Lumi Announces New 2025 Trip to Estonia and Finland

Did you know that “Lumi” is the Estonian and Finnish word for snow? I am thrilled to announce the new Lumi Experiences Tartu & Finlandia trip for February 2025! Experience the unique winter cultures in Estonia and Finland on Lumi’s special namesake trip. The trip starts in the medieval city of Tartu, home to the Worldloppet ski marathon with the same name. It’s also where the Worldloppet Headquarters is based. Discover Estonia’s ski culture by...

Green Racing Project (GRP) Ski & Biathlon Teams Now Accepting Applications for the 2024/25 Training Year

Green Racing Project (GRP) Ski & Biathlon teams are now accepting applications for the 2024-25 training year. Applications will be due by the end of day March 24 and decisions will be made by April 10. (U23 skiers’ and biathletes’ summer program is its own program for 2024. Find information about U23 programming here.)   GRP is looking for skiers and biathletes who have shown good ski speed over the past couple years. Skiers who have...

2024 NCAA Preview: New Talent and Stubborn Traditions in Steamboat Springs

When the best collegiate athletes in the United States gather for the 2024 NCAA Ski Championships, they will head to the nation’s oldest ski area, Howelsen Hill, for one of the longest continuously run championship events in the country. The NCAA is the most staid competitive circuit in US Skiing history, and continues to serve as an incubator of North American ski-talent. The best young skiers in the country will be racing in Steamboat Springs...

Crystal Globe Chase: What Do Diggins and Brennan Need to Do?

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. With only three weekends of racing and five races left, the 2024 World Cup Season is entering its home-stretch run, and fans of team USA are hoping that Jessie Diggins can hang on...

Skistad and Klaebo Master Lahti Sprint Tactics

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. The World Cup season has definitely gotten long, and the edges are beginning to fray. The FIS World Cup points system favors those who race the most, but the season is just too...

Klaebo Crushes Finland’s Hopes, Defeats Niskanen at Home

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. The World Cup entered its home stretch of the season with racing continuing in Lahti, Finland. Today, the racers competed in the 20 k Classic Individual Start. For the men, the Overall and...

Parmakoski’s Redemption in Lahti

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Krista Parmakoski (FIN) has battled the greats: Marit Bjorgen, Therese Johaug, Charlotte Kalla, Justyna Kowalczyk, Heidi Weng, Jessie Diggins. Across fifteen years of World Cups, World Championships, and Olympics, whomever was the dominant...

Wright Hits First World Cup Top Ten With Eighth Place Finish in Oslo

Campbell Wright (Wanaka, NZL/U.S. Biathlon) rewrites his World Cup personal best for the third time this season with an eighth place finish in the men’s 20km individual to kick off the third trimester of racing in Oslo, Norway. At 21 years old, Wright shot a near perfect 19 for 20, which propelled him to just +0.15 back from a spot in the flower ceremony and +0.54 back from a podium finish. “It was tough skiing...

Sweden and Norway Win Team Sprints in Chaotic Lahti Conditions

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. As the World Cup returned to Europe in Lahti, Finland, Friday, it was those tricky conditions: temps hovering around zero degrees Celsius; mix of wet, man-made, and natural snow that leaves even the best...

Combine Skiing and Gambling at Lee Canyon, Nevada

People travel to Las Vegas for all sorts of reasons beside gambling. Weddings, honeymoons, bachelor parties, business conferences – and even skiing. Now, the Nevada desert might not be the first place that springs to mind as a ski destination, but Las Vegas is the place where anything is possible. Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort is in Lee Canyon, which lies about 35 miles from The Strip, and definitely has a sprinkling of that...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Dr. William Poromaa is the cure for your World Cup withdrawal

It’s been a minute. We, and the World Cup circuit, took a break from racing, and podcasting, last weekend, but things are about to heat up again in Lahti, Finland, and we thought now was the perfect time to bring you an interview Nat did in Canmore with up and coming Swedish talent William Poromaa. Nat and Devon will be back with a recap after the races in Lahti this weekend. Send us your questions,...

Getting the Call To the Big Show

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. To learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, or to learn how you can support FasterSkier’s coverage, please contact info@fasterskier.com. Most people visiting FasterSkier are probably familiar with the lives led by the American “A” team athletes. Their lifestyles and races are thoroughly documented. But, with the addition of new racers for North...

Our Greenland Moment? Adaptations and Impacts of Virtual Racing: Part III

February is here, and Nordic skiers in the Upper Midwest are at a teetering point. Many of us are remaining cautiously optimistic that all we need is “one good snow” to salvage our ski season. The Canadian Birkie, American Vasa, Finlandia, and Vasaloppet USA have already cancelled their races. Many skiers are starting to wonder how races like the Birkie will look this year. What a stark contrast from last year’s record setting snowfall throughout...

US Announces Period 4 World Cup Selections

Dear Cross Country Community, We are pleased to announce the Team for Period 4 of the 2023-24 World Cup season: Lahti 20 km C, Holmenkollen 50 km C, & Falun 10 km C Men Michael Earnhart                      Objective          23-24 Overall SuperTour Leader Gus Schumacher                       Objective          16th Distance World Cup Standings Scott Patterson                         Objective          30th Distance World Cup Standings Ben Ogden                                Objective          39th Distance World Cup Standings Zanden McMullen                     Discretion         29th Trondheim 10 km C David Norris                             ...

The 2024 Tour of Anchorage is Sunday

One of North America’s only, and Alaska’s favorite, point-to-point ski race is this Sunday, March 3, 2024! More than 1200 skiers and 100 bikers to participate on excellent trail conditions. Alaska’s Nordic ski community celebrates ski racing and generations of standout local athletes at the annual Tour of Anchorage, the spring skiing festival, and one of North America’s most popular ski races on Sunday, March 3rd. The Fat Bike Tour of Anchorage welcomes back the...

Can jet-setting ski racers be climate activists? Schumacher, Diggins lean into “imperfect advocacy.”

MINNEAPOLIS — After Gus Schumacher’s upset win at an international cross-country ski race here last week, one of his first moves was not to celebrate at a bar, but instead, to stand in front of the crowd and talk about climate change. With hundreds listening to the panel discussion from the grandstand, Schumacher, his teammate Jessie Diggins and activist and author Bill McKibben passed a microphone back and forth. The subject, for Schumacher, is immediate...

Victories by Diggins and Schumacher Highlight American Birkebeiner

It hasn’t always been the same race, but it has always been the American Birkebeiner. Courses have changed, directions have changed, ski techniques have changed, conditions have changed, field sizes have changed, reputations have changed. Thin snow conditions across the American Midwest even necessitated that his year’s race was not even contested on the Telemark trail between Cable and Hayward, but over five laps of a ten kilometer loop painstakingly preserved just for this event....

Average Joe (and Jane) vs. The World Cup

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Just when you thought the Minneapolis World Cup was over, the Loppet Foundation was able to pull one more delightful rabbit out of its hat. Ever wonder how you might fare on a World Cup racecourse? Apparently, lots of people have, and thanks to the Loppet Foundation’s “Share Winter Playday” held Monday after the real racing was over, there was an opportunity for regular Joes and Janes to launch themselves onto the World...

Hotdish, memes, autographs and onesies: FasterSkier’s gossip reporter speaks from Minneapolis

“Short Title Goes Here” “Something cool about my website (65 characters max).” “Lorem ipsum consectetur pharetra elit varius.” Hi, I’m Olivia, and you’ve just read selections from my most recent professional graphic design projects.  I am adept at inserting placeholder text into my designs, which, when combined with my ability to cobble together semi coherent emails to colleagues and prowess as an increasingly unhinged political meme content creator, doesn’t come close to making me a...