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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: fast big dog

  • FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 5

    FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 5

    Editor’s note: For the second-straight year, we’re presenting another 12-day holiday gift guide, brought to you by the one and only “FBD”, our gear-review guru. Kicking the series off, recommendations for recovery gifts to keep you and your ski buddies on the trails and injury free. See also: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

    ***

    Day 5: Canine Companions

    With a moniker like “Fast Big Dog,” you know I’m all about the hounds, pouches, mutts, and mongrels. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like a good dog? They’re called “man’s best friend,” for a reason, all of you cat weirdos out there.

    They also happen to be the ultimate training partners. My trusty black lab, Pdiggy (not to be confused with this guy…

    No one is quite sure who was nicknamed “Diggy” first. The homosapien CU skier/rockstar Diggy Terranova is older, but the canis lupus familiaris Pdiggy has been called this his whole life, so it’s kinda a push. Both are awesome though, so it doesn’t really matter. You know he’s down with FBD too because he has pretty girls kissing him.

    … who probably gets way less media attention than he deserves due to that camera-hog Pwolfgang, has logged more miles with me than probably any other living organism.

    Dogs are awesome. They are also ready to go, never complain that you’re going too fast or too slow, or about the route, or anything else. They’re always just stoked to be out there.

    They’re also awesome at helping you dispose of all of that extra, unwanted income to do cool stuff like replace perfectly functional carpets that you already own that they’ve chosen to destroy for no apparent reason, or rip the seat belts out of your new truck (an insanely expensive repair, btw — they’re just a bunch of webbing and a buckle, for Christ’s sake, you bastards). They’re also a tremendous assistance in weight control, as they’ll gladly eat your thoughtfully prepared breakfast burrito when you turn your back, terrorize the neighbor’s cat (and therefore also the neighbor), and who better to keep that pesky mailman on his toes that your four-footed enforcer?

    In short, dogs rule. So do your favorite canine companion a solid and take him or her out for a rip right now, whether it is a train run, ski, or something special that we’re going to describe in a bit, these loyal companions will do anything for you, so how about you do something nice for them?

    ***

    Under $29

    Bark Box

    Bark Box: FBD pick for under $29
    Pwolfgang, freaking out that his was replaced by Pdiggy for just one photo op (those model types can be VERY high maintenance), vents his frustration on one this month’s BarkBox toys, Santa. Not to worry either, I have it on good authority that Santa said he’d prefer to go out this way, like a “G,” rather than have to schlep toys around to all of your filthy, unappreciative offspring. Aw, snap! Sounds like Santa has a bit of an attitude, doesn’t it? Who can blame him though, have you spent much time in airports at this time of year? Seriously, airports are the worst. I’ve got your back on this Santa.

    I’m slightly embarrassed to admit how much I like this company and this concept. Basically their schtick is that they send you a box of toys and treats at whatever regular interval you select. Sure, that’s kinda cool, but what really puts this concept over the top and catapulted it into this rarified air of the 12 D o’ FBD (as all of the cool kids say) is the job they do with the toy selection.

    Each month is “themed,” so for example, October’s offering (naturally, I am a monthly subscriber) was Halloween-based. That might seem like a bit of a gimme, but trust me, they have a staff of very creative people and they really kill it each and every month with clever themes, very representative toys, and an overall great vibe.

    Is it a little overly anthropomorphic to read too much into the concept of each month’s dog toys? Not when you have as much time on your hands and as many glaring social problems as I do.

    Do the dogs get the joke or seasonal association? With the notable exception of my Great Dane, yes, mine do. If yours do not, well, they are either also Great Danes or are just plain dumb. Tell them I said that.

    Subscriptions starting at $20/month on BarkBox.com

     

    ***

    $30 – $99

    Yellow Lab Dabbing T-shirt

    Women’s Relaxed Fit “Dabbing Labrador Retriever” T-Shirt: FBD pick for $33-$99

    If you don’t think that a T-shirt emblazoned with a yellow lab “dabbing” on the front is hilarious, then, well, you are dead on the inside. Sure, this is the type of garment that you might see at a state fair in Alabama or God forbid, Disney World, with the owner waddling about, carrying a deep-fried corn dog and their arm flab flapping in the wind, but no one is going to steal my sunshine on this, as this just so happens to be an awesome shirt. Buy it, own it (which I suppose is inherent in “buying it,” but hopefully you realize I’m using this in a more metaphorical sense), and F the world. You do you. $31.95 on RedBubble.com

    If you don’t think that this is an amazing shirt, there is something really wrong with you.

     

    Tactipup Dog Collar

    Tactipup Extreme Tactical 1.5″ Dog Collar with Handle: FBD pick for $30-$99

    Yes, $59 is a lot for a dog collar, but if you’re like me and have more money than sense, not to mention a penchant for gear, when something like this comes drifting into your inbox, you’re pretty much obligated to pull the trigger (see what I did there? Tactical collar? Pull the trigger? I’d be an awesome Navy Seal if I wasn’t so afraid of danger. And bullets. And mean people. And the dark. And water. And the cold. And air travel. And carrying heavy stuff. And long hours. Aside from that, I’d be perfect).

    For you haters out there chuckling as I piddle away my hard-earned cash, I’ll have you know that I had the last laugh because in the aforementioned Great Dane/neighbor pizza incident, thanks to the Tactipup collar “restraint handle,” I was able to apprehend my monster as he was making a run for the delicious smelling pizza before any real damage was done. Sure adequate training and even a slightly above average canine I.Q. would also be effective abatement, but sadly, those both seem to be in short supply with this particular beast.

    These collars are also incredibly well-made, made in the good ol’ USA, and come in a variety of cool colorways (or colors, for you normal people out there). Since Pwolfgang fancies himself a bit of a ladies man, I got him one in the kick-ass snow camo colorway (why the hell do I keep saying that, goddamnit that stupid expression annoys me).

    This thing has it all — get one for all of the bitches (as explained at 2:38 in this clip) and sires in your life. $58.95 on Tactipup.com

    When not jumping through plate glass windows to chase the tile guy, eating remote controls, golf balls, light bulbs, or bullets, Pwolfgang likes to take some quiet time in the garden to reflect on how good he looks in his collar. And to ponder if he wants to jump the fence again to chase the neighbor carrying pizza. You see, he is quite introspective.

     

    ***

    $100 – $299

    Whistle Dog Tracking System

    Whistle 3: FBD pick for $100-$299

     

    If you have any dog that’s “a runner,” then you can just stop reading right here and go buy this product. An earlier version of this system the Whistle 2.0 was reviewed last year and has been extremely well-received, so when I was doing some research for this overall category and discovered that Whistle had just released a new model, the Whistle 3.0, I was eager to give it a whirl. For any even semi-regular reader of any of my work, I think you know why I need it and who it’s for.

    While these are great units, they also clearly are not Great-Dane proof.

    This latest model is smaller, which is good, as the former model was large enough to offer enough purchase that the Great Dane figured out how to remove his and do this. (He barely knows he name, but he has the spatial reasoning ability and dexterity to remove and ruin a device attached to his collar, behind his neck. Freakin’ unbelievable).

    Probably even more importantly, the new model “cycles” faster, meaning it updates you via your smartphone even more rapidly when your disobedient monster has left the perimeter that you have created around your home (also a super-slick feature, as you can customize this to be as large or as small as you’d like, so whether your yard is 50’ x 50’, or 50 miles x 50 miles, the system can accommodate either option and anything in between).

    Overall, the interface is very good, works well, and all things considered, the whole system is fairly economical. It’s on sale right no

    w for $49, but keep in mind that you also have to get a monthly subscription (think of it as a wireless data plan for your dog). This still doesn’t break the bank, but if you opt for a two-year subscription (the most economical choice), this adds $7/month, bringing your first year’s expense on this to $133, hence this placement in this price category. Obviously, all subsequent years you only incur the expense of the subscription, unless your dog chews up the device, as Pwolfgang did, therefore taking you smack, dab (like the shirt?!?!?!), back to $133.

    All of this is still way cheaper than a vet bill if something happens to Fido during his prison break and certainly way, way better than the wife murdering you if something even more serious happened. Think of it as investing in the future of your relationship.

    Device and 1-year subscription for $133 at Whistle.com 

     

    Skijoring contraption

    Omnijore Joring System: FBD pick for $100-$299

    Have a death wish? Well then boy do I have a product for you.

    I’m fortunate enough to be in Switzerland often for work. It’s a beautiful place; clean, organized, safe, and with a generally very active, outdoor-oriented population (sure, they hid a bunch of money for the Nazi’s a few years back, but who amongst us is perfect, right?). One of the things that the Swiss pride themselves on is not only their precision, but also their ability to not just follow rules, but follow them to the letter.

    It is for just that reason why I was so surprised to see a guy skijoring one morning on a trail in Davos, Switzerland, that prohibited dogs. Sure, it was 6 a.m. on a Tuesday, but for a Swiss person to break a rule that cut and dry is almost unheard of. There was a method to his madness though — he was attempting to train his wife’s dog (and with very little success), so his brought this beast to the far end of the trail system where he thought he was unlikely to run into any other skiers. Overall, sound logic, as generally that portion of the trail is completely empty at that time of day, as it is quite remote. I was skiing to work and since it was dark every night on my ski back to my apartment, my only way to get in extra k’s was to squeeze them in every morning at O-Dark Thirty.

    So as is always the case in every good story, I was “just skiing along,” (all shop rats LOVE “JSA,” and it’s cycling cousin, “JRA,” inquire about this in your next visit to either a bike or ski shop), when all of a sudden this guy came screaming by me, wrapped up in a labyrinth of webbing, straps, cables, handles and pulleys: it looks like a Rube Goldberg nightmare mashup with a paratrooper, cartoon dog, and lost Swiss banker.

    The guy and his out of control hound passed me at Mach 7 and I immediately had a few thoughts: first, “Wow, those guys were going fast.” Next was, “Hmm, there’s something you don’t see all that often out here, I wonder if that is allowed”, (it’s not). Then finally, as he was heading for a hairpin turn going about 60 kph, “Geez, he must be a REALLY good skier if he can make that turn, at that speed, with the crazy dog.”

    Well, it turns out that he wasn’t a good enough skier to make that turn at that speed, as “Lovitz,” or some interesting Swiss/German name somewhat close to that, rocketed him into the snowbank. He didn’t just crash either, he crashed HARD. Being extremely sympathetic to this situation and being the beautiful person that I am, I turned around and skied up to see if he was OK. He was fine, though thoroughly embarrassed. He then went on to apologize profusely for skijoring in an illegal section of trail, passing me too closely, and disrupting my ski. This poor gentleman then went on to offer excruciating detail on the terrible luck he was having training this dog and how pissed he was at his wife for getting this stupid animal and not training it properly. All of this seemed hilarious at the time, but since God is a ball-buster, the schadenfreude I experienced at that moment has come back to haunt me 1,000 times over with the acquisition of my own giant, untrainable animal. That was my first experience with skijoring, but it wouldn’t be the last.

    On that topic, while it would undoubtedly make for some hilarious video, I have somehow managed to amass enough common sense in the past few years to realize that even attempting to go rollerski skijoring with Pwolfgang is a bad idea. Snow? Maybe. But unforgiving East Coast motorists, hilly, narrow roads and an overpowered, under-IQ’d Great Dane? That’s ones of those situations in which you truly deserve a stern lecture from the ER doc when you’re being admitted for multiple-blunt trauma.

    Not that I need any more reasons to not take my Great Dane skjorring, but in case you are wondering, I have a bunch of them: there’s the fact that as we discussed yesterday, I have beautiful but very delicate, bruisable, alabaster skin, piano wire-like cruciate tendons, and a tendency to cry at the drop of a hat — not the mention the eagerness of so many of those around me to see my fail (I’m looking at you again, Mr. Mom Jeans, Josh Smullin). Add of this up and my decision to leave Pwolfgang at home to wreck the house was an easy one. Before all of you get your panties in a wad though, do not worry, I did, in fact, test the skijoring system — I simply opted for a few of the better behaved, slightly lessly powered option in the FBD stable, er, kennel — my trusty Labradors.

    If you’re going to do it, do it right with all the firepower you can muster. Having said that, I still recommend using dogs that have a basic understanding of commands and are at least reasonably well-behaved: remember, you’ll be on open roads on devices with no brakes. This is already insane, so for the safety of you and your canine companions, do your best to apply as much common sense as possible in this clearly insane situation.

    Snow is obviously a bit of a different situation, but even so, do be perhaps a bit careful. After all, I could be skiing the other way and as we all know, I have a lot to live for, so please factor this in accordingly.

    So what are you waiting for? Go get this wicked contraption and get out there. Don’t worry either, I know CPR and I’m a wonderful person, so if I see you in a ditch, I’ll do the same as I did for Lovitz and my Swiss friend.

    $174.95 on RuffWear.com (but with your pending bills from your emergency-room visit, this could take you well over the $300 cutoff for this category)

  • ‘After Much Deliberation’, West Yellowstone to Host SuperTour Opener This Weekend

    ‘After Much Deliberation’, West Yellowstone to Host SuperTour Opener This Weekend

    The show will go on in West Yellowstone, Montana. After organizers of the Yellowstone Ski Festival (YSF) announced in an e-blast on Monday that the West Yellowstone SuperTour, set for this coming weekend, was canceled due to “damage done to the snowpack from the significant rainfall over the past few days,” it’s back on — according to a YSF press release on Tuesday.

    “After much deliberation, alternate planning, checking and re-checking weather forecasts, and some more deliberation, the West Yellowstone Organizing Committee, Coaches, and US Ski & Snowboard officials, the decision has been made to hold the Super Tour openers in West

    Yellowstone,” the release stated. Robert Lazzaroni, U.S. Ski & Snowboard’s nordic domestic program director, confirmed the races would be held in West in an email to FasterSkier.

    As of Tuesday, the snow in the stadium and race course at the Rendezvous Ski Trails were suitable for 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprints to be held as planned on Saturday, Dec. 2, according to the release.

    Sunday’s classic races (originally supposed to be 10/15 k classic mass starts) are another story. Organizers are considering four race options, the first three of which are classic races.

    “On Saturday, December 2, the powers that be and the powers that ski will meet to decide on one of the following options for the race scheduled for Sunday, December 3,” the release stated, while listing the following:

    “A. Classic Distance Mass Start Super Tour

    a. We need 10 cm of natural snow to make this happen plus some help spot shoveling

    B. Classic Distance Interval Start on homologated trails and with the Super Tour designation

    a. We need 6-7 cm of snow to make this happen plus some spot shoveling

    C. Classic Distance Interval Start on Dead Dog Super Tour

    a. We need 4-5cm of snow to make this happen

    D. Skate Distance Interval Start NOT A Super Tour, NRL with prize money

    a. If we do this the Super Tour will move to Silver Star on Friday Dec 8th or Monday Dec 11th with the preference being on the 8th”

    After this weekend, the SuperTour circuit will head north to link up with Canada’s NorAm opener as scheduled at Sovereign Lake near Vernon, British Columbia. Sovereign is set to host classic sprints and 10/15 k freestyle NorAm/SuperTour races Dec. 9-10.

    If there’s no classic distance event in West this weekend, SuperTour organizers will aim to hold a classic distance mass start at Sovereign on Friday, Dec. 8. And if Dec. 8 doesn’t work, they’ll move it to Monday, Dec. 11.

    “The West Yellowstone OC will meet tomorrow morning to begin the process of scouting for snow to harvest. An announcement will be made about a meeting time and plan of attack,” the release stated. “An agreement has been made to keep the race courses closed to preserve the snow as much as possible. Please respect this closure and keep off the course. We will do our best to get as many kilometers groomed as we can and will attempt to groom more on the Plateau Road. Keep your eyes on the daily grooming reports for the most up-to-date trail conditions.”

    As of Wednesday morning, there was no rain in West Yellowstone’s forecast, but rather a chance of snow showers on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

    FIS Race Results

    Last Saturday, Nov. 25, season-opening International Ski Federation (FIS) sanctioned races were held on the Rendezvous Trails, with Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg) winning the women’s 5 k freestyle and Kyle Bratrud (CXC Team) topping the men’s 10 k freestyle.

    Gregg won the individual start by just 0.9 seconds over Caitlin Patterson, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), in 12:01.0 minutes. Petra Hyncicova, a University of Colorado Boulder (CU) senior from the Czech Republic, placed third, 5.6 seconds back.

    (Team Gregg Instagram)
    (Caitlin Patterson Instagram)

    Erika Flowers, of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team), finished fourth (+11.1), and Christina Rolandsen, a CU junior from Norway, took fifth (+19.7). Another Norwegian Anne Siri Lervik (Team Asker) finished sixth (+21.2), Mary Rose, of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) was seventh (+28.0), Sydney Palmer-Leger (UOP Sports Clubs) was eighth (+32.5), Felicia Geisor ninth (+33.8), and Corey Stock, of the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) 10th (+41.1) out of 38 women.

    In the men’s race, Bratrud edged Rogan Brown (SVSEF) by 0.6 seconds with a winning time of 21:32.0. Sun Valley had two on the podium and three in the top four with Kevin Bolger in third (+3.7) and John “Jack” Hegman in fourth (+8.7). Karsten Hokanson, a Montana State University junior, placed fifth (+12.2), Brian Gregg (Team Gregg) was sixth (+15.5), Akeo Maifeld-Carucci (Bend Endurance Academy) seventh (+22.9), Ben Lustgarten (CGRP) eighth (+30.3), Cole Morgan (SVSEF) ninth (+32.8), and Silas Talbot (BSF) 10th (+37.8) out of 49 men.

    FIS results: Women | Men

  • Masters Minds: From Texas to Eagle Glacier

    Masters Minds: From Texas to Eagle Glacier

    Gavin Kentch (APU) climbs back up to the training center on Eagle Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, during APU Masters Camp in July 2017. (Photo: Jim Falconer)

    By Jason Somers

    Introduction: Welcome to the jungle

    My quads were burning from too much snowplowing. My coach’s words were echoing in my head: “You are most stable when tucking.” I willed, begged, and pleaded with my legs to assume the position, but being in this aerodynamic position also meant I would go fast, too fast, because at the moment I had one small problem – I couldn’t see where I was going.

    This small problem could likely be overcome but combined with the fact that I was careening down a trail on Alaska’s Eagle Glacier in a July snowstorm, I had to keep the  trail markers to my right or risk going off the trail. Not a big deal except that going off the trail meant I could in theory fall through a previously unknown crevasse, the big one that would lead me all the way to China in a horrific tumble, if I were ever to be seen again.

    My mind began to wander. I pushed out of my mind my imagined eulogy that included the requisite nod to global warming and my major contributions to society at large, such as eating large quantities of breakfast tacos. I imagined a bronze cowboy hat statue with a ski hat on top that would commemorate the first loss of life by stupidity on the glacier. Also, of course, celebrities I never met like Eddie the Eagle would attend and say it was a shame. Kikkan Randall would be there, her hair colored extra bright pink.

    Was this a death-defying 70-percent gradient that I was attempting? No, it wasn’t, but I was most certainly a nerd. A nerd well over his head. I am also a stubborn nerd so this meant I came equipped with nerd glasses, which were now so badly fogged after having gone through rain, sleet, and snow that they were more of a blindfold. I could barely make out the trail markers, I was flying blind, the skis began to pick up more speed, I knew the trail turned but when, and would I have enough time to turn with it?

    Oh, and there was one more thing that made it especially intimidating: They don’t have these conditions or trails, or even snow, where I am from in Southern Texas. Yes, I, am a rollerskier who had not seen snow in four years, and this is my story.

    Day one of camp: Welcome to Alaska

    As my Egyptian Lyft driver courteously bid me farewell, I walked with my bags toward the small group gathered in the parking lot of Alaska Pacific University (APU) in midtown Anchorage, Alaska. The evening before I had flown into Anchorage and traveled from the airport with my mouth agape with awe at the large peaks towering above. My Airbnb host had been a Russian grandmother who insisted on playing me videos of Russian folk songs, as she sang along with tears in her eyes. This was turning out to be a memorable trip already.

    A helicopter approaches the landing zone at Eagle Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, during the 2017 APU Masters Camp in July. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    As introductions were made in the parking lot I considered it a rousing success that no one burst out in uncontrollable laughter when I told everyone that I was from San Antonio, Texas. The acceptance continued as we drove 45 minutes down Turnagain Arm to Girdwood in the APU van. Fragile ego still relatively intact, it was now time for the first of many firsts to come, a helicopter ride to Eagle Glacier.

    As any rollerskier in a southern climate will tell you, there are a few questions you get asked by strangers repeatedly. Unlike bicycling in Texas, in which you may be the recipient of a special howdy in the form of a beer can thrown from a pickup truck, most folks are genuinely curious about your rollerskis.

    When you are a rollerskier from Texas, at a premier skiing camp held at a world-renowned training center at almost 6,000 feet in the Chugach Mountains, you get asked questions, too. Number one goes something like, “How the hell did you hear about this place?” Answer: FasterSkier and athlete blogs (Noah Hoffman’s posts from 2013 and 2014 being a standout), and an APU promo video. An email to the world’s best nordic ski coach, Erik Flora, and the next thing you know you are flying in a red helicopter so small it looks like a good gust of arctic air could smack it into the side of a mountain.

    Thanks to FasterSkier’s own Gavin Kentch, who insisted that I sit up front; I experienced my first ride to the clouds in the front of our Alpine Air helicopter and felt like I was going to fall through the glass bubble around me. I snapped pictures like a Japanese tourist in Washington, D.C., during the cherry blossom bloom. My adventure was just starting, but as I would find out soon enough, getting there was the easy part.

    Secrets revealed

    Secrets: we all have them. But how many of us have real, dark, dirty skiing secrets? Well, I do, and they were going to be revealed in an utterly uncomfortable guilt-wrapped blanket of embarrassment followed by an epic explosion. Assumptions are dangerous also, especially if they help to keep your secret a secret. I had those, too, and I was leaning on them heavily already. Day 1 of skiing would reveal all the cracks in my rollerski kingdom, but the real meltdown would come the next day.

    The ski trails are faintly visible (in the background in the shade) from the second-story window of the Thomas Training Center above Eagle Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, during APU Masters Camp in July 2017. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    But first came room assignments. I would have three roommates in a dorm room with two bunkbeds.

    My first roommate would be Jeremy Littell, a USGS brainiac who studied climate change, something I might have wound up doing minus a few missteps and stutter steps in another direction. Jeremy would join myself and several others for a mountain run the day after camp; he struck me as someone who was very fit, and unsurprisingly he turned out to be a speedy skier.

    Next was Tom Corbin, with a skiing and ski coaching pedigree that looked like a Who’s Who of the history of American skiing, including decades of coaching and many years spent chasing an Olympic berth. Tom was such an animal that despite hip replacements and blown knees, he was out there everyday ripping it. He also complimented me at the end of the camp on my progress. I told him that coming from someone of his stature it meant a lot to me, and I really meant it.

    My other roommate was someone FasterSkier readers would recognize immediately, but I did not see the moniker through the bling at first. Whispers that there was another FasterSkier contributor at the camp led me to suspect and then realize that the author of the very article that led me to buy my last pair of rollerskis was bunking next to me… the man, the legend, the myth – Fast Big Dog, or FBD.

    “It’s all about how you look.” — FBD

    “It’s all about how you look,” he shouted to Gavin, part of the lively back and forth between the two. With that it was settled.

    In case anyone wondered, and I had, FBD is not just an irreverent authorial persona. He is exactly the same in real life as in his writing. There are few skiers who have their own monogrammed “Team FBD” tights and can pull it off. FBD really will throw down at any time, and if you thought it was all bravado, you would be mistaken – he was out skiing longer than anyone else for nearly every session on the glacier. The day after camp, he came away victorious in the T-Bar Row showdown in the APU weight room, though he was then crushed by all of the locals in his ill-advised rollerboard challenge.

    FBD was also generous in his encouragement of my progress, and spoke kindly about me at the end-of-camp sharing circle when Erik Flora asked us to share our reactions to camp. But before we could get to the kumbaya and the warm cuddly feeling of all surviving a sufferfest together, I had some dark secrets that were about to be revealed, some assumptions to be utterly disproven, and a near breakdown to weather. Nordic skiing has a way of exposing the rawness that lies beneath, and I was about to be exposed and the curtain was going to be pulled back – way back.

    Onto the snow. For the first time in four years.

    Time to get on skis. The first ski was classic skiing on the first afternoon.

    Some background: I am primarily a rollerskier now, but the memory of snow after four years of asphalt still lingers. I went shuffling around years ago on a whim in Vermont when I used to live there, and after that I borrowed my neighbor’s ancient three-pin skis and used them in a field across the street from my converted farmhouse. Some years later, I took up classic skiing in Ukraine after I decided to stay around six more years after serving in the Peace Corps. Skiing in Ukraine consisted of making a track yourself and skiing back in it if you wanted to get home through the woods a little sooner before you froze to death.

    Looking down toward Girdwood and Turnagain Arm from the Thomas Training Center above Eagle Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, during 2017 APU Masters Camp in July. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    I got into rollerskiing in Texas after I moved back when, by some kind of water-into-wine miracle, I came across Roller Ski Texas, a group founded and organized by a Russian expat named Phillipp Dimitriev, who felt he could bring rollerskiing to Texas’s churro-loving masses by buying pneumatic wheeled skate skis and giving away free lessons. After a while when one day everyone looked at me and asked what are we going to do today and I completely made something up, I became the coach.

    The takeaway from this is that although I had some experience with classic skiing on snow, it was always in cold snow conditions and was never in groomed tracks. This was one of my secrets, but I could rollerski in my sleep, I trained everyday… “What could possibly go wrong?” I thought, as I laced up my boots to hit the trail, preparing to plummet 200 vertical feet from the edge of the glacier down to the “stadium” area and start of the main loop.

    Little did I know I was doomed from the start.

    I realized I was in trouble just seconds into the descent. I was not used to the speed. There were no hills in Texas that could simulate this; I managed to get to the bottom but this is where the fun really began.

    My assumption surrounding my secret had been that classic rollerskiing was just like skiing, or at least almost like skiing. Stories of developing a late kick from too much rollerskiing I passed off as unicorn stories spread by misanthropic ski snob haters. Time to go up.

    The minute I started to climb out of the stadium, going up a steady uphill in klister conditions at 65 degrees and sunny, I slipped, and then I slipped again, and then I slipped so hard I nearly faceplanted. Where was the kick? Was my coach just messing around when he applied the klister, did he secretly apply butter or motor oil after I left the wax Conex?

    I now encountered an additional problem – my poles were sinking almost to the handle.  This was made worse when I slipped especially badly. I quickly developed a strategy of trying to excavate my poles by widening the crater so that my basket would be released. About halfway through the first lap my pole came back up out of the snow without a basket on the end; already frustrated beyond belief and in not in one of my prouder moments, I just kept going.

    I was slipping so much in the tracks that I could only sometimes find a kick outside of the track. The pole without a basket made things more challenging because that pole would sink much deeper and consistently than the other. I found myself mostly sliding down most of the downhills on my face. My temper was flaring. I was lashing out at myself and cursing the snow gods.

    APU Coach Galen Johnston was “part David Blaine and part Dr. Phil with a six pack”

    By the end of the first lap I met up with my coach, APU Development and Masters Coach Galen Johnston. Proving himself to be part David Blaine and part Dr. Phil with a six pack, Galen went about assuaging my self-directed assault on myself while simultaneously running off the little devil perched prominently my shoulder whispering a long spew of the negative poison Kool-Aid that I had been drinking.

    “I’m so frustrated with myself,” I remember telling him. Galen promptly proceeded to take a look at my scissor kick flailing that I was trying to pass off as skiing and got to work. He quickly began to work with me on proper positioning, finding and feeling the kick, and making smaller movements while increasing the cadence. Pure Genius.

    He also takes photographs: APU coach Galen Johnston (r) gets a shot of Shannon Brockman (far left) in the stadium and gear drop area of Eagle Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, during 2017 APU Masters Camp in July. (Photo: Dan Libbey)

    The next lap I started feeling less slip, and the next after that I had begun to feel like a skier; I was still skiing without a basket, but I felt stronger with each lap. Galen skied with me, encouraged me, and even helped me nail a downhill that seemed to be my nemesis.

    Somehow I survived the first day. Even though I had improved greatly, my confidence was badly shaken. I thought about the hours of intervals, distance, and hills I did on rollerskis; the strength training, swimming, and cycling that had led me to believe I would somehow be competitive with a group of lifelong racers. Call it ignorance, but I still had an inkling of hope that the next day, with our first skate ski session in the morning, would be different… instead, after today’s black eye and ensuing attitude adjustment I would nearly have a breakdown the next day that found me questioning my very reasons for coming to Eagle Glacier.

    Because sometimes the first skate skiing of your entire life happens on glacial slush at 6,000 feet

    The next morning I found myself at the bottom of the first climb, ready to open up the skate skiing. I was ready, or so I thought. Here, now, I would redeem myself.

    My rollerskiing group in Texas was a skate skiing club, I coach skating technique, I’d done it in front of the cameras for local news stations, I was sure that my upper body strength from years of training would help me… but somewhere my biggest deep dark secret was gnawing at me.

    I had never skated on snow of any kind in my entire life.

    You see, even though I had never skied on soft slushy snow in a track on classic skis – I had never skated on snow of any kind in my entire life. Since classic had been a disaster, my assumption that rollerskiing could simulate skiing was hanging by a thread.

    As I started up the first hill [the “first hill” at Eagle Glacier gains roughly 100 meters total over a series of rolling up and downs, though mostly ups – Ed.], the first problem I noticed was that I spend very little time doing V1 rollerskiing. In Texas, the “hilliest” terrain I can still full V2 on my medium-speed Marwes. I practiced V1 based on some video I had seen online, but mostly this was just jump skating the tops of hills.

    At Eagle you are either going up or going down, and going up for me meant skiing V1 for a long time. I began to notice immediately that my glide was virtually nil, so I began poling harder to compensate, which just sunk my poles deeper into the soft snow and decreased whatever glide I was getting even further. As soon as I pointed my skis out in a V-stance, my right abductor began to ache. A war injury from my soccer years, it would get worse as I went on before finally turning into a stabbing pain near the end of the lap that reminded me repeatedly that I was 41 years old and going up a steep hill at nearly 6,000 feet.

    It was about this time that I began to feel the altitude. Despite moving almost slow enough to fall over, I noticed that my heart rate was highly elevated. Even though I was constantly reminding myself to breathe, I found myself stopping repeatedly on every hill. I vowed to get through the first lap, and I did, but I called it quits after that. I was too demoralized to seek out a coach; I felt utterly broken.

    Later that evening, I began to question why I had come to this camp. I had come to get some on-snow time, but also, being highly competitive, I came to measure myself against others. It was not just the four years of training in 100-degree, 80-percent humidity since I had last seen snow that had prepared me for this. I had also spent six years before that skiing by myself in Ukraine.

    Fresh snowfall surrounds the Thomas Training Center above Eagle Glacier, in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, during 2017 APU Masters Camp in July. (Photo: Gavin Kentch)

    Skiing had always been a place where I could find solace, peace, satisfaction, and happiness when I couldn’t find it elsewhere. Now it suddenly seemed like my greatest demon. Everything I had done before seemed for naught. It felt like I was just learning how to ski, like the tables had been turned and suddenly I was one of the beginner athletes I coached in Texas. About this time I thought of my family, my 18-month-old. I wondered how they were doing. I began to miss them. To complicate my crisis of conscience, others in our group were regularly seen texting and talking on their phones… I checked my phone and found that I had no service. I was at an all-time low.

    Some time before heading out for the classic afternoon session. Berit Flora offered me her phone so that I could call my family. Berit was affectionately referred to as the camp mom for her powers of making sure everyone was doing well and well fed, and her gesture in that moment seemed to give me new lifeblood. A dark cloud seemed to float away from above my head.

    (I had the pleasure and honor of later having dinner with Berit and her husband Sam and others after the camp finished. Both Berit and Sam (who are Erik Flora’s septuagenarian parents) were out there skiing every day, and had plenty of history in the form of great stories to add to mealtime discussion. Sam also drove me to my Airbnb room after camp, to Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking to return my rented skis, and to the airport. Their hospitality and kindness will not soon be forgotten.)

    About this time I began to reevaluate my goals. There were other reasons to come to this camp, such as receiving some of the best coaching from some of the best coaches in the world. Also I could personally gain from coaching because my first ski taught me I had more to learn than I realized. Also, if I could ski these conditions I could come away with some newfound confidence (maybe getting through it was the moral victory) as well as a desire to get on snow more often; more snow time was something that became apparent immediately that I needed.

    The wall of fame inside the Thomas Training Center on Eagle Glacier. From left, the APU Juniors (teenage girls), APU Elite Team, 2014 Masters Camp, North American Women’s Training Alliance (American and Canadian athletes, plus Norwegian skier Celine Brun-Lie), and Man Camp (APU and USST men), among many others, have all left their mark. (Photo: Greta Anderson)

    I also reminded myself of how few people get an opportunity to ski here, the names of elite athletes written on on the walls serving as gentle reminders of the caliber of skiers who typically come to Eagle. I vowed to take in the beautiful scenery more, and to receive as much coaching as possible. Once I put the shattered pieces of my ego aside I began to enjoy myself again.

    The next classic session I felt especially good and was able to catch Brandy Stewart (an elite skier from Montana) and Gavin, two skiers well above my level, on a climb. I was immediately dropped on the first descent, but it was something Galen would bring up on the last night. Credit to Galen, but also to Dylan Watts, the best cook/competitive skier/coach in the world, who jury-rigged a really sweet basket on my left classic pole. Feeling like I was skiing with two poles really made a difference.

    After talking to Erik Flora the night before, he immediately found me the next morning.  I got to ski with him for a while, which made my day, and made it apparent what I need to work on for the future.

    It was not lost on my me how much it would cost me to have the best coach in any other sport work with me one on one; the experience was priceless. A shooting lesson from Gregg Popovich or a tackling lesson from Bill Belichick I could never afford, even if they were willing to take the time. And yet Erik seemed to enjoy coaching me; that dedication and love for coaching is something that I hope I can duplicate with my rollerskiers. I tried to listen to everything he was telling me technique-wise, but when he skied in front of me I couldn’t help but imagine how hard it was for him to ski that slow; he is an amazing skier and within seemingly a second or two after the lesson ended he was out of sight, moving on to find and coach the next athlete.

    Morals and acknowledgments

    There plenty of others who gave me the courage to continue on and improve each day. Both of the FasterSkier crew gave me encouragement throughout, and everyone seemed to lift each other up with a kind word or two on the trail. Special thanks to Jeffrey Lynn, my hilarious dishwashing buddy that made the time spent doing chores enjoyable. Jeffrey was there to become a better skier to be able to ski with his son. I watched him put on Moleskin and heaps of duct tape to cover his blisters every day – you were inspirational to me.

    Special thanks to Galen, who even loaned me his skis, and to him and the APU Masters Group who let me join two of their workouts after camp. I truly felt like a part of the APU Masters skiing community, and I don’t recall ever feeling that much energy and excitement from working out with anyone else.

    I’d come far during the camp, from skiing alone in the woods in Ukraine, to braving the heat in Texas, to V1’ing up a glacier. I had come great distances to see, taste, and feel the ultimate. The ultimate venue, ultimate beauty (yes, Alaska is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen), ultimate coaching, and ultimate community.

    It was only fitting that after coming from humble obscurity and a truly off-the-radar outpost like San Antonio, and overcoming some pretty personal lows, the helicopter I flew out of was bringing up two of our nation’s greatest skiing stars, Kikkan Randall and Sadie Bjornsen. They got out of the helicopter, with an NBC cameraman dressed more for L.A. weather than for Alaska filming every step they took.

    Total stars in our sport, they both smiled and waved. Sadie offered a quick handshake and Kikkan smiled and said hello, looking exactly like the Fischer ski poster of her on the second floor of the Thomas Training Center had suddenly come to life. If I would have had the time without the helicopter ready to lift off, and it wouldn’t have been so loud, I might have introduced myself: “Hi, I’m Jason, a skier from San Antonio.”

    — Gavin Kentch contributed 

    ***

    Masters Minds series: Are you a masters skier who loves your club? Submit camp or training recaps, announcements, or stories to info@fasterskier.com with the subject line “Masters Minds.” Articles can be first-person accounts or written from an observatory standpoint with comments from others.

    Related: 2014 APU Masters Camp | 2015 APU Masters Camp

  • Living the Dream: Summer-Skiing Jacket Review

    Living the Dream: Summer-Skiing Jacket Review

    The skier on the left showing the importance of reading these reviews: your goal in life is to not be “that guy”. (All photos: FBD)

    This is another installment of the “Living The Dream” gear review series, a somewhat regular feature offering nordic skiers of all levels insight into many of the elements that make our sport great. Here, the author and his field-testing crew puts lightweight “summer-skiing” jackets to work in all types of conditions in Bend, Ore.

    The Setup

    A few weeks ago, I provided cosmic enlightenment on where you should be right now and hopefully you were able to heed this very sage advice and have since logged copious k’s. Since unlike the rest of you losers, I work for a living, so I couldn’t just sit around Bend skiing, eating pancakes and riding sick mountain bike trails, oh no, even before I left Bend, I was back “on the clock,” tirelessly slaving away for you, the loyal reader. Well, sort of.

    Since no one loves you like we do at FasterSkier, we are committed to not only giving you the latest and greatest beta on where you should be, but I’m now about to drop some wisdom on your lean, wirey, nordic asses on what you should be wearing, rocking, rubbing, and rolling on these big adventures.

    Since I regularly drive my editors and senior management here at FS crazy with my disparaging comments on goods and services that I find to be inferior even if they are advertisers (in all fairness, my comments still get printed, but it drives everyone nuts), the “powers that be” retaliate by sending every possible wacko, crackpot product my way. I am therefore forced to interact with these half-baked, nut-job ideas on a far-too-regular basis.

    While the scope of coverage of this latest review may seem a little staid and commonplace, I can assure you that I have waded through terabits of emails from start-ups hawking foldable shoes, mittens with built in lights, lights with built in mittens, kittens with mittens, smell-proof underwear, miracle vitamins, and all sorts of other really strange products for guys who may be having a little trouble “gettin’ the old Evinrude crankin’,” if you know what I mean. So don’t think for one second that we’re not looking at all kinds of crazy stuff, we are, we just have the common sense and good judgment to pick products that you’re actually going to use, even if a jacket review isn’t nearly as titillating as reviewing “male enhancement” products.

    With that out of the way, let’s dive right in. For starters, it may sound crazy making jacket recommendations in June, but remember, this is a skiing publication, so it is our fervent hope that you have been able to get out skiing. And before everyone out there in the sweltering Midwest gets all huffy, not only did I recently give you the ins and outs of how to find snow in Bend in excruciating detail, but if you somehow manage to goof this up, have no fear, as the “snow window” is still open. If you really want to go big, venture up the the “Last Frontier” and mix it up with the big boys (and girls) at APU’s awesome Masters’ camp July 6-9. If your mom won’t let you fly all the way up to AK, my good buddy Matt Liebsch (or “Leaper,” as he likes to be called) also has an epic masters’ camp on Haig Glacier in August, so no excuses, snow is out there, you just need to go get it. How this is relevant in this context is that you’re not just going to want one of the jackets we tested, you’re going to NEED one of these jackets, hopefully sooner as opposed to later, as what better way to train for skiing than, uh, skiing?

    The Reviews

    Since the unpredictable conditions at our test site at Mount Bachelor have been well documented, we’re going to present the results from coldest to warmest, as nothing makes you ponder the purchase of a new jacket like a ripping, 60 mph wind and whiteout conditions.

    Field testers hard at work modeling the three jackets we reviewed: (from left to right) Simon Zink (in Salomon) of the University of Denver, and and Diggy Terranova (Arc’teryx) and Evan Barbier (Patagonia) of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club.

    Arc’teryx Beta SL Hybrid Jacket

    Arc’teryx Beta SL Hybrid Jacket (men’s)

    For pre-, post- or even intra-ski, the Arc’teryx Beta SL Hybrid Jacket was the clear favorite of the entire test team for very wet, cold, nasty conditions. It offers the most warmth, wind protection and probably the largest comfort range of any of the jackets tested.

    Dave Cieslowski wearing the Arc’teryx Beta SL Hybrid Jacket

    In my previous three-week stay in Bend in May, and believe it or not, even in this trip that I am just finishing, we experienced conditions ranging from 20 degrees, blower snow and a howling 50-70 mph wind at Mt. Bachelor to fairly regular 35-55 degree afternoons down in town-ish. I say “ish,” as we were staying a few miles outside of town up toward Mt. Bachelor, (where all of the cool kids stay)…

    Now where was I? Oh yes, jackets….. The Arc’teryx was my garment of choice on several backcountry outings, cold runs and apres-paddling/surfing (yes, they have surfing in Bend). This jacket came through with flying colors in every test and in every sport. To add a little firepower and diversity to this review, I recruited some of the young bucks on the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club for some additional perspective, and this was the top pick of all of the testers on the nasty days.

    Said one tester, “If I could only have one jacket, this would be it, for sure.” Most agreed that it is usually too warm for nordic skiing in most conditions, but it is exceptional in every other regard. I wore it into town on a few rainy nights as well and it does a great job of being cool and stylish without crossing the line into looking like you could be departing for an Everest summit bid at any moment. The only slight dings I’m going to give it is that it is the most spendy of any coat in the test (at $399). It also doesn’t pack nearly as compactly as the others, in particular the Patagonia, but more on that in a bit. If you’re venturing out in very bad weather though, this is your jam, hands down.

    Salomon Bonatti Pro WP Jacket

    Salomon Bonatti Pro WP Jacket (men’s)

    One step up the temperature scale is the Salomon Bonatti Pro WP Jacket.

    Definitely lighter and more packable than the Arc’teryx, this piece is marketed as a trail runner, but we all found its performance to be quite good on the skis and mountain bike as well. Yes, yes, it’s a big no-no to ride the trail in the rain and no one is a bigger supporter of that rule than the FBD, but since the weather in Bend changes faster than a Kardashian’s train of thought (and trust me, I am using the word ‘thought’ VERY loosely), you are crazy if you venture out for a ride longer than an hour without backup. Since this isn’t my first day on the radio, I had said jacket with me on an afternoon cruiser to Phil’s and she proved to be worth her weight in gold, as naturally, the 45-degree cloudy day turned to 38 and rainy at the farthest possible point from our condo. You’ll only need to get caught in one of these storms and you’d be willing to pay some dude on the side of the road a thousand bucks for one of these jackets for the ride home.

    One of my particularly favorite features is the hood. This design is one of the best that I’ve ever seen, as it fits snugly, but not too tight. You can move your head around and it moves with you without feeling constrictive. The importance of this cannot be underrated.

    The overall fit is a bit more snug than the other coats, partially due to the cut and I’m guessing partially due to the traditional difference in European sizing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, in particular for cycling, as nothing is worse than donning a jacket and then being forced to do your best kitesurfer imitation as you battle your way home in a storm.

    As you might expect, it folds down to a size slightly smaller than the Arc’teryx, yet slightly bigger than the Patagonia.

    Arc’teryx
    Salomon
    Patagonia

    Don’t let the size fool you though, as it is still quite waterproof, as clearly illustrated here:

    Patagonia Airshed Pullover

    Patagonia Airshed Pullover (women’s)

    Last, but most certainly not least, in a wonderful offering from Patagonia, the Airshed Pullover. If you are in the minimalist camp, or simply are not buying in to my “never summer” philosophy, this jacket is for you. The lightest and most compressible of the group, yet this bad boy still offers amazingly good wind protection for both running and riding, in particular for a garment that will fold smaller than an apple.

    What makes this jacket a real winner is it is what I’m calling my “Beckham Jacket.” A few years back, David Beckham was caught having an affair with his young, attractive, sultry assistant. In the court testimony, she disclosed that she always wore very sexy underwear to work, “Just in case,” (a strategy that eventually paid off, both literally and figuratively). The point here is that this is your “Just in case,” jacket. It folds down the smallest of any garment tested, while still offering a lot of protection from Mother Nature’s scorn (she’s particularly upset at us Americans right now, for obvious reasons).

    Photo: FBD
    Matt Briggs wearing the Patagonia Airshed Pullover jacket.

    This is also the jacket that is going to give you the most bang for the buck (insert your own David Beckham joke here) in the late spring/early summer months, as the test team found the others too warm for temps over 60 degrees, but this coat kept my entire crew comfortable in conditions ranging from 55 to 70 degrees. Throw this sucker in your jersey pocket, hydration pack or drink belt, and you’ll be covered (see what I did there?) for just about any contingency. It doesn’t have a hood, which is both a plus and a minus, depending on whether or not you want a hood. As you have come to expect from a perfectionist like me, this baby also got the “hose test,” because if you ski with me, you just need to accept the fact that you are going to be sprayed by a hose. Possibly several times. I have issues.

    Bonus Round

    Patagonia Nano-Air Light Hybrid

    Patagonia Nano-Air Light Hybrid (women’s)

    Changing gears a bit (though not as much as you might think), the fine folks in Venture, Calif., also sent their latest iteration of the very popular Nano series for testing, the Nano-Air Light Hybrid. One big reason this jacket even made this review is that it shares the same outer layer at the Airshed, so I thought it would be interesting to add this coat to the mix, even though it is obviously a very different type of garment. The second reason it made the cut is I tested its big brother on Eagle Glacier in Alaska last year, and one of the “OG” pieces in our base-layer test two years ago, and since this entire line has always tested well, I thought it’d be interesting to throw this latest offering into the mix. Yes, this is light insulation, as opposed to wind-and-water protection, but I wanted to cover all of the light to mid-weight outwear bases. If you are confused by any of this, there is nothing more I can do for you: please stop reading immediately go monitor your Great Dane’s “Thousand Yard Stare” before he eats another box of light bulbs.

    Pat Flores wearing the Patagonia Nano-Air Light Hybrid jacket.

    So, with all of those disclaimers duly noted, I love this jacket. There was simply no better option than this coat after a ski. While the trails at Mt. Bachelor are amazing, the parking lot can be windy as hell, so having this waiting for me in the car was a godsend. Unless you chill very easily, I probably wouldn’t nordic ski in it, but this is a perfect insulation layer for an alpine rip, after a cold surf sesh or just looking good at the dog park. This is particularly important, as the conduct of your aforementioned Great Dane has probably earned you a lot of enemies, so looking good is the least you can do.

    Speaking of surfing, since I’m overworked and underpaid, or is it overpaid and underworked (I always get these two mixed up), I had to take a break from all of this skiing and hit Mexico for a little surfing. I realize that this is a bit of a non sequitur, as this is a ski publication, not a surfing one, but since I know at least two other very good skiers who are also good surfers (Andy Newell and Josh Smullin, though it pains me greatly to admit the latter) and by my calculations since I have approximately 5 readers, this represents a solid 40% of my audience, so I’m going to throw in a surfing clothing recommendation — a rash guard, the Patagonia Men’s RØ Long-Sleeved Top. As you might guess, I’ve paddled and surfed in every conceivable size, shape and color rash guard and this is one is my favorites. Unlike Smullin, who has little, skinny, bird arms, the FBD is a big, powerful man, so the flexibility and movement offered in this top allowed me to drop in on more people than usual in my top secret surf spot. Sorry people, I have waves to catch and “Dropsie” (as Smullin insists on calling me) is a bad, bad man.

    Fast Big Dropsie wearing the Patagonia RØ Long-Sleeved Top in Cabo.

    A few other cool pieces of gear that are heavy in the FBD rotation these days: Petzl offered up their latest-and-greatest headlamp a few months ago, the Petzl REACTIK+ and I’ve been super impressed. If you’re a fan of dawn patrol (or Dong Patrol, as it is known in Steamboat, for reasons that I’d rather not go into), you know that a good headlamp is mandatory. Since I lost my mind years ago, the thought of getting up at 5 a.m. to get the freshest waves or powder seems like not just a good idea, but in fact a great idea. However, in order to do this and not lose all of your gear in the parking lot, you need to have your act together, as even the normally patient FBD gets a little antsy when some rookie can’t find his skins at sunrise while everyone else is standing at the trailhead ready to roll. So organize you gear the night before, get your lazy ass out of bed on time, and bring a headlamp — a good one. And this latest Petzl one is one of the best. It has all kinds of crazy customizable features that are super easy to use thanks to an app you can install on your phone or you can go “old skool” and just turn it on and off like a normal person. Since I am a lonely, lonely man, I have no qualms about spending 30 minutes customizing my headlamp power settings, but that’s me — your mileage may vary.

    Whew. We covered a lot of ground on this one. You’re welcome.

  • U.S. News Roundup: From Alaska to the High Sierra

    Kikkan Randall leading the 2017 Alaska Run for Women with a smile on June 10. (Photo: Scott Broadwell)A little U.S.-based news to get your Tuesday going:

    — Watch out, World Cup, Kikkan Randall is feeling good. The longtime U.S. Ski Team (USST) and Alaska Pacific University (APU) skier took first place in the 25th annual Alaska Run for Women road race, held over Anchorage streets and bike trails this past Saturday. Randall led the field of several thousand women to the finish in 28:41, a pace of 5:44 per mile for the 5-mile, largely flat-road course.

    Mid-5:40s for five miles (in June) is nothing to sneeze at on its own, but let’s let the 34-year-old Randall put it in context: “I’m in the best shape of my life now,” she told the Alaska Dispatch News. This is so even though Randall was a few seconds per mile off her previous best on this course, a 28:18 that she clocked while winning this race in 2012. That winter, she went on to win her second of three consecutive Sprint Crystal Globes.

    “I’m in the best shape of my life now.” — Kikkan Randall in a recent interview with the Alaska Dispatch News

    Finishing just over a minute back for second place on Saturday was recent local high-school graduate and multi-time state track champ Briahna Gerlach, who will race Division I track and cross-country running this fall in the Lower 48. “I didn’t even know it was Kikkan Randall,” Gerlach told the Dispatch News of her competition over the first mile before Randall pulled away. “When I found out I said, ‘OK, she can go.’ She’s crazy. She didn’t even look tired.”

    Other skiers in the top 10 included Mandy Vincent-Lang (formerly University of New Hampshire) in third, Becca Rorabaugh (APU) in fourth, and Lauren Fritz (APU) in 10th.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BVLNwkqDp3i/

     

    — If it’s summer, the rest of the APU Elite Team must be running up mountains. APU skiers took nearly every race in the seven-stage Alaska Mountain Runners Grand Prix last summer, highlighted by David Norris setting the course record at Mt. Marathon, the insanely steep climb and descent outside the harbor town of Seward, Alaska, that was first run as an organized race in 1915 and is believed to be the oldest mountain race in the country. (Norris took the record back from Kilian Jornet, a man widely acclaimed as the world’s best mountain runner.)

    This summer, they’re at it again. On the evening of Thursday, May 25, Norris took first place in Kal’s Knoya Ridge Run, ascending an uphill-only course in the Chugach foothills on the eastern edge of Anchorage. (Runners had to descend under their own power, but the clock stopped when they crossed the finish line.) Norris weathered an early-summer snowstorm to cover 8.5 kilometers, and 4,500 vertical feet of elevation gain, in 58:08 for a substantial margin of victory. First place among the women went to Jessica Yeaton (APU/Australian National Team).

    In a shorter version of the race (5.6 k and 2,900′ of climbing), APU skier Forrest Mahlen was the first across the line. Marine Dusser (formerly University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), currently affianced to USST skier Erik Bjornsen) was the first woman, less than 90 seconds behind him. Other top-10 skiers included APU junior Maggie Meeds in third, APU junior Aubrey LeClair in fourth, and Jaime Bronga (formerly UAA) in seventh. In the long race, Kate Fitzgerald (formerly APU) was fourth among the women, while Kenny Brewer (formerly University of Alaska Fairbanks) was third and Mark Iverson (formerly APU) was sixth.

    — Nine days later, on the morning of Saturday, June 3, it was newly minted U.S. Ski Team member Scott Patterson edging out his APU teammate Erik Bjornsen (also of the USST) by the slimmest of margins, 0.3 seconds, after slightly more than 42 minutes of racing up 3 miles and 3,500′ of elevation gain in the uphill-only Government Peak Hill Climb outside of Palmer, Alaska. “I led the whole thing till maybe a minute to go, then we duked it out as I tried to come up with a little bit of a sprint,” Patterson told the Alaska Dispatch News after the race. “With three feet to go, Erik would have won. Even with two feet to go. He seemed to stumble a little when it was down to one step and I got him.”

    APU junior Hamish Wolfe was 8th.

    Dusser once again took the victory in the women’s division, in a time that would have placed her 12th among the 105 men in the field.

    — So who’s still skiing? More people than you might think, thanks to an epic winter in the western U.S. that brought dozens of feet of snow to the High Sierra and has the Squaw Valley alpine area making noises about running at least one chairlift all summer long. For example, here’s fresh grooming (!) on the Auburn Ski Club trails on June 6 (!!):

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BVBZo3GAt-A/

    Here’s Paul Kovacs (Australian National Team) on the ASC trails on the morning of June 7:

    Here’s FasterSkier contributor Jon Schafer with a Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club junior camp, driving up to the nordic trails at Mt. Bachelor in Bend, Ore., in a June 10 snowstorm:

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

    Finally, farther north, the APU Elite Team arrived at Eagle Glacier earlier this week for their first Glacier Camp of the summer:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BVQYFY1lGOo/

    – And earlier this month in Albuquerque, N.M., the University of New Mexico (UNM) announced that athletic director Paul Krebs will retire on June 30. The university’s press release did not indicate a reason for his departure, but the news came two days after the state auditor informed UNM Interim President Chaouki Abdallah that its athletic department would be the focus of a special audit, according to Deadspin.com. The Office of the State Auditor reportedly “received information raising concerns related to athletic fundraising activities and expenses of the University of New Mexico.” Krebs, who was UNM’s athletic director for 11 years, was criticized for spending nearly $65,000 dollars in taxpayer money on a 2015 golf trip to Scotland and was at the heart of the heated proposed discontinuation of the UNM ski team.

    * * *

    This article has been updated to reflect the correct historical status of the Mt. Marathon Race as believed to be the oldest mountain race in the country, not as “the second-oldest footrace in the country behind the Boston Marathon.”

     

  • USA Nordic Transitions as Jarrett and Schafer Step Down

    USA Nordic Transitions as Jarrett and Schafer Step Down

    U.S. Nordic Combined’s 2011/2012 team members (from left to right) Billy Demong, Bryan Fletcher and Taylor Fletcher with head coach Dave Jarrett at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. (Photo: USSA)

    Listed at the bottom of a U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association (USSA) press release announcing U.S. Nordic Combined Head Coach Dave Jarrett’s retirement are his coaching highlights. It’s a long list defined by two things: Olympic and World Championship medals and longevity. Jarrett will forever be linked with the iconic names of U.S. nordic combined, including Billy Demong, Johnny Spillane and Todd Lodwick. His coaching legacy rewinds back to the 2002/2003 World Cup season.

    Before that, as a nordic-combined athlete, Jarrett was a member of the U.S. Ski Team from 1992-1996 and is a two-time Olympian. He’s a lifer. And for lifers, separation from what they have always known remains difficult.

    “I have been doing it a long time both as an athlete and and a coach,” Jarrett, 46, told FasterSkier on the phone. “It is now of those things where all of sudden it hits you, like, you are tired. You’re not able to go give everything and do everything. And certainly, it’s hard to justify a lot of time on the road. Missing family things, but also on the athletic side you are not able to give to the athletes everything that you need to give.”

    Until 2014, USSA managed the U.S. Nordic Combined Team. The team is now run by USA Nordic, yet Jarrett’s position has remained under USSA’s umbrella — they continued to pay his salary. With the 2014 split, Jarrett’s responsibilities grew as he took on both coaching duties as well as some of the logistics of running a team.

    Dave Jarrett, head coach of U.S. Nordic Combined, during the 2013/2014 season. (Photo: USSA)

    “Honestly, it’s amazing he lasted as long as he did,” U.S. Nordic Combined A-team member Bryan Fletcher said on the phone from his home in Park City, Utah. “He’s definitely a trooper, for sure. It was pretty intense because he was still employed by USSA and still had bosses there, but he also had bosses on USAN and had obligations on both sides of the coin. That combined with continuing his education research for coaching stuff, it adds up quick. And then doing all the travel logistics for not only World Cup but for World Cup and B-team and then having to be there in person, it was insane.”

    Taylor Fletcher, another longtime U.S. Nordic Combined athlete and Bryan’s younger brother, also noted the stress on Jarrett.

    “He had definitely been challenged … he had to go from a full-time coach to a full-time coach and a team manager,” Taylor explained on the phone. “He was in charge of doing a lot of the fundraising, and all the aspects to keep our sport alive in the U.S. And that really took a toll on him and that was definitely difficult on all of us. But also, I think it put way more weight on his shoulders than he really needed.”

    Diminishing funds correlates to increased non-coaching responsibilities for coaches, less on-snow time and more connecting the non-competitive dots for athletes. Jarrett weathered that type of job description metamorphosis. Ski coaching at the elite international level is an all-encompassing life, and he lived it for 15 years.

    “For me and my wife, we got married while I was still an athlete and so this is a lifestyle, the only lifestyle we have ever really ever known,” Jarrett said. “Both of my children were born in 2002 and 2004. Again this is a lifestyle that’s all they have ever known.”

    Demong, USA Nordic’s executive director for the last year, has spent nearly his entire international-skiing career under Jarrett’s wing. The two became teammates back during the 1996/1997 season when Demong bumped up to national-team status.

    “DJ had a good understanding of physiology, so he and I bonded over that in the beginning,” Demong said. “Especially given the fact at the time we had a really good team culture developing but we didn’t have the physiological expertise in our training programs and that sort frustrated both us. So we sort of found a commonality there right out of the gate.”

    After completing his competitive career, Jarrett went on to earn a degree in exercise physiology and kinesiology from the University of Colorado. He was able to bring his education into play as he joined the coaching ranks.

    The U.S. Nordic Combined team takes a break at the top of the Col de la Madeleine during a 2009 training camp in nearby Courchevel, France. From left to right: Bill Demong, Johnny Spillane, coach Dave Jarrett, and Todd Lodwick (Photo: USSA)

    “When he came back to coaching it was really a breath of fresh air,” Demong said about Jarrett’s academic and nordic-sports knowledge. “We had built this great culture and were all working really hard, but we still didn’t have the plan training-wise that I felt we needed.

    “Going back to my high-school running days, we peaked when we wanted to peak for states and federations, and when we were doing our nordic training I felt like we were sort of doing what other nordic-combined skiers did, which was get up, ski, or get up, go jump, have lunch, go ski, go home,” he continued. “And DJ brought a ton of new ideas and concepts that he had learned in school as well as from networking with other sports. DJ really helped pioneer a lot of things on the physiological side and take our team from good culture, talented hard working athletes, to champions.”

    Jarrett plans to open a strength and agility center in Heber, Utah, where he lives with his wife and children, the youngest of which will be entering eighth grade; his oldest will be a freshman in high school. As with any change, he said he looked forward to what the opportunity might bring and remaining close to his family. Yet looking back, Jarrett said he’d miss the small daily aspects of the sporting life.

    “It’s the everyday victory I’ll miss,” Jarrett said. “I’m psyched to see the work that the athletes are putting in. The work that the coaching staff are putting in to see those everyday victories — those personal best, in testing, first time getting Continental Cup points, or first time getting World Cup points, or a World Cup podium. You can say the hardware is why you do it for sure, but I will miss is the everyday camaraderie and training.”

    U.S. NoCo Moving Forward

    Demong said the program remains stable heading into an Olympic season; Jarrett had been discussing a transition for the past several seasons.

    “It had been something that has been on my radar for awhile and DJ certainly communicated early enough for me to to start planning, and quite honestly, we do have a good safety net,” he said.

    U.S. Nordic Combined Assistant Coach Martin Bayer will step into the role of head coach. Bayer hails from the Czech Republic and began coaching domestically in the U.S. in 2000. He is currently based in Planica, Slovenia.

    Demong said Bayer is entering this position with the institutional knowledge to make the coaching change seamless.

    “Martin has worked his way up through the club system to the development team coach,” he said. “He has basically coached everybody onto the national team with the exception of Bryan, who is just a little bit older. So he has already a great relationship with all the athletes that are on the team. He knows all the athletes in the pipeline. …  He knows the environment and he is familiar with how we operate, and there is a level of trust both from my end and with the athletes.”

    Nick Huber will remain the program’s head ski-jumping coach. On the cross-country side of the sport, former U.S. national-team biathlete Jeremy Teela is advising the team. “He has agreed to come in and help us with domestic cross-country coaching and plan writing,” Demong said.

    Jon Schafer, who had been U.S. Nordic Combined’s high-performance director for the last year, has also stepped down.

    “Jon is a great and a good friend and very very exceptional high-level strategic thinker,” Demong said. “I think our organization is not at the point right now where we can take advantage of his talents and capacities fully, and quite honestly, we just need more boots on the ground. At this point, we are not going to fill that position. He has, however, written us a very detailed plan that we will be using as a road map going forward. It is a living document. For us, it is like everything from recruitment to medals and everything in between as it relates to coaches, education, and national-training centers.”

    A business executive, Schafer brought management experience to USA Nordic, and on the sporting side, he was previously an elite-level rower and coach.

    “My decision to step down was a very difficult one and one that I most certainly did not take lightly,” Shafer wrote in an email. “I loved working with the athletes and even after my departure, I am still very concerned about their success. It can be very difficult working in an environment of highly constrained resources, in particular with almost no support from USSA.

    “Every position or idea simply cannot be funded and every shot has to be a kill,” he continued. “People are going to disagree about the best ways to spend highly limited funds and the tighter the budget, the harder it is to balance all of the different agendas. The organization has a lot of operational needs and the executive director and a few members of the board felt it was more important to have staff selling t-shirts, writing newsletters, marketing copy and other very ‘boots on the ground’ tasks, than a High Performance Director setting strategy and working with coaches and athletes at a higher level. I disagreed with this approach and since they couldn’t afford both, I tendered my resignation. I think this move is good for everyone, as the overall organizational dynamic proved to be a bit too bruising and tumultuous for an honest, easy-going, soft-spoken Midwest boy like me. I want to be very clear here too — my departure was a smooth and respectful one on both sides and I wish them nothing but the best.”

    Always the jokester, Schafer (FasterSkier’s gear-review guru) added, “One big upside of this change for me too, is I now anticipate having much more time to write about how long you can wear your underwear without washing it. And perhaps teaching my Great Dane to finally respond to his name.”

    The U.S. Nordic Combined team will meet in early May for an all-team camp, which will include all staff and any athlete with a chance of qualifying for the Olympics.

    “It’s really going to be focused on learning more about ourselves, learning more about each other, learning how to communicate better and be tougher,” Demong said of the camp.

  • Nordic Nation: 17 Questions with Fast Big Dog

    Nordic Nation: 17 Questions with Fast Big Dog

    In this episode we put the elusive Fast Big Dog, known in the business world as Jon Schafer, in front of the mic for his answers to the 17 Questions for 2017. It brings a conclusion to the FasterSkier interview series run last fall before the start of the 2016/2017 cross-country, nordic combined and biathlon race seasons.

    Schafer is knee deep in the nordic scene as high performance director for USA Nordic Sport, a supporter of many aspiring skiers, and a huge Evel Knievel devotee — note Schafer’s race suit.

    (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

    Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

    FBD in action. But really, this photo needs no caption. (Photo: Fast Big Dog/Instagram)

    (Is this for real?)

  • FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 9

    FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 9

    FasterSkier's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide: 12 Days of FBD Christmas

    Editor’s note: This year, we opted for a spin on the holiday gift guide. Rest assured, we tasked the right guy — our gear-review guru — with the job of compiling a 12-day list of gift ideas (in various price ranges) for all the nordies in your life.

    ***

    Day 9: Techy Tech

    Tech is to skiing what David Lee Roth is to Van Halen. You can try to remove this part of the equation, but the end-result just isn’t the same (Sammy Hager era, anyone, anyone?) The ultimate checkmate for any technology hater is that regardless of what year and model skis for which they currently launching some unhinged rant — you know exactly about the person and the speech that I’m talking about here — the one that starts, continues and ends with lines like, “This is all you need, all you’ll ever need, I’ve been using these for years and they’re fine….”, the best way to get them off their high horse is to simply point out that at some point, technology made THAT particular pair of skis (or whatever) state of the art. Sure, maybe it was during the Eisenhower administration, but the point is technology drives innovation and vice versa. Do you need new skis every year? If you’re me, yes, but we all know that I’m special. I’ll let each of you out there in the studio audience answer that question for yourself, but the point here is the regardless of your own, personal, technology life cycle, technology is a wonderful part of our sport. Embrace it accordingly, knowing full well that if you’re a fat, lazy, turd, with no style, new skis will just make you a fat, lazy, turd, with no style, on new skis.

    ***

    Under $30: Dermatone Green Tea Lip Balm, $2.75

    Dermatone Green Tea Lip Balm, FBD pick for under $30
    Dermatone Green Tea Lip Balm, FBD pick for under $30

    At first blush, this may not appear to be that ground-breaking a recommendation, but dry, chapped lips have oft been described as “the worst aliment ever.” I tend to agree. Not only is this the ultimate rap killer (who wants to kiss cracked, pasty, lizard lips?), but it’s just downright unpleasant for all involved. Not to mention, do we even need to go into what can happen when you sunburn your lips?

    Do yourself a favor and buy about 10 of these — stick them in your training jacket, your car, your drink belt, everywhere you can think of, as nothing is worse than wanting to apply some nice soothing lip balm and not having one available. Be advised, these are very popular with Great Dane puppies, so please prepare accordingly, though apparently my Great Dane Pwolfgang is in good company:

    Dogs and chapstick

    Usually available at Amazon or even better, come to the West Yellowstone Ski Festival next year and pick up a few of these from our buds at Freeheel and Wheel. This shop does a great job supporting an incredible numbers of skiers in this week, it’s the best coffee in town, and they offer a great assortment of nordic gear for anything you forgot or suddenly decided you need to replace when you wake up to this:

    West Yellowstone weather

    ***

    $30 – $100: Toko Arctic Split Mitt, $45

    Toko Actic Split Mitt, FBD pick for $30-$100
    Toko Arctic Split Mitt, FBD pick for $30-$100

    When it’s cold, I mean really, REALLY cold (like it was this morning in West Yellowstone) (see screen capture of today’s weather, above), you don’t just want these gloves, you need these gloves. The split finger design is the best of both worlds: the heat of a mitten and the dexterity (most of it, anyway) of a gloves. A must-have for all skiers. Go for the dope “Winter Warrior” colourway too, because, well, you can. Available at TokoUS.com.

    ***

    $100 – $250: Salomon Drifter Mid Hoodie, $180

    Salomon Drifter Mid Hoody, FBD pick for $100-$250
    Salomon Drifter Men’s Mid Hoodie, FBD pick for $100-$250

    I know, I know, a few different outwear offerings had popped up in our travels here together, but that’s only because jackets are so frickin’ cool (because they keep you hot). Trust me though, there is most definitely a method to my madness, as each and every one of these pieces is specially designed and surgically targeted for highly tactical strikes on the local coffee shop. There, see what I just did? I got myself on a government watch list, just so you could look cool. The things I do for you people… Available at Salomon.com.

    ***

    Over $250: Pursuit Fork Flex Roller Skis ($249.99) and IDT rollerskis ($386.74)

    Pursuit Fork Flex Roller Skis (top) and IDT Classic Elite Rollerskis, FBD pick for $250+
    Pursuit Fork Flex Roller Skis (top) and IDT Classic Elite Rollerskis (bottom), FBD pick for $250+

    On Day 6 we very clearly covered why summer training tools are in play in this holiday gift guide, so if you’re arriving late to the party and you’re getting your panties in a wad about this…

    One of my Princeton rowing teammates used to say, 'Don't be a rhino' to people who were being stubborn or uncooperative, so this image is therefore appropriate at many levels.
    One of my Princeton rowing teammates used to say, “Don’t be a rhino” to people who were being stubborn or uncooperative, so this image is therefore appropriate at many levels.

    … the very cogent and logical line of reasoning supporting this theory can be found here.

    Regardless of whether you went back and read my recommendation for summer rollerski boots just now or if you’ve been playing along at home to this game all along, I bet you can see where this is going: if you have sweet, new summer-specific boots, you’re most certainly going to need some new whap sticks, right, as the last thing you want to have happen is you show up looking all funky fresh but then get laughed out of the workout due to your clapped out rollerskis? You know the drill by now, do it right and go for the best. How do I know that these are the best? Because we tested them, silly (classic and skate). All of the top three skis in each review are “da bomb,” but if you’re tight on cash the Pursuits are a great value and the IDTs are just SO silky smooth, you’ll hate yourself forever if you don’t buck up for these. Available at RollerskiShop.com and IDTSports.com.

    ***

  • FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 7

    FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 7

    FasterSkier's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide: 12 Days of FBD Christmas

    Editor’s note: This year, we opted for a spin on the holiday gift guide. Rest assured, we tasked the right guy — our gear-review guru — with the job of compiling a 12-day list of gift ideas (in various price ranges) for all the nordies in your life.

    ***

    Day 7: Canine Companions

    Ah, man’s best friend — they will protect the house, help you meet girls (or boys) and most importantly, be loyal, faithful, lifelong companions on all of your adventures. The best part is that if you get a Labrador Retriever, they view even a simple trip to the grocery store as an adventure. And take it from an owner who’s had his lab puppy chew through his leash in order to free himself so he could go ripping through the grocery store at Mach 10 to find me, a lab puppy will make trips to even the most previously mundane locations an adventure for you, too.

    Trust me, you haven’t lived until you’ve been in the produce section, minding your own business, when a frantic voice comes over the PA demanding that the owner of a black dog come to the front of the store immediately. Your first reaction will likely be, “Hmmm, I wonder who was dumb enough to bring their dog into the grocery store, what a dick…..” then the pieces will suddenly all come together and you’ll have to slink the to customer service desk with your tail between your legs. Life changing.

    Dogs are also without a doubt the best training companions on the planet. They never complain about you going too fast, too slow, too long or too short. They’re equally stoked with an easy 30-minute recovery hike in the park or an epic four-hour mountain run. They seem to know when you’ve had a bad race and will quickly remind you that it was probably your skis fault. They’re also there to celebrate all of your wins by being the first to suggest a victory lap in the park, so it’s pretty much hard to beat the four-footed teammate. Given this, today’s offerings are focused on, and dedicated to, Canis lupus familiaris. Here are a few suggestions on how to optimally get the whole team as well prepared as possible for this season.

    Under $30: Dog/bike/run tail light, $16.66

    Planet Bike 3034-1 Blinky Superflash .5 Watt LED with 2 Red LED Tail Lights, an example of the dog/bike/run tail light FBD suggests for under $30
    Planet Bike 3034-1 Blinky Superflash .5 Watt LED with 2 Red LED Tail Lights, an example of the dog/bike/run tail light FBD suggests for under $30

    As innocuous as this may first appear, this gift probably has the highest ROI of any item in this entire series. For less than $15, you can increase the visibility of yourself and your hound over a hundredfold. In this day of distracted drivers (texting while driving is the drunk driving of the 21st century), you need to do everything you can to stay safe, in particular at night. The light has both a continuous beam and a “disco” mode, which provides amazing contrast and pierces the darkness.

    What’s also very cool about this light is that is has both a clip and a bike mount, so you only need one light for all of your training disciplines. Clip one to Fido’s leash, another to the front of his collar and a third to your back and for less than $50, you’re now very visible to motorists in all directions. Rollerski? Same deal. Going for a ride? No problem, simply slide the clip into the included seat post bracket. Yes, meathead motorists will still pass you way too close, Philly drivers still call you an a-hole for daring to use “their” roads, but this little wonder will greatly increase your odds of making it home without serious incident.  Be safe out there people. Shop local options or at Amazon.

    ***

    $30 – $100: RuffWear Slackline Leash, $39.95

    Ruffwear Slackline Leash, FBD pick for $30-$100
    Ruffwear Slackline Leash, FBD pick for $30-$100

    The one potential downside to running with Rover is that holding a leash while your hyperactive, mega-amped Lab is charging down the road, sending the neighbor’s cat and all nearby squirrels scurrying for cover, is having a leash in one hand can upset your finely tuned running biomechanics. Sure, you have a back like Arnold from all of your DP workouts…

    Arnold back

    … but the asymmetry of your unruly beast straining at the length of the lead in one hand can fatigue and disrupt even the most fit double poler. I suppose one solution is to properly train your animal, but we discussed this at the FBD house and I was immediately voted down by the entire squad, as they felt that even the most sensitive and subtle dog training techniques were still far too fascist for their liking, so we instead opted for a hands-free leash. Not only does this allow me to keep both of my hands free to “Keep up foreign relations” whenever necessary with angry, East Coast motorists, but I’m going to let you in on a secret, if you’re running hill repeats and you’ve got a dog with some horsepower like Pdiggy…

    Pdiggy

    … a little forward “mo” gently applied at the waist can really help those splits. Please feel free to use this pro tip at your own discretion in your next hill TT. Available at Ruffwear.com.

    ***

    $100 – $250: Whistle GPS Pet Tracker, $49.95 (+ $175 yearly subscription*)

    Whistle GPS Pet Tracker, FBD pick for $100-$250
    Whistle GPS Pet Tracker, FBD pick for $100-$250

    Dog tracking

    Mad props to my good buddy Billy Demong on this one. Billy D’s canine companion, Scout, has some crazy “wheels” on her, and, like Billy D, she’s a bit of a free spirit, so given the proximity of their property to open space and the propensity of wildlife in the area, occasionally Scout has been known to take a flyer. With this cool tracking device, not only are you immediately notified when your pooch leaves whatever area you designate, but you can then use a super slick app to track their exact location for the retrieval. If you’re extra lucky (like me), you can even use this feature to help facilitate a mid-run “feed” for human and canine alike (Pdiggy says ‘Thanks mom.’) Available at Whistle.com.

    (*This gift suggestion was placed in the $100 – $250 category as it also requires an $8 monthly subscription, bringing the yearly cost to $175)

    (Below: This is why Billy needs a GPS tracker for his dog. #BadAss)

    https://www.instagram.com/p/m-wdcruGzm/

    ***

    Over $250: Life-changing, house-wrecking, upholstery-chewing lab puppy, $1,200

    Labs

    Actual dog. Yes, yes, I know, you read articles all of the time about how the holidays are a bad time to give dogs as a present, as it is a decision often made with emotion and the family hasn’t necessarily thought out the reality of owning a dog. My take on this is that stupid people make stupid decisions all year, so if you’re dumb enough to think that owning a dog isn’t a lot of work, you’re dumb enough to have that misconception year-round. To be clear, it IS a lot of work, especially if you pick a high-energy breed like a Lab, but if you’ve thought this through (like you should), you are willing to make approximately a 15 year commitment to this creature, you have the time, are prepared for “hidden expenses,” (vet bills, boarding, replacing TV remote controls) and understand that it is a big investment, you’re going to never regret it. Please, please, please, think it over carefully, talk to people who own one and consider adopting as well, but if you’re well-prepared, you’ll be glad you made the leap.

    A real-deal, Lab-chewed remote
    A real-deal, Lab-chewed remote

    ***

  • Nordic Nation: Sometimes It Is a Fantasy – Hoffman’s Fantasy XC League

    Nordic Nation: Sometimes It Is a Fantasy – Hoffman’s Fantasy XC League

    USE: Nordic Nation FasterSkier Podcast LogoYes, it’s that time of year and depending on who you are, it means two things: the World Cup is about to start and Noah Hoffman’s Fantasy Cross Country is live. In this episode, as with most things, Nordic Nation goes deep. We scour our digital rolodex for insider information. With the first weekend of racing soon upon us, we looked for the beta on who to pick for a fantasy team and who to leave on the proverbial sidelines.

    We speak with the Hoff and the Oz of his Fantasy League, Adam Mahar. And we track down a winning player from last year who resides in Sweden. We also connect with FasterSkier’s resident gear tester savant, Jon Schafer — he’s a man of many names too, think Fast Big Dog and/or FBD. And finally about thirty minutes into the episode, we strike gold with two players from the Midwest; Kristor and Dean are their names. Seriously, we dug deep to find these guys. With their insights, we might just be onto breaking the European dominance in Hoffman’s Fantasy League. Last year 11 of the 13 prizes went to players on the other side of the Atlantic. 

    Click the play arrow below to listen. (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

    Have a podcast idea? Please email nordicnation@fasterskier.com.

  • Living the Dream: 2016 Classic Rollerski Review

    Living the Dream: 2016 Classic Rollerski Review

    2016 FasterSkier Classic Rollerski Review
    Tim Burke’s garage and “whap-stick” fleet. (All photos: FBD)

    Instant Classic

    While I have no actual data on this issue, there seems to be a sentiment in our world that classic rollerskis are the red-headed step child of summer training. Most skiers ride bikes, run and even check their dignity and safety at the door for a skate roll, but classic? In summer? On rollerskis? NFW.

    Let’s be real clear here — classic skiing is awesome. It is the root of our sport. When everything is right, it’s a beautiful thing, but the numbers don’t lie — look no further than your local tracks this winter and you’ll see a lot more people out on skate gear than classic. Then there’s the fact that many purists don’t like classic rollerskis due to their “unlimited kick,” with the theory here being that the ratcheting wheel reinforces bad habits and just by looking at them, you’ll forget how to properly set the wax “for reals” (as we say in Philly) when you’re back on the real McCoy. Add to this that it’s also hard to classic ski well. In fact, probably my favorite quote on this topic is “skate is harder to do, but classic is harder to do well.” Church.

    Therefore, given all of this, it’s no surprise that you’re more likely to find a nordic skier excelling in a stick-and-ball sport than you are to see them out tearing it up on the elusive classic whap sticks. Sure, my good buddy Noah Hoffman does five-hour laps around Park City two to three times a day, but Noah is crazy, we all know that. He’s also on the national team and you’re not.

    Let’s “keep it 100” here though (the kids at the bus stop where I had to refill my drink belt taught me this, if you don’t know it, you’re old. Go look it up in your Encyclopedia Britannica, grandpa). We all know that deep, deep down the reason you don’t classic ski as much as you should is because you aren’t as good at it as you’d like to be. Trust me, *I* know what I’m talking about here. Classic skiing is awesome and here’s an idea, maybe you’d be better at it if you did it more. Plus, you’re smart — you religiously read my column (whenever the hell it seems to randomly appear) and you somehow knew this lecture was coming. You’ve already decided that this is the year that you would finally get your shit together classic skiing. Or, you’re nursing an over-use injury after reading Jacked Up Old Man’s blog and thinking, “I can train like that,” but now you realize that you can’t, you’re overtrained and/or injured and your Achilles feels like a piece of hot barbed wire that’s been set ablaze by your crushed dreams. Or maybe you’re a competitive high school/collegiate/pre-elite skier who races classic with equal regularity to that of skate. Or maybe you really are like Noah, just plain nuts, and classic is your jam.

    Well, my friend, you are in luck, as we rounded up 10 pairs of the best classic whap sticks that money can buy and put them to the test.

    Winner, winner, chicken dinner: IDT Classic Elite

    The big winner: the IDT Classic Elite. Time to book that trip to Norway.
    The big winner: the IDT Classic Elite. Time to book that trip to Norway.

    While this phrase is purported to have its origins in Vegas and you’re a nordic skier, so you hate gambling, drinking, staying up late, standing on your feet, people, and anything else related to having fun and/or not skiing, hang in there with me on this, for in exchange for stomaching the colorful Vegas expression, I will reveal what our entire team found to be the best classic whap sticks available to man: the IDT.

    Yes, yes, the astute reader will undoubtedly recall that I chided IDT a little bit in the skate review for their product not being readily available in the U.S. and lack of availability is a HUGE pet peeve of the FBD, as I find it infuriating to read a product review only to discover that said product isn’t available for six months or some other such nonsense. Here’s a suggestion for all of my reviewer colleagues out there (even though we all know that FBD has no equal) — how about doing a review when we, the eager consumer, can actually BUY your over-hyped, unnecessary piece of crap that we most likely don’t need and won’t use? That’s why we at FasterSkier are the voice of truth and light and only review crap that is A) available and B) you actually WILL use. So tell your accountant, significant other and conscience to relax, continue to promise yourself that you’ll save for that bathroom remodel next year, and obsess on the thought of new classic rollerskis until you work yourself into such a frenzy that you somehow manage to justify yet another ridiculous purchase. Remember, you really DO need these and no one deserves this more than you. Remind yourself of that time when you cleaned the garage two years ago or emptied the dishwasher all by yourself — selfless acts like that deserve some positive reinforcement. Push on in this psychological tug-o-war by promising yourself that you’ll feed them and walk them every day and that you’ll take REALLY good care of them. Plus, this is the year you swore you’d get good at classic — I’m pretty sure you wrote that down somewhere a few months ago.

    Thanks to all of you loyal readers, this column has become a smashing success, therefore companies are now forced to actually take me (a bit) seriously. So when I told IDT that I wouldn’t review them until they created a viable distribution network in the U.S., they agreed. What this all means is that not only are these the best classic rollerskis, but you can actually get them. Currently, the best method is to order via their website, but IDT has also assured me that they are setting up U.S. distribution and the skis will be available in stores. Being the ever-vigilant, always skeptical, crackerjack investigative reporter than I am though, I could not in good conscious recommend that you order something online without first checking this out and everyone will be happy to hear that they do indeed arrive in a reasonable amount of time. Amazon Prime it is not, but I got a pair in about two weeks. Perfect? No. But reasonable enough for now.

    Now on to the review. What did we like about the IDTs? In short, everything. We approached this test with much of the same methodology as the skate test, with a few notable additions. As shown in the matrix below (Table 1), we added categories for striding and double pole (DP). Yes, yes, I know, you can (and should) DP in skate technique, but it was the opinion of our esteemed panel that DP plays a greater overall role in classic technique to merit its own category. Same deal with striding, which is, after all, the essence of classic skiing, so this new column should be quite self-explanatory. And the IDTs killed it in every one of these areas. Everyone loved the overall feel of the ski and while it was not light years in front of everything else, it was everyone’s favorite ski, bar none. Try to get seven people to agree on where to go for dinner or what movie to see and I think you’ll quickly see the point I’m making.

    2016 classic rollerski test matrix
    Table 1

    Marwe Classic 700 XC

    The Marwe Classic 700 XC was a tester favorite.
    The Marwe Classic 700 XC was a tester favorite.

    A close second, however, was the Marwe 700. Again, everyone loved these skis. In addition, they are cheaper and readily accessible, which is a plus for all of the impatient members of the studio audience. It should also be noted that Marwe has stood the test of time. We’ve been on the IDTs for the past few months and really like them, but we have literally years of experience and lots of usage data on the Marwe. We have no reason to believe that the IDTs won’t wear well, but we know the Marwes do. Look no farther than the garage of 12-year veteran of US Biathlon Tim Burke (photo at top of story) and you’ll see that they are the choice of many professional skiers. I went for a rip with Timmy in Lake Placid on a pair of his Marwes that were a few years old and they still skied great (yes, biathletes do classic ski and quite well, may I add).

    Swix Classic Roadline C2

    Swix Classic Roadline C2
    Swix Classic Roadline C2

    Also testing well was the Swix ski. The scores weren’t quite as unanimous as the IDT and Marwes, but every reviewer but two had them in their top three, so sticking with my dinner/movie analogy, this speaks volumes. Like the Marwe, they are also cheaper than the IDT and readily available (well, as readily available as any rollerski is, and let’s be honest, it’s not like these skin removers are falling off the shelves at your local Walmart. But you can find both Marwe and Swix without calling Europe).

    Just as we did in the skate rollerski review, we ranked the skis into three categories and the IDT, Marwe and Swix were at the top in a class by themselves. In all fairness, the gap down to the next group wasn’t as big in classic as it was in skate, so hold all of those angry letters, as this second group is also populated with good skis. And just like skate, depending on your weight, age, skiing style, goals and budget, some of the skis in this second group may work for you, as don’t forget, our goal here is twofold: 1) rank the overall best skis and 2) help describe which skis are best suited for more specific individual needs. So again, hold those letters. At least for a few more paragraphs.

    Stacking the deck

    I’ve mentioned this in past columns, but it bears repeating that it always makes me smile how different companies interpret our requests for gear reviews. All companies receive identical instructions and yet the interpretations of these instructions seem to vary wildly. Case in point, essentially every puffy coat manufacturer sent us a different combination of men’s and women’s jackets for last year’s puffy coat review. Rollerskis proved to be no different, as some companies provided skate only. Others only sent classic. Some missed the deadline by a few days, others by weeks, some by months and some wrote to inquire AFTER the review was published if they could still participate. Yes, really.

    I bring this up because while many companies sell multiple models of skis, some picked one model and just sent that, while others decided to send us everything they could find. While this is obviously more work for us, that’s why we’re here and any good racer is an opportunist, so I actually kinda respect this approach. Swenor led the charge here by sending everything but the kitchen sink.

    Swenor x 3

    What was particularly interesting about Swenor is their product line probably offers the most diversity of any manufacturer. Most of the differences between BRANDS of rollerskis are often subtle and once you get within brands, the separations can be even smaller. This is not the case with Swenor — you know immediately which of their models you have on your foot.

    Everyone's favorite Swenor, the Fibreglass, a good all-around ski
    Everyone’s favorite Swenor, the Fibreglass, a good all-around ski

    The ski that scored the highest for all-around versatility was the Swenor Fibreglass, which, as Table 1 shows, scored reasonably well in most categories. One thing that everyone loved about this (and all of the Swenors, with a few caveats that we’ll get into in a second) was the smoothness. The Fibreglass model without a doubt had the best balance of smoothness, flex and stability, making it overall a very solid pick. Where things got interesting with Swenor was with the Carbonfibre and the Finstep models.

    The Swenor Carbonfibres in their safest configuration: pointed straight with minimal load
    The Swenor Carbonfibres in their safest configuration: pointed straight with minimal load

    The Swenor Carbonfibre faired reasonably well for VERY light skiers (50-55 kg), but the scores showed a strong, inverse relationship to tester body weight. As even the casual reader knows, the FBD is a big, powerful man. Since my weight is a frequent and highly animated topic of conversation for both the men’s USA Nordic Combined and biathlon teams, I thought it was only appropriate that my current mass be verified by none other than Tim Burke. Mr. Burke was kind enough to witness, verify and notarize that at the time of the testing I tipped the scales at a svelte and swole 84.187 kg. This meant that me taking tight, fast corners on the Swenor Carbons was akin to driving a car with bald tires over ball bearings on ice. It felt as though a crash was imminent on every high-speed turn and if I looked carefully over my outside shoulder at the apex of any given corner, I could see my rear wheels sliding by me with reckless abandon, almost begging to send me into oncoming traffic or a handy drainage ditch. How, when and where we would end up was really anyone’s guess. I found that, um, unsettling.

    In our endless pursuit of perfection and total objectivity, prior to publication, I sent the final draft of this story to all of the testers for their review and feedback. It can be tricky capturing the sentiments of a sizable group of people, so I was very careful to double check that I was providing an accurate representation of everyone’s viewpoints. When the comments came back from one of the testers who has probably some of the best feel for skis that I’ve ever seen, I thought his reaction to this part of the story was essentially perfect, “I took them (the Swenors) out for some more rips after we finished (the testing): they are good skis just as long as you don’t try to accelerate or push around a corner hard. If you are skiing mostly straightaways, there shouldn’t be a problem.” For the record, this reviewer is about 5 kgs lighter than me, so while he’s not quite FBD size, he’s in the ballpark. I’ll let all of you at home extrapolate the handling characteristics you will therefore likely encounter based on your specific body weight. Or you could just buy a pair of Marwes.

    Swenor Finstep
    Swenor Finstep

    The one ski that didn’t display the same velvety smoothness as the other Swenors was the Finstep. The light skiers didn’t like it as much as the Carbons and heavier skiers only liked it a little more than the Carbons, so when all of the scores were averaged out, the Carbons came out on top. I’m giving everyone “a peak behind the curtain” in this process, as this is one instance in which having a bunch of testers can be a bit misleading when averaging scores — pretty much the whole group agreed that if forced to choose between the Carbon and the Finstep, the Carbons are better for lighter skiers or those who train exclusively on abandon airport runways, and the Finstep are better suited for those with increased gravitational pull.

    Elpex Evolution

    Elpex Evolution
    Elpex Evolution

    Sandwiched between the Swenor horde was the Elpex Evolution. Please note that this ski made the cut to the second group (as noted in Table 1) and was generally found to be a good ski. The only thing that really hurt this guy was stability — she’s tippy. As in six-margarita tippy. And while I love me a good margarita, I like them in the bar with a giant plate of nachos (84.187 kg, remember?), not on my feet. But if for some weird reason you’re not a heavy drinker or you’ve been blessed with balance like this, knock yourself out. Now the caveat here is that you can literally knock yourself out, but hey, you’ve been warned. Plus, we’ve already established that you’re not a drinker, so you need to do something for fun, so why not spend a few hours a day wrestling a pair of uncooperative skis. Consider it a lamer version of gator wrestling, but without the weird smells, dirty pond water and animal rights implications.

    Good, solid citizens

    A five-way tie for third place in the 2016 classic rollerski review: (from left to right): Fischer Carbonlite, OneWay Classic 5, OneWay Classic 13, Swenor Finstep, and Swenor Carbonfibre
    A five-way tie for the third-ranked group in the 2016 classic rollerski review: (from left to right): Fischer Carbonlite, OneWay Classic 5, OneWay Classic 13, Swenor Finstep, and Swenor Carbonfibre

    Also milling around in the neighborhood of the bottom two Swenors were the Fischer and both OneWays (OW 5 and OW 13). Every reviewer had these five skis in the third group, but the order was slightly different on each score sheet. In essence, the marks were so similar that this was basically a five-way tie for third. It is important to note that while none of the scores in this group exactly set the world on fire, these are all still perfectly fine skis — in all likelihood you can get on them, do a workout and return home without any major drama (that is provided you are not skiing in Philadelphia, where drama is essentially guaranteed regardless of which skis you’re rocking). So again, please no angry letters that Swenor skis saved your grandfather’s life in the war or OneWays pulled your puppy from a burning building. As noted earlier, the deltas between all of the classic skis were smaller than those in the skate whap-stick review, even though this may not necessarily be reflected in the scores. Two different reviewers were used for this test (persons with more experience on classic skis), therefore resulting in a different frame of reference, making comparisons on scores between the classic and skate tests impossible, so don’t even try. It is also very important to point out that we were looking to find differences and in some cases had to get fairly nit-picky. Every ski in this group is still very solid.

    It’s a wrap (not a whap)

    In summary, all of us really liked the IDT, Marwe and Swix. All three of these are fantastic classic rollerskis and each of them truly deserves their spot in the top group. Just as with “real” skis, though, rollerskis can be a very personal thing. Our hope is that by testing all of these skis extensively in different conditions and with several different size and sex reviewers, we’ve been able to compile both qualitative and quantitive recommendations that will assist most, if not all, skiers in future purchasing and training decisions.

    If you’re still pissed off after all of these qualifiers, please feel free to contact Zach Caldwell, as he loves to talk about stuff like this. I happen to know for a fact that he loves calls of this nature, anytime, day or night.

    Up Next (ish)

    One of the many things that warmed my cold heart after the skate review was all of the excellent comments and suggestions that we received. One recurrent theme was long-term wear, so I am very pleased to announce that we will be doing long-term wear tests on skate and possibly even classic, depending on interest. On this topic, you can feel free to submit comments. Everything else you should send to Zach though.

    Since durability is understandably on many readers’ minds and I could be dead and/or fired by next year at this time, we decided it made sense to provide very preliminary results right now as well:

    • Swenor: The wheels on the Carbon model may offer a smooth ride, but they showed signs of wear after only a very few kms. This is troubling for as noted above, some of the testers were quite light, so this does not bode well for long-term wear for even a skier of 150 lbs or so, not to mention us big thumpers. Also, why no fenders? This annoyed everyone.
    The Elpex Evolution rollerski delaminating after just a few months of use.
    The Elpex Evolution rollerski delaminating after just a few months of use.
    • Elpex: One ski delaminated on the bottom. Again, not a very good sign if this is happening after just a few months of use, some of which from very light athletes.
    • Swix: One fender fell off and it was not at all easy to reattach.
    • Marwe: One of these fenders came off, but unlike Swix, this one was easily repaired. Despite losing the Allen bolt, a replacement of similar length, diameter and pitch was procured with no difficulty at the local hardware store. The only slight issue was that an Allen bolt wasn’t available, only a screw with a Phillips head. And yes, we’re now trying to do a better job checking the fenders. Damn, you people are needy.

      See you out there.

      FBD

    Former APU rockstar, current Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club coach and ski tester supreme Greta Anderson showing how we run our complaint department.
    Former APU rockstar, current Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club coach and ski-tester supreme Greta Anderson showing how we run our complaint department.
  • Living the Dream: 2016 Skate Rollerski Review

    Living the Dream: 2016 Skate Rollerski Review

    Like Butter, We’re on a Roll

    I think most nordic skiers have a love/hate relationship with rollerskis (or whap sticks, as my good buddy Zach Caldwell likes to call them). Firstly, we’re skiers and the last time I checked, skiing happens on snow, not asphalt. So there’s that. And then there’s the whole idea of taking these infernal contraptions out on the open road without any viable method of stopping. For anyone with even the slightest understanding of physics, traffic laws and the highly unpredictable nature of modern drivers, this is obviously a bad idea. Hold that thought.

    The test array (All photos: FBD)However, as the old adage goes, “Skiers are made in summer,” and you hate the idea of losing to, well, anyone, so you check your dignity at the door, find a pair of skiing boots and poles that you’re mad at and drag yourself out the door for another battle with gravity, nearly invisible wheel-jamming rocks and the unwashed masses. If you’re in any sort of major metropolitan area in the U.S., you also need to fully activate your “abuse shields” as it is almost inevitable that you’ll be tormented, taunted and just generally verbally abused for having the nerve to go out on public roads for a little exercise. What the hell is wrong with you anyway? We all know that roads are for cars and nothing else — no bikes, no runners, no dog walkers and for heaven’s sake, certainly not for rollerskiers.

    Ah, but your high-and-mighty ass has races to win. You’re a (wo)man of principle, you remember your eighth-grade civics class about taxes and their role in funding public roads and you believe stopping is highly overrated. Besides, you know these roads like, “the back of your hand,” and somehow implicit in this ridiculous statement is the assertion that you therefore also know the exact location of all possible hazards and obstacles.

    Photos of Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Josh Smullin (l) and a tennis player dressed identically.In addition to your lovable, reasonable and logical, “I know my rights” side, you’re also a nordic skier, so you’re also cursed/blessed with a streak of non-conformity. Yes, you. You’re a rebel. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but a rebel nonetheless. You don’t drink alcohol (empty calories), smoke (uh, hellooooo, can you say VO2 impairment?), or stay up past 9 p.m. (dismal Firstbeat recovery score anyone?), but just last month you deviated slightly from your tried-and-true ration of protein to complex carbohydrates in your recovery smoothie. So take that, James Dean, there’s a new sheriff in town: he’s a footloose and fancy-free bad-boy rebel and he’s going to throw caution into the wind and go rollerskiing.

    Okay, now that this is settled, the question then becomes, “Which whap sticks are right for me, FBD?” And this is where the story gets good, too, for as much information as there is on snow skis, there’s a dearth of information on the dreaded rollerski. Hell, it’s kinda hard to even find places that sell these bizarre instruments of death, nonetheless provide a detailed comparison on which model to best injure yourself, so pow, that’s where we come in.

    Diving right in

    First of all, with a few notable exceptions, almost all of the skis that we tested were good; three were very good. There were definitely differences between the skis though, so depending on the road surface where you train, the type of training you are doing and your goals, the best ski for one skier may not be the best for another. Given this, we have put together both a quantitative chart so you can see the empirical test scores, as well as a qualitative section in which we’ve described the best fit for each individual ski. We believe that with a careful period of introspection, goal setting and road-frictional coefficient calculations, combined with a thorough perusal of both the qualitative and quantitive sections, you’ll find yourself the happiest you’ve even been in your life.

    Testing HQ in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Rollerskis for this review were also tested in Park City, Utah, and Philadelphia.Next is the issue of speed — this is huge in snow-ski testing (basically the entire point of testing is to find the ski/grind/wax combo that is the fastest), but this is generally not the case for rollerskis. Racing aside (and who is crazy enough to race these barbaric skin-removal torture devices?), the overwhelming percentage of athletes are looking for the rollerskis that best simulate being on snow and meets as many of personal the training parameters outlined above. In addition, almost every rollerski wheel can be swapped out for faster wheels, so it is generally quite easy for an athlete to “tune” their whap sticks to whatever speed you are the most comfortable screaming down hills on something with no brakes, into traffic. As a result, you will see essentially no references to “ski speed” in the rest of this review, as any ski can be made fast. Chapters could be written on the many schools of thought on “best” rollerski speed, but that’s not the purpose of this review — we did our best to provide an objective, comprehensive and unbiased look at as many brands as possible and make recommendations to everyone in the ski that is best for them.

    Best Overall

    Just as with snow skis, there is an element of personal preference in rollerski selection, so to help address and negate this, we had a test team of seven people. In total, we had over 150 years of ski experience, an Olympic gold medalist, a world champion, and three veterans of World Cup ski-testing protocols. This was an extremely well-qualified group, so we believe this analysis to be very fair and balanced. We love skiing and we love gear, so we took this very seriously and put a ton of time into it, because that’s what we do. And we even managed to have a little fun along the way, which is good, as I’m pretty sure that I read somewhere that this is supposed to be fun.

    While most of the skis in this test will work fairly well for a wide range of athletes for most conditions, three pairs scored consistently the highest among all of the testers: Marwe, IDT and Pursuit. The former was not much of a surprise, as Marwe is a well-respected and established brand.

    Marwe skate rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    Marwe skate rollerskis

    Marwe

    Look no further than U.S. biathlete Tim Burke’s garage and you’ll see why Marwes are the choice of many top skiers worldwide. They have a nice feel, are very stable, hold up well and offer a wide variety of wheels speeds, so you can’t go wrong with these skis.

    Weighing in at 0.91 kg, they are the lightest of the three top skis and their individual performance ratings was at or near the top in every category (see review matrix below*).

     

     

    *Note: Every tester had a private scoring matrix that no other reviewer saw until the testing was complete. All of those scores were averaged to create the matrix shown above.

    Also, this matrix has been updated to include model names.

    IDT skate rollerski (Photo: FBD)
    IDT skate rollerskis

    IDT

    The second top performer was the IDT (0.99 kg) — another great all-around ski. We all loved everything about this ski and it also scored high marks across the board in every category. They were the longest ski tested and many of us felt this contributed to this ski being the one that many believed felt the most like skiing on snow.

    One tester was concerned that the added length would be cumbersome in corners, but most felt that this was not a problem and overall this ski scored well in all areas. The biggest drawback is that they’re made in Norway and they’re just getting their U.S. distribution rolling (get it, ROLLING, see what I did there?), so purchasing a pair in the U.S. right now may not be all that easy. IDT specifically stated that this product will be readily available in the U.S. “very soon” though, whatever that means. This is a great ski for long, cruiser workouts.

    Pursuit skate rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    Pursuit skate rollerskis

    Pursuit

    By far the biggest surprise of the testing was the Pursuit Fork Flex (1.03 kg). First of all, far be it for me to speak “out of school,” but the Pursuits aren’t exactly the sexiest skis out there: the best way to describe their appearance is that they are the result of the ultimate-nerd collabro of an erector set…

    An Erector Set (metal toy construction set)
    Metal-toy Erector Set

    meets science fair…

    A science fair
    Science fair

    meets nordic skier.

    Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club coach Josh Smullin in a pumpkin suit. (Photo: FBD)
    Josh Smullin (l) in a pumpkin suit.

    Yes, scary, I know. But, but, BUT, this just goes to show you how good these skis really are, as every one of us picked them up and thought, “Yeah, these things are going to suck,” but then we skied them and were quickly singing another tune: great feel, stability and flex.

    Pursuit skate rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    Pursuit skate rollerskis

    No one had skied them previously, so none of us knew what to expect, but independently, everyone scored them very highly, with most testers ranking them their overall favorite. Wow. Every good scientific study does its best to minimize bias, but that’s obviously very difficult when the name brand of the ski is staring right at you — so for these skis to score the highest marks with no preconceived notions of their strengths shows just how good these skis really are.

    The price is right, too, as they’re over a $100 cheaper than most of the other skis reviewed. It will be interesting to see how well they stand the test of time, but they’re off to a great start.

    Specialty Skis

    What is particularly interesting about the skis in this next group is all of them do a certain thing(s) very well. They may not be the best “all-around” skis, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t the best skis for you.

    Rundle Sport FLEX skate rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    Rundle Sport FLEX skate rollerskis

    Rundle Sport FLEX

    First and foremost, we were very eager to try the Rundle Sport FLEX (1.07 kg). This ski was reported to be more comfortable and more forgiving than most other skis and the entire test team was excited about checking this out for ourselves. Are these skis noticeably smoother on rough pavement? In a word, yes. So if you’re stuck in an area with the dreaded “chip ‘n’ seal”:

    A "chip 'n' seal" road in the U.S. (Photo: Wikipedia)
    A “chip ‘n’ seal” road in the U.S. (Photo: Wikipedia)

    not to be confused with Chippendales (who are suitable for any road surface)…

    Chippendales
    Chippendales

    …these skis are for you. Where you won’t like them is on high-speed descents or hard cornering. So if you’re rollerskiing’s answer to Bode Miller, you believe all time spent traveling in a straight line is time wasted, or hair-on-fire downhills are your jam, you’re not going to be feeling the love with the Rundles. If you’re recovering from injury, are forced to train on bad roads or are just all about comfort, snap these up now and these are the most comfortable skis we tested.

    GlobuloNero skate rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    GlobuloNero skate rollerskis

    GlobuloNero

    The GlobuloNero (0.89 kg) is made in Italy. Full disclosure: I love Italy. Amazing food, fashion, culture and style, but Italians do things their own way. For example, they use the word ‘schedule’ very differently than people in most other countries, as their use is really more of an aspiration or suggestion for things like trains and planes than it is a predictor of what time any given form of government-run transportation will actually arrive. That is, if it arrives.

    Missing GlobuloNero part (Photo: FBD)
    My missing GlobuloNero part

    This ski fits that concept perfectly: they are the Ferrari of skis. If and when they finally do arrive, they come with a silk scarf, a bottle of cologne and a nice bottle of red wine. They are all carbon, including the fenders, and as such, they are just oozing with style. Like the Ferrari, they also have their idiosyncrasies. For example, the “nut” that holds the axle in place is, naturally, a custom shape, so losing it is like losing your baggage in the Rome airport: you won’t be traveling anywhere soon. I know this for a fact, too, as I did somehow manage to lose this crazy piece when it mysteriously decided to abandon ship mid-workout to start a new life nested into the roadside bushes. Despite many calls to many places, surprisingly no one had what looks like it should be a very common part.

    Just as I had begun to accept the fact that these Italian works of art would forever be relegated to the floor of my garage, Eagle Eyes Smullin retracted our steps (well, strides) and somehow managed to find this part as it was setting up shop in the drainage ditch. That’s some Teammate of the Year sh*t right there.

    Other reviewers didn’t score them as highly as me, but I love these skis. Maybe it’s because they’re like me — smooth, stylish and sexy, but also temperamental. Like the IDTs, they can also be difficult to find in the States. Unlike the IDTs however, there appears to be no plan to improve this, which, well, is what it is. The company also claims that they are designed for skiers over 70 kg (154 lbs) which is weird, as you don’t usually see carbon-fibre components with minimum weights, but hey, they’re Italian, remember? And stop asking so many questions — your train is going to eventually get here. Maybe.

    Don’t forget either, this is a gear and style column and no skis have more style than the GlobuloNero. C’mon, everyone and their brother has a set of Marwes or Swenors, right? So if you’re one of those people who likes to look good, doesn’t mind waiting six months for these to arrive from Europe and won’t throw a fit when your Ferrari breaks down yet again, you owe it to yourself to buy a set of these. Other skis may score a bit higher or have their own performance niche, but Globos have style. Start the ordering process now and you might just have them for next summer. Maybe. If not, have a nice glass of chianti and go sit in your Ferrari that currently won’t start for some strange reason. Any good Italian will tell you that it’s too nice a day to go rollerskiing anyway.

    Swix skate rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    Swix skate rollerskis

    Swix

    This was the lightest (0.80 kg) and shortest ski in the test, and not surprisingly the most twitchy and tippy. This skis felt smooth when you were on top of them, but balance was a challenge. Now, for small, light skiers or younger athletes, these might be perfect. Plus, they are a coach’s dream: learn how to be stable on these bad boys and you’ll have Andy Newell’s cat-like reflexes in no time. Assuming you have the balance for them, they will likely excel for hard-charging juniors looking to impress U.S. national-team coach Matt Whitcomb by breaking lots of sh*t on the agility course at a regional elite camp. So if that’s you — you ski Soldier Hollow often or your preferred training loop is a bike path, filled with the tight, blind corners (which seem to be obligatory in most ski-town bike paths), self-absorbed dog walkers with their 30 foot, knee-level, rollerskier snare line — these skis are for you.

    Close But No Cigar

    Swenor Skate Elite rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    Swenor Skate Elite rollerskis

    Swenor

    It always warms my cold heart when companies go “all in,” on these tests and send everything but the kitchen sink. That was the case here, as Swenor sent us two pairs of skate skis and three pairs of classic. I love the enthusiasm and aggressive product positioning, but the problem here is that we didn’t love the skis. To be clear, we didn’t hate them, but we didn’t love them either (at least for skate; the classic scored better and that review will be coming shortly).

    What’s wrong with these skis? Well, nothing actually, but as the test matrix shows, the Skate Elite (1.05 kg) got edged out in basically every category. It is still a very solid ski and its performance was solid in every category but of the seven testers, not one single person had them in their top group. For the record, everyone (that’s right, all seven testers) had the Marwe, IDT and Pursuit in their top three. Not everyone had these three in the same order, but everyone had them as their top three (and as noted, every tester had a private scoring matrix that wasn’t shared until the testing was complete). The fact that the Skate Elite never made the top three on anyone’s list meant that in good conscience we simply couldn’t group this ski with the Marwe, IDT and Pursuit.

    Swenor Skate rollerskis (Photo: FBD)
    Swenor Skate rollerskis

    The second ski from Swenor, the Skate (0.94 kg) fared worse. No one was particularly impressed with this ski’s performance on rough pavement and they had the added distraction of being quite loud and rattly (for reasons we will go into shortly). Both a strength and weakness was that this was the only ski with built in speed reducers. This is a strength, as it seems like the ability to even somewhat regulate your speed could come in handy from time to time. It’s a weakness as, god damn it, these things were loud.

    Swenor Skate rollerski brake (Photo: FBD)
    Swenor Skate rollerski brake

    The mechanism itself isn’t all that user-friendly either, as it required bending down to turn a dial on the ski to add resistance. This is really more of a “hey, this downhill looks steep, I’d better pull over and add some rolling resistance so I don’t die,” type of system, than a braking system per se. I can just hear all of the haters out there firing up their Internets to fire off a scathing missive about FBD being a “brake hater,” (Is that even a thing?), so let’s all save each other some time and I’ll go on record right here saying I love the concept of brakes. What sane person doesn’t? I’d just like them to work, that’s all.

    And more on that in a minute.

    Fischer skate rollerski (Photo: FBD)
    Fischer skate rollerski

    Fischer

    To be blunt, this ski was a disappointment. Fischer makes great snow skis, so we were expecting big things from them. They got off to a great start as they look sexy as hell, but things went downhill as soon as we picked them up, for despite being carbon, these skis were the heaviest in the entire test, by a lot (1.22 kg).

    The situation got even weirder (not the Jersey Shore guy, who is already quite weird) when we skied them too, for again, despite being carbon, the ride was just OK and surprisingly non-compliant for a carbon ski. This was surprising. To be clear, this is still not a bad ski, but simply not as good as others in the test. The fact that we had such high hopes for the ski probably also increased our disappointment to some degree. This SHOULD be a great ski, we all wanted it to be a great ski, it just wasn’t. The weight was an added buzzkill.

    Problem Child

    Elpex F1 Composite skate rollerski (Photo: FBD)
    Elpex F1 Composite skate rollerskis

    Elpex

    The biggest disappointment of the test was the Elpex F1 Composite (1.03 kg). We were all super-psyched to try this ski, but one didn’t have to ski far to realize that something was wrong, very wrong. In fact the skis felt so off that we believe there may have been a binding mounting error, as this ski felt like you were riding a bicycle backwards to every tester. Hopefully this problem can be identified and corrected, as we still believe that this ski has promise.

    This has got to stop

    Lastly, the one area that we’ve danced around a bit, but is never far from our mind, is safety. Quite simply, venturing out onto open roads with no viable method of controlling your speed is nothing short of insane. Yes, you can moderate your risk a bit by picking safer courses, but even so, you don’t seriously think that nothing is ever going to suddenly appear in your way on even the most deserted country road or bike path, do you? Unless you’ve taken over for Matt Damon on an abandon space station on Mars, you’re going to encounter obstacles in your path on training skis.

    The problem is that rollerski brakes have previously all been pretty crappy. A few differently companies have tried, but the end results have been underwhelming, with all of the systems having problems of some sort. Or almost all of them.

    One reviewer’s rollerski rankingOne of the big revelations of this test was putting an after-market braking system from the Rollerski Shop though its paces. I am very pleased to report that the system worked quite well. It’s design is quite simple and effective: a lever arm applies pressure to your rear wheel. The lever arm is engaged by a pull handle that hooks to either a waist strap or your drink belt. It takes a little fooling around to get the whole system tensioned correctly, but once you do, it works well (this video offers some truly compelling footage of the system in action).

    Don’t get me wrong, 180 mm Shimano disc-brake rotors these are not, but of all of the braking systems I have ever tried, this one is by far the best. It adds essentially no weight to your skis, it is quiet, effective and can be activated easily and quickly. Remember, it’s not just that this makes you safer on your existing courses, but it also opens up a whole new set of options for you. How many times have you not done a potentially great training loop because there’s some nasty intersection at the bottom of a big hill? Or blind corner? Or dead end? Or lake, if you’re skiing with Billy Demong? If you’re too cool for school and think brakes are only for people with no skills and no balls, take it easy Rambo and justify the purchase by telling yourself that you’re finally going to be able to ski “Dead Man’s Hill,” or whatever the equivalent is in your town (every town has one). When the brake just happens to save you from a crash when a delivery truck driver suddenly pulls out of a driveway or a 150-lb, learning-impaired Great Dane comes charging toward you, poised for a powerful, collarbone shattering head-on collision, you can thank me later.

    So what are you waiting for? Go treat yourself to a brand, spankin’ new set of whap sticks. After all, who deserves it more than you, right? Do us a favor too and spring for the brakes as well. Not only do we want everyone to be safe out there, but it just so happens that we have a few more amazing clothing reviews coming in the next few weeks and we want each and every one of you healthy, happy and safe so you all can bask in the glory that is FBD gear reviews.

    Test team taking a break

  • Best in Show: Off We Go

    Best in Show: Off We Go

    Fast Big Dog, Arc'teryx Norvan Jacket, Best in Show, gear review, jacket review, FasterSkier gear review
    Fast Big Dog’s black lab and ultimate training partner, Pdiggy, models FBD’s pick for Best in Show jacket: the Arc’teryx Norvan Jacket.

    Concept

    In homage to not just the greatest movie ever made about dog shows (perhaps the only movie ever made about dog shows, but that’s OK, as I often introduce myself as the greatest FasterSkier gear reviewer ever — the fact that I’m the ONLY gear reviewer ever usually doesn’t seem particularly pertinent), I am very proud to present the latest feature in our ongoing search for truth and light: Best in Show (BiS).

    Definition

    What exact is BiS? I’m glad you asked. It is a bit of a departure from our earlier gear reviews in that this in an overview of what we believe to be the best offerings from all of the manufacturers for any given temperature range. We will not be performing our usual, lengthy, painstaking analysis and comparison of several different products, presenting all of the pluses and minuses. Rather, we will be doing all the behind-the-scenes work of that same lengthy, painstaking analysis, but simply presenting you — the loyal reader — with the best outfit for a 35-to-45-degree rollerski, for example.

    This Test

    Let’s dive right in. To kick things off, we’ve put together the BiS outfit for the dreaded 35-45 degree run or rollerski (or as Zach Caldwell likes to call them, “whap sticks”). Now, no bitching about this first outfit recommendation being too late in the year, as I recently returned from the USA Nordic Sports and USSA meetings in Park City and on the few days I did manage to squeeze in a workout (despite Billy Demong’s long, rambling PowerPoints), 35-degree rain was the condition that I encountered almost every day.

    If you know anything about Billy Demong, you should know three things: he has an Olympic gold medal, if you train with him on whap sticks, there is a very good chance you may die, and he is trying to kill me. Following on the theme of that last point, Billy managed to shame me into a rainy whap-stick roll, (FBD shaming is serious problem facing society today, but that’s a story for another day), so trust me when I tell you that these outfits were tested in some of the crappiest conditions known to man. If it is now warm where you are, rock on in the Daisy Dukes and keep these little tidbits tucked away until fall. Not to fear, we’ll also be doing warm-weather stuff very soon, too.

    Results

    When it’s this cold and nasty, you’ve really gotta nail it if you want to be survive three hours out there in that crap. That’s where we come in.

    1. TOP: Arc’teryx Norvan Jacket

    Arc’teryx women’s Norvan Jacket (Arcteryx.com)
    Arc’teryx women’s Norvan Jacket (Arcteryx.com)

    This one was easy: as usual, Arc’teryx KILLED IT. Those crazy Canadians sent one and only one top, the Norvan Jacket and quite frankly, it blew everything else away in this category. It is light, breathable, warm, dry, and the cut is perfect. The attention to detail is spot-on and every little feature works perfectly.

    For example, instead of no-armpit ventilation like many other products in this class, or clunky, heavy, pit zips, The Bird has clever armpit vents that are the perfect size (see Figure 1 below). The length of the cuffs is also slightly offset (Figure 2), providing just a touch more coverage on the outside, which again, is perfect. The color, styling and overall fit are also dead on the mark, so this was an easy pick for BiS.

    Arc’teryx armpit vents
    Arc’teryx armpit vents (Figure 1)
    Arc’teryx offset arm cuffs
    Arc’teryx offset arm cuffs (Figure 2)

    2. BASE LAYER: Brynje

    Brynje Wool Thermo Light Zip-Polo (Brynje-shop.com)
    Brynje Wool Thermo Light Zip-Polo (Brynje-shop.com)

    I have been champing at the bit ever since my ground-breaking and revolutionary base layer review, as a few loyal readers chimed in about a Norwegian brand Brynje.

    Always looking to build a better mouse trap, I immediately wrote these folks after receiving the very favorable feedback about this brand in the comments section on my base layer review, and low and behold, they were kind enough to send a few thousand different pieces. Long story short: the stuff is awesome.

    They sent everything but the kitchen sink, but the piece that really stood out in these conditions was the thin wool top. It was perfect, so thank you to all of my loyal Norwegian readers for this heads-up. These products are available in the U.S., too, thanks to the magic of the Internets, just point your browser to www.brynje.no and tell ’em Fast Big Dog sent cha. I don’t think that will save you money, but it sure does sound cool.

    3. HAT: L.L. Bean Waterproof Baseball Cap

    The Toyota Tacoma pickup of rainy day gear is a good hat: neither may be sexy or the first to come to mind, but each are subtle in their perfection. A good hat is indispensable in bad weather, so it should come as no surprise that L.L. Bean — a company that made its name on practical, no-nonsense gear — offers the BiS in this category.

    This baseball cap is light, breathable and, most importantly, waterproof. Keeping rain out of your face helps SO much in overall comfort and psyche, that I tip my hat (sorry) to Bean on this one. Good under helmets and solo. Excellent piece.

    L.L. Bean Adults' Waterproof Baseball Cap
    L.L. Bean Adults’ Waterproof Baseball Cap (Photo: FBD)

    4. SHOES: Salomon SpeedCross Pro

    Salomon SpeedCross Pro trail-running shoes and SmartWool PhD running socks are the winners for best shoes and socks. (Photo: FBD)
    Salomon SpeedCross Pro trail-running shoes and SmartWool PhD Run Ultra Light socks are the winners for best shoes and socks. (Photo: FBD)

    This is a bit tricky as shoes are very personal, since fit is very individual. Having said that, I know a lot of World Cup skiers who run in Salomon and they seem to fit a wide range of both men’s and women’s feet very well. For a wide variety of reasons, I try to do most of my running on trails, so the ask here is reasonable: light, grippy, stable shoes.

    The Salomon SpeedCross Pro fits the bill perfectly. Most of my preferred courses are serpentine singletrack with lots of rocks and roots. Given the preponderance of rain we’ve had in Steamboat, Park City and Philly, these shoes are absolutely perfect. It’s also nice to support a brand that supports our community. Am I perhaps a bit biased toward ski brands? Perhaps, but maybe this is because we are all skiers? Even with this, they are still clearly the BiS for shoes.

    5. SOCKS: Smartwool PhD Run Ultra Light

    What’s a good pair of shoes without good socks? You’re out of your frickin’ mind if you’re rockin’ cotton for the wet, sloppy trail run or cold, nasty whap-stick roll  —  “Cotton Kills.” Solution? SmartWool PhD running socks. ’Nuff said.

    6. FUNDIES: Smartwool PhD Wind Boxer Brief

    Smartwool men's PhD Wind Boxer Brief (Smartwool.com)
    Smartwool men’s PhD Wind Boxer Brief (Smartwool.com)

    Now that you know how bad cotton is for your feet, you aren’t actually training in cotton undies, are you? Do you have a death wish? Or perhaps you made a flight to Europe in coach next to a crying baby and you’re thinking you’re going to invest in your future with the ol’ DIY frostbite vasectomy. If that’s your M.O., keep on truckin’ w/ those tighty whitey BVDs. I also understand that if you’re a male nordic skier, you probably haven’t had a date with a girl in quite some time, perhaps ever, but don’t panic — at some point you’ll work up the courage to ask out a real, live woman (not an avatar or inflatable model) and if that goes well, you’re going to want everything working properly “downstairs,” so buck up now for some decent wool man-panties: SmartWool PhD Boxer Briefs.

    For what it’s worth, I’d had a few pairs of these for years and they are trusted travel companions for all European adventures: comfortable, odor resistant, quick drying for laundry in your hotel sink — in other words, perfect. The new model fits better under tights, so it’s perfect for training, we’ll see if it stands the test of time like its battle-tested predecessors.

    7. GLOVES: Toko & Salming

    Top picks for Best in Show gloves for running (Salming) and rollerski (Toko). (Photo: FBD)
    Top picks for Best in Show gloves for running (Salming; top) and rollerski (Toko; bottom). (Photo: FBD)

    For rollerskiing, I like Toko’s Rollerski Glove 2.0. They’re breathable, yet solid which for me is quite important, since as I wrote earlier, Billy Demong and gravity both regularly conspire to try to kill me, so durable gloves are a must. Since my self-preservation game is strong and I have no shame, I will use any object in my immediate vicinity on a rollerski in a largely futile attempt help abate my speed: radio antennas on passing cars, roadside vines, power lines, barbed-wire fences, you name it, so my braking/balance techniques often resemble this.

    As such, my rollerski gloves must be borderline indestructible and these gloves are that good. If you’re silky smooth and easily roll over FBD-killing, near-invisible rocks, glide gracefully around off-camber, rain-soaked corners and haven’t felt the embarrassment and humiliation of a high-speed, whap-stick yard sale into traffic, then you can kiss my ass and buy whatever glove you want. If you know the thrill of unplanned encounters with concrete and danger lurks around every corner of the dreaded Billy Demong “Park City Loop,” these babies are for you.

    For running, I found another great brand with Nordic roots, Salming. They’re lightweight, reflective and very comfortable. Can you run in your ski gloves, sure you can, but then you’re THAT GUY and you don’t want to be that guy, now do you? Fork over the $30 Scrooge for the sweet running jawns; you’ll thank me when the cute girl/guy compliments you on your gloves (which happens to me all of the time).

    8. TIGHTS: Patagonia Velocity Running Tights

    Patagonia Women's Velocity Running Tights (Patagonia.com)
    Patagonia Women’s Velocity Running Tights (Patagonia.com)

    Don’t be fooled by the fact that tights are last on the list, as they are still plenty important. Goof up this step and you’re totally hosed (I bet all of the ladies out there got this one), so I’m pleased to report that this category had another clear winner: Patagonia. Their Patagonia’s Velocity Running Tights are superior. It seems like this would be hard to get wrong, yet so few people seem to get it right. These babies are tight in all of the right places, yet not too tight. The fabric is light and breathable, yet still warm. Remarkably, they’re also quite thin, which makes it perfect for wet training days.

    ***

    Now you’re out of excuses, so get out there.

    Oh yeah, and if you see me screaming (literally and figuratively) down some god-damn 60 mph downhill in Park City, Lake Placid or Steamboat with Billy Demong gracefully weaving his way through obstacles, do me a solid and carefully position your vehicle near me for some type of elaborate car antennae reverse slingshot maneuver. Sure, this won’t work, but this way when you stop to pick up your broken antennae, you can give me a ride to the hospital.

  • Weeks Away from Due Date, Randall Talks About Her Return to Racing

    Weeks Away from Due Date, Randall Talks About Her Return to Racing

    Three-time U.S. Sprint World Cup champion Kikkan Randall is due with her first child in April. (Courtesy photo)
    Three-time U.S. Sprint World Cup champion Kikkan Randall is due with her first child in April. (Courtesy photo)

    Below is an interview with Kikkan Randall, a three-time Sprint World Cup champion and U.S. Ski Team and Alaska Pacific University skier, who is pregnant with her first child and due in April.This interview originally appeared Feb. 9 on SlowTwitch.com and has been adapted for FasterSkier. SlowTwitch is a comprehensive resource for a wide variety of endurance sports, in particular triathlon, and has recently launched a new feature designed to introduce triathletes to nordic skiing. FasterSkier also recently shared SlowTwitch-original interviews with national champions Eric Packer and Tad Elliott. 

    ***

    Kikkan Randall, 33, is the most successful American women’s cross-country skier of all time, winning three Overall World Cup Sprint Titles, a World Championships team sprint, 13 World Cups and countless podium appearances. This has been another exciting year for Randall but in a very different way, as she elected to sit out this racing season in order to start a family. I caught up with her in her home in Alaska to talk about the challenges of training through pregnancy, life away from the World Cup and what’s in store for her moving forward.

    Fast Big Dog: What is it like not racing for the first winter in close to 20 years?

    Kikkan Randall: It has been weird. It was very hard at the beginning of the racing season. I’ve been doing this for so long that your usual routines start to kick in once it’s time to get ready to leave for Europe in the late fall, but this year I had to keep reminding myself, “Oh that’s right, I’m not going to Europe this year.” That was very strange. Even once the season began and I was watching the races on TV there was this sense in the back of my mind, “OK, you’re not going to be there for the first few….”, but then it finally really set it that I wasn’t going to be racing at all. So it was a lot of adjustment at the beginning, but I am fine with it now. In fact, I think this break has only rekindled my desire to race.

    Randall's view of her baby bump. (Courtesy photo)
    Randall’s view of her baby bump. (Courtesy photo)

    FBD: What’s a typical day for you right now?

    KR: I’m at 29 weeks into my pregnancy right now [ed. Randall is currently 33 weeks into her pregnancy], so I’m more than two-thirds of the way there. Each trimester my training and overall routine has shifted, albeit gradually, so it’s hard to describe a “typical day,” as each day is a bit different, especially as I get closer to my due date.

    Overall though, everything is going great. My main goal is a healthy baby, so everything is structured around that. I have still been able to get in two workouts/day on most days, but I have been careful to shorten the volume and intensity, in particular the further along I get in the pregnancy. I’m feeling good, but I clearly don’t have as much energy. A 90-minute ski used to be easy, now it’s challenging. So that’s an adjustment for sure.

    Another big change is I’ve always followed a structured training plan, but now I’m totally playing it by ear. If I feel good and the skiing is good, I work hard, but if energy is down, I take it easy. I think being flexible is key and I’m being very careful to listen to my body.

    Probably the biggest difference between this and previous years is that this year I don’t have to push myself in training, so this is something that I’ve been trying to enjoy. At times it has been a bit of a challenge to find balance, for as a competitive athlete you know how to push yourself and when you hear stuff about other pregnant athletes going out and training hard, you can’t help but wonder if you are doing enough, but every person is different and I feel like I’m right where I should be for the baby, for training, for everything. So overall I’m trying to just relax, enjoy this time and most of all, be smart.

    FBD: You were one of the best, if not the best sprint racer in the world for the last several years. Was it a difficult decision was it to have a child at this point in your career?

    KR: Not at all. I knew that after Sochi I didn’t want to wait four more years to start a family. This is a year that does not have a World Championships or an Olympics, so the timing made a lot of sense. Every season has something you don’t want to miss, but this season seemed like the best fit. The timing for my return also seemed to work well, so it wasn’t a hard decision at all.

    FBD: Do you plan to return to the World Cup after having the baby?

    KR: My hope is to have the baby in April, return to normal training by mid-summer, ramp up for the 2016/17 season on the World Cup, then peak for World Championships at the end of the season. Based on how I feel right now fairly far into the pregnancy, I’d say I’m right on track for this, so I’m optimistic. We’ll see, as anything can happen, but so far, so good.

    FBD: After you return, how many more years do you plan on racing on the World Cup?

    KR: Right now I’ve set the endpoint as the 2018 Olympics, but we’ll see. I’ve had a great run and I still love racing, but I have lots of other goals in life, too, and part of a great career is knowing when to call it quits. I’m going to finish school, probably have a few more kids and I’m looking forward to putting all of my energy into my family. My husband Jeff is amazing — the focus has all been on me these last few years, so I’m excited for him to be able to pursue some more things as well.

    FBD: I know firsthand just how difficult and taxing European travel can be. How will you manage the additional demands of having a young baby while racing World Cups in Europe?

    KR: Jeff and I have thought about this a lot. I want to be a part of the team but I don’t want to be disruptive. Jeff works with FIS (International Ski Federation), so thankfully I’m not over there in Europe alone. We’ll go over to Europe early next year as a family and both sets of parents have agreed to come over and help out, which will be huge. I may even look for a U.S. college student to serve as a part-time nanny, so while it’s a lot to figure out, we’ve got some time and we’ve got some good options.

    A U.S. Ski Team veteran, Kikkan Randall, 33, has won three Sprint World Cup Crystal Globes. (Courtesy photo)
    A U.S. Ski Team veteran, Kikkan Randall, 33, has won three Sprint World Cup Crystal Globes. (Courtesy photo)

    FBD: Do you think the baby will be an added distraction or an asset to your racing?

    KR: Initially it will be an adjustment, for sure: different sleep pattern and lots of other things that can disrupt training, so I may not be able to do everything absolutely perfectly. However, when you’re just ski racing it can be easy to lose sight of what really matters, so having something that is bigger and more important than skiing can really help you find balance and perspective. I’ve talked to lots of the other girls who’ve come back after having babies and they’ve said that the baby has made them appreciate racing more. Like everything else, I’m sure it will come with tradeoffs, but I think overall the implications on my racing will be a positive. More importantly, in the big picture, what the baby means to Jeff and me almost goes without saying, so even if it is a distraction from time to time, I’m sure it’ll be worth it.

    FBD: We have lots of readers who train through pregnancy and resume racing not long after childbirth, please take us through your plan to managing all of these challenges.

    KR: Well, my overall plan all started with my plan through pregnancy. The advice that was given to me is that while pregnant, you can continue at the level to which you are accustomed. For me, that meant my first month was completely normal. In fact, I didn’t even know I was pregnant in the first month. In the second month, I cut my training volume by about 25 percent.

    My number one goal is a healthy baby, so I’ve been very careful this entire time to never push myself to my limit. I kept a pretty normal schedule early on though: I went to team training camps, did intervals, etc. Fairly normal stuff. I was fighting fatigue more than usual, but I only missed one session. I also often didn’t feel good waking up, but I would go out to see how I felt. More often then not, once I got going, I felt better. I’m certain that training actually helped me feel better during this part of the pregnancy, in particular since I was smart and cautious.

    In my second trimester, much of the fatigue and queasiness went away. I dialed back my hours a bit more too, which I’m sure helped. A three-hour training day used to be no big deal, but it now felt like it was too much, so I generally capped sessions at 2 or 2.5 hours.

    Now that I’m in my third trimester, I’m still feeling good but I’m definitely taking it much easier — more time off, lots of recovery and a very cautious, day-to-day approach to training. Overall though I feel like my body is in a good place. I’ve done a good job maintaining fitness and strength and I believe I have set the stage for a healthy, happy baby and a good return to racing.

    Probably the biggest change was I shifted my strength training from peak strength to maintenance. I’ve been training for more general strength and less explosive power. This not only puts me at lower risk for injury, but I think it also makes sense from a fitness perspective, for developing a healthy baby and for building a good base for my return.

    My strategy when I resume racing will be the same: listen to my body and be smart. This is uncharted territory so I don’t feel like I can comment too much on what it will be like post-baby until I’m actually there, so I’m just doing the best I can now to be well prepared.

    FBD: What is your advice to other women in this situation?

    KR: It was really smart for me to not deviate to much from the normal Kikkan — I tried to just be me. I’ve been lucky to not have complications, which can change everything, but keeping my routine as close to normal as possible has helped a lot. I’m feeling good and I encourage other women who have been active prior to pregnancy to not feel like they need to make major changes: don’t push it, but keep to your general routine. Be confident. You don’t have to give up everything to have a child. Sure you need to make changes, but that’s okay, in fact it is great. And certainly don’t be afraid to rest.

    I’m glad you asked this question, too, as one of the things that I’ve noticed in my many years on the World Cup is that it is now much more accepted for women to return to racing after having a child and I think this is a great thing, not just in skiing, but everywhere. I know of four other skiers who are currently out on maternity leave who plan on racing next year and I hope that all of us can serve as examples for women in all types of careers. I’m very happy that we’re seeing a bit of a shift where people don’t have to decide between career and family. The same is true to some degree for male athletes who want to start families. I’d like to see everyone get more support here but it’s nice to see things moving in the right direction.

     “It was really smart for me to not deviate to much from the normal Kikkan — I tried to just be me.” — Kikkan Randall, on being pregnant

    FBD: What has been the most difficult part of this process thus far?

    KR: The hardest part has been not being with the team. I miss them. I’m also used to feeling improvement in my skiing, so going the opposite way is tough. The added body weight makes everything harder even though I understand the reason why. It does give me greater appreciation for the role of excess body weight and it has me very motivated to getting my pre-baby body back.

    FBD: This season has been a breakout year for a few of the other women on the team and you are widely credited as the person that set the tone for the entire U.S. cross-country team. Your work ethic, attitude and results have raised the bar to the point that the standard is now nothing short of the top of the podium. How does this make you feel?

    KR: I’m excited and honored to be looked at in this manner. I could tell in training that there was a new level of confidence and maturity in the team this season. A lot of them are coming into that magical age range of 24 – 27: they now have lots of hours training, more experience racing and I could just see everyone developing the recognition that they could be at the top soon if they kept working hard. I was actually incredibly nervous watching them race — way more nervous than when I’m racing — which is kinda funny. I guess it was because I knew that everyone was so close. So yes, certainly I was very excited to see the results at the Tour de Ski and elsewhere, but to be honest, I kind of knew it was coming.

    FBD: You’ve traveled the world for over a decade with the U.S. Ski Team. You’ve seen some beautiful places and experienced many different countries and cultures. When everything is said and done and you put the final bow on the racing career, where do you think you will settle down?

    KR: Great question. Tricky question. In racing you have very clear goals and objectives: you have key races, a training plan to get you ready for those races and life can be mapped out literally years in advance. Then your career ends and you’re thinking, “OK, now what?” It’s an interesting discussing. We love Alaska, but it’s a big world out there, so we’re excited to look at some new opportunities as a family. It’s fun looking ahead, discussing options and seeing where life will take us.

    FBD: Last question — I know interesting and unique baby names are all the rage these days, so have you and Jeff considered naming the child Fast Big Dog? I’m not sure if the kid will be able to find those little mini license plates that they sell in the gift shops at Disney World, but it will certainly be a name that stands out, and in a very, strong, independent way. That’s a very Alaska thing, right?

    KR: (Laughing) Well, hmmm, we’re actually talking about names right now, so I promise we’ll give that very careful consideration.

  • Sudden Slip and the Rise Thereafter: Packer on Adversity and Success

    Sudden Slip and the Rise Thereafter: Packer on Adversity and Success

    Eric Packer after winning his first national title in the classic sprint at 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Mich. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)
    Eric Packer after winning his first national title in the classic sprint at 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Mich. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)

    Below is an interview with the 2016 U.S. national champion in the classic sprint, Eric Packer, a 25-year-old Alaska Pacific University skier and Dartmouth grad. This interview originally appeared on SlowTwitch.com and has been adapted for FasterSkier. SlowTwitch is a comprehensive resource for a wide variety of endurance sports, in particular triathlon, and has recently launched a new feature designed to introduce triathletes to nordic skiing. Last month, FasterSkier shared a SlowTwitch-original interview with another national champion, Tad Elliott. 

    According to Packer’s recent Facebook post, he officially qualified to race World Cup Period 4 (the eight-stage Ski Tour Canada from March 1-12) for the U.S.

    ***

    Eric Packer (5) on his way to beating APU teammate Reese Hanneman (r) and the rest of the men's final in the classic sprint at 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships for his first national title. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)
    Eric Packer (5) on his way to beating APU teammate Reese Hanneman (r) and the rest of the men’s final in the classic sprint at 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships for his first national title. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)

    Fast Big Dog: Congratulations on winning your first US National Championship in nordic skiing in Houghton, Mich., on Jan. 9 in the classic sprint. … Sprint racing is very tactical, so walk us through how you qualified, made it through the rounds and went on to win the title.

    Eric Packer: You are 100 percent correct. Sprint races are very strategic … and this race had the added dynamic of being in the classic technique. Ski equipment technology has evolved and athletes are getting stronger and stronger, so there is an emerging trend in classic races to double pole the entire course — no striding at all. This can be a very risky strategy and its success depends on several factors. Skis can run faster without kick wax, but having to double pole all of the uphills is very taxing and comes at a high energy cost. There is also the added variable of the different approaches required in qualifying versus the heats, as qualifying is all about a high, constant speed. There is virtually no drafting since you start in intervals, so you’re not worried about pulling someone along for most of the race only to have them blow by you at the end.

    In the end, I decided I should double pole the qualifier (I actually used my skate skis, not classic skis with no kick wax), but then I switched to classic skis with kick wax for the elimination rounds. Thankfully, our ski techs at APU are some of the best in the business and they did an outstanding job giving us all very, very fast skis for the elimination rounds, so I felt like I had the best of both worlds – I could stride the uphills, yet I still had fast skis for the rest of the course. This was definitely the right call.

    As for the races themselves, I did a good job following the strategy I outlined above: I used only the energy necessary to move on from each round and I advanced to the final having kept my efforts in check. Probably most importantly, I stayed strong mentally. Sprint racing can be very taxing psychologically, as it is a lot of races in a short period of time and you’re always thinking about how much time you have left to warm up, to cool down, when to eat, not to mention all of the other dynamics about the races themselves that we’ve already covered. Keeping that all together can be tough, so I think I was able to come out on top because I was a in good place both physically and mentally the whole day.

    FBD: The last time we sat down, you had just been discharged from the hospital after what could have literally been a career-ending or even a life-ending injury. You fell off a 60-foot cliff while mountain running in Alaska. Is there any truth to the rumor that you ran off the cliff just to avoid skiing with me on Eagle Glacier?

    EP: No, I’ll take skiing with you over falling off a cliff any day.

    FBD: Thank you, I appreciate that. I’m not sure how many other people would make that same choice. … Describe what happened in this horrific accident and the impact that it had on your training.

    Eric Packer (l) with PK Kovacs "literally two minutes" before Packer fell more than 60 feet down a cliff. "When you see the photo, it is a very vivid illustration of just how unforgiving that terrain is in the Chugach Mountain Range," Packer explained. (Photo: EricPacker.com)
    Eric Packer (l) with PK Kovacs “literally two minutes” before Packer fell more than 60 feet down a cliff. “When you see the photo, it is a very vivid illustration of just how unforgiving that terrain is in the Chugach Mountain Range,” Packer explained. (Photo: EricPacker.com)

    EP: I was doing a mountain run with my teammates, I had a slight slip at just the wrong spot, then all of a sudden I was in free-fall. I dropped straight down 15 feet, then tumbled head over heels another 60 feet or so through this jagged boulder field. It was terrifying.

    In terms of my actual injuries, I was incredibly fortunate for as bad as the fall was, I somehow managed to not break any bones, which still amazes me to this day. Don’t get me wrong though, it was still bad. I had bruises over my entire body and I felt like I had been hit by a bus. I think the hardest part was the mental side though, as the whole thing was so sudden and so unexpected. In a split second, I went from being a top level athlete to barely being able to get out of bed. The whole thing really scared me. It wasn’t necessarily what actually happened, as much as what could have happened. The doctors told me that at the speed I was traveling if I had hit my head, I easily could have been killed. What’s crazy is my teammate Scott Patterson took a photo of my teammate PK Kovacs and I literally two minutes before the fall happened, When you see the photo, it is a very vivid illustration of just how unforgiving that terrain is in the Chugach Mountain Range where we were running.

    I was so banged up that I stayed home for a week with no training. Once I got the clearance from my doctor and PT to resume light activity, all I could do were easy walks. Even once I got to return to somewhat normal training, the first few workouts back were very hard on me, both mentally and physically. It hadn’t really been all that long since I was healthy, so it was still fresh in my mind how I should feel training, but I was just so far from away that, it was very hard to deal with. Not only was it very frightening how close I came to getting killed, but it was such a striking example how quickly you can lose everything.

    I read the excellent interview you did with Tad Elliott about his struggles with illness and my situation is interesting because on one hand it is very similar but on the other hand, it is very different. In reality, mine was really more of a close call and the biggest impact was the mental side. Tad’s situation was long and drawn-out, but mine was very sudden and completely unexpected. So while I was very sore and completely out of commission for a few weeks, Tad’s situation played out over the course of several months or even years. What we most certainly have in common, though, is the changed perspective that these events brought on. I can’t speak for Tad, but I know in the end this accident actually ended up helping me.

    FBD: One of the foci of this column is the role of adversity in success, as this is something that cross boundaries in all aspects of life. I don’t think there is any top level athlete that hasn’t had to come back from some type of setback, so describe how you were not only able to overcome this, but also how it actually helped lead you to national championship.

    EP: Great question. I’ve thought about this a lot, as it is quite counter-intuitive that something like falling out a cliff could make you faster, but that’s exactly what happened. I got super lucky in that there was no lasting damage from my accident, but on the flip side I came very close to life-altering injury or worse. The whole time I wasn’t able to train there was certainly some anxiety about missing workouts, but overall I felt lucky — lucky that I survived and lucky that I still had the opportunity to ski race. Once I could get back to normal training, instead of feeling like I had to go out training, I now felt incredibly fortunate just to be able to go outside to do anything. Training became a privilege not a chore and I ended up having the best late summer/fall training of my career. In the end, that crazy accident helped me develop that little bit of extra motivation that I needed to take me to the next level.

    I’m glad you brought this up too, as this phenomena is more common that you might think. My Alaska Pacific University teammate Scott Patterson was on that ill-fated run with me and he too had a similar experience last year. He was impaled by a ski in a freak accident and developed a pulmonary embolism. His injury was far more serious than mine also could have died. Scott also won a national championship this year in Houghton, with his win coming in the 15 k classic race. One of Kikkan’s [Randall] best seasons was preceded by her spending most of the summer in a walking boot due to a serious foot injury, yet that proved to be a breakthrough year for her too. What I went through is actually very insignificant compared to what each of them went through, but I think the common thread is that dealing with adversity helps you reach success.

    “Training became a privilege not a chore and I ended up having the best late summer/fall training of my career.” — Eric Packer, 2016 classic sprint U.S. national champion

    FBD: Crash or no crash, what would you say was the most significant contributing factor to your win?

    EP: That’s easy. My team. I’m super lucky to be on the Alaska Pacific University ski team. I know I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for this team. It is an amazing program. The coach, Eric Flora, was USOC coach of the year and that’s across all sports, not just skiing. If you trust your coach like all of us here at APU do, you don’t have to worry about your training. Our PT, Zuzana Rodgers, is also amazing. Thanks to her, I was able to get back from my accident much sooner than I thought was possible. The entire leadership group up here is so good that there is not too much more you could ask for as an athlete.

    The training group is also unsurpassed. We all grew up together and began butting heads over 10 years ago in the local junior races. About two years ago we started getting everyone back together and the impact has been enormous. There is a commitment to group success that you don’t find a lot of other places. Choosing a path like triathlon or nordic skiing can be a lonely lifestyle, but when you have such a supportive team environment, it becomes a very fun journey.

    Since we’ve know each other for so long, we’ve all had lots of ups and downs together and everyone really respects each other. We’ve all beaten each other in races, so everyone is well aware of that fine line between success and disappointment and how quickly the tables can turn on anyone. As a result, as a team we are not focused on the individuals, but rather on trying to move the whole group forward in a way that we haven’t yet seen in men’s skiing in the US.

    FBD: In a way it is ironic that your accident happened running, as one of the central themes of this column is how good nordic skiing is for triathlon training and vice versa. Tell us a little bit about how you train for skiing in the offseason and how you think Nordic skiing can help triathletes

    EP: One of my big goals this past offseason was to improve my running, as running is a very effective way to build your fitness base. As a result, running is very good for skiing and I believe that it carries over very well to both skate and classic technique. Going the other way, I think skate skiing is perfect winter training for cyclists as it has a lot of static loading of the muscles, while classic is best to improve your running. Triathletes should also keep in mind that both skate and classic are weight bearing but non-impact, so both are a perfect way to increase your training volume without a greatly increased chance of injury. And skiing is fun. I read your first article in this series and I couldn’t agree with your conclusions more – skiing is safe (very few cliffs on the tracks), warm, fun and overall excellent preparation for triathlon.

    FBD: Let me ask you the same question I asked Tad Elliott, as it is such a relevant one to so many athletes that have dealt with illness or injury: what advice do you have for those in the process of working through this right now?

    Eric Packer (l) and Mads Strøm (r) fight for second place on the last hill of their final lap of the men's 15 k classic at the December SuperTour in Sun Valley, Idaho. Strøm finished second and Packer placed third.
    Eric Packer (l) and Mads Strøm (r) fight for second place on the last hill of their final lap of the men’s 15 k classic mass start at the December SuperTour in Sun Valley, Idaho. Strøm finished second and Packer placed third.

    EP: The biggest piece of advice I can offer is to get qualified, objective advice right away. Being injured is incredibly frustrating and this makes it very hard to look at yourself analytically. A good coach, doctor or PT is both knowledgeable and objective. Injured athletes are usually neither of those things.

    Every athlete should build a relationship with a coach, physical therapist and a doctor who really care about them and most importantly, understand them as both a person and as an athlete. When you’re injured, recovery is all about managing both the short-term and the long-term, so you need people who have perspective on both. I was intrigued when I read that Tad’s doctors and coaches started him back by sending him on short walks, as that is exactly what my team did for me. Would they give this same advice to a sedentary person? Maybe not, as that person might be content to just rest, but doing nothing would drive me crazy. Instructing an athlete to just sit still all day is probably some of the worst advice possible, so having people who understand this and are smart enough to prescribe an activity as safe and low-risk as walking is key.

    What’s interesting, too, is the advice from the medical team can go both ways too: sure, they will often say, “take it easy, rest, recover, etc.,” but I’ve also had the opposite experience in which the issue I was dealing with I thought was serious, but the PT told me I could and should muscle through it. If I had been on my own, I would have lost valuable training time from an injury that wasn’t nearly as serious as I thought it was. Sometimes it is okay to train though pain, the key is knowing when this is a good idea and when it’s bad one, and you need to help to do this.

    FBD: As a newly crowned national champion, what advice do you have everyone out there on their own journey, whether it is skiing, triathlon or any other endurance activity?

    EP: The cool thing about endurance sport is that you get to choose your own destiny. It is really about the work that you do and how smart you are about recovery. When I first got started racing at a high level, this was hard for me to grasp. If I had a bad race, I’d blame my genetics, my skis and things I couldn’t control. But as soon I realized that I just wasn’t working as hard as others, that changed everything. It’s really about the work you put in. Once you understand and accept that you control your success, anything is possible.

    FBD: You’ve had quite an eventful year. What is the most significant thing you learned?

    EP: Take everything that comes at you, deal with it and no matter what, do not let the little things get to you. Everyone has to deal with adversity, what matters is how you respond.

    Two days before my win in Houghton, I raced in the 30k that Tad won. I needed to get something like 10th place or better to qualify for a starting spot on the World Cup. This was a big goal for me and not only did I not do it, I wasn’t even close. To make matters worse, I got gapped off of the lead group at about 7 k in, so I just dangled in no-man’s-land for about 20k or so, knowing that I was missing this major goal. Earlier in my career, this would have stuck with me for a while and certainly ruined the rest of my races at nationals, but as a result of my accident, some great coaching from Flora and me figuring some stuff out on my own, I’ve learned to let things like this go quickly. So once that race was over, I only focused on what I could control: rest, recovery, good food, etc. I simply let the bad race go, moved on and prepared for the next race, and ended up winning for my first national championship.

  • Living the Dream: Ultimate Puffies Gear Review

    Living the Dream: Ultimate Puffies Gear Review

    LTD Gear Review: Ultimate Puffies (All photos by FBD)
    LTD Gear Review: Ultimate Puffies (All photos by FBD)

    Since amazingly I haven’t been fired by FasterSkier (yet), LTD is back with our undoubtedly eagerly awaited second installment of puffy coat reviews. In the first review, we tackled “lifestyle” puffies. These are the Swiss Army Knives of your closest — they do it all. You can wear them to and from the tracks, warm up in them for races, impress the ladies in the coffee shop Après-ski or wear them out to dinner, and Holly Beattie won bronze in the relay at World being warm and stylish the entire time.

    This is the review of their big brothers. While the lifestyle puffies may be the Sugar Ray Leonards of your wardrobe, pound for pound the kings of the closet, these are the heavyweight prize fighters: the Mike Tysons, Evander Holyfields, the Muhammad Alis — big, bad and heavy. This isn’t your ‘go-to’ jacket for most days; this is what you pull out when you’re getting ready to slug it out for several hours out in the cold. We call these the “ultimate puffies.”

    As you all should know by now, nothing is more important than looking good. Learn it. Know it. Live it. Now, having said that, you’re likely asking yourself, “Self, those ultimate puffies make you look like you’re heading off on an Everest expedition. How can I possibly look good in one of those monstrosities?” Great question, self, I am proud of you. You have been paying attention.

    Now please listen (read), very, very carefully here, as this is the ONE instance in which I am willing to grant you special dispensation on the fashion front in the name of function. These jackets are utilitarian. They are work horses. They have a very important job to do — they were put on Earth to keep your whiny, needy, nordic ass warm when it is downright nasty, so here and only here, we are we going to make allowances in style in the name of not catching pneumonia.

    You all know the scene — we’ve all been there — it is below zero and it’s race day, but you’re a team player, so you’re out there cheering on teammates/children/parents or friends, working the wax table for hours on end, or maybe you are even on-course, giving it your all in these brutal conditions.

    Or perhaps you are sitting for what seems like an eternity with 70,000 of your closest friends at some seemingly pointless spectator event as a part of the soul-crushing office job that you hate, watching overpaid millionaire mercenaries give each other closed head injuries while horribly inebriated indigenous personnel scream obscenities at players they worshiped as recently as a week ago. This bizarre fleeting devotion is even more puzzling due to the fact that essentially none of these steroid-abusing, sexual-assault purveyors are actually from the city they are purported to be representing and they garner god-like status despite their often glaringly illegal and immoral acts. Drown dogs with your bare hands? Beat defenseless women unconscious? KILL other humans? No problem, we love you as long as your ball skills are solid. Where was I going with this? Oh yes, those stadiums can be quite cold, so you need a warm coat.

    So, since no one loves you like we do here at FasterSkier, we went out and got ourselves cold so you don’t have to.

    The Process:

    We covered this in excruciating detail in the first review, so in the name of brevity I’m going to skip all of the gory details this time around since all of the same terms and conditions exist in this review as well. If you’re a stickler for details or just love to read my beautifully crafted prose, give yourself a treat and dive back in to the last installment and bask in the awesomeness that is my detailed description of testing protocols, disclosure statements, and conflicts of interest.

    Selection Criteria:

    I am going to repeat the description of how each particular jacket was selected though, as not only is is very important, but I want to take as many steps as prudent to avoid any angry mail. The companies picked the jackets, not us, so if you have an axe to grind, write them, not me. Or the executives at FasterSkier, as near as I can tell, all of those people seem quite lonely and most certainly need more to do.

    I would also like to emphasize how carefully and extensively every single piece was tested. I love gear. My team loves gear. There is no place all of us would rather be than outside doing cool stuff, so this is a responsibility we take very, very seriously. So while we did beat the crap out of these jackets, we did so due to our commitment to you the reader, the skier, the parent, the coach, the person standing out there in the cold for hours. Jackets are expensive, so we did our best to ensure that when you’re ready to pull the trigger on a new “Muhammad Ali,” we know we’ve done our best to give you the intellectual ammo to make the best possible purchase for your specific needs.

    The Reviews:

    Arc’teryx 

    FBD in the Arc’teryx Men's Ceres: Since no one takes manufacturers' claims of "Windproof" as skeptically as our team, FBD is shown here doing his best Labrador Retriever imitation, heading up Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado at 60 mph in sub-zero temps. (All photos: FBD)
    Since no one takes manufacturers’ claims of “windproof” as skeptically as our team, FBD is shown here doing his best Labrador Retriever imitation, heading up Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado at 60 mph in sub-zero temps wearing an Arc’teryx Men’s Ceres Down Jacket.

    In this “ultimate puffy” category, Arc’teryx sadly only sent us one jacket, a men’s Ceres. I say “sadly,” because this coat is amazing. Once again “The Bird” (they used that on the phone with me, so I therefore feel authorized to throw this out, plus it makes me sound like I know what I’m talking about and I like that) absolutely killed it. Essentially every (male) tester agreed that this was the warmest jacket in the test and it handled every challenge we threw at it with style and grace.

    Arc’teryx Men's Ceres Down Jacket (Arcteryx.com)
    Arc’teryx Men’s Ceres Down Jacket (Arcteryx.com)

    Warm? Check. Durable? Check. Stylish? Check. What’s not to love? Well, the only downside to this heavyweight champ is that all of these features come at a cost, as this was the most expensive jacket testing, but damn is it nice.

    As was the case in the “lifestyle puffies,” the fit is a bit generous, so if you’re a 6’6”, 118-pound IT technician or web programmer, this may not be the coat for you. If you’re a big, strapping man like the FBD, you’ll grab this every time there’s a sub-zero wind chill and the coaching zone you’ve been assigned to cover at the World Cup is the farthest one humanly possible from the nice warm wax cabin.

    Strengths: Very warm. Shell has a perfect mix of durability and flexibility.

    Weaknesses: May necessitate a second mortgage. Fit might be a bit loose on the ectomorphs out there in the studio audience.

    Buy it if: You’ll pay any amount of money to be warm while you’re sitting in the Eagles stadium watching angry, drunken, shirtless guys from Philadelphia throw beer at angry, drunken shirtless guys from New York, wondering how you life went so wrong. Or if you attend races anywhere in New England or Montana. Or Greenland. Who knows if there are actually nordic races in Greenland, but it seems like if there are, they’d be really, really cold.

    Patagonia

    Patagonia Women's Fitz Roy Down Parka
    Patagonia Women’s Fitz Roy Down Parka

    While maybe not quite as warm as the Arc’teryx, the offerings from Patagonia were quite close. They provide the test team a men’s and women’s Fitz Roy. In short, everyone loved these jackets. Both of the puffies were puffy, but not too puffy (all of my English professors just committed suicide after reading that sentence, sorry Mrs. Dixon et al.).

    One of my favorite comments from our testing log was, “I love this jacket, is it so soft and warm it feels like I’m wearing a sleeping bag that moves with me perfectly.” I agree with this assessment, as the jacket really does feel that soft and unrestricting. Is it too soft? Well, thankfully the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club cross-country ski team has essentially boundless energy and a near-total immunity to cold, so we repeated our patented “Penguin Slide” testing protocol and I’ll say this, none of the Patagonia garments had the slightest snag or tear, despite repeated runs down the very steep face of Howelsen Hill (as a point of reference, there are ski jumps are about 30 meters from our slide test area, so that should give you some idea of the steepness of the slope).

    So is this a guarantee that these coats will never rip? Of course not, but what it is intended to do is provide some assurance that if you’re standing in your favorite local outdoor retailer thinking, “Man, the material on this coat looks thin,” it is, but it is durable. Very durable.

    Patagonia Men's Fitz Roy Down Jacket (Patagonia.com)
    Patagonia Men’s Fitz Roy Down Jacket (Patagonia.com)

    We’ve now been testing these jackets daily for over two months without a single problem. If you’re working on monster trucks or an offshore oil derrick, could you damage it? Maybe. But if you are doing any of those things, you’re probably not reading this review and you’re most likely firmly in the Carhartt camp anyway, so stop wasting my time with all of these stupid questions.

    Strengths: Warmest coat for its weight, very compressible hence very packable, also very soft and flexible. Cool colors, nice style for both fraüleins and bros.

    Weaknesses: MAY tear more easily than some of the other coats, but this is just a theory, so no angry letters, Patagonia, and again, we tested this extensively and had no problems.

    Buy it if: You want a very versatile, warm puffy and you don’t work on monster trucks or offshore oil rigs.

    L.L. Bean

    L.L. Bean Wind Challenger Down Jacket
    L.L. Bean Wind Challenger Down Jacket

    As they did for the last review, L.L. Bean provided us another official model of the jacket they are supplying to the U.S. Ski Team this year, the Wind Challenger. The FBD testing crew was almost as divided as the Bloods and Crips in the L.L. Bean vs. Patagonia debate (as much as this metaphor could ever possibly fit a bunch of mountain-town nordic ski coaches), as the approaches of these two brands are almost polar opposite.

    Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club nordic coach Josh Smullin (second from l) rocking the L.L. Bean Wind Challenger jacket on a cold walk back from breakfast at training camp with some SSWSC rock stars.
    Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club nordic coach Josh Smullin (second from l) rocking the L.L. Bean Wind Challenger jacket on a cold walk back from breakfast at training camp with some SSWSC rock stars.

    Patagonia’s garments are warm, light, colorful, fashion-forward and very soft. L.L. Bean took the opposite tact and developed jackets that are also very warm, but much thicker, subdued and beefy. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as heavy = durable, and understated is a plus for people who don’t want to “pop” when they hit the town.

    I love any sort of attention and generally live my life by the philosophy of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” but if flying under radar is your M.O., this coat is for you.

    It’s a great coat and it feels like it can take a beating, a concept for which we are all quite fond.

    L.L. Bean Women's Wind Challenger Down Jacket (LLBean.com)
    L.L. Bean Women’s Wind Challenger Down Jacket (LLBean.com)

    Strengths: Heavier outer layer likely more abrasion resistant. Official supplier to the U.S. Ski Team. Not too flashy.

    Weaknesses: The hand on this coat is not nearly as soft or pliable as the others, in particular the Patagonia. Not super colorful. Not quite as packable, which is important when Grover says you can only bring one bag to Europe for your four-month trip.

    Buy it if: You channel your inner Andy Newell on your ski every day, you own a non-declawed cat, or you are thinking of buying a monster truck and/or are applying for oil rig work.

    (Ed note: our team of researchers is currently investigating whether monster trucks are allowed on oil rigs).

    Big Agnes

    Big Agnes Men's Dunkley Belay Jacket
    Big Agnes Men’s Dunkley Belay Jacket

    Big Agnes sent their apologies, but not a women’s coat, which is a shame as the men’s coat, the Dunkley Belay Jacket is excellent. It was the only jacket in the test with synthetic insulation (for women’s synthetic-jacket options, click here), and the down vs. synthetic is a debate that has ravaged mankind since the dawn of time.

    Big Agnes Men's Dunkley Belay Jacket (BigAgnes.com)
    Big Agnes Men’s Dunkley Belay Jacket (BigAgnes.com)

    Much has been written on both sides, so I won’t bore all of you with the details again here, but the executive summary is that this coat out-performs all of the others in the wet. I just happen to personally own last year’s model and like it a lot, but I had two serious issues with the zipper, one of which required an exchange. Big Agnes was very gracious about this, but even the replacement garment wasn’t perfect. Unfortunately our test garment also had a bit of a finicky zipper, which was real drag (no pun intended) when trying to put the coat on with cold hands after a race.

    Strengths: Stacked up to the “downies”  when dry. Warmest coat when wet. Perfect buy for people who recreate the ALS Challenge all winter and athletes who bathe their pets outside regardless of conditions. Or anyone who owns a Labrador Retriever, an animal that somehow manages to magically attract cold, wet conditions year-round, particularly in your car.

    Weaknesses: Least packable of all of the coats.  Zipper issues seem more common than they should be, in particular for a coat in this price range.

    Buy it if: You work at a winter car wash or ski places where the dreaded snow/rain transition is all-too-frequent.

    Bjørn Daehlie

    Bjørn Daehlie Women's Shelter Jacket
    Bjørn Daehlie Women’s Shelter Jacket

    The friendly folks at BD flipped the script on us on this one and sent a women’s ultimate puffy, the Shelter Jacket, but not a men’s, so this review is for women, by women. The garment sent was also the same version used by the U.S. Ski Team last year, so it’s got plenty of street cred.

    Bjørn Daehlie Men's Shelter Jacket (BjornDaehlie.com)
    Bjørn Daehlie Men’s Shelter Jacket (BjornDaehlie.com)

    This jacket was one of the best “all-arounders” for the ladies. It is warm, stylish and feels durable. One of our testers was an elite skier and subsequently received her fair share of team jackets and this was one of her favorites. Despite being from Alaska, she is surprisingly prone to getting cold, so she could be found busting out some of her AK coaching knowledge in this beauty even when out on skiing.

    I don’t think I’d actually do a workout in it, but it has nice mobility which means it is perfect to wear out to coach or any other start/stop activity. It is also ideal if you ski like one of our other testers Josh Smullin, in that in an effort to inflate your training hours, you take frequent breaks mid-workout for water and to make long phone calls. If you meet any of these criteria, BOOM, this jacket is for you.

    Strengths: Great all-around coat for women. Good weight. Good warmth. Great mobility. Great style. Extremely economical. Best value in entire test.

    Weaknesses: People will ask you if you’re Josh Smullin (never a good thing) or if you lie a lot in your training log. Coaches may attempt to activate the “auto-stop” feature on your heart rate monitor.

    Buy it if: You think your genealogy somehow traces back to Norwegian superstar Bjørn Daehlie, you’re a fan of this very stylish, iconic nordic brand, or you’re currently a little light on your yearly training hours.

    Bonus track

    L.L. Bean's Women's Baxter State Park. Not exactly a puffy, but we'll review it anyway.
    L.L. Bean’s Women’s Baxter State Parka. Not exactly a puffy, but we’ll review it anyway.

    One of the many things that makes this job fun is watching companies blatantly ignore my ridiculously simple instructions. People don’t send stuff they are supposed to send. People do sent stuff they’re not supposed to send. No one sends stuff on time and everyone yells at me when the reviews are late and weird. What I’m saying is I’m the victim here.

    Having said that, business is a full-contact sport — I get that. I have an alter ego that is out fighting a good fight in the corporate world right now and no one understands better than I that corporate goals may not always mesh with my goofy editorial goals. Perhaps even more importantly, as noted in the lifestyle puffy review, no one hates rules more than the FBD, so when L.L. Bean sent two jackets that seemed to defy all categories, the Baxter State Parka, I appreciated the gesture. The question became however, “What the hell do we do with these things?” So since Bean was aggressive, clever and innovative enough to send a special category of jackets, who am I to stifle this creative energy? So here’s a very special bonus review.

    L.L. Bean Men's Baxter State Parka (LLBean.com)
    L.L. Bean Men’s Baxter State Parka (LLBean.com)

    What are these mysterious category-defying garments? Well, that depends on when you grew up. There was a time when these pieces were called “snorkel jackets” and “back in the day,” you ruled the playground if you had one. I still remember poor Mark Woods having to sit on the playground in third grade in Michigan in mid-winter without any jacket or shirt to prove his worthiness for inclusion into the “Snorkel Club.” (Mark later passed away with complications from pneumonia and will be missed greatly. Very sad story.) Well, apparently, what’s old is what’s new again and these babies are making a comeback.

    This styling on these “snorkels” is a bit controversial, but generally well received. One young, hip female reviewer absolutely loved this jacket and rocked it hard on a team trip in Aspen. In perhaps the quote of the year, she noted, “I’m not a trophy wife, but I’m dressed like I could be and I kinda like that.” And that’s saying a lot in Aspen.

    On the other side of the coin, probably our most conservative male coach also loved this jacket and regularly wore it around town, having never looked better.

    A fishing vest, no proof that it's on steroids
    A fishing vest, no proof that it’s on steroids

    Strengths/Weaknesses: Fabric feels like it can stop a bullet. Hood features synthetic-fur trim and makes you a dead ringer for Kenny when fully deployed. More pockets than a fishing vest on steroids. Coat weighs more than me, folds to approximate size of my Great Dane. Will likely survive a nuclear blast.

    Buy it if: You rock Ray-Ban aviators in the winter, you drive a Range Rover to races, or you live alone in a backwoods cabin and trap your own food all winter. Or you fear an assassination attempt.

    ***

    Conclusion:

    We’re at that time of year when it can be very cold at many nordic venues and we’ve already covered that it’s really no fun to be cold. Since all of you over-trained nordic nerds out there already have compromised immune systems from the white blood cell-suppressing combination of a high-training volume, never going easy (as hey, there’s no way I’m letting THAT guy pass me up this hill on a training day) and getting up at 4:30 am to watch the live coverage of the World Cup, you deserve to treat yourself to a nice, warm puffy to throw on after the Land of Lakes Loppet so you can finally lick that nasty cold that’s been dogging you for months. Don’t forget, the Birkie is just around the corner and you need to be healthy if you are going to dominate wave 5.

    Up Next:

    Base layers and/or wind briefs (Yup, we are going THERE), or maybe the world’s coolest training monitoring system, or maybe something else. Or maybe nothing else, as I’m convinced that these columns are slowly killing me. And my Great Dane almost started a fire in my house the other day, so it seems as though I now attempt to cheat death on a daily basis and someday this just has to catch up to me.

    On a completely unrelated note, if anyone is interested in adopting a Great Dane “puppy,” please contact me offline: low miles, one owner, never been crashed.

    About the Author: Jon Schafer, known in U.S. nordic circles as Fast Big Dog, is a cultural anomaly: part man, part myth. He spent the better part of a month hitchhiking from Costa Rica to Alaska, carrying his skis the entire time, with only his quick wit and love of tequila to keep him going. … He skis, he rides, he writes and he paddles.

  • Elliott on Injury, Illness and the Long Road Back

    Elliott on Injury, Illness and the Long Road Back

    Tad Elliott blows a kiss to spectators as he crosses the line first in the 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships men's 30 k freestyle mass start on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich., for his fourth national title. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)
    Tad Elliott pretending to blow out the candles, in honor of his mother’s birthday, as he crosses the line first in the 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships men’s 30 k freestyle mass start on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich., for his fourth national title. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)

    Below is an interview with the 2016 U.S. national champion in the 30-kilometer freestyle mass start, Tad Elliott, a 27-year-old Ski and Snowboard Club Vail skier and former U.S. Ski Team member. This interview originally appeared on SlowTwitch.com and has been adapted for FasterSkier. SlowTwitch is a comprehensive resource for a wide variety of endurance sports, in particular triathlon, and has recently launched a new feature designed to introduce triathletes to nordic skiing.

    In the featured series, Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Demong explains the synergistic relationship between Nordic skiing, cycling and running, Kikkan Randall shows how to dress optimally for skiing, and Andy Newell, Brian Gregg, Matt Liebsch, Eric Packer and Mary Rose all offer an assortment of training and technical tips for skiers of all levels. Please visit SlowTwitch.com and check out all of these resources.

    ***

    Fast Big Dog: Congratulations on winning another U.S. National Championship in the 30 k skate race. How many skiing titles is this for you?

    Tad Elliott: This is my fourth national championship in nordic skiing. My first one was in 2010 in Fort Kent, Maine, when I won the 50 k skate race. I repeated again in 2011 in Rumford, Maine, in the 30 k skate race, then again in 2012 in Rumford, Maine, in the 15 k skate race. [Ed. note: the U.S . Cross Country Championships vary the format between skate and classic each year — there is a distance race every year, but the 50 k men’s races are now held at a separate U.S. Distance Nationals at the end of the season.]

    FBD: How many National Championships have you won in mountain biking?

    TE: I won the U23 national title two times in mountain biking, so I’ve been lucky enough to have the privilege of wearing the Stars and Stripes in a few different sports. It’s a tremendous honor and something I appreciate every time I put on the kit.

    Tad Elliott (second from front) trails Kris Freeman during the 30 k freestyle mass start at 2016 U.S. nationals on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich. Elliott went on to win by nearly 10 seconds. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)
    Tad Elliott (second from front) trails Kris Freeman during the 30 k freestyle mass start at 2016 U.S. nationals on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich. Elliott went on to win by nearly 10 seconds. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)

    FBD: Tell me about this most recent win – how did it go down?

    TE: The distance race in Houghton [Michigan] this year was a 30 k mass start. Race officials place skiers on the start grid based on FIS points, and since I’ve been sick for so long and basically out of racing, I didn’t have many points so I had to start 40th in the grid, which was bad. Mass starts in skiing are no different than those in bike races, they can be chaotic and more importantly, it is easy to miss a critical move if you are too far back, so I knew that if I was going to be at all competitive I was going to have to move up to the front quickly. This is where bike racing skills come in handy, too, as any bike racer worth his salt knows how to move up in traffic. This is easier said than done, though, and anyone who has done this knows that it burns a lot of energy, is stressful and can be dangerous so the whole time I was thinking, “move up, but be smart — don’t take any stupid risks.”

    At 7 k down, two skiers attacked and got a bit of a gap, but Matt Liebsch and Brian Gregg went to the front and brought them back. Matt and Brian set a furious pace, so their efforts shattered the field and when they reeled the leaders back in at about 9 k in, we were down to a lead group of 11 guys. This group then stayed together until 3 k to go, when I attacked. I knew it was a “make or break” situation, so I gave it all I had and I was able stay away to the line.

    FBD: What was going through your mind in that last 3 k?

    TE: In the months leading up to the race, I could only dream of the podium. Hell, I didn’t know if I was going to be healthy enough to even start, but as you know, once the gun goes off, it really is anyone’s race. I had great skis, I felt good from the beginning and once things really got turned up, I realized I could actually win it.

    Many people don’t realize just how tactical ski racing can be — it is very similar to bike racing — you have to gamble, take risks and make moves. Sometime these moves work and sometimes they don’t. You also need to be careful to not burn too many matches and when you do make a move, make it count, so once I got away, I knew I had made the right move at the right time, so I just told myself to stay relaxed, keep going and give it everything I had in the tank. And it worked.

    “In the months leading up to the race, I could only dream of the podium. Hell, I didn’t know if I was going to be healthy enough to even start.” — Tad Elliott, 2016 U.S. nationals 30 k skate champion skate and longtime Ski & Snowboard Club Vail skier

    FBD: We’ve talked in the past about how nordic ski training is good for cycling and vice versa; can you shed some more light on this concept given this big win?

    TE: Having a strong cycling background for a race like this is key. Thanks to racing my bike a lot and at a very high level, I have quite a bit more experience in mass start races that many other skiers and this is a huge advantage. I’ve been in these types of racing situations a lot, so to have experience on when to go, when not to go, how to move up, when to move up, etc., was a tremendous asset. It’s not just the training that crosses over from skiing into cycling, it is also the tactics, techniques and mindset.

    Tad Elliott (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) racing to his fourth national title, and first one since 2012, in the 30 k freestyle mass start on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)
    Tad Elliott (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) racing to his fourth national title, and first one since 2012, in the 30 k freestyle mass start on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)

    FBD: This is a huge win for any skier and the fact that you have several of these titles (and in different sports) is even more impressive, but I think probably the greatest part of this story is your remarkable comeback from illness. Can you walk us through everything you’ve been through in the past few years?

    TE: It all started in 2014 when I was trying to make the Olympic team. I was training incredibly hard and caught Epstein-Barr virus. Unfortunately, it wasn’t diagnosed correctly right away, so even though I tried to do the right thing and get sound medical advice early in the process, the doctors missed the diagnosis initially and I was given the green light to return to training. This, combined with the high training load and the massive goal of making the Olympics all compounded themselves and I just dug myself deeper and deeper into a hole. Finally everything came crashing down and I got so sick that I couldn’t even leave the house. That was rock bottom.

    That next winter, 2015, my doctors had finally figured out the problem and I did my best to ease back into training, but I was still so immunocompromised that even the slightest cold could trigger serious health events. I ended up going to the ER six different times with all sorts of maladies stemming from my weakened immune system: strep, mono, infections, you name it. It was so incredibly frustrating, as I felt like I was doing everything right: I was being smart and I was being careful, but even the smallest thing would not just set me back, but knock me off my ass so hard that I had to go to the doctor or even the ER. I then took even more time off, but I just couldn’t shake the illness. It was terrible.

    FBD: When did you start to feel better?

    TE: This past fall was when things finally started to turn around and I began to get healthy. After so many false starts and setbacks, I was incredibly careful getting back to training, so much so it was almost absurd. I would take a walk for 15 minutes and then take few days to recover. Then I’d walk for 30 minutes. That’s how much fitness I had lost. I gradually worked my way back into a more regular training program, but I had to be very patient and very smart. I did terribly in my first few races [relative to results earlier in my career], but I knew I was on my way back, which felt great. Just to be back out training again felt amazing.

    “I would take a walk for 15 minutes and then take few days to recover. Then I’d walk for 30 minutes. That’s how much fitness I had lost.” — Elliott, 27, on how he resumed training

    FBD: What was the most significant factor in your recovery?

    TE: I think it was my stint at FBDR HQ for my most recent training camp that really made the difference [laughing].

    In all seriousness, there were two huge factors in my recovery; patience and friendship. One of the things that I’ve learned in this process is how to more effectively manage stress. Stress effects your life in so many ways, so I’ve been carefully monitoring both my training load and my stress load. What is probably the most key though is HOW I’ve done this: patience. If I had tried to go charging back into training, there’s no way in hell I would have won in Houghton. No way. I won that race because I was patient and smart.

    The second factor that I mentioned above was equally important: the friendship of those around me. Being a professional athlete is very difficult at times and it can be a cut-throat, competitive business. I am incredibly fortunate, though, in that I have a core group of friends and sponsors who stuck by me when the going got tough. I didn’t get ANY results for a few years, yet Ski Club of Vail, Oakley, Salomon, Swix, and Caldwell Sport were there for me every step of the way. Every person in every one of these organizations treated me with the same level of support, respect and friendship that they did when I was winning, so to have all of that remain in place during that incredibly tough period in my life means the world to me. I don’t know if I will ever be able to repay all of these people, but I know I never could have done this without each and every one of them. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to work with such an amazing group of people.

    Tad Elliott hugs his twin brother Evan after winning the 30 k freestyle mass start at 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Mich., for his fourth national title. (Courtesy photo)
    Tad Elliott hugs his twin brother Evan after winning the 30 k freestyle mass start at 2016 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Mich., for his fourth national title. (Courtesy photo)

    FBD: At the elite level in any sport, the margins between winning and middle of the pack are often razor thin, so knowing going in to the race that you still might not be at 100 percent, how did you prepare for such big event?

    TE: Well, you are exactly right — the margins are very thin and the only reason I came out on top in Houghton is I had a lot of help. To be perfectly honest, I’m still not as fit as some of the other top skiers and the only reason I was able to win was my support team. My twin brother Evan waxed my skis for me and he is one of the best techs in the business. One of my coaches, Eric Pepper, was with me the entire time, also helping pick skis, waxing, setting up meals, lodging, and all of the other stuff that can prove to be a big distraction. Evan and Pep made everything so easy for me in Houghton that all I had to do was focus on skiing. In the end, I think that made the difference. I never could have won without those guys.

    “I don’t know if I will ever be able to repay all of these people, but I know I never could have done this without each and every one of them.”

    FBD: It sounds as though you have learned a lot in this process. What are some of the tell-tale signs of this type of illness/over-training that you recommend athletes look out for in their own training?

    TE: The single, most important thing any athlete can do is have a good coach. I am incredibly fortunate to work with some of the best in business and I never could have done this without them. You need someone to help you monitor your training and recovery; it’s too hard to do it yourself as you are just too close and your objectivity goes right out the window. Things that you’d never advise a teammate to do in a million years can make all the sense in the world to you when you’re extremely focused on a goal, so you need the objective voice of a coach to help keep you on the right path.

    Next is don’t be afraid to rest. And if you feel sick, rest even more. I completely restructured my training program to build in more rest: I now train for three days, take one easy day, train for three days, then take one day entirely off. This builds fitness, strength and most importantly has a built-in a circuit breaker with the mandatory rest days. It is much harder to over-train with this protocol. I follow this plan no matter what: even if I don’t think i need the rest, I now always take it.

    The last thing that I did that made a huge difference is I started using the FirstBeat monitoring system. It works on heart rate variability and is a very sophisticated system to help monitor training load and recovery. I highly recommend it.

    FBD: What was the hardest part of being sick for so long, the physical side or the mental side?

    TE: Not being able to do the things that I love was the worst part. I really like biking and skiing and not being able to do these activities was very, very hard. I love being active: not just racing, but just being out there training is incredibly enjoyable for me, so not being able to do anything outside was very difficult.

    FBD: What kept you going through all of this?

    TE: The belief that others had in me is what really did it. Having people you trust and respect believe in you gives you so much confidence, it’s really what keep me from losing my mind. I said it earlier — I am incredibly fortunate to have an amazing support structure. I have so many great friends, family and sponsors that never gave up on me that even at the lowest points I never lost hope.

    I also have a lot of pride. Knowing you should have made an Olympic team that you didn’t is a powerful motivator: there was just no way I was going to go out like that.

    Tad Elliott on top of the podium (and sharing the space with second and third place) at the 2016 U.S. nationals 30 k freestyle mass start on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich. Brian Gregg of Team Gregg (l) placed second and Northern Michigan University's Adam Martin (r) finished third. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)
    Tad Elliott on top of the podium (and sharing it with second and third place) at the 2016 U.S. nationals 30 k freestyle mass start on Jan. 7 in Houghton, Mich. Brian Gregg of Team Gregg (l) placed second and Northern Michigan University’s Adam Martin (r) finished third. (Photo: Christopher Schmidt)

    FBD: Did you ever question if you were ever going to make it back to the top?

    TE: All of the time. Literally every day I would wonder if I could ever make it back. Fortunately my friends and family had more belief in me than I did, which is saying a lot, as I am quite cocky. My return is much more a testament to them than it is to me.

    FBD: When did you know that you were back?

    TE: At the finish line in Houghton. Well, I had in inkling with 3 k to go, and I had some great workouts at a training camp earlier in the year in New Hampshire and then again at FBDR camp, so I knew that things were coming back together, but if you honestly want to know when I was sure, then the answer is the finish line.

    FBD: You and Matt Liebsch are the only two Americans to win the American Birkebeiner in the past 7 years, so the obvious question after this big win is will you be racing the Birkie this year and if so, how do you like your chances?

    TE: It’s hard to say at this point if I’m going to do the Birkie. It’s a great race and I’d love to go back if I think I can be competitive, but as I noted earlier, I’m trying very hard to be smart about this recovery. While I feel like I’m finally getting back to form, I know I am not yet 100 percent and I’m still very concerned about coming back too fast. Like triathlon, skiing is a very demanding sport, so right now I’m just thinking about what I can do to stay healthy. I’m not looking too far down the line at this point; I’m just taking it day by day. If I’m healthy and rested enough to do the Birkie this year, great, if not, there’s always next year.

    FBD: What advice do you have for those in the process of working through their own recovery right now?

    TE: I think every situation is different and I can only tell you what worked for me, but my advice is to be patient. Every athlete is driven; that’s what gets us out there every day. The danger in this, though, is that it is easy for you to become your own worst enemy. Athletes are usually so eager to return to training and we think we have to be training to get results, but the truth is you are always going to be faster and be a hell of a lot happier if you wait to resume training until you are back to 100 percent. And even then, go back slowly. There’s always going to be another race and another year — trust me.

    Another very important point that often gets lost in training is the concept of balance. There’s a lot of life to be lived outside of sport. It’s great to be focused on your racing goals, but never forget that this is supposed to be fun. Never lose sight of the friends, family and others that are helping you along the way and always remember that just because someone isn’t out there on the start line that doesn’t mean that they don’t matter as a person. There’s a lot more to life than racing and sometimes it takes something like this to make you understand that.

  • Living the Dream: The Gear Review You’ll Actually Enjoy Reading (First, Lifestyle Puffies)

    Living the Dream: The Gear Review You’ll Actually Enjoy Reading (First, Lifestyle Puffies)

    LTD Gear Review: Lifestyle Puffies (by Fast Big Dog)
    LTD Gear Review: (Part I) Lifestyle Puffies

    Introduction

    Welcome to FasterSkier’s newest series, “Living The Dream” (alternate working title is, “Why are we doing intervals again today?”). LTD will be a somewhat regular feature offering nordic skiers of all levels insight into many of the elements that make our sport great: I’ll be offering up advice/recommendations/observations/reviews on gear, training, travel and “other stuff TBD” as I generally don’t like rules, restrictions or guidelines (not to mention authority, deadlines, or good grammar). I’m coming off the line hot, too, with the inaugural column being a gear review of puffy coats — after all, what skier doesn’t like a good puffy coat?

    Selection Criteria

    Fast Big Dog's dog,.
    Fast Big Dog’s dog

    Picking the right puffy coat is a lot like picking the right skis, dog or spouse (listed in order of importance). This process is personal and unique, with different traits being important to different people and several factors impacting the ultimate decision.

    (As a quick aside on topic number two, if your significant other happens to talk you into the acquisition of a Great Dane puppy, be prepared for months of house breaking, a general indifference toward acknowledging their name — the dog, not the significant other — and a voracious appetite for light bulbs. You’ve been warned.) 

    So as we prepare to embark on this wonderful journey together to outfit you, the reader, in just the right jacket, let’s lay down some ground rules:

    1. Nothing is more important than looking good. Never forget this. Ever.
    2. If you’re one of those dudes who wears race suit bottoms into the coffee shop or grocery store after a workout, you should probably stop reading now — there is nothing we can do for you here. Oh, and stop doing that. Stop it right now.
    3. If you’re an athlete, coach, parent or generally interested bystander who is looking for the “ultimate puffy” — the warmest jacket know to man for hours of standing around the race course in sub-zero temps — have no fear, we have you covered for this, too, (no pun intended) in next month’s column.
    4. This first review is for a category I deemed “lifestyle puffies,” coats that are all about being warm but also looking good. If you’re looking for one winter coat, this is it. If you’re one of those skiers that has two light beers at a wedding and is bombed, then proceeds to tear up the dance floor for two hours with your one move, the only tool you own is a Leatherman or you’ve always secretly admired Batman’s utility belt, well this is your lucky day, as today we are going to get you in your perfect “all-in-one” jacket.
    5. The last rule is also the first rule, when in doubt, always refer to rule #1.

    The Process

    For the test jackets, I reached out to all of the usual suspects, most of whom were kind enough to provide both men’s and women’s jackets. This was greatly appreciated, as I believe that many reviewers come up small in their analysis as it is often a dude reviewing products for both men and women and from what I can remember from my high-school biology class, there are some important anatomical differences between men and women, although many of the specifics escape me at this time.

    To help combat my complete and utter lack of understanding of the fairer sex, I recruited a crackerjack team of female coaches/skiers/bad asses to provide their perspective on each garment. In addition, to keep these reviews as balanced and bias-free as possible, I also asked a few other male nordic coaches to help me with the testing. This entire testing team ranged in age from early twenties to an undetermined amount over-50 and collectively has well over 100 years of experience nordic skiing. Was this a double-blind, prospective, longitudinal peer-reviewed study? No. But I did my best to bring in perspectives from both sexes and several ages to provide as balanced and complete of an analysis as possible and reasonable for a winter-jacket review.

    Since I pretend to be a scientist when I’m off duty from FasterSkier, I can’t help but throw in a staple of every good scientific paper or presentation: a disclosure statement. I’m a Steamboat boy from way back, as are a few of the other coaches, though certainly not all. One of the companies, Big Agnes, is based in Steamboat. I am also involved with the U.S. Ski Team and unless you’ve been living in a cave (in which case this review will be perfect for you, as caves can be quite cold and drafty) you likely know that L.L. Bean is the new official gear supplier to the U.S. Ski Team. In addition, I’ve either been on teams or been personally sponsored by Arc’teryx and Mountain Hardware in several different pursuits and activities. Several of my good friends are sponsored by Swix, Salomon and L.L. Bean. So in short, almost the entire review team has or had relationships with almost all of the companies. Having said this, I think everyone did an excellent job of evaluating the coats based on their merit  — we all love skiing and we all love gear. The old adage, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear” rings true to all of us every day so we did our best to provide honest, accurate recommendations with the hope that each and every one of you reading this can be as comfortable as possible out there doing the sport we all love.

    On the other side of this disclosure, it is also very important to point out that these are straight-up legit reviews: I know firsthand that other “outside” magazines and web sites require companies to pay money to be considered for reviews, which is appalling in my opinion, as this crosses the line from review into gloried advertisement. I can assure you that this was not the case here — companies were not asked to provide any remuneration whatsoever, nor were we pressured or offered enticements in any way from any of the companies.

    Finally, almost all of the coats in this review are in the “good to excellent” range, but what made this process very interesting is just how different many of them were out in the field. One of our main objectives is to therefore describe the circumstances in which each piece will perform optimally and help guide skiers to the jacket that will best meet their needs.

    Criteria

    In terms of how each particular jacket was picked from the vast array of options, I provided identical selection criteria to each company and asked them to send the product that they felt best met these standards. Representatives from the companies picked the products, so if you’re an over the top fan boy for a particular brand and your “go-to” coat wasn’t picked, email the company, not me.

    My entire team did their best to assess as many of the more objective factors (warmth, bulk, fit, etc.) as possible, as well as the more subjective factors (style, use scenarios, etc). We tested all of the jackets in a wide variety of different conditions and environments, from the very usual (loading skis and scraping van windows) to the more unusual:

    Based on several meetings and just the right amount of beer, we then came together to create consensus on which coats performed the best in all of the scenarios and based on this meta-analysis, I faithfully and thoughtfully scribed the following review.

    The Reviews:

    Arc’teryx

    Arc Teryx women's Atom LH Hoody (All photos: FBD)
    Arc’teryx women’s Atom LT Hoody (All photos: FBD)

    For this category of the lifestyle puffy, Arc’teryx sent us a men’s Koda parka and the women’s Atom LT Hoody. Arc’teryx sent different models for men and women due to the fact that they do not make a women’s Koda jacket, but they believe these two models to be very comparable, so for the purposes of this review, we are using the two somewhat interchangeably. I am comfortable with this generalization, but please keep this in mind if you read this and want to go running off to the Internets to make the ultimate X-mas gift purchase — don’t yell at me when you can’t find a women’s Koda.

    West Yellowstone's weather Thanksgiving week 2015.
    West Yellowstone’s weather Thanksgiving week 2015.

    The Koda parka was the warmest of all of the men’s lifestyle puffies, with the women’s Atom LT Hoody in a virtual tie for the top spot in the warmness category as well. Each of them are very, very good coats. Buy this for yourself and you’ll be stoked. Buy it for someone else and you’ll be a hero for years to come. Coming back from breakfast in West Yellowstone, Mont., a few weeks ago, the weather looked like this (see photo at left), and the jacket performed admirably.

    The outer layer feels very abrasion-resistant and it held up well for nine intensive days of skiing and coaching in West Yellowstone. If that doesn’t sound like very rigorous testing, you’ve never seen me load and unload wax tables from the team van.

    A few of our more fashion-conscious reviewers (both male and female) found both the coloring and styling a little flat and “looked as though it could be going on a mountaineering expedition.” Perhaps since I’ve been on a number of mountaineering expeditions I found this a strength, not a weakness, but it is a fair point. So if you’re looking to ride your fixie home from the tracks to stop and drink PBR with your hipster friends and their ironic facial hair, this may not be the jacket for you. If you are low-key, subtle and have some $$$ to spend (at $449 for the men’s version, this was the most-expensive jacket reviewed in this category), this is the coat for you.

    Arc'Teryx men's Koda Parka (ArcTeryx.com)
    Arc’teryx men’s Koda Parka (Arcteryx.com)

    The fit on the men’s jacket is a little more generous than most of the others tested: the FBD is a large, powerful man, so this also was a plus, not a minus, but if you are a little more diminutive, you may find the jacket a little too loose. Interestingly enough, the women’s version seemed to have the opposite fit: two of the reviewers are on the shorter side and found the sizing to be perfect for them, but noted that it may not be ideal for very tall women or those with longer torsos. Overall, this is a very, warm, subdued but sophisticated jacket that looks like it will hold up well to years of serious use.

    Strengths: Warm, comfortable, fleece-lined pockets, “quiet style” and durable zippers and outer layer.

    Weaknesses: A bit spendy, a few younger reviewers thought the style was a little plain, fit might be too roomy for smaller male frames.

    Buy it if: Performance is your top consideration and money is less of an issue, you want to be warm and stylishly understated.

     

    Patagonia

    Patagonia Air Nano Air Hoody
    Patagonia Nano-Air Hoody

    The fine folks in Ventura, Calif., provided us with a Nano-Air Hoody. The selection of this particular garment surprised us all a bit, as you can’t swing a smoked-up lift op around a mountain town without hitting someone rocking a Patagonia Down Sweater or Nano Puff (this reviewer has one of each), so we fully expected to be sent one of these models. We were not. What was sent however, quickly became of the favorites of the entire team.

    Even though this review is focused on jackets to wear to and from skiing, the Nano-Air is so soft, stretchable and lightweight that you can wear it nordic skiing, as well as on the ride to and fro. Two of us also tested it on a killer back-country alpine ski and found it to perform flawlessly, but please note, we were skinning up the hill and working hard on the way down slaying deep powder (yeah, I know, first-world problems…) so we were not only moving the entire time, but also doing so with reasonable intensity.

    Patagonia women's Nano-Air Hoody (Patagonia.com)
    Patagonia women’s Nano-Air Hoody (Patagonia.com)

    In all of these use-cases, the coat was basically perfect. Would you ever want to wear it for lift-serviced terrain? Probably not until the mercury tops 30 or so. For spring-party skiing, it’d probably be awesome, but we had a powder day in Steamboat recently and the temp at the top of the mountain was a balmy -2 degrees and I didn’t even consider grabbing this jacket when I left the house.

    Overall, this is a killer piece for around town on sunny winter days and it will surely crush it in the spring, fall and cool summer nights in the mountains. Probably one of the best summary comments from the testing feedback forms was, “I love this jacket. It feels more like a hoodie than a jacket and I think I could do all sorts of activities in it or just wear it around as long as it wasn’t super cold.”

    Strengths: Incredibly warm for its weight, stretchable, stylish and extremely versatile. Can be worn to the tracks and straight to coffee afterwards or even on the town as a nice hoody. Also a great layering piece.

    Weaknesses: Still not as warm as a few of the heavier coats. Probably not the best choice if you live someplace very cold and are looking for a one-coat solution for all of your winter needs.

    Buy it if:  You are a direct descendant of Nanook of the North, you normally only wear a T-shirt outside all winter, you can thermoregulate like a lizard or you want an incredibly versatile stand-alone or layering piece that will kick ass and take names all year ‘round.

     

    L.L. Bean

    L.L. Bean Ultralight 850 Down Hooded Jacket
    L.L. Bean Ultralight 850 Down Hooded Jacket

    The newest supplier to the U.S. Ski Team did not disappoint with their offering. The jacket sent to us was the Ultralight 850 Down Hooded Jacket, which is part of the official kit for the U.S. Ski Team and it was rapidly apparent why this is the case: the coat was light, warm and functional. Our version was blue with a contrasting yellow liner that one very fashion-forward female review said made me look “less repulsive than usual.” (Bless you Greta).

    L.L. Bean women's Ultralight 850 Down Hooded Jacket (LL Bean.com)
    L.L. Bean women’s Ultralight 850 Down Hooded Jacket (LL Bean.com)

    This jacket also features fleece lined pockets which were a huge hit with the entire coaching staff. Anyone who has spent hours in the cold loading and unloading skis, fiddling with bindings, straps, van keys, video cameras and the myriad of other things that seems to always require removing your gloves, is going to love this feature.

    Strengths: A good, solid, all-around coat. Very light and packable. The fact that they support the U.S. Ski Team is also a plus.

    Weaknesses: Another coat that is not super flashy. Again, for me, this is a strength, not a weakness, but this is probably not the best choice is you want to go clubbing in New York City, Berlin, or Oslo. Pretty much square in the middle on the warmth/weight ratio scale.

    Buy it if: You want to help a company supporting the U.S. Ski Team, you are cost-conscious and you want a very versatile puffy that’ll look good around town and in your race bag at the Birkie. Or if you’re a person who forgets their gloves often.

     

    Big Agnes

    Big Agnes Women’s Shovelhead Hooded Jacket
    Big Agnes Women’s Shovelhead Hooded Jacket

    This one is a little tricky, as Big Agnes did not send an entry for the best men’s lifestyle puffy. They did send a women’s coat, the Women’s Shovelhead Hooded Jacket, so while I have no data to report on the men’s side, I can pass along our female reviewers comments.

    Big Agnes men's Shovelhead Hooded Jacket (BigAgnes.com)
    Big Agnes men’s Shovelhead Hooded Jacket (BigAgnes.com)

    Overall, this was a popular coat. All of the women found it to be very warm yet not too bulky or cumbersome. It was more form fitting than the other jackets in this category, which most found to be a plus, though a few female reviewers did note that larger-chested women may not find this cut as comfortable.

    Strengths: Best warmth/weight ratio of any women’s jacket. Very packable. Retains warmth well when wet. Very wind resistant. Good for skiers who are always cold.

    Weaknesses: May not be good for certain female body types

    Buy it if: You are a woman who wants a very lightweight yet warm jacket and your body type fits in the criteria outlined above.

     

    Swix

    Swix Romsdal 2.0
    Swix Romsdal 2.0

    This iconic name in nordic skiing provided exactly what we thought they would — a solid, reliable garment, the Swix Romsdal 2.0. It looks very “Nordic,” which is to be expected given the lineage of the brand. Given the audience of this periodical, I’m guessing this will also be a positive in most instances.

    Swix men's Romsdal 2.0 Down Jacket (Backcountry.com)
    Swix men’s Romsdal 2.0 Down Jacket (Backcountry.com)

    The look of this jacket is a bit of the tale of two cities (maybe all Twin Cities residents should therefore go buy one of these immediately), as the men’s version is styled very traditionally, but the women’s coat seems to have just the right amount of flash for all of the female reviewers. Our women’s test jacket was pink with a white band across the upper back and a few snowflakes placed strategically in the banding, which everyone loved. One guest reviewer (a former elite skier and current nordic-store employee) noted, “Oh yeah, we KILL IT with this jacket in the shop. It is one of our best sellers.”

    Strengths: Styling of the women’s model seems to be spot-on, not only based on the universal approval of our team of female testers, but also on anecdotal reports of sales. Very economical. Great value.

    Weaknesses: Neither the men’s or women’s jacket was incredibly warm, though neither was terrible. The two-tone color on the men’s model looks somewhat traditional and certainly can’t be described as “fashion-forward,” but it that’s not your jam anyway, you’ll be fine.

    Buy it if: You’re the type of person with wax stickers on your car. You ski daily. You are a cool mountain-town mom (MTM) or a single dude looking to find a hot, single MTM. Great custom team jacket.

     

    Mountain Hardwear

    Mountain Hardwear's Ghost Whisperer
    Mountain Hardwear’s Ghost Whisperer

    We received a men’s Ghost Whisperer from Mountain Hardware (again, only a men’s) and this was another one of the coats that made this very elaborate process fun. I’ve owned Mountain Hardwear soft goods for years and have always been impressed with their very pragmatic approach. Their products work well and while they may not have been at the leading edge of the fashion curve, the gear did its job and did it well. So when I opened up the box, I was a bit surprised as this was clearly the most aggressive styling I have ever seen in one of their coats. Fascinated by this apparent change in direction, I set off to the tracks to annoy innocent skiers with my seemingly endless and odd stream of coat questions.

    Mountain Hardwear women's Ghost Whisperer Down Jacket (Mountainhardwear.com)
    Mountain Hardwear women’s Ghost Whisperer Down Jacket (Mountainhardwear.com)

    The results of this highly unofficial but yet very unscientific trail/airport/coffee-shop survey? This coat slays it with the “in” crowd. It is very shiny and the color was definitely different but I have to admit, I really like it. To be clear, would I have picked this out for myself if I was alone at my favorite local outdoor retailer? Probably not, at least not right away, but would I go buy one now? Yes.

    Mountain Hardwear has stuck to their roots and produced a fantastic jacket that is very warm for its size, portable and a great piece for both athletic and casual use. I guess what sealed the deal for me was when a group of female skiers said, “Oh yeah, that look is so hot right now,” and since I consider myself the Steamboat version of Hansel, this coat now seems like a must-have.

    Strengths: Very light, best warmth/weight ratio for all of the men’s coats, fastest down the hill in penguin slides, “so hot right now”

    Weaknesses: Style may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Outer layer feels like it could be prone to tears, but having said that, despite repeated penguin slides, none of us had any issues with rips, tears or snags. Plus, is it worth it to have a coat that might rip a bit easier but looks awesome? I hope you know the answer to that question by now. If not, please revisit Rule #1.

    Buy it if: Style IS your jam, you don’t like being cold, you understand and appreciate >50% of these references.

     

    Bjorn Daehlie

    Bjorn Daehlie Easy Jacket
    Bjorn Daehlie Easy Jacket

    Another iconic nordic brand that we were delighted to review. This was another case in which we only received a men’s coat, the Easy Jacket, so please factor in accordingly the fact that we were only reviewing a men’s jacket. This jacket also took a page out of the independent-thinker handbook, as this was another garment that didn’t necessarily fit the criteria outlined, but we loved it nonetheless.

    Bjorn Daehlie women's Easy Jacket (BjornDaehlie.com)
    Bjorn Daehlie women’s Easy Jacket (BjornDaehlie.coml)

    This is not really a “wear-around-town jacket,” but having said that, it was great at its core mission: nordic skiing. This particular coat was the most breathable and flexible of the entire group, so it was by far the best jacket in which to nordic ski. Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Self, I thought the goal of this review was to find the best jacket to wear TO ski, not to ski IN,” and you’d be correct, but, we did like this coat a lot for nordic skiing.

    It is very non-constrictive and perfect for athletes who chill easily or for us normal people on VERY cold days. Would I buy it? Yes, but probably not for around town. It’s a great jacket to have in the quiver for cold skis and still be able to wear in the grocery store without being asked to leave. This of course, begs the question that if you need to wear this jacket skiing, aren’t you therefore predisposed to being cold and would thusly want an even warmer jacket to wear off the tracks? Wow, look at you with the good questions… Fair point though, so if this is all ringing very true to you, you had better plan on buying this and one of the “ultimate puffies” that will be reviewed next month and you’ll be good to go.

    Strengths: Very light, flexible and perfectly suited for nordic skiing

    Weaknesses: Least warm of all of the jackets, you’ll be “that guy” in the grocery store still rocking his nordic stuff. Speaking of which, didn’t we clearly tell you earlier in this article to stop doing that?

    Buy it if: You want a coat you can ski in, you have a Nordic World Cup fantasy team, the first thing you read every morning is Noah Hoffman’s blog and you’re going to ignore me and wear your tights around town for three hours after your ski anyway. This is your look. Own it.

    ***

    Conclusion

    Festivus pole
    Festivus pole (Photo: Wikipedia)

    Hopefully this information will help you make an even more informed decision on your next trip to the gear store, which if you are like me, is a regular occurrence — especially this time of year. Don’t forget either, you’ve probably been out training a lot this year (yes, yes, not as much as you’d like, you’ve been SO busy at work, this time of year is crazy, etc.) but still, think about all of those around you that support you in your pursuit of this ridiculous hobby.

    Let’s just say that even if you are all set gear-wise (which is doubtful, but for the purposes of the last part of this discussion we’ll accept this premise), maybe you should take all of this newfound brain knowledge and use it for good instead of evil and hook up that someone special with one of the best presents you could ever hope to find under the tree, Menorah, or Festivus pole — a kick-ass “lifestyle” puffy.

    Everyone loves a good puffy and remember, there is nothing more important than looking good.

    ***

  • The Allure of Eagle Glacier: What Happens 5,700 Feet Up in Alaska (with Video)

    The Allure of Eagle Glacier: What Happens 5,700 Feet Up in Alaska (with Video)

    On June 28, Jon Schafer, known in U.S. nordic circles as Fast Big Dog (FBD), stepped foot on Eagle Glacier, 5,700 feet above Girdwood, Alaska, where he spent about a week training on snow with a masters camp, led by Alaska Pacific University Head Coach Erik Flora. It was FBD’s first journey to the glacier and in the following account, he explains its significance. Interviews were conducted in person and on the phone. 

    ***

    By Jon “Fast Big Dog” Schafer

    In just a few weeks, overweight and overpaid NFL players will assemble for training camps, subjecting themselves to the rigors of almost 60 total minutes of daily exercise.

    Each spring, Major League Baseball prepares its aging demographic of viewers for the tediousness of watching baseball with an even more tedious primer known as spring training.

    Elite rowers have long escaped ice-jammed winter rivers for a few weeks of cranking out miles in the Florida sun, and the list goes on and on.

    The offseason training camp has been a staple for top-level athletes in many sports for decades, providing a distraction-free environment for individuals to focus on sport-specific training, make technical improvements and provide the mind a much-needed break from the grind of offseason training.

    Nordic skiing is no exception. Nordic skiers have historically been very creative in their attempts to get on snow in the summer. European-based skiers have a few different options of glaciers and more recently, even ski tunnels. But what about North American athletes? What options are available to them? Is it necessary to make the pilgrimage to the tradition-laden glaciers of Europe or are there alternatives here in the U.S.?

    The answer is hiding in plain sight. One of America’s premier Olympic development centers, the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center (APUNSC), has been taking skiers up onto Eagle Glacier in Alaska for over two decades. What began as three very hardy skiers living in a tent on the glacier has grown into one of the world’s top nordic ski training facilities at the Thomas Training Center.

    This transformation wasn’t easy though. Alaska can be a cold, harsh environment and the development of the elite facility that exists today only happened thanks to thousands of hours of dedication spread over more than 20 years by driven, committed people with a vision. In many ways, Eagle Glacier is much more an outstanding training center; it is also an excellent metaphor for the ascension of U.S. skiing as a whole. Both journeys have been tumultuous at times, with great success only coming after countless hours of hard work, commitment and teamwork.

    Probably not coincidentally, one of the most frequent visitors to Eagle Glacier is also one of America’s most successful skiers: current U.S. Ski Team (USST) member, four-time Olympian, three-time overall Sprint World Cup winner, and team sprint world champion Kikkan Randall.

    “I went there for the first time in 2000,” Randall explained. “I was young, eager and ready for anything. The cabin and the overall facilities weren’t as nice as they are now, for sure. You had to be tough, but that’s not a bad thing. Skiing is a tough sport and the sooner you learn how to be tough, the better off your are.”

    With these humble roots, a solid foundation was laid for growth and success. As a whole crop of young talent began to mature on the World Cup circuit, so did Eagle Glacier. “So many people worked hard to make that place what it is today,” Randall continued. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to express all of my gratitude to the people who first got it started, Jim Galanes and then Erik Flora in particular, whose efforts in the last ten years have been nothing short of extraordinary.

    “We’ve kind of all grown up together,” she added. “As the level on the World Cup has risen, we’ve responded to this challenge by all pushing ourselves harder. Not only do the coaches and staff have Eagle more dialed, but so do the athletes. It used to be that you’d see people up at night watching movies, but not anymore. Now it’s just skiing, eating and sleeping. The whole operation is very professional in all aspects.”

    Olympic gold medalist and nordic-combined world champion Billy Demong agreed. ”In the late ’90s and early 2000s, we were all working super hard, but we hadn’t quite broken through,” he said. “I was on Eagle Glacier in 2002 because as a team we were committed to be the best. Johnny [Spillane] won the World Championships the next year in nordic combined and that was really the start of our run.

    “It wasn’t just nordic combined either,” Demong continued. “Kris Freeman had a fourth place at worlds that same year, Kikkan and Andy [Newell] began going really fast and Timmy Burke and Lowell Bailey started to have a big impact on the Biathlon World Cup in the next few years. It certainly wasn’t any one thing that took us all to the next level, rather the additive effect of lots of little things. Looking back, it’s amazing how far nordic skiing has come in the U.S. in a relatively short period of time. Hopefully the USSA [U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association] will continue to fund everyone so that we can all continue this remarkable trajectory.”

    As Eagle starting getting more traffic from elite skiers, its mystique also continued to grow. For four-time Olympian Andy Newell, his first visit was the same year as Demong’s and his recollections were somewhat similar to both Demong and Randall.

    “I went there for the first time in 2002 and I remember it was pretty spartan, but it was my first training camp with the U.S. Ski Team, so I still thought it was awesome,” Newell said via a Skype interview from the USST training camp in New Zealand. “I was just this punk kid, so I was so stoked that I was at a training camp with all of my idols that nothing else mattered,” recalled Newell. “I still remember what it felt like to hear I was rooming with Kris and Justin Freeman and Rob Whitney — I really looked up to those guys, so to be able to train and live with them was an incredible feeling.”

    If that had been the end of the story, the trip may have not been all that memorable, but what followed is just one of many examples of the aura of Eagle.

    “We got the rooming list and I was assigned to stay with Kris, Justin and Rob, which I thought was awesome,” Newell recalled. “Inexplicably, just before bed, Kris and Justin moved out to one of the other rooms. I thought this was odd, as the other bunk rooms were pretty crowded, but I didn’t care. I soon found out why though, as in the middle of the night, Rob woke up screaming that we were all going to die and that we had to get off the glacier immediately. I was terrified. Here it is my first night at U.S. Ski Team camp and one of the veterans, a guy I looked up to, is telling me that we were all about to die. I didn’t know to do, but I was thoroughly panicked. It turned out that Rob was widely known as a sleep talker. To make matters worse, he wouldn’t just mumble random stuff, he would address you by name and seemed very coherent. We laugh about it now, but it was scary as hell at the time. That’s the type of stuff that happens up on Eagle.”

    Demong agreed. “Any time you get a bunch of skiers together living in a confined environment, it’s always going to be interesting. I was there early on and we had a really good group, but the coaches were just getting crushed working on the groomer. Rumor had it that a new PistenBully [PB] was being flown up to us and we were all so stoked as we knew this was going to have a huge impact. It did, but not in the way we imagined.”

    While Demong wasn’t on site the day the groomer arrived, he recalled the story about its delivery. Just as the helicopter was coming into sight, the pilot got hit with a nasty down-draft and had to jettison the PistenBully from over 100 meters in the air to avoid crashing the helicopter. The PB came crashing toward the earth and smashed off the ice. Everyone was OK, but thinking back, Demong pondered, ” ‘I wonder if stuff like this happens in Norway?’ I still look back very fondly at those times, too, as in many ways those struggles, those battles and all of the crazy stuff was the best part of the whole adventure.”

    Two-time Olympian and APU skier Holly Brooks echoed these sentiments. “Yeah, Eagle could be rough in the early years, but the job that everyone has done, in particular Erik and his team in the last few years, is nothing short of amazing,” she said. “Everyone has steadily improved every aspect of the training center to allow skiers to focus exclusively on skiing. It is now a truly world-class facility. We’ve had several top European World Cup skiers like [Norway’s] Astrid Jacobsen and [Finland’s Aino] Kaisa Saarinen come over and they agree that this is one of the best summer training environments anywhere in the world.”

    The environment, while harsh at times, is proving to be more and more applicable to the conditions seen in racing season, something that coaches and athletes alike now recognize to be a huge strength. “Not every day on Eagle is bright, sunny, extra-blue conditions, so getting comfortable training in those bad conditions is key,” Brooks explained. “So many championship races end up being held in poor weather, so Eagle Glacier is huge in helping us prepared for that environment, both mentally and physically. In fact, we even have a running joke that when it is really lousy out, it is a ‘championship day.’ It’s funny, but it’s also very, very true. Many of the last championship races have been in bad weather [Holmenkollen, Val di Fiemme, Sochi] and a lot of our success at these venues is due to our training on Eagle.”

    Randall concurred, “With climate change, we are seeing conditions on more and more of the World Cups that are very similar to what we see on Eagle, so being able to train for this is very important. It is very interesting, we talk a lot about ‘championship days’ on Eagle, but I’ve come to learn that this means a lot more than just being comfortable in bad weather — it’s really more about being tough no matter what is thrown at you and no place teaches you that lesson better than Eagle Glacier.”

    In contrast to Randall and Brooks, Newell, a Vermont-based skier with the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team, didn’t witness the slow, steady progression of the training center firsthand, as he didn’t have the opportunity to return to Eagle until last year, but he echoed all of the same thoughts.

    “I was blown away when I finally got a chance to return,” he noted. “I went up there last summer and the changes were incredible. Flora absolutely has that place dialed. It is very structured now and it runs very, very smoothly. As the overall level on the World Cup continues to rise, summer training camps have become even more important. To be competitive at the very top level, you simply must get on snow at least once a summer. Our competition is getting on snow even more often, so we really need to capitalize on our time and Eagle Glacier is a perfect place to do that.”

    Newell went on to bring his experiences on Eagle full circle by summarizing the history and growth of the training center and the parallels with the success of the U.S. team. “One of the very special aspects of Eagle is the history. I was there at the very start of my career and I was able to learn a lot from the veterans, so it’s very exciting and rewarding to be able to return and help pay that forward to the up-and-coming group of skiers,” he said. “One of the walls is painted with the names of everyone who has trained and suffered on the glacier and it is a true badge of honor to have your name on that wall. I am very proud of what this represents and I am hopeful that younger skiers will see those names and be just as inspired today as I was in 2002. In many ways, Eagle Glacier represents the past, present and future of U.S. skiing.”

    Some of the newer members of the USST immediately picked up on that vibe on their first visit. “I went up to Eagle for the first time two years ago and I was immediately awestruck,” remarked Olympian and 2015 World Championships bronze medalist Caitlin Gregg.”I had heard lots of horror stories from the old days, but as soon as I arrived I knew the place was special. You see the names of all of these great skiers on the wall and suddenly it hits you, I am a part of this.

    “The Eagle Glacier experience goes way beyond just being on snow in the summer though,” she continued. “I left the place a few years ago so fired up about training that it really set the stage for me for the last two years, which have been the best years of my career. That’s the type of impact Eagle Glacier can have on a skier.”

    World Championships U23 silver medalist Noah Hoffman also tapped into the energy immediately, “I went for the first time two years ago and I didn’t know what to expect. I had previously skied on Dachstein and Stelvio glaciers and in both of these two places cross-country skiing is such an after-thought, it was incredibly exciting and refreshing to be on Eagle where it is so dialed in for elite cross-country training.”

    Like all attendees, Hoffman knew right away he was part of something special. “Everything about the place is amazing. The weather is crazy but Flora and his team do such a great job of grooming you feel like you’re on a World Cup course for every workout. The scenery is intense too: it feels so epic and so remote, yet you’ve never more than a few k’s from the lodge at any point on the loops. It is definitely a place unlike any other and I can’t wait to go back.”

    Even frequent visitors such as Randall and Brooks can still feel this magic and energy every time they walk through the door. “I’m always surprised at how much fun I have up there,” noted Randall. “Yes, it’s a lot of work, but the groups up there seem to have such good energy. We’ve grilled burgers in full snowsuits in crazy blizzards and loved every minute of it. Probably one of my favorite things is dishes — I LOVE doing the dishes with my teammates — we have so much fun that it makes the whole experience very special. I am certain that the emotional bond that we all develop on Eagle has gone a long way toward our successes on the World Cup.”

    “We’ve grilled burgers in full snowsuits in crazy blizzards and loved every minute of it.” — Kikkan Randall, Alaska Pacific University and U.S. Ski Team member, on training at home in Alaska on Eagle Glacier

    “Without a doubt, Eagle Glacier is magical,” exclaimed Brooks. “It is vast, wild and beautiful, yet it can kick the crap out of you. I skied so much up there that I’ve gotten home and not been able to remember how I got off the glacier. I’ve even had a few very intense camps in which I skied so hard and with so much focus, that I’ve come back to the cabin so drained that I once walked in, I started crying. And I’m not a crier. That’s just what happens to you up on Eagle.”

    ***

    Who is Fast Big Dog? “FBD is a cultural anomaly: part man, part myth. He spent the better part of a month hitchhiking from Costa Rica to Alaska, carrying his skis the entire time, with only his quick wit and love of tequila to keep him going. … He skis, he rides, he writes and he paddles.” — FBD

  • Taylor Fletcher Goes ‘Ugly Early’ for Sapporo Podium; Bryan Fletcher 8th (with Post-Race Video)

    Taylor Fletcher Goes ‘Ugly Early’ for Sapporo Podium; Bryan Fletcher 8th (with Post-Race Video)

    Taylor Fletcher (right) earned his second career podium in Sapporo, Japan, on Saturday, behind Eric Frenzel (center, GER) and Akito Watabe (left, JPN). (Photo: FIS Nordic Combined/Instagram)
    American Taylor Fletcher (right) earned his second-individual Nordic Combined World Cup podium on Saturday in Sapporo, Japan. He finished third behind winner Eric Frenzel (c) of Germany and Japan’s Akito Watabe in second. (Photo: FIS Nordic Combined/Instagram)

    Twenty-eighth in the jump was good enough for Taylor Fletcher on Saturday, as the 24-year-old U.S. Nordic Combined skier rocketed to an individual podium for the second time in his World Cup career.

    The day before in Sapporo, Japan, Fletcher had ranked 34rd on the 134-meter large hill and raced up to 22nd with the fourth-fastest 10-kilometer time. Saturday on the same hill was going to be different, though — he could feel it.

    “Heading into the [cross-country] portion, I was feeling good as I knew that I had put myself in a position for a great result,” Fletcher recalled in an email. “Typically in a race, you see the leaders of the jumping fall back and it starts to swell into a big group. With that in mind I wanted to attack and get myself into that group with it still mostly intact.”

    He and his brother Bryan Fletcher, who jumped to 27th on Saturday to start the 10 k in that position, 2 seconds ahead of Taylor, decided to work together “and try to move up in a controlled and but quick pace,” Taylor explained.

    The two started 2:06 and 2:08 behind the jump leader, Fabian Steindl of Austria.

    Bryan wrote in an email that he thought a top 10 was possible.

    “Truth be told I have had some sinus/head cold stuff going on while here in Japan so I was unsure if that would play a factor or not in the race,” he wrote on Saturday, after placing ninth in Friday’s large hill/10 k competition.  “I just wanted to go out and ski my race and I thought if I ski tactically smart Tay and I can move up quite a lot.”

    But it wasn’t easy. According to Bryan, he and Taylor put in some hard efforts shortly after the start, with Bryan leading the first of four laps to set the pace and Taylor beginning to pull away on the second lap as they caught several men in the top 20.

    “I thought I would just get into the group and sit in however Taylor went right to the front, as soon as he did that the group shattered and guys were coming off the back, others were fighting to get back up to the pack,” Bryan wrote.

    Taylor estimated that the top 15 were all skiing together until that point. While Taylor led the pack, Bryan tried to maintain contact at the back. “Then Taylor attacked hard and it split into two groups of 3 and 5 thats when it was everyone giving all they had left in the tank,” Bryan explained. “In the end it was an all-out sprint for the last 1.5 k.”

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    “It was a matter of putting yourself in a position at the end,” Taylor wrote. “I decided it was better to ‘Go Ugly, Early’ and not wait for the field sprint. So just into the first hill I made almost a cycling attack and tried to get away from the rest of the skiers.”

    His race would have been perfect if not for two men — Germany’s Eric Frenzel and Japan’s Akito Watabe — who passed him in the stadium on the final push to the finish. Taylor placed third, 3.5 seconds behind Frenzel, who won the sixth-consecutive World Cup competition he started (and last five on the circuit) in 27:14.0.

    Watabe was second, 1.8 seconds behind Frenzel and 1.7 seconds ahead of Taylor, who clocked the fastest-course time in 25:09.5. Bryan had the second-fastest ski time by 20 seconds, and finished 21.9 seconds behind Frenzel in eighth for his third-consecutive top 10 (after placing ninth on Friday).

    “I think my coach and I have laid down a pretty solid plan, this season I am taking part in every single competition and that is a challenge in itself to still ski well the entire season,” Bryan wrote. “So I am excited to see how well I can continue through [World Championships] and then of course the world cups after, too.”

    He added that it was great to have his brother on the podium.

    “I am very happy for him and even more excited to have [U.S. Nordic Combined] back on the podium,” Bryan wrote. “We have been chipping away at the podium for quite some time now so it nice to finally land one. Hopefully we can continue to fight for the podium in the next events in [Val di Fiemme, Italy].”

    “To get another podium feels incredible as I knew it was possible,” Taylor commented. “My last podium [two seasons ago in Seefeld, Austria] was not a fluke. I have been struggling with my jumping for a year and half now but in the last couple weeks it has been getting better.”

    He knew he didn’t need to win the jumping portion; he just wanted to put himself in position to succeed on his cross-country skis.

    “This is also very big for our team as I was the last podium in 2013 and it was a big motivator for the future heading into world championships,” Taylor added. “This shows that we have great potential for the future with Adam Loomis quickly getting better scoring points this year.”

    The third American in Saturday’s competition, Loomis, 22, placed 36th of 41 finishers, 2:59.6 behind Frenzel.

    “I had a good opportunity with conditions on the hill and didn’t really maximize that,” Loomis said in a video interview with Fast Big Dog.

    On Friday, Loomis placed 28th for his second-best World Cup result. He jumped to 42nd on Saturday, but posted the ninth-fastest ski time to improve to 36th.

    “It left me shooting for racing for all I’ve got and going for a fast race, and that’s kind of what I did,” Loomis said. “And we had awesome skis.”

    The Nordic Combined World Cup next visits Val di Fiemme for three days of competitions (including a team sprint) from Jan. 30-Feb. 1.

    — Lander Karath contributed reporting

    Results

    More from Sapporo: Provisional-jump day video | Day 1 recap | Pre-Sapporo Loppet Shoutout video