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 […]
Canadian Nationals: Notes, Quotes and Gallery
CANMORE, Alberta — Canadian Nationals went to Canmore for 2017 and Canmore delivered. Famous for challenging courses, well-trained volunteers, and erratic weather; the Canmore Nordic Centre showed all three at their best during the eight-day event. Each day delivered warm sun, cold winds, snow flurries, and warm winds (often all occurring in a single race lap) to more than 600 racers. […]
Eastern Canadian Champs: Notes, Quotes, Galleries, & No-Double-Pole Zones
The annual Eastern Canadian Championships are a special event in the Canadian winter. On paper, it is just another NorAm that provides opportunities to earn World Cup starts, national-team positions, and valuable International Ski Federation (FIS) points, but it has grown to be bigger than that. While Western Canadian Championships and Canadian nationals change their host venue each […]
Wednesday Workout: Double-Pole Endurance Training
Double poling is an increasingly important part of cross-country skiing and it pays to be good at it. If watching World Cup stars double pole short races on television doesn’t have you convinced, take a look at the races you might enter. Most loppets, marathons and citizen races feature flatter courses with a lot of […]
Holmes, Palmer-Charrette Win Black Jack Mini Tour
The Black Jack mini tour represented the final chance for Canadians to earn World Cup Period 2 starts. A timely week of snow and colder weather delivered great skiing conditions after an unusually warm November wreaked havoc on most of the western ski areas. That same warm weather canceled the Bozeman combined SuperTour/NorAm, which reduced […]
Sovereign Lake NorAm/SuperTour: Photos, Notes & Quotes
VERNON, B.C. –The combined Noram/SuperTour last weekend at Sovereign Lake, British Columbia, produced some exciting skiing and some challenging photography conditions with almost non-stop snowfall both days. Some of our best photos that didn’t make the two-day race recap are included below, but first, a little background and feedback: The NorAm circuit has not been a fully […]
Americans Lock Out Canadians at Sovereign Lake NorAm/SuperTour
VERNON, B.C. — It might’ve been the first Canadian NorAm of the season, but the Americans made it all about themselves in what also doubled as their second stop on the U.S. SuperTour circuit this past weekend at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre. U.S. skiers kept Canada off the podium in the classic sprints and […]
Four Canadian Women Aim to Put Their World Cup Team on the Map
To kick off this World Cup season, Cross Country Canada (CCC) had planned to send four women for Period 1. After its men’s team has gathered most of the attention in recent years, the Canadian women are now in a position to develop depth at the top level of the sport. In her third full World Cup season, […]
November Skiing in Canada: Where The (Skiable) White Stuff Is
As promised, the Canadian version of “Where the (Skiable) White Stuff Is” (a.k.a. November skiing) is here, minus the bit about where to ski at Thanksgiving. Canada doesn’t usually have much snow at Thanksgiving, mostly because Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October. But by the time U.S. Thanksgiving rolls around in late November, there is an abundance of […]