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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: Seiser Alm

Reserve Your Spot Soon: These 2027 Lumi Trips Still Have Space

Mid-August is a time to reflect on the summer and start looking forward to the upcoming changing of the seasons. The long, sunny days have brought me many adventures this year, particularly to lakeside destinations like Achensee just up the valley from Innsbruck. A quick dip in the lake is an excellent way to cool down after a bike ride, hike or even rollerski, in the mountains with friends on a hot day. Soon, though, the temperatures will begin dropping and our favorite trails start preparing for the coming winter.

If you’ve been dreaming of exploring Europe’s top cross-country ski trails this winter, there is still space on several Lumi trips to the Alps and Scandinavia. Whether you’d like to check a Worldloppet event (or two!) off your list or simply sight-ski in a new country at your own pace, Lumi’s expert, local trip leaders will help make you get the most out of your ski time in Europe. Check out Lumi’s 2027 winter calendar below and start making your plans today.

Ski in Seefeld & Seiser Alm

Explore the trails on Seiser Alm, one of Italy’s premier Nordic skiing destinations (Photo: Lumi Experiences)

This Winter Seefeld, Austria and Seiser Alm, Italy are renowned for their approachable, yet scenic skiing during the winter months. Start your journey on the nearly-flat trails of Leutasch outside of Seefeld, where picture-perfect mountains rise above the valley below. Trailside huts serving traditional Austrian fare, including the classic Aperol Spritz, dot the trails so you’re never far from a snack break or full meal. Continue your trip on Seiser Alm, where the higher elevations place you above the clouds and nearly at eye-level with the craggy Dolomite spires that ring this high-altitude plateau. Both locations have reliable snow-making capabilities that enable them to open the trails by November before natural snow takes over in December and beyond. The March trip is already sold out, but we still have space on both January trips to Seefeld & Seiser Alm trips. Reach out soon! Our January 20 departure only has one room remaining.

Earn Two Worldloppet Stamps Towards Your Masters Medal

Ski through Finland’s dense forests at the Finlandia-Hiihto (Photo: Finlandia-Hiihto)

If you’re craving the thrill of participating in a major ski marathon, look no further than Lumi’s Marcialonga & König Ludwig Lauf and Finlandia & Tartu trips. Both trips feature Worldloppet events on back-to-back weekends, putting you that much closer to reaching your Worldloppet Master medal. Your expert, local trip leaders assist with all race logistics, including ski waxing for each event so you can simply focus on enjoying the skiing and surroundings on your big event day. We only have a few spots left on both trips, so if you’d like to participate in two Worldloppet events on one trip we recommend reaching out soon.

The Marcialonga & König Ludwig Lauf trip features skiing in Italy, Austria and Germany over 11 days, allowing you to experience some of the best skiing and dining in each region. New for 2027 is the chance to participate in the 32 km Marcialonga “Just for Fun” event, the perfect distance for those who aren’t able to ski the full 70 km classic event. After skiing the beautiful trails in and around Seefeld, Austria, continue your Worldloppet pursuit at the König Ludwig Lauf in Germany on their newly refreshed, snow-secure course.

Whether you ski the full 70 km course or the new 32 km “Just For Fun” event, crossing the Marcialonga finish line is an exciting accomplishment (Photo: Lumi Experiences)

Later in the winter you’ll have the opportunity to ski the Finlandia-Hiihto and Tartu Ski Marathon on Lumi’s Finland & Estonia trip. Both events feature moderate terrain and a relaxed atmosphere in part due to their smaller size – especially compared to Worldloppet events like the Birken, Engadin and Vasaloppet, all of which regularly reach over 10,000 participants. In addition to enjoying both nations’ Olympic museums, cuisine and trails, guests have the opportunity to sauna every day in Finland in a variety of traditional Finnish saunas.

Join skiers from around the world in a group stretch before skiing the Finlandia-Hiihto Worldloppet (Photo: Finlandia-Hiihto)

Sight-Ski Your Way Across Norway or Slovenia & Italy

Not interested in participating in a ski marathon? Join a sight-skiing trip in Norway or Slovenia & Italy next winter. Lumi’s sight-skiing trips skip the races so you can focus on enjoying the scenery, cuisine and culture that make each destination unique.

Ski the Holmenkollen trails above Oslo before trekking north to Norway’s Sjusjøen trails (Photo: Lumi Experiences)

We have two Norway Sight-Skiing trips scheduled for mid-February next winter, each of which begins in Oslo on the Nordmarka trails before shifting north to the Olympic city of Lillehammer and the seemingly endless trails of Sjusjøen. Enjoy Oslo’s harbor from two unique angles: first from the top of the iconic Holmenkollen Ski Jump high above the city, then from the water on a floating sauna – before an optional cold plunge into the icy waters. Our February 14 departure is almost full, with just two more rooms available for up to 4 guests

Lumi’s Slovenia & Italy Sight-Skiing trip in early-March is the perfect trip for those looking to explore a quieter corner of the Alps. Your accommodations for the week-long trip are just a few minutes walk along rustic village paths to the trails, which lead directly to the famous Planica Nordic Center, site of the 2023 FIS World Championships. Ski to one of our favorite trailside huts in the Julian Alps before taking a gondola ride to a mountaintop village nearly a kilometer in elevation above the valley below. Wrap up your trip with a visit to Lake Bled, one of Slovenia’s most cherished natural wonders.

Discover the quieter trails of the Julian Alps in Slovenia and Italy (Photo: Lumi Experiences)

End Your Season Under the Auroras in Iceland

Part Worldloppet trip, part sight-seeing adventure: Lumi’s Iceland Fossavatn trip in mid-April has a little bit of everything. Start your trip off in Reykjavik before trekking northwards along Iceland’s rugged interior, with stops at volcanic craters, scenic waterfalls and geothermal springs. Upon reaching the country’s Westfjords region, you’ll find a beautiful trail network just above sea level, with stunning views of the fjord in the glacially-carved valley overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. After participating in the last Worldloppet event of the season, celebrate with your fellow skiers from around the world at the Fossavatn’s famous cake party, with dozens of delicious cakes to choose from – not to mention freshly-caught seafood served at restaurants throughout Ísafjörður. With almost no light pollution to speak of, this trip has the highest chance of seeing the northern lights of any Lumi trip.

Visit Iceland next April for the chance to see the northern lights (Photo: Annika Landis)

Space is limited on many of these trips, so if you are interested in traveling to Europe with Lumi for your next ski vacation, reach out soon to secure your spot. Message reservations@lumiexperiences.com for a detailed trip itinerary or to sign up. We look forward to hearing from you!

See you on the trail,

Garrott Kuzzy
garrott@lumiexperiences.com
Founder & Olympian, Lumi Experiences

About Lumi Experiences

As the world’s premier cross-country ski travel company, Lumi Experiences offers boutique trips that introduce travelers to winter cultures where Nordic skiing is a part of everyday life — from Sweden to Slovenia. It’s a ski vacation like no other.

Media contact: Nathan Miller – Marketing & Guest Communications Manager – nathan@lumiexperiences.com

September 21, 2026
Courtney Dauwalter Visits Seefeld & Seiser Alm With Lumi

Among the world’s top ultra-marathon runners is Courtney Dauwalter. Her accolades read as a list of the world’s most challenging trail running events, followed by “win” in pretty much every one of them. Known in the running world simply as “Courtney,” she is an incredibly talented athlete, but more importantly, Courtney is an incredibly thoughtful and inspiring person.

In high school, Courtney and I were teammates on the cross-country ski team and both of us stood on top of the podium at the 2002 Minnesota State High School Ski Championships (if anyone has any photos in their archives, please let me know – this was long before digital cameras and smartphones were ubiquitous). After skiing in college for the University of Denver, Courtney spent several years teaching, before a passion for trail running eventually pulled her away from teaching and into a trail running career. We stay in touch and try to meet up when it works out.

Courtney Dauwalter explores the Seiser Alm trails with Garrott Kuzzy from Lumi Experiences (Photo: Moritz Klee)

Last fall, Courtney reached out to share that she was invited to run as a torchbearer in Italy in January 2026 and perhaps even do a little skiing afterwards: “Hey Garrott! Kev and I were just looking at the Lumi website and saw the Seefeld & Seiser Alm trip. We’d love to ski it this winter!” Fast forward a few months and we were catching up over a hot chocolate in a hut in Leutasch, Austria, getting ready to go sledding down one of my favorite trails before skiing our way back to their hotel in Seefeld. We had a blast skiing in Seefeld, Austria and Seiser Alm, Italy, where we got fresh corduroy tracks after a big snowfall and sampled cheese at one of my favorite farms in the Dolomites. It wasn’t until we were there that Courtney realized she’d been to the region before on a long trail run and pointed to the mountain she traversed during a summer trail running event a few years ago.

The iconic Schlern formation rises above Seiser Alm’s trails in Italy (Photo: Moritz Klee)

A Legend on Foot

Enjoying an evening ski on Seiser Alm (Photo: Moritz Klee)

Widely recognized as one of the world’s top trail ultrarunners, Courtney’s trademark baggy shorts, easygoing attitude and mental resilience have made her a fan favorite and an inspiration for a generation of athletes of all ages who are bucking the definition of what makes a traditional trail runner. She has shattered records worldwide and amassed repeated victories at ultrarunning’s premier events, highlighted by an unprecedented sweep of the “Triple Crown” in 2023, winning the Western States 100, UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc) and Hardrock 100 all in a single calendar year.

Salut! to a day on Seiser Alm’s trails in Italy with Lumi Experiences (Photo: Moritz Klee)

Courtney continues to set the bar high this season, winning the women’s Ultra Trail Chianti Castles 120K in Tuscany this past March and placing 10th overall. In May, she tackled the grueling Cocodona 250, redeeming her previous year’s DNF by pushing through the Arizona heat to take 2nd among women and 6th overall. She followed that in July by capturing her fourth straight women’s title at the Hardrock 100, crossing the line 5th overall in 26:03:10 to set the fastest female clockwise time in the race’s history. Was it her week of skiing in Seefeld & Seiser Alm this winter that made the difference? Well, probably not, but skiing is definitely great cross-training for trail running.

Still Stellar on Skis

Snow-capped peaks make for an incredible backdrop for skiing at Seefeld, Austria and Seiser Alm, Italy (Photo: Moritz Klee)

Courtney still excels at skiing, a testament to the importance of cross training and staying fit no matter the season – not to mention the years of working on her stride early in her athletic career. Her husband Kevin is relatively new to cross country skiing, but still loved the alternative to running, exploring the trails and perfecting his ski skills.

Alpine sledding with Courtney Dauwalter and Lumi Experiences (Photo: Moritz Klee)

One of the highlights of our week together was rodeling, aka alpine sledding. We had a memorable ride down the hill through forests blanketed with snow before our ski back to Seefeld. There are plenty of ski trails and activity options suitable for everyone in Seefeld & Seiser Alm, from ultra-distance champions to beginners.

Ready for rodeling with new and old friends in Leutasch, Austria (Photo: Moritz Klee)

Ski in Austria and Italy Next Winter

Fresh snowfall made for excellent conditions on Seefeld’s trails (Photo: Moritz Klee)

Would you like to explore Austria and Italy’s best cross-country ski trails next winter? Let Lumi Experiences handle all of the hotel, transportation, and scheduling logistics so you can enjoy the trails to the fullest with your travel companions, with the help of Lumi’s local, expert trip leaders. Relax in comfortable trailside accommodations and discover regional cuisine unique to both countries. Not an ultrarunner like Courtney? Both Seefeld & Seiser Alm feature trails for all levels of skiers, even novices. There is limited space available on Lumi’s Seefeld & Seiser Alm trips next January, with two departure dates available. Reach out to reservations@lumiexperiences.com today for a detailed daily itinerary or to sign up.

Garrott, Kevin and Courtney in front of Seefeld’s Seekirchl church (Photo: Moritz Klee)

See you on the trail,

Garrott Kuzzy
garrott@lumiexperiences.com
Founder & Olympian, Lumi Experiences

About Lumi Experiences

As the world’s premier cross-country ski travel company, Lumi Experiences offers boutique trips that introduce travelers to winter cultures where Nordic skiing is a part of everyday life — from Sweden to Slovenia. It’s a ski vacation like no other.

Media contact: Nathan Miller – Marketing & Guest Communications Manager – nathan@lumiexperiences.com

August 26, 2026
Johaug Tests Positive for Anabolic Steroid After Using Sunburn Cream Recommended by Team Doctor

Therese Johaug (l) and Norwegian teammate Heidi Weng during the women’s 15 k skiathlon in Canmore, Alberta. The competition was part of the Ski Tour Canada, one of many World Cup events Johaug won last season. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

The Norwegian Ski Federation has announced that cross-country skier Therese Johaug, an Olympic and World Championships gold medalist and two-time winner of the overall World Cup title, has had a positive drug test.

According to the federation, Johaug had severely sunburned her lips while training at high altitude in Seiser Alm, Italy, in August.

The damage can still be seen in a photo she posted to Instagram over the weekend.

Tok med jordbærpikenes kyllingsalat hjem til Dalsbygda #minfavoritt #høst #makeitpossible #huaweinorge

A photo posted by Therese (@johaugtherese) on Oct 7, 2016 at 4:12am PDT

After the team moved to nearby Livigno for a mid-elevation camp, team doctor Fredrik Bendiksen noticed Johaug’s condition. He bought two creams at an Italian pharmacy and assured Johaug that neither contained substances on World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List.

The first cream she used did not help her sunburn. So she switched to the second. It helped – but it also contained clostebol, an androgenic anabolic steroid which is in fact banned.

Johaug was visited by doping control officers on September 16 – where she declared the lip cream, called Trofodermin, on a form listing what medications she was using – and was informed of her positive test on October 3. The test was ordered by Anti-Doping Norway, which will proceed with her case.

Therese Johaug during a press conference on Thursday announcing her positive doping test.

The news was made public by the ski federation on Thursday morning. Johaug had a live press conference on NRK, Norwegian state television, around noon (Norwegian time) on Thursday.

In the statement released Thursday morning by the federation, Johaug described her feelings.

“I am completely devastated and in despair to have ended up in this very demanding and to me unreal situation,” she said, according to a translation by the International Ski Federation.” I see this as unfair and totally undeserved, even though I am obviously aware of the liability that I have as an athlete for the medication that I use.”

In the press conference, she said that this had been “the worst week of my life.”

Clostebol is commonly used to treat skin conditions. But it is also performance-enhancing. Clostebol was initially developed in East Germany and used by athletes there to gain an athletic advantage. It is a derivative of testosterone, but is considered a weak anabolic agent compared to some other steroids.

A number of athletes across nationalities and sports – ranging from professional baseball and soccer to international Olympic sports like track and field, weightlifting, and beach volleyball – have tested positive for the clostebol.

The test for clostebol is fairly sensitive, and a number of athletes have tested positive despite never taking the drug as a medication. For instance, the drug is also used to promote growth in livestock (particularly in countries where the use of growth hormones is prohibited) and there are documented cases of test subjects who had never taken the drug having it show in urine samples after eating meat from animals raised on the substance.

Clostebol also has applications for gynecological care, and there are other documented cases where an individual has tested positive after having sexual intercourse with a partner who is using the drug in a medication.

Norway’s Therese Johaug after winning the 10 k classic mass start at Stage 5 of the Tour de Ski in Oberstdorf, Germany, in January. (Photo: Marcel Hilger)

But a number of cases have been the result of athletes simply using topical skin creams without checking to see whether any of the ingredients were prohibited. In this case, it is clear that Bendiksen made a mistake in obtaining the medication. A simple online search would have revealed that clostebol was an active component of Trofodermin.

Bendiksen has taken complete responsibility for the mistake.

“Therese is an amazing, conscientious person and performer who is careful and precise in everything that she does,” he said, according to a translation. “The most important thing for me to do now, is to do everything I can to make sure she is not punished for using a cream which I assured her was legal to use.”

At the same time, Johaug said that she took responsibility for following Bendiksen’s recommendation. She explained that she had asked whether the cream had any prohibited substances in it, was told that it did not, and trusted her team doctor.

She tried to strike a balance by saying that she was responsible for the decision not to check the drug’s contents against the WADA list herself, she also “has zero guilt.”

“To get an undeserved positive test, it’s an athlete’s worst nightmare,” Johaug said.” But I will fight everything I can and show that I am innocent in this matter.”

Norwegian team doctors believe that Johaug would not have had enough of the substance in her system to affect her performance anyway. The case is ongoing and a suspension has not been issued, but a case from 2005 before the International Swimming Federation (FINA) resulted in a reduced sentence for a 15-year-old swimmer who had used the medication in a skin cream and successfully argued that she did not gain any performance advantage from it.

The federation reportedly canceled a major season kickoff event scheduled for Thursday. Instead, the cross-country committee is meeting to decide how to handle the situation.

For Norway, the news comes after a long summer of doping controversy. Several-time men’s World Cup winner Martin Johnsrud Sundby was suspended for two months for using a too-high dose of the asthma medication salbutamol.

When that made news – 18 months after the positive tests had taken place, generating widespread outrage – several other Norwegian athletes came forward to say that they had been instructed to take the same doses of medication despite the fact that they did not even have asthma.

The ski federation is clearly trying a different crisis management strategy this time around. Rather than delaying, Johaug held the press conference soon after learning the news herself.

Whether that is due to the preferences of the federation or the athlete is unclear. The federation had reportedly urged Sundby to go public earlier in his appeals process, but he had refused.

Now, after months of denying responsibility for the high doses of asthma medication he had been prescribed by a team doctor, Sundby has apologized and said he was “100% responsible”.

The ski federation, meanwhile, is facing a nightmare. President Erik Røste said in the press statement that he was “concerned that Norwegian cross country have again ended up in such a demanding situation.”

And once again, it appears that the doping violation was the result of an athlete following advice of a team doctor. Røste said that the federation would look into how to prevent the problem from continuing.

The news also comes at a bad time for Norway as their Minister for Culture, Linda Hofstad Helleland, is bidding to become the vice president of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

For Johaug, Seiser Alm has become quite a significant place for her, and not in a positive way: in 2015, she broke her hand while running there.

October 13, 2016
Randall Back to Normal After Tweaking Back on Her Birthday

Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team) racing to second in the World Cup freestyle sprint in Davos, Switzerland, on Dec. 15. Last weekend, she won the World Cup freestyle sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, her first race back after a two-week break. (Photo: Fisher/Nordic Focus)

Kikkan Randall’s birthday ski started much like any other training day just over two weeks ago on Dec. 31. The 31-year-old U.S. Ski Team member clicked into her bindings and started swinging her arms to warm them up, a movement she’s done “thousands of times before with no problem,” Randall wrote in an email.

Suddenly, something hurt — a minor strain in her back, it turned out — and she stepped out of the skis, went inside and took the rest of the day off.

Randall celebrates her victory on Jan. 11 in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, after winning yet another freestyle sprint in preparation for the Sochi Olympics in February. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)

“Just one of those freak things,” Randall wrote.

Training in Davos, Switzerland, at the time while others tested their endurance and recovery in the Tour de Ski, Randall worked directly with her physical therapist from Anchorage, Alaska, Zuzana Rogers, who was visiting for two weeks.

The idea was to get her back to 100 percent as soon as possible, and 11 days later, Randall won her first World Cup race back — the freestyle sprint in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.

“My back actually did great on Saturday,” Randall wrote.

She didn’t race the classic team sprint the next day, along with teammate Sadie Bjornsen, who was fighting illness.

“I chose not to race on Sunday so that I could test out some classic intensity before jumping into a full-on classic race,” Randall explained. “I did classic intensity [Sunday] and it did great.”

Just about three weeks before the Olympics open in Sochi, Russia, Randall is right on track. While Rodgers headed home earlier this week, Randall’s massage therapist from Anchorage was on his way over for the U.S. Ski Team’s pre-Olympic camp in Seiser Alm, Italy.

The team heads to Szklarska Poreba, Poland, for the first day of official training on Friday, a freestyle sprint on Saturday and 10/15-kilometer classic races on Sunday.

January 16, 2014