By mid March, West Yellowstone, Montana has enough snow that sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the roof of a house and the lawn in front of it. The beautiful seclusion of the town accompanied by a welcoming coffee at Free Hell-n-Wheel during the “rest of the season” outside the West Yellowstone Ski Festival are reason enough to drive half-way across the country for a visit. A fun ski marathon makes it an...
On a mostly sunny day plateauing around 20F, the Tour of Anchorage got underway in Anchorage, Alaska Sunday. James Southam and Holly Brooks both comfortably took first place among a large field of local skiers and other masters from around the country
Were you wondering what to do with those extra two sets of fast skis? Looks like FIS has a new rule regarding equipment exchanges during competition, but I don’t see it in the current (2008) rule books. Can you exchange your poles too? Because dang, dawwg, that would totally improve my Tour time. How much more is a fast race going to cost a poor program? Will coaches gradually lose the ability to wax for longer...
Four time Olympian Alaska Sports Hall of Fame Thursday. The induction ceremony was held in the Conoco/Phillips atrium in downtown Anchorage. Although there was no sign of the state’s well known sitting Governor, the event was a “who’s-who of Alaska” affair, including former Governors and Anchorage Mayors as well as several prominent local athletes. Each inductee was introduced by former Mayor Rick Mystrom, and a video was played on a large projection screen to describe each athlete’s career...
Note: The actual names in the following account have been changed to protect the innocent … Thinking back to 1994 and watching the Lillehammer Olympic races, it’s not hard to remember that American ski coverage has come a long way. I was 16 at the time and will never forget watching the EuroSport coverage with the father (we’ll call him “Gunde”) of another kid on my high school ski team. That was the first world...
Debbie Randall, Kikkan's mother, was up at 3am watching the live timing updates on the FIS web site. "It's excruciating, it's awful! I get twice as nervous as she does."
Harry Johnson was Kikkan Randall’s high school coach and watched her transition from talented runner to professional nordic skier during those early years. He was nice enough to answer some questions about Kikkan as a budding athlete in light of her recent astounding success today at the World Championships in Liberec. A local coaching legend, he turned a near-dead high school program into one of the most successful in the state of Alaska in only...
New England Espy and Freeman Win TD Banknorth Silver Fox Trot (source: nensa.net) Posted by: Link to Today’s Results Link to J2 Qualifier Standings Class Results Overall Results for 15Km and 30Km, with leg times for 30Km Anchorage Cup: Sven Johansson 30K “Tour Of Kincaid” By Patrick Stinson The Sven Johansson 30K was held Sunday under sunny skies at Kincaid Park in Anchorage. The day was marked by great weather and relatively fast, old snow...
About the Birkie: Celebrating its 36th year, the American Birkebeiner (1-800-USA-BRKE;Rebecca Dussault of Gunnysack, CO won the womens race in 2:26:39.5 while Kristina Strangberg was ten seconds back in third with a time of 2:26:49.7. With such and exciting finish for Brooks followed by a win at last year’s Tour of Anchorage, it will be pretty tough for Brooks to ignore her Olympic year looming! Bryan Cook finishing 43 seconds out and Canadian Dan Roycroft...
Lars Flora and Kristina Strandberg continue to hold a tight grip on the Super Tour titles through the weekend sprints in Madison, WI. Extremely warm temperatures in the mid-fifties melted all of the snow before the weekend, so local volunteers had to raid the snow fridge for backup coverage. The snow was trucked in one hour before the start and volunteers had the 500 meter course covered just before race time. “We were running a...
Competition ended with the long-awaited classic sprint at the US National Cross Country Skiing Championships Thursday. The colder temperatures finally gave way to warmer weather, but while the wind picked up and made the stadium a tough place to be. Spectators kept warm by wearing face masks and running laps along the course while volunteers double-wrapped competitors right up until they approached the start line for the gun. Nordic skiing really is like no other...
In a cold and windy sprint event, Kris Freeman and Kikkan Randall easily won the individual national sprint titles today. Freeman used his superior endurance to blaze an early lead in each heat, smoking the rest of the field. Kikkan Randall was also the clear leader, unchallenged throughout the day’s events. Denver University student athlete and Alaskan resident Mike Hinkley overtook the US Ski Team’s Chris Cook just before the finish line, cheered on by...
Here are a few more photos from Monday’s skate race. David Predeger, the official photographer for the event, has posted his albums from the skate race as well. You can find them johnnyklister.com has some terrific photos from the wax trailers. Check out their song of the day as well. This author is in full agreement with this important race-day decision. As always, First Tap. If you are still in town on Thursday night and...
More cold temperatures in Anchorage have caused today’s race to be canceled. Today was close to the coldest day of the week, with temperatures not rising above -10F in the stadium area, and variably staying between -15F and -20F in the coldest areas. This is the second official loss for the National Championship, as tomorrow (Thursday) is the only remaining day on the schedule to hold a race. Coaches, Athletes, and Volunteers have been out...
With the temperature on course hovering near or below the -4F cutoff, today’s classic distance race at Kincaid Park has been canceled. The jury held out as long as possible to make a race happen, but concluded that they could never ensure that the course would be warm enough for the duration of the event. The course had already been condensed to use yesterday’s 5 and 10K, allowing for a shorter event. A call had...
The cold front covering nearly the entire state of Alaska this week managed to squeeze out warm enough temperatures to allow the 2009 US Cross Country Ski Nationals to begin with a distance skate race today. Kris Freeman of the US Ski Team unofficially won the Men’s shortened 10K skate race 50.3 seconds in front Leif Zimmerman, followed by Matthew Liebsch another 12 seconds back. Freeman, who hadn’t arrived in Anchorage until Saturday, raced conservatively...
UPDATED with pictures below…. The classic sprint has been canceled in Anchorage for the second time today. The official decision was made by the jury ten minutes before the scheduled time of 1pm after the weather hadn’t shown any sign of changing during the morning. “We headed back to the hotel to rest up and get out of the circus,” said Brian Gregg of CXC. “There was a lot of energy built up from the...
The classic sprint has been canceled in Anchorage for the second time today. The official decision was made by the jury ten minutes before the scheduled time of 1pm after the weather hadn’t shown any sign of changing during the morning. “We headed back to the hotel to rest up and get out of the circus,” said Brian Gregg of CXC. “There was a lot of energy built up from the cancellation yesterday, so today...
The temperature has been at or below zero during the day for the past few days at Anchorage’s Kincaid Park in Anchorage, which will host the first day of the US Cross Country Championships tomorrow morning. Snow conditions couldn’t be better for the nation’s biggest week of ski racing, with most competitive skiers enjoying three months of snow in the Anchorage area. Even with around $150,000 dollars of the city’s donation-funded grooming budget lost to...