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Wild Rumpus Sports
 

No Easy Feat: NANANordic Gets Nearly 2,000 Rural Alaskans on Skis

Alaska Pacific University junior coach Erika Klaar during a NANANordic on-snow session in Kiana in Northwest Alaska. (Photo: Reese Hanneman)

In its second year, NANANordic reached three times the amount of villages and more than twice as many students in Northwest Alaska. And if you ask founder Lars Flora, they’re not done with spreading cross-country skiing just yet.

Local Teams Sweep Craftsbury Spring Tour as Eastern Skiers Prepare for California Finale

Caldwell on course. Photo: Judy Geer.

Sorry, New Hampshire: the Vermont-based teams of Craftsbury, Stratton, and UVM had a lock on the podium at the Craftsbury Spring Tour after 10/15 k pursuits based on the previous two days’ results. Sophie Caldwell consolidated her lead to win by a mile, while Pat O’Brien worked some slick skis through the sunny snow to edge out Eric Packer.

SMST2 Reigns in Craftsbury Spring Tour Sprints; O’Brien Scores One for Home Team in Prologue

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Recently back from Europe, Sophie Caldwell has dominated Craftsbury’s mini-tour so far, winning the 3.6 k prologue by over 30 seconds and the sprint qualifier by ten. The men’s field is tighter, after Pat O’Brien and Paddy Caldwell dueled it out in the prologue and then the sprint final came down to a drag race between SMST2 teammates Eric Packer and Skyler Davis.

Greggs Conquer 10 k Free at Vail Mountain Games

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Brian and Caitlin Gregg doubled up to sweep the men’s and women’s 10 k freestyle at the Vail Mountain Games on Friday. The pair have been training in the Rockies all week to get ready for the Aspen SuperTour this weekend and the altitude training clearly paid off. Click through for photos and video of the event.

Timing Problems at Craftsbury, Bozeman Sprints Shine Light on Challenges of Hosting Bigger, Better Races

Race officials converge on a timing laptop at SuperTour races in Bozeman, Montana, earlier this season as they try to iron out problems in the results from a classic sprint qualifier.

In Bozeman earlier this season, bibs had to be redistributed for SuperTour sprint heats once starters were already on lining up. More recently and catastrophically in Craftsbury, an Eastern Cup had to cancel its sprint heats and hold a second qualifier after cascading hardware failures wreaked havoc on results. Here’s why we can’t expect these problems to go away.

Parking Lot Alternative: Biathletes Welcome New Lake Placid Rollerski Loop (with Video)

Ooh la la. Near the top of the new rollerski loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Lake Placid-based biathletes are excited about the extension of their rollerski loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex, which cost $500,000 and took about 14 weeks to complete this fall.

Grooming the Plateau (Exclusive Video)

West Yellowstone chief groomer Doug Edgerton sits in his PistenBully with summer tracks while talking to Steve Hoovler, assistant director of the Yellowstone Ski Festival, after grooming South Plateau early Nov. 22.

There’s only one nordic groomer in West Yellowstone and that’s Doug Edgerton. Founder and president of the world-famous Yellowstone Track Systems, Edgerton let FasterSkier ride along while he groomed South Plateau early Wednesday morning.

West Organizers Work Hard to Get Skiers on Snow

Skiers on Nov. 21 near the end of the 9 k Whiskey Trail on the South Plateau in West Yellowstone, Mont.

A week ago, Yellowstone Ski Festival organizers saw the writing on the wall and started planning ahead. They might not get much snow, but they were going to get people to the white stuff somehow. For the first time, they offered a shuttle system to the South Plateau, which required some timely logistics.

After Bad Bike Crash, Liebsch ‘Diving Headfirst’ into Full Season

Matt Liebsch (Borton Volvo XC United) with his wife Marybeth and kids, 3-year-old Samantha (l) and Grant, 4. (Photo: www.mattliebsch.com)

Matt Liebsch couldn’t believe the nerves he was fighting before the 2012 American Birkebeiner. A Minnesota ski hero at the ultimate of U.S. cross-country marathons, Liebsch had won the 50-kilometer skate race in 2009. In early February, he took back-to-back [...]

Anchorage Community Rallies for Critically Injured APU Skier

APU development skier Mary Robicheaux at the Arctic Winter Games. (Charlie Renfro courtesy photo)

Holly Brooks felt like she had been punched in the stomach when she heard the news from Alaska Pacific University (APU) development coach Charlie Renfro. One of their skiers, 13-year-old Mary Robicheaux, had been hit by a car while riding [...]

Nishikawa Edges Ellefson, Stephen Runs Solo to Win Spray Drag

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Thirty-six men in the Spray Drag running race didn’t end up chasing Devon Kershaw up Spray Lakes Road in Canmore, Alberta, on Saturday, but they had one heck of a battle from the start. According to American Sylvan Ellefson (Ski [...]

Brick Wheels Hosting On-Snow Ski Fest & Swap

Eli Brown brought the heat

Third Nordic Fall Fest and Ski Swap Brick Wheels, Traverse City, Mich. Sunday, Oct. 21 , 9 AM-6 PM Need a little snow fix? Longingly looking at your waxing bench already? You are in luck this weekend, Brick Wheels is [...]

Hart Takes Advantage of Dartmouth D-Plan, Hangs with SMS

Fast and Female in action: Annie Hart, Sophie Caldwell, Jessie Diggins and Erika Flowers on Oct. 7 at a Fast and Female event in Park City, Utah. (Courtesy photo)

Annie Hart has been hanging out with the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) T2 Team for a couple months now, but don’t get it wrong, she’s still a Dartmouth skier. A 20-year-old junior, Hart spent most of the summer studying and [...]

Fewer Than 500 Spots Left for 2013 Birkie/Korte

Birkie, American Birkebeiner

 Birkie and Korte Close to Closing (Press release) This is a final announcement about registering for either the Birkebeiner or the Kortelopet races on February 23, 2013. There are now fewer than 500 spots left for these two races combined. [...]

Elliott Schedules Trip to Wisconsin for “Train Like a Birkie Champion” Camp

When the head of F.A.S.T. Performance Training in Hayward, Wis., Bill Pierce heard Tad Elliott pulled off a cross-Atlantic trip to win the American Birkebeiner last February, he knew he had to have him back in town. Matt Liebsch, one of [...]

USST Athletes Descend on Park City, Join Several Others

U.S. Nordic Ski Team member Tad Elliott (tucked behind leader Bill Demong) works out with the U.S. Nordic Combined Team earlier this week at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. (Dave Jarrett photo)

The U.S. Nordic Ski Team’s final dryland camp of the season starts in earnest on Monday, but many of its athletes are already getting after it in Park City, Utah. Liz Stephen, Noah Hoffman and Tad Elliott generally live in [...]

After Roll-Run-Row, Craftsbury Skiers Primed for Season Ahead

Start of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center's Roll-Run-Row, a race which pitted the program's elite skiers against its elite rowers, on Oct. 3 in Craftsbury, Vt. (Courtesy photo)

It downpoured across much of the Northeast on Wednesday. Those at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in northern Vermont hardly noticed. Owner Judy Geer called it “drizzle.” That morning, about 20 Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) athletes and coaches participated in [...]

U.S. Paralympics Nordic Brings Numbers to Lake Placid

U.S. Paralympics Nordic National Team member Andy Soule, an Army veteran, works on shooting at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg biathlon range during time-trial intervals on sit-ski mountain boards on Sept. 21. The national team held a dryland camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., from Sept. 18-28.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — As they hammered out loops at the Mt. Van Hoevenberg biathlon center, several athletes on sit-ski mountain boards put their heads down. Everything they were doing — five or so laps lasting a few minutes each [...]

Bounding Up Whiteface: Video from USST Elite Camp (Updated with Quotes)

About 25 elite nordic skiers did maximal-intensity, ski-bounding intervals up Whiteface Mountain on Tuesday as part of the U.S. Ski Team Elite Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y.

WILMINGTON, N.Y. — The view from partially up Whiteface Mountain on Wednesday morning was about as picturesque as they get. From the trail, one could see that the leaves had started to turn shades of red and yellow — just [...]

Injured APU/USST Teammates Randall and Bjornsen Keep Kicking

Sadie Bjornsen (fourth from right) and her APU women's teammates pose like Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt for a team photo on Eagle Glacier near Anchorage, Alaska. (Photo by Chris Hodel)

Last week in Anchorage, a freak windstorm rolled through that would have devastated most mainland Americans. Gusts estimated at 130 miles per hour spewed trees across Alaska’s largest city, leaving at least a thousand residents without power through Saturday – [...]