Canmore hosted the second NorAm of the 2018/2019 season on December 13th, 15th, and 16th. The event also served as U23 and Junior World trials. By the end of the weekend, starts at the U23/Junior World Championships and the World Cup’s Tour de Ski would be earned. This event was originally scheduled for Whistler Olympic […]
A Sovereign Lake NorAm/SuperTour Weekend Rundown
For the third consecutive year, the SuperTour and NorAm series met up at Sovereign Lake near Vernon, BC, for a combined race weekend of skate sprints and classic interval starts. Over 450 athletes competed each day in four age groups. According to many attendees, combining the two Continental Cup series was an unqualified success. While […]
Meet the Coach: CCC’s Erik Bråten
Cross Country Canada hired Erik Bråten as the new national team coach on November 1st, joining Louis Bouchard. After a short delay to get a work permit, Bråten arrived in Canada on November 15th. Regular readers will know the highlights of his resume: Graduate of the Norwegian School of Sports Science. Winner of the coach […]
Cross Country Canada: The Reboot Part Two
This is the second part of FasterSkier’s report on the state of high performance cross-country skiing and athlete development in Canada. You can read part one here. Cross Country Canada (CCC), as the national governing body for cross-country skiing in Canada has the difficult task of steering a rather large ship. The idea in steering […]
Cross Country Canada: The Reboot Part 1
Cross Country Canada (CCC) has begun a reboot process as the new Olympic cycle starts. Corporations call this a reset, a rebranding, a new direction, restructuring, and various other names that try to disguise the challenges and issues that come with enacting real change. The reboot process traditionally starts with an acknowledgement that the current […]
World Cup Preview #10: Canada
Welcome to FasterSkier’s World Cup Preview, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts. The World Cup begins with a classic sprint in Ruka, Finland on Nov. 24th. *** Canada Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: 10th Women’s Ranking 2017/2018: 18th Men’s […]
Frozen Thunder Race Day 2: Going the Distance
Frozen Thunder racing continued in Canmore, Alberta, on Tuesday with a 7.5 kilometer freestyle individual start for the women and 10 k for the men. Once again, the athletes were more focused on training goals than finish order, which is summarized in the rundown. Team R.A.D.’s Ty Godfrey, the faster of the siblings today, expressed […]
Frozen Thunder Booms on Day 1 Classic Sprint
The North American season kicked off today with classic sprints at Frozen Thunder in Canmore, Alberta. Most of the top athletes were treating this as a chance to do some race intensity and were more focused on training and process goals than on actual results. The day’s results are summarized in the rundown. Chief of […]
Calgary in Final Three for 2026 Olympics
The bidding process for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics is crawling forward, and when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the shortlist last Thursday, Oct. 4, Calgary was in the final three. Much has changed since the last time Calgary, Alberta, hosted the Games in 1988 as well as since Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010. […]
Wednesday Workout: Masters Strength at Sovereign (with Videos)
VERNON, British Columbia — There are a lot of master blasters who are training hard all year. There are a lot less that progress from one season to the next. This strength program is designed to help one group of masters ski faster as they age. Eric de Nys, the program director and head coach […]
Sovereign Lake Hosts 1st Annual Enduro Ski Race (with Video)
VERNON, British Columbia — Each year, the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre reopens its trails in May to let skiers start the new training season on snow at its annual Spring Fling Ski Camp. In addition to the local skiers, groups came from Whitehorse, Canmore, Saskatchewan, and Methow Valley to absorb some Vitamin D and snow. The […]
Meet Kequyen Lam, Portuguese Olympic Skier (with Video)
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Madshus USA, Concept2, Boulder Nordic Sport and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. ***** VERNON, B.C. — In May of 2015, a new skier turned up at the Sovereign Lake snow camp. He struggled to skate up small hills and fell down often. In the coming […]
Western Canadian Champs: Notes and Quotes
The NorAm series moved west to Red Deer, Alberta, for Western Canadian Championships last week from Friday, Jan. 19 to Sunday, Jan. 21, with freestyle sprints, classic mass starts and relays at the River Bend Recreation Area trails. Each year, the NorAm circuit features both ‘Westerns’ and ‘Easterns’, which are intended to be regional championships […]
Monday Rundown: U.S. Nationals; MSA NorAm Trials
U.S. Cross Country Championships (Anchorage, Alaska): Classic sprint Women’s report Men’s report Caitlin Patterson did it. With a classic-sprint win on Monday, she successfully capped off an undefeated 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships, as the top American woman in all four races over the past week in Anchorage, Alaska. Patterson, of the Craftsbury Green Racing […]
Sovereign NorAm/SuperTour Rewind: Craftsbury Women on Top; Thompson and Torchia Take Wins [Updated Photo Gallery]
![Sovereign NorAm/SuperTour Rewind: Craftsbury Women on Top; Thompson and Torchia Take Wins [Updated Photo Gallery]](https://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/12/Sov2017FLCPatterson2-150x100.jpg)
VERNON, British Columbia — For the second consecutive year, the Sovereign Lake NorAm was combined with the SuperTour for an expanded field of racers. The warm, sunny, and windless conditions on both days were a welcome change from the previous season’s cold weather and falling snow. What didn’t change was the ‘south of the […]
Early Snow in Canada, Call for Submissions
When you think of skiing in Canada in October, Canmore’s Frozen Thunder is probably one of the first places that comes to mind. There are more options and some snowmaking that might surprise you. This month, Canadians are skiing on natural snow, machine-made snow and farmed snow. We know skiers are already out and about […]
Wednesday Workout: Working the Downhills with Catharine Pendrel
“I’m Catharine Pendrel and I’m a cross-country mountain biker.” Fans of mountain biking need no introduction to the Olympic medallist, world champion and three-time World Cup overall winner from Canada. Pendrel, 36, is also a masters world champion in skiing after winning her age group in the 15-kilometer freestyle in 2011 at Sovereign Lake in Vernon, British Columbia. FasterSkier […]
Wednesday Workout: Race Prep Intensity with Palmer-Charrette
Evan Palmer-Charrette, of Thunder Bay’s National Team Development Centre (NTDC), had an eventful 2016/2017 season, starting with compartment syndrome surgery in the summer to remedy an issue that had plagued him for four years, his first U23 World Championships, his first World Cup races in Quebec, and his first national title. Palmer-Charrette finished the season ranked […]
May Skiing in Canada (and Abroad) in Photos
While most people have moved on to other sports by May, the more obsessive skiers are starting the new training year on snow. Canada’s “first” cross-country ski “races” of the 2017/2018 season were held on May 6. “First” because, while we haven’t exhaustively researched this, it was the first Saturday after May 1, which is the traditional new year […]
Wednesday Workout: ‘Spring Fling’ Pushups TT (with Video)
On May 6, Sovereign Lake hosted a classic time trial with a twist. Instead of using a standard interval start, each skier drew a number, did that many pushups, put their skis on, and started the 5-kilometre, one-lap course. When one skier hit the 5-metre line, the next skier stepped up to the pushup station. Troy […]