete’s age and their work on pacing, and ability to surge and recover.”

    Will Sweetser: Nordic Programs Director at Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy: 15 sec/15 sec 6-12 minutes.

    Notes: “I use 6-12 minute repeats with ‘on time’ at either L3+ or goal pace for races 8 minutes and longer. First used this coaching runners in the mid 90’s. Have since had good success with younger athletes developing pace sense.

    Used the 15/15 to help take an athlete’s 3,000 meter time from 11:38 to 10:10 in 5 weeks. The next year this athlete brought their time down to 9:27 using 15/15 session of 2 x 3000m about once every 10 days.”

     

  • Wednesday Workout: Hiking and Cold-Water Plunging with the Mooney Sisters

    Wednesday Workout: Hiking and Cold-Water Plunging with the Mooney Sisters

    Mooney siblings (from left to right) Scott, Heather and Brooke after jumping into Lake 22 just outside of Seattle, Washington, following Brooke’s graduation from the University of Washington in June. “With two siblings peer pressure works wonders, not going to be the wimpy one who doesn’t jump in!” Heather wrote. (Courtesy photo)

    Today’s Wednesday Workout is brought to you by the Mooney sisters, Heather, 24, and Brooke, 22, who grew up skiing in Peru, Vermont. Brooke is currently training with USRowing out of Princeton, New Jersey, while Heather is still skiing competitively and living in Bozeman, Montana. We interviewed the Mooney sisters earlier this summer; read the complete article here.

    ***

    The following workout is a family hike that focuses on easy distance and mental recovery. The Mooney sisters emphasized the importance of taking a plunge in “a cold body of water” at some point, either during or post-hike. Again, plunging into a cold body of water is key to the workout.

    Jumping into a glacial mountain lake may not seem very pleasant — one look at their brother Scott’s face in the above photo above tells it all all — however, the momentary chill is actually said to benefit both the body and psyche (think of the Finns).

    Research shows that exposing the body to cold water, even in the form of a shower, can bring about positive physiological and psychological effects by increasing blood flow to the brain and extremities.

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    “Besides the recovery aspect, plunging in cold water is proven to make you happier! (Thanks Mom for encouraging this from a young age),” Brooke and Heather wrote in a joint email to Fasterskier.

    So bring on the rugged slopes and ice-capped waters. The frigid never stopped nordic skiers before.

    The Workout: Easy distance family hike

    Terrain: Mountainous

    “Either a favorite mountain at home, or a thoughtfully selected new location from travel guide Mom (such as Lake 22 at Brooke’s graduation in Seattle a few weeks ago),” the siblings wrote in June. “Ideally somewhere with a nice view, or natural feature, with a lake or river for jumping in afterwards.”

    Length of workout: As long or as short as desired

    Purpose: “Goals are to enjoy being outside with your family, or friends, or dog, or neighbor. Attention should be focused on appreciating nature and great company and how fortunate you are to have close friends/family to enjoy being outside with!” they wrote. “Attention should be specifically not focused on heart rate, duration, distance, or Strava segments (except for in the one instance when we went to our cousin’s wedding in Atlanta, found the biggest hill around via Strava, and naturally decided we needed to try and get the KOM, but it was still a family adventure).”

    No. 1 Suggestion: “Trust that the less you think of it as ‘training’ the better it will be for you!” 

  • Heather and Brooke Mooney on Where Skiing Led Them and What’s Next

    Heather and Brooke Mooney on Where Skiing Led Them and What’s Next

    Mooney siblings (from left to right) Scott, Heather and Brooke after jumping into Lake 22 just outside of Seattle, following Brooke’s graduation from Washington University in June. “With two siblings peer pressure works wonders, not going to be the wimpy one who doesn’t jump in!” Heather wrote. (Courtesy photo)

    Perhaps you have heard of them. Or at least seen them. At 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall, respectively, the Mooney sisters, Heather and Brooke, are hard to miss. But their height is not the only reason the two women stand out.

    The sisterly pair also share a talent for the sports they pursue. At one point, for both of them, that sport was skiing. And at one point, for both of them, it was not.

    Having grown up in Peru, Vermont, where the Green Mountain range serves as the town’s backdrop and skiing is the norm, the two were certainly primed with the ideal environment for becoming interested in nordic.

    “Our school bus had a ski rack on the side of it because we would ski at recess,” Heather recalled during an in-person interview this month in Bozeman, Montana. “In southern Vermont, that is what everyone did.”

    “That” meant skiing. Their mother had picked it up as an adult and also worked as a promotion manager for a skiing magazine. Their father was the headmaster at Vermont Academy, providing the the family access to a plethora of trails directly from their residential backdoor.

    Both parents were also active outdoor enthusiasts, encouraging Heather, Brooke and eventually their younger brother Scott, to partake in anything that got them moving: swimming, hiking, soccer, tennis. (It didn’t hurt the family’s sporting M.O. that their father had been Yale’s soccer goalie as an undergrad.)

    By the time she was a freshman, Heather had enrolled at the Stratton Mountain School ski academy. Three years later, her sister Brooke had as well. (Heather and Brooke are two years apart, but Heather skipped first grade).

    Heather Mooney racing to 42nd in the women’s 10 k freestyle at the 2016 U23 World Championships in Rasnov, Romania. (Photo: FIS)

    They became well-known names on the eastern ski circuit. They also found national and international success while still U18s. Heather qualified for Junior Nationals four times, Junior Worlds twice and U23 Worlds in 2016. By her junior year in high school, Brooke had qualified for three Junior Nationals.

    As J2 skiers, both Mooney girls received coaching from Pepa Miloucheva, the head ski coach at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. With a background in sculling, as well as ski orienteering, Miloucheva had her eyes on Heather and Brooke, who showed the potential to qualify for Junior Nationals in rowing as well. Both girls were invited to a youth rowing camp held at the Outdoor Center.

    “The director told me I needed a snorkel,” Heather reminisced with a laugh. “But Brooke was very good.”

    ***

    During an early season training session at the University of Washington (UW) this past year, Brooke sat down for testing on a rowing ergometer. She pulled for the alloted test time, one minute, and stopped. Her sustained pace was 615 watts.

    National team coaches could not recall any other woman surpassing 600 watts, The Seattle Times reported.

    “You don’t have to know rowing to see her strength,” UW head rowing coach Yasmin Farooq told the Times. “Watch her and you think, holy smokes, this woman has some serious power.”

    Unofficially, Brooke holds the watts record for an American woman on the rowing machine. Officially, she was named the Pac-12 Women’s Rowing Athlete of the Year in May and is now living in Princeton, New Jersey, one month removed from UW. She’s also a national-team recruit.

    Her invite to join USRowing came in December, and following her graduation from UW in June, Brooke headed back east. In Princeton, she is training with U.S. rowing veterans like Meghan Musnicki and Elle Logan — both multiple Olympic gold medalists — with the hope of working toward a spot on the 2020 Olympic team (selection won’t take place until 2019).

    “I kind of figured I would be pretty crazy to turn down this opportunity, whether it leads to greater results or not, I had to try it,” Brooke told FasterSkier on the phone.

    The seeds of opportunity were planted in the initial rowing camp Brooke attended in Craftsbury. She spent her senior year at Vermont Academy, where she took up rowing as her newfound, full-time passion.

    “I knew I wasn’t going to want to keep on skiing through college, so I figured I might as well try rowing,” Brooke said.

    She filled out a few higher-education recruiting questionnaires and received a response from UW.  As one of the top rowing schools in the country, UW had her attention. Throughout her four undergraduate years, Brooke developed into one of the country’s top college rowers, even with a slight scare before her senior season.

    ***

    When Brooke first started getting headaches in the summer of 2016, the doctors told her she was dehydrated. At a sculling camp in Craftsbury post-doc visit, her headaches continued. Most of the time, they got progressively worse throughout the day.

    Brooke Mooney, who was recently recruited to the U.S. women’s national rowing team, during a sculling camp in Craftsbury, Vt. in 2016. (Photo: Craftsbury Outdoor Center)

    “I would be able to get up in the morning and work out a little bit, but if I didn’t work out before 9 o’clock, I couldn’t workout,” Brooke recalled. “I would just lay on my bed in so much pain.”

    With dehydration as her diagnosis, she did what she could to work out. Sometimes the headaches would lapse, but most often they would not.

    “I started the school year in and out of headaches. I talked to the team doc and went to the headache clinic,” Brooke said.

    It wasn’t until April, almost a year after her headaches began, that Brooke was given an MRI. The results: she had a cyst in her optic chiasm. The mass was pushing on her optic nerve and needed to be removed, or else it could expand and cause permanent damage to her vision, even blindness.

    Her eye doctor allowed her to finish the race season (for rowing, championship racing occurs in the spring) before removing the cyst. Following her surgery in June 2017, Brooke was not allowed to train or work out for eight weeks the summer before her senior year at UW.

    “I was so worried,” Brooke said, particularly when she found out that her team would be racing the famed Head of the Charles Regatta that fall.

    “I wanted to race that more than anything and I panicked that I was going to miss my opportunity because of the surgery,” she said. “But then I ended up making it … every once in awhile, a good break is really beneficial.”

    ***

    If you peruse Heather’s blog, one post from April 2017 blares the title “On Burnout and Bye for Now.” This was her informal farewell to cross-country skiing.

    The post itself came two years after she graduated from Middlebury College, a time when skiing held great promise for Heather. She had capped off her senior year with seven collegiate wins and had also qualified for the 2012 Youth Olympic Games as a college sophomore.

    Following graduation, Heather signed on with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), but later found things weren’t aligning the way she had hoped they would. Particularly, she felt she was not performing to her expectations, given the amount of support she had (according to Heather, CGRP covers most of their athletes’ expenses for food, housing and travel.)

    “I thought I was done for good,” Heather, now 24, continued. “Pepa [Miloucheva] was the one who encouraged me not to look at it that way.”

    Even with Miloucheva encouraging her not to give up completely, Heather forfeited skiing, and even gave up physical activity for a bit.

    “In the beginning of the summer when I quit, I was like, ‘I’m not exercising, I’m not being an athlete, I’m just doing whatever what I want — I can be happy without skiing,” Heather said. “Very quickly I realized that I need exercise to be happy.”

    That summer in Truckee, California, Heather landed a coaching gig that gave her the opportunity to travel to Australia. By the fall, she decided to move to Bozeman, with plans to gain residency at Montana State University and enroll in its architecture graduate program.

    In Bozeman, she reconnected with Austin Caldwell, a longtime friend from Vermont and the current head coach of the Bridger Ski Foundation Elite team. The two went for a few early fall skis together and Heather soon found herself attending Caldwell’s agility practices, then interval sessions. When the winter hit, Heather even jumped into some races, but only as many as she chose.

    In all, she competed in about a dozen SuperTour races, finishing last season ranked 36th overall on the circuit. Heather also raced to 14th in the 50-kilometer American Birkebeiner skate race in February.

    “It was really refreshing to step out of expectation,” Heather said. “I feel like we all get into such definitions of like how we should be in the sport. I realize [now] there are so many different ways to engage with it. Likely that’s how we many of us will reach our potential, is by engaging in a way that works for you as a person.”

    After a break, Heather is currently planning to defer from MSU and focus once more on skiing.

    “It’s been exciting for me slowly lose that anxiety of how I should be performing and how I wanted to perform,” Heather said. “I look at how can I work with myself, versus trying to fit myself into the pro-athlete mold.”

  • Evan Weiss New Executive Director at BSF

    Evan Weiss, new executive director of the Bridger Ski Foundation

    (Press release)

    BOZEMAN, Montana — A huge welcome to Evan Weiss, BSF’s new executive director, who started on July 9. Evan has been spending his first days at BSF meeting with BSF’s program directors, board, and staff, and learning the ins and outs of the club’s programs.

    Rebekah Bunting, president of the BSF board, noted, “Evan is a bright, energetic and well-qualified individual. I look forward to seeing him infuse those qualities in BSF as our new Executive Director.”

    Most recently, Evan was the head coach for the Snow Summit Race Team at Big Bear Mountain in California. A former U.S. Ski Team member, he has more than a decade of experience in athletic program management and brings a diverse skillset to the table, from managing financial operations to raising money and developing programs.

    Evan skied on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team from 1999 to 2006 and was a three-time NCAA All American at Dartmouth College. As the head alpine coach at Western State College and then University of Nevada, Reno, he led recruiting efforts and managed student athletes. During a five-year tenure as the program director and head coach at Alpental Snoqualmie Ski Education Foundation in Washington, he managed a successful youth alpine program, boosting membership and athlete retention and developing a scholarship program.

    Evan and his wife, Lauren Summers, recently relocated to Bozeman.  Lauren also grew up alpine racing and currently works in  cancer research. They plan to take full advantage of Bozeman’s beautiful mountains and rivers. “Bozeman has a great tradition of winter sport with outstanding venues and a community that is engaged in skiing,” Evan noted. “I’m looking forward to helping the BSF programs continue to succeed and to bring new energy into the fundraising and capital projects that will take this team to the next levels.”

    REACHING OUT

    Evan is looking forward to meeting parents, athletes and friends of BSF. He encourages BSF members to reach out. “We’re working on our strategic plan and U.S. Ski & Snowboard club recertification, so I’d love to meet people before the snow flies,” he said. He can be reached at evan.weiss@bridgerskifoundation.org. Or call the BSF office (406-587-2445) and set up a meeting.

    ‍Evan succeeds former Executive Director Swithin McGrath, who resigned in December 2017 for personal and family reasons. From December through July, board members Pat Flowers and Rebekah Bunting served as interim executive directors. A huge thanks to Pat and Rebekah for their hard work during the transition.

    Bridger Ski Foundation is a nonprofit ski club providing educational and competitive programs in Nordic, Freestyle, Freeskiing, Snowboarding and Alpine skiing. They also groom an incredible network of Community Nordic Trails in Bozeman. www.bridgerskifoundation.org

  • Wednesday Workout: Hill Repeats with Utah Junior Logan Diekmann

    Wednesday Workout: Hill Repeats with Utah Junior Logan Diekmann

    Logan Diekmann (University of Utah Ski Team) racing last winter. (Photo: The University of Utah Athletics/Logan Diekmann Instagram)

    This week, FasterSkier caught up with Bozeman, Montana, native Logan Diekmann, who’s entering his junior year at the University of Utah. Diekmann, 21, is spending this summer training in Salt Lake City, taking summer classes toward a degree in mechanical engineering.

    Diekmann grew up in Bozeman, skiing with the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) through elementary, middle and high school. After graduating as Bozeman High School’s valedictorian in 2015, he took a gap year with BSF. He applied to a number of schools, with the University of Utah eventually winning out.

    His first season as a Utes skier, he qualified for NCAA Championships as a team alternate. Earlier that year, he had two top-15 finishes and a fourth place in the Seawolf Invite freestyle sprint.

    This past January, Diekmann advanced to the heats for the first time at U.S. senior nationals, placing 14th overall in the skate sprint. His college racing progressed from there, as he notched five top-10’s and eight top-15’s on the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) circuit.

    “There was a lot of improvement from a fitness standpoint and from racing maturity standpoint,” Diekmann reflected on last season.

    While he was not selected to travel to 2018 NCAA Championships, he was pleased with his improvement from his freshman to sophomore years.

    “I mean, I was definitely disappointed not getting to go to NCAA’s this year, but looking back on the season, there were a lot of good takeaways,” he said. “My FIS points dropped 125 at the start of the season down to 73 by the end of the season.”

    According to Diekmann, much of this development came from his summer training sessions with Salt Lake City native and recent Montana State University graduate, Karsten Hokanson, as well as his Utah teammates.

    “Freshman year alone, training with guys who were four to six years older than me was kind of eye opening and hard and super challenging,” he said. “I get to ski with some of the Norway and Sweden and Europe’s second-tier national skiers that didn’t get to race the Olympics. I mean, I’ve definitely never been pushed the way I have here.”

    Many of his current college teammates hail from Scandinavia, which he views as a positive, though there is some controversy over college ski teams pulling foreign athletes, particularly when it comes to NCAA’s.

    “I think if I was not an athlete on the [NCAA Division 1] circuit, I would be kind of frustrated with the situation,” Diekmann said. “I’d be like, ‘What the hell? These foreign skiers are coming in and they’re taking eight of the All-American spots at NCAA’s. It takes spots away from domestic skiers who are trying to ski in college, which is super tough.

    “So I understand where other people are coming from when they have issues with it,” he continued. “But as an athlete, I think that there are very few downsides for me personally because I do get to train with really fast skiers who have skied on the national level in Europe or the world level on the World Cup. The insight they have and the training advice they have is pretty cool.”

    A five-time Junior Nationals competitor, Diekmann also qualified for and raced at 2017 Junior World Championships in Midway, Utah. There, he placed 27th in the classic sprint.

    This summer, he’s training with conglomerate of skiers, including Utah teammates Leah Lange and Jacob Engström, Hokanson, Daniel Fisher, Dartmouth’s Taryn Hunt-Smith, Brenna Egan of the University of New Mexico, and Ben Berend of the U.S. Nordic Combined Team.

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    “There’s always somebody to train with, which is sweet,” Diekmann said. “It’s not ideal not having a coach, but Karsten’s dad, Bill, used to coach the Wasatch team up in Park City, so he joins us for workouts occasionally, too, and can give technique advice and take video.”

    Asked to share his favorite workout, Diekmann chose hill repeats, which he does with Hokanson at least once a month at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City.

    “It’s so simple; you can do it anywhere — I mean, out your backdoor if you’re in the right spot,” Diekmann said. “The other nice thing about this is you get a combo of hard L4 [Level 4] intensity, but you’re also getting in snappy, quick bounding that really activates those fast-twitch muscles that keeps you speedy and focuses on power.”

    The Workout: Level 4 hill-bounding repeats/intervals

    Terrain: Uphill, about 40 meters in length

    “Not super steep, but steep enough that you can bound pretty hard,” Diekmann explained.

    Warmup: 35 minutes with Level 3 interspersed toward end

    The set: 4 x 10 hill repeats

    • Should take about 20 seconds to get uphill
    • Walk back downhill (heart rate won’t get below 150 bpm by the time you get back down)
    • Usually takes about one minute to bound up and walk back down

    “It’s a nice way to incorporate L3 and L4 into one set of intervals,” Diekmann said.

    Cool down: 20-30 minutes easy

    Total time: Approximately 1 1/2 hours

  • Bridger Ski Foundation to Host Para Nordic Skiing NorAm and Nationals

    Bridger Ski Foundation to Host Para Nordic Skiing NorAm and Nationals

    BOZEMAN, MT – For the second year, Bozeman will be the site of the World Para Nordic Skiing NorAm & U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing Sit Ski Nationals. Sit skiers from across the country as well as locally will compete for World Para Nordic Skiing international racing points, for national titles, and the field will include several athletes favored to medal at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

    The Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) will host two days of racing on Saturday and Sunday for the athletes right in town on the Sunset Hills trails, based out of Lindley Center. In addition, Crosscut Mountain Sports Center will host a biathlon race for the athletes on Friday.

    Spectators are encouraged, and the athletes and coaches will also present a Sit Ski Demonstration for the public at noon on Saturday at Lindley Center.

    Friday, January 5 at Crosscut

    3:00 p.m. Biathlon sprint

    Saturday, January 6 at Sunset Hills (Lindley Center)

    10:00 a.m. Sprint Qualifications, followed by semis and finals

    12:00 p.m. Sit Ski Demonstration & Clinic, open to the public.

    Sunday, January 7 at Sunset Hills (Lindley Center)

    10:00 a.m. Mid Distance Races

    The Road to the 2018 Games

    Bozeman is now the primary winter training facilities for the Paralympic Nordic Skiing program. Athletes from the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Ski Team, including World Champion Oksana Masters and 2010 Games medalist Andy Soule, have been living and training in Bozeman again this winter. Other “local” athletes include Aaron Pike, a member of the 2016 Rio Summer Games Team in wheelchair racing, and Kendal Gretsch, World Champion in triathlon who recently made the switch to Nordic skiing.

    The National Team athletes will depart Bozeman for a World Cup competition in Oberried, Germany, on January 16 and then return to spend the majority of February training in Bozeman in preparation for the 2018 Games, which begin on March 9 in PyeongChang, South Korea.

    A huge thanks to Murdoch’s Ranch & Home Supply for stepping up to be BSF’s local title sponsor of the Para Nordic Skiing NorAm event.

    The event is sanctioned by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). As a World Para Nordic Skiing NorAm event, athletes from any nation are invited to participate, and those with an international competition license can score important IPC points, which can be used to qualify for the Paralympic Winter Games.

    Bridger Ski Foundation is a nonprofit ski club offering educational and competitive programs in Nordic, Freestyle, Freeskiing, and Alpine skiing. They also groom an incredible network of Community Nordic Trails in Bozeman. www.bridgerskifoundation.org 

  • Sunday Rundown: Lillehammer; Östersund; West Yellowstone (Updated)

    Sunday Rundown: Lillehammer; Östersund; West Yellowstone (Updated)

    The SuperTour women’s 10 k classic mass start podium on Sunday in West Yellowstone, Montana, with Hedda Bångman (second from r) of the University of Colorado Boulder in first, and Craftsbury’s Kaitlynn Miller (third from r) and Caitlin Patterson (r) in second and third, respectively. From left: Caitlin Gregg in sixth, Katharine Ogden in fifth and Rosie Frankowski in fourth were also recognized at the flower ceremony. (Photo: FBD)

    US SuperTour (West Yellowstone, Montana): 10/15 k classic mass starts

    The second day of SuperTour racing took place as originally planned at the Rendezvous Ski Trails in West Yellowstone, with 22-year-old Hedda Bångman, of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), and 33-year-old Brian Gregg (Team Gregg) winning the women’s 10-kilometer and men’s 15 k classic mass starts, respectively, on Sunday.

    The men’s 15 k classic mass start SuperTour podium on Sunday in West Yellowstone, Montana,with Brian Gregg (c) of Team Gregg in first, David Norris (l) of APU in second, and Ben Lustgarten (CGRP) in third. (Photo: FBD)

    Bångman, a Swedish freshman on the CU Ski Team, won the women’s race in 30:24.8, just ahead of two Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) skiers Kaitlynn Miller and Caitlin Patterson. While Miller placed second (+1.3) and Patterson was third (+3.4),

    Rosie Frankowski of Alaska Pacific University (APU) finished another 10 seconds later in fourth (+13.5), and Katharine Ogden of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) was fifth (+17.2). Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg) followed in sixth, Felicia Gesior (CXC Team) was seventh, Anne Siri Lervik (CU) eighth, Erika Flowers (SMS Elite Team) ninth, and Corey Stock of the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) 10th.

    In the men’s race, Brian Gregg pulled out a 1.9-second win over David Norris (APU), crossing the line first in 41:30.3. Ben Lustgarten (CGRP) reached the podium for the second-straight day (after placing second in Saturday’s skate sprint) in third (+4.6). Kyle Bratrud (CXC Team) finished fourth (+10.9) and Kris Freeman (Caldwell Sport) was fifth (+12.6). Tad Elliott (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) followed in sixth, Eric Packer (APU) seventh, Ian Torchia (Northern Michigan University/U.S. Ski Team D-Team) eighth, Hunter Wonders (APU) ninth, and Martin Bergström (University of Utah Ski) 10th.

    Videos: Women’s finish | Men’s finish

    Results: Women | Men

    ***

    FIS Cross Country World Cup (Lillehammer, Norway): 15/30 k skiathlons

    Men’s report

    Women’s report

    Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla winning the women’s 15 k skiathlon on Sunday at the Lillehammer World Cup in Norway. (Photo: Henrik Hunnes)

    Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla pulled out another dominant distance performance on Week 2 of the World Cup, racing to a 19.7-second win in the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon on Sunday, ahead of three Norwegians and American Jessie Diggins.

    Kalla led at the halfway point of the skiathlon when skiers transitioned from classic to skate, just ahead of Norway’s Heidi Weng in second. The two had broken away around 4 k into the classic leg and put more than 20 seconds into the rest of the field by the transition, when Diggins came through 21.6 seconds back in third, leading a large chase group with Finland’s Krista Parmakoski, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen, Austria’s Teresa Stadlober, Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem, Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen, Norway’s Ragnhild Haga, and Switzerland’s Nathalie von Siebenthal, respectively.

    While Kalla and Weng continued to trade the lead over the next 5 1/2 kilometers or so, by the 13.65 k marker, Kalla had dropped Weng, with 12 seconds between the two, while the chasers remained 29 seconds behind Kalla.

    Over the next 1.2 k, that time gap grew to 20 seconds and 46 seconds, respectively, and Kalla skied off to her second win of the season in 42:24.7 minutes.

    Weng placed second, 19.7 seconds back, and Haga claimed third (+43.6), after skiing alone for the last 4 k of the race. Bjørgen finished just ahead of Diggins for fourth (+54.3) and fifth (+57.0), respectively, and Stadlober was sixth (+1:04.9), Parmakoski seventh (+1:07.8), Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg eighth, Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva ninth (+1:27.8), and Sadie Bjornsen 10th (+1:32.6).

    Four Americans finished scored points in the top 30, with Kikkan Randall placing 16th (+2:06.5) and Rosie Brennan 29th (+3:07.7). Liz Stephen finished 36th (+3:25.7), Chelsea Holmes was 38th (+3:39.6) and Ida Sargent 55th (+6:41.1).

    Cendrine Browne of the Canadian National U25 Team led Canada in 45th (+4:37.3), and Emily Nishikawa followed in 49th (+5:00.1). Katherine Stewart-Jones did not finish.

    Klæbo Outlasts Sundby; Harvey 6th

    A gassed Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (yellow bib) holding off fellow Norwegian Martin Johnsrud Sundby (r) for the win on Sunday in the men’s 30 k skiathlon at the Lillehammer World Cup in Norway. (Photo: Henrik Hunnes)

    In the men’s 30 k skiathlon that followed, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo made it a five-peat, proving himself once again unbeatable, this time in the first multi-discipline distance race of the season.

    Klæbo outlasted [edit: rocketed past] teammate Martin Johnsrud Sundby to beat him by 1.3 seconds for his fifth-straight win in 1:16:47.1, and Norway swept the top four with Hans Christer Holund in third (+6.8) and Simen Hegstad Krüger in fourth (+10.9).

    France’s Maurice Manificat followed closely in fifth (+11.3) and Canada’s Alex Harvey was next in sixth (+13.1), ahead of Finland’s Iivo Niskanen in seventh (+16.2), and Russia’s Alexey Chervotkin, Sergey Ustiugov and Alexander Bolshunov in eighth (+37.7), ninth (+42.2) and 10th (+59.6), respectively.

    Klæbo skied patiently in the pack for essentially the entire race. For instance, at 11 k he sat back in 18th, just seven seconds from Canada’s Devon Kershaw in the lead.

    One kilometer later, Klæbo remained 5 seconds back in 13th while Kershaw was 8 seconds back in 16th.

    At the ski exchange at 15 k, Niskanen led Sundby and Italy’s Francesco de Fabiani and a total of 10 men within three seconds of first. Klæbo clocked through 5 seconds back in 13th, just ahead of Harvey in 14th (+5.3). Sixteen men remained within six seconds and striking distance of first. Kershaw in 18th had fallen off the pace and was 36 seconds back at the transition, just behind Russia’s Andrey Larkov.

    While Harvey continued to ski around third place during the first 5 kilometers of the skate leg, Klæbo worked his way closer to the front and led at 22.5 k. By then, the lead group had dwindled to six within two seconds of first. Harvey remained in fourth.

    Over the next 7.5 k, the lead changed several times, with Klæbo hovering near the tail end of the group. With about 200 meters to go, however, it was down to Sundby and Klæbo, with the former leading by 2 seconds (and Holund skiing seven seconds back in third). Klæbo ultimately had the most finishing kick to take the win by 1.3 seconds over Sundby, while Holund crossed 6.8 seconds later for third.

    Canada had two in the top 20 with Kershaw in 19th (+2:59.7). Last year’s NorAm winner Russell Kennedy (Team R.A.D.) placed 53rd (+7:30.7), and Canadian World Cup Team members Graeme Killick and Knute Johnsgaard finished 54th (+7:41.3) and 60th (+9:49), respectively.

    Two U.S. men landed in the points with Erik Bjornsen (U.S. Ski Team) in 20th (+2:59.9; just 0.2 seconds behind Kershaw) and Noah Hoffman in 28th (+3:37.8). Scott Patterson finished 36th (+4:56.1) and Paddy Caldwell was 56th (+7:43).

    Results: Women | Men

    ***

    IBU World Cup (Östersund, Sweden): Men’s and women’s pursuits

    Women’s report

    Men’s report

    France’s Martin Fourcade overcame an early penalty and his No. 2 starting position to take the men’s 12.5 k pursuit win on Sunday, 40.8 seconds clear of anyone with 19-for-20 shooting (1+0+0+0).

    Fourcade started 1 second behind Saturday’s sprint winner, Norway’s Tarjei Bø, and took control of the race after cleaning the second shooting stage. Bø missed one on the first prone stage then five more later in the race (1+0+3+2) to slip to 19th (+1:49.5) while Slovenia’s Jakov Fak raced up from 10th to second, 40.8 seconds behind Fourcade, with two penalties (1+0+0+1). Just behind him, France’s Quentin Fillon Maillet took third (+42.1) with identical shooting after Fillon Maillet started 12th and skied with Fak for most of the race.

    France’s Martin Fourcade (l) and Quentin Fillon Maillet after placing first and third, respectively, in the IBU World Cup men’s 12.5 k pursuit on Sunday in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: IBU/biathlonworld)

    None of the 58 finishers cleaned the four-stage race. American Lowell Bailey improved from 22nd to 17th (+1:40.2) with two misses (0+1+0+1). Canada’s Christian Gow achieved a career best in 21st (+2:04.6), up from starting 26th, after shooting 19-for-20 (0+0+1+0).

    Also for Canada, Nathan Smith slipped from 24th at the start to 42nd (+3:19.2, three penalties), Scott Gow finished 50th (+4:10.9; six penalties) after starting 16th, and Brendan Green placed 51st (+4:18.6; five penalties).

    One other American qualified in the sprint top 60 for the pursuit, with Tim Burke finishing 48th (+3:52.7; four misses).

    In the women’s 10 k pursuit earlier in the day, Germany’s Denise Herrmann tallied her second-straight win (and the second win of her IBU World Cup career). She started first and successfully held of France’s Justine Braisaz, who started 15 seconds behind her in second place, by 25.8 seconds. While Herrmann missed two on her third shooting (0+0+2+0), Braisaz was one of three women in the field to clean (0+0+0+0).

    Norway’s Marte Olsbu raced up from seventh to third place (+48.0) with two penalties (0+1+0+1).

    Canada’s Julia Ransom placed 23rd (+2:48.1), up from 29th at the start, with two misses (0+0+1+1). Two of her teammates also qualified for the pursuit, with Rosanna Crawford finishing 52nd (+5:25.1) with six penalties (0+3+1+2). In her first World Cup pursuit, Megan Bankes completed three shooting stages before being lapped (3+1+1).

    No American women qualified for the pursuit.

    With the conclusion of the first IBU World Cup in Östersund, the circuit moves to Hochfilzen, Austria, where racing kicks off again Friday, Dec. 8, with men’s and women’s sprints.

    Results: Men | Women

  • BSF Seeks Executive Director

    BSF Seeks Executive Director

    JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

    Executive Director – Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF)

    BSF seeks a qualified and motivated individual to fill the Executive Director position within a well established and growing community nonprofit organization.  BSF’s location in Bozeman, Montana provides an optimal environment for success in our three skiing disciplines (Alpine, Freestyle/Freeskiing, Nordic). Salary DOE.

    MISSION, GOALS AND VALUES

    Bridger Ski Foundation is a nonprofit community organization formed over 80 years ago and based in Bozeman, Montana. In 2015 BSF was recognized by the United State Ski Association as a Gold Certified Club.  Our mission is to inspire a lifelong love of skiing, athletic excellence and personal growth.  Our goal is to create opportunities through educational and competitive programs in Alpine, Freestyle and Nordic skiing, and to groom cross country ski trails in the Bozeman community. Our statement of values drives the organization:

    Maximize Athlete Potential: We provide programs that assist each athlete in reaching his/her potential.

    Quality Programs: We provide quality programs, training and venues that support athletic excellence and personal growth.  We strive to maintain an environment that is fun and enriching.

    High Caliber Coaching: We attract, retain and develop directors, coaches, and staff of the highest caliber, both personally and professionally.  We provide ongoing training and learning opportunities for them.

    Affordability:  We are committed to affordable and accessible learn-to-ski programs and seek community support and scholarships to help athletes as they move up the pipeline.

    Academics: We build relationships with the school system and work with participants so they can excel in their sport and school.

    Safe Sport:  We apply best practices to maximize the safety of our participants.

    Volunteers:  We cultivate and grow positive relationships with BSF volunteers.

    Community Relations:  We promote positive, productive relationships with the local community, community partners and supporters of BSF.

    Culture and Sportsmanship: We expect all athletes, parents, coaches, volunteers, and employees to exhibit exceptional sportsmanship and contribute to the BSF culture and broader community.

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JOB DESCRIPTION

    The Executive Director (ED) leads the Bridger Ski Foundation.  You are expected to align and move the entire organization to achieve BSF’s mission and values. The ED reports to the BSF Board. You provide daily and long term, strategic leadership and management of BSF operations, including fundraising, finance, marketing/communications, administration, policy and procedures and athletic programs. You manage the Program Director in each of the 3 disciplines, the grooming coordinator for the Nordic trails program, the Development Director, the Marketing/Communications Director and Finance/Administrative personnel.

    Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

    You are expected to translate the mission and values into BSF operations, and update strategic direction with the Board annually. You will prepare an annual budget, manage the finances (with Finance manager) and review status with the Board monthly. You will work with the Development Director to plan and achieve annual fundraising goals.  You will work with the Marketing and Communications Director to develop strategic community marketing and communications program.  You will work with Program Directors to prepare program business plans and budgets, as well as annual capital plans designed to support long-term program and venue requirements.  You will provide direction and oversight to Program Directors as needed. We expect Program Directors to be responsible for additional coach staffing, coach development, athlete development, inputs to budgets, operation of budgets, coordination with volunteer event organizers (i.e., race committees) and vision for the discipline. You will maintain and establish administrative and staff policies and procedures as needed.
    You will conduct annual performance evaluations for Program Directors, Development Director, and administrative/finance staff.  You will work to maintain solid relationships with community partners, and foster a growing and vibrant club membership and alumni.
    You will oversee Nordic grooming operations,
    coordinate scholarship programs, ensure compliance with applicable state nonprofit laws and IRS charitable regulations.

    Essential Skills, Knowledge, Abilities and Background:

    Excellent management and leadership expertise along with outstanding communication skills (written, verbal, public, new media).

    Experience in fundraising is a must.  Experience in planning, organizing and managing organizational systems and processes.  Experience in managing people, programs, and working with a variety of constituents. Nonprofit experience and ski competition/industry experience are also beneficial.

    HOW TO APPLY: 

    Apply by emailing resume to office@bridgerskifoundation.org.    In your email please insert in the SUBJECT line: ATTN: Pat Flowers.

    Deadline for applications is December 31, 2017.

  • Dunklee Doubles Up at USBA Rollerski Champs; Bailey and Smith Win (Updated)

    Dunklee Doubles Up at USBA Rollerski Champs; Bailey and Smith Win (Updated)

    Susan Dunklee (USBA/CGRP) leading the pack in the women’s mass start on Sunday, Aug. 13, at USBA Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. She won by nearly 47 seconds. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

    Special thanks to John Lazenby for providing photos from 2017 US Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho. For a full gallery, click here.

    Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Lowell Bailey, Susan Dunklee and Bernd Eisenbichler.

    ***

    This past weekend, the US Biathlon Association (USBA) Rollerski Championships returned to Jericho, Vt., for two days of racing at the Ethan Allen Firing Range inside a National Guard military base. Just as it has in the past, the format included men’s and women’s sprints on Saturday followed by mass starts on Sunday, and this year, the races drew nearly 100 competitors from across the U.S. and even some from Canada.

    US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey (r) on his way to winning the men’s sprint at US Biathlon Rollerski Championships on Aug. 12 in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

    A perennial winner at Jericho, Lowell Bailey won the senior men’s 10-kilometer sprint on Saturday in 24 minutes, 58 seconds with a single standing penalty (0+1).

    “Summer nationals is a good chance to assess where you are in the training season,” Bailey wrote in an email. “Of course, roller skiing is quite a bit different than on-snow skiing, and it is important to keep that in perspective when assessing the results. However, I’m happy with the way the weekend went and I feel like I am on track in terms of where I want to be in the training season.”

    Fellow US Biathlon A-teamer Sean Doherty placed second, just 5.2 seconds back, with two prone misses (2+0). Rounding out the top three, Biathlon Canada’s Nathan Smith (the lone Canadian in that race) placed third, 21.4 seconds behind Bailey with a single standing miss as well (0+1).

    Another 0.2 seconds back in fourth overall, Travis Cooper of National Guard Biathlon was the third American after shooting two prone penalties (2+0). A total of 23 racers competed in the senior men’s event on Saturday, compared to 11 in the senior women’s sprint. (Other categories included girls, boys, youth, junior, and masters.)

    Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon/Craftsbury Green Racing Project) racing to a win this past Saturday, Aug. 12, in the women’s sprint at US Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

    In the women’s 7.5 k sprint, Susan Dunklee, of US Biathlon and the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), won despite five penalties (2+3) in a time of 22:10.7.

    In an email, Dunklee described the conditions as “very hot and muggy.”

    “Between that and the uphill range approach, these races have some of the most difficult shooting conditions we see all year,” she explained in an email.

    “I’ve been working on learning new wind shooting skills this summer,” Dunklee wrote. “It has been going well in practice but truly trusting those skills under race pressure is a mammoth challenge.  The goal is to build that trust before winter.  My shooting percentages weren’t great this weekend, but I am happy about the way I stuck to my work plan on the range.”

    Dunklee finished 46.9 seconds clear of her teammate and runner-up Joanne Reid (USBA/Colorado Biathlon), who had a miss in each stage (1+1).

    A minute behind Dunklee, Kelsey Dickinson, representing Craftsbury’s Collegiate Summer Team, placed third with four penalties  (3+1). No Canadian senior women competed on either day.

    On Sunday, racers returned to the range for the men’s and women’s mass starts, where Dunklee proceeded to take another victory with a time of 40:12.8 and seven penalties (1+2+2+2).

    Her teammate Clare Egan (USBA/CGRP) placed second, 23.6 seconds back with five misses (1+0+2+2), while Dickinson repeated in third (+33.8) with five penalties as well (2+0+1+2).

    Biathlon Canada’s Nathan Smith (14) leading US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey (l) up a climb in the men’s mass start on Sunday, Aug. 13, at US Biathlon Rollerski Championships in Jericho, Vt. Smith went on to win by 21.3 seconds over Bailey. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

    In the men’s mass start, Smith cleaned two stages and tallied three penalties (1+0+0+2) en route to the win in 38:09.8. Bailey finished 21.3 seconds back in second after three misses (1+0+1+1), and his teammate Tim Burke (USBA) took third (+1:09.8) with five penalties (2+1+2+0).

    “I was happy with how the first day of racing went, but I definitely could have been more aggressive in the Mass Start’s standing stages,” Bailey reflected.  “The wind came up during the shooting and I let that distract me a little bit when I should have stayed with my planned cadence and shooting speed.”

    “With faster shooting, I may have been able to catch Nathan’s wheel and contended for the win on the last loop,” he continued. “As it was, those two standings left me with an insurmountable gap for the final loop.”

    Paul Schommer was the third American in fourth overall (+1:23.0) with six misses (2+1+2+1). 

    The USBA Rollerski Championships typically serve as the first of two weekends of trials (the other being in October) for US Biathlon in selecting a pre-World Cup training camp group. From that group of athletes, the U.S. usually fills out its early season International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup roster.

    In an email, USBA Chief of Sport Bernd Eisenbichler explained that two athletes particularly stood out with their performances this weekend.

    “On the women’s side Kelsey Dickinson and on the men’s side Travis Cooper made a big improvement compared to last year and even last season and both will get rewarded for that with a camp invitation to [Lake Placid] in mid-September to work with the A Team and the National Team Coaches,” Eisenbichler wrote.

    “I was happy to see a very competitive men’s field and a growing women’s field as well,” he continued. “We could see, that it was the first real races this summer and as Jericho is a pretty hard range to shoot at, we saw a good reminder what to work on still, especially on the shooting side. The A Team comes from a really long and hard block of training, so they weren’t fresh at all going into the races, so for sure, you make a few mistakes more, as if you would be preparing fully for a race weekend like you would e.g. do for a [World Cup] weekend.”

    Complete results: Sprint | Mass Start

    US Biathlon’s Sean Doherty (front) and Lowell Bailey (12), along with their competitors, taking aim during a prone shooting stage of the men’s mass start at 2017 USBA Rollerski Championships on Aug. 13 in Jericho, Vt. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
  • FasterSkier’s U.S. Continental Skiers of the Year: Ben Lustgarten and Jennie Bender

    FasterSkier’s U.S. Continental Skiers of the Year: Ben Lustgarten and Jennie Bender

    Ben Lustgarten and Jennie Bender are FasterSkier’s 2017 American Continental Skiers of the Year.

    With the 2016/2017 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding American skiers competing primarily, but not exclusively, at the Continental Cup level. 

    Previous categories: Junior Skiers of the Year | Collegiate Skiers of the Year | Canadian Continental Skiers of the Year

    ***

    Ben Lustgarten, Craftsbury Green Racing Project

    Before the start of the 2016/2017 ski season, Ben Lustgarten sat down to meet with his new coach, Pepa Miloucheva of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project. After being based out of Sun Valley during the previous year, the Burlington, Vt., native had returned to the Green Mountain State to live and train an hour and half east of his hometown in Craftsbury.

    Ben Lustgarten (14) celebrating his first career win at the domestic level with a national title in the men’s 30 k classic mass start at 2017 U.S. nationals at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah.

    With Miloucheva, he outlined some of his aims for the season. Two specific goals sat at the top of his list: 1) qualify for the Period III World Cup races in Otepää, Estonia, and 2) qualify for the 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland.

    Lustgarten’s ambitions were high. Prior to this year, the 24-year-old had never won a SuperTour race. In fact, before this year he had never even stood on a SuperTour podium.

    But past season stats were not a deterrent to Lustgarten. He went on to achieve both of his top two goals, qualifying for World Champs and ending Period II as the overall SuperTour leader, granting him Period III World Cup starts.

    However, it’s not so much the races that Lustgarten qualified for that makes him deserving of FasterSkier’s U.S. Continental Skier of the Year Award. It’s the races it took to get him there.

    Prior the 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships, Lustgarten’s best U.S. national’s finish was sixth. He had never advanced beyond the quarterfinals in a SuperTour sprint, let alone win. But by the end of the season, all those numbers changed.

    In December, he raced to his first ever SuperTour podium finish, placing second in the men’s 15-kilometer classic event during the Bozeman SuperTour.

    In January, during the Auburn SuperTour in Truckee, Calif., he not only advanced for the first time from the quarterfinals in a SuperTour sprint (the only other time he had advanced past the quarterfinals before that was two weeks earlier at U.S. nationals, where he finished fifth in his semifinal, 10th overall), he won his semifinal and eventually, the final.

    “Top of the podium in a sprint! I never thought I’d see the day…” Lustgarten captioned a photo of himself atop the podium following the competition.

    And before winning his first ever sprint, Lustgarten also earned his first national title, finishing the men’s 30 k classic race at U.S. nationals this year as the top male.

    “This was something I only dreamed of,” Lustgarten wrote in a blog post in March of his victory in the men’s 30 k mass start event. “I crossed the line 1st, I was in shock and so excited. I was so happy that both of my parents were there watching and cheering, it was one of the best moments of my life!”

    Jennie Bender, Bridger Ski Foundation

    “Sometimes you just need to shake and bake out there…”

    That’s what the Bridger Ski Foundation’s Jennie Bender wrote in an email to FasterSkier after she won the women’s classic sprint at this year’s U.S. Cross Country Championships.

    Jennie Bender (3) of the Bridger Ski Foundation leading Stratton’s Julia Kern (2) and Sun Valley’s Deedra Irwin (5) during a sprint semifinal at the SuperTour in Truckee, Calif. Bender went on to win the semifinal, as well as the final.

    And while Bender’s name is certainly not a new one to the top of the results sheet, the 29-year-old’s accomplishments this season made her a top pick for FasterSkier’s 2017 U.S. Continental Skier of the Year.

    She started her SuperTour season with a win, taking both the women’s qualifier and the final during the opening races in West Yellowstone, Mont.

    “My goal is to do better in qualifying, and I did that today, so that was a big win for me,” Bender said during an interview back in December.

    The following day she placed fourth in the women’s 10 k classic competition, her best 10 k finish since her third place finish in the event back in 2014.

    She raced to 12th in the 10 k freestyle at this year’s U.S. Cross Country Championships, her second best finish since 2012.

    A little less than two weeks later, she competed in the Auburn Ski Club SuperTour in Truckee, Calif., where she won the women’s classic sprint. She finished up her SuperTour season with a third place finish in the women’s sprint in Ishpeming, Mich.

    “I did today what I really wanted to do here,” Bender said back in January of her win in the women’s classic sprint. “I feel strong in my distance also. I feel a lot more put together as a whole athlete this year, which is pretty exciting.”

  • SuperTour Finals Photo Gallery: Skate Sprints

    SuperTour Finals Photo Gallery: Skate Sprints

    Spring Series opened earlier this week in Fairbanks, Alaska, with skiathlon races on Monday and freestyle sprints on Wednesday to wrap up the 2017 SuperTour season. Here is a photo gallery from Wednesday’s skate sprints, courtesy of Max Kaufman. Spring Series continues Friday with the co-ed mixed relay and Sunday with the 30/50 k freestyle mass starts, part of U.S. Distance Nationals.