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Keeping the Shop, Part I: Past, Present, and Future at Finn Sisu

Finn Sisu may not have been the first place to sell skis in the Twin Cities, but it was the first “ski shop.” Ahvo Taipale, a Finnish immigrant and Agricultural Engineer, had spent a decade competing (and often winning) cross-country ski races across the Midwest before he looked around at the growing number of Twin Cities skiers doing new races like the American Birkebeiner and realized that someone would need to provide all those skis....

Skiers Giving Back: Julia Kern on Physical and Mental Health

BENNINGTON, VERMONT – FasterSkier is excited to team up with The Memory Clinic to present an evening with Olympic Athletes Julia Kern, Jessie Diggins, and Ben Ogden to discuss the Integration of Physical and Mental Health. On Monday, September 25, in Bennington, Vermont these SMS T2 team members will be on hand to discuss the importance of goal-setting and maintaining motivation for athletes and non-athletes, alike. The evening’s keynote speaker will be World Championship bronze...

Jessie Diggins to Race American Birkebeiner in 2024

In 2008 and 2009, a teenage skier from Minnesota won the 23 kilometer Korteloppet race at the Telemark Resort in Cable, WI: that’s how Jessie Diggins got her start. Way back then, she probably imagined that her future would one day include contending for the win in the full-length Birkebeiner race. That was many years, and many kilometers, and many races, and many headlines ago. Now, Jessie Diggins will finally get her chance to line...

Back to School

And, so, it’s back to school . . . The day after Labor Day: it’s always been the day of packing lunches and organizing pencils, of combing cowlicks and catching buses, of searching for new classrooms and picking new desks. Friends re-met after a summer off, and teachers newly met in topics as yet un-mastered. But every few years—every six, or eight, or twelve—the first day of school is a different sort of thing. Some...

Finding Mountains and Meaning in Crested Butte

Even for the US Postal Service, delivering mail to the end of the road at 9,000 feet is a challenge. Home delivery is out of the question: in Crested Butte, Colorado, you need a PO box, no matter who you are. As a consequence, a trip to pick up packages at the Post Office is something you make a day out of, and each member of the disparate factions that make up life in our...

Racing to Save a Ski Season . . . Adaptations and Impacts of Virtual Racing: Part II

White-knuckled, we caravanned down I-94 from St. Cloud to Minneapolis in the midst of a bomb cyclone of wind, snow, and ice. Braving the conditions, we crawled toward our destination: the 2021, hybrid City of Lakes Loppet at Theodore Wirth Park. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic—and a hearty desire to stay healthy for the remainder of the ski season—we decided to drive separately. Now, we were inching our way to a late start for our...

Tradition and Transformation: The Birkie Plans its 50th Anniversary

Tony Wise could see 10,000 years at once. The last ice age had sent a glacier down over Wisconsin, and then tore it back. In the process, the landscape and lilt of a place emerged. Deep-pocketed kettles, ridges, gentle and subtle rolling hills, all draped in the needly green of the pines. Gaze at it, and time didn’t seem like something that moved forward, but instead danced within the bounds of a whole epoch. A...

The Jackrabbit—Lessons From the Man Who Changed Skiing Forever

If you need a little diversion from whatever you do in the off season and want to connect with skiing’s past, check out this 30 minute documentary on YouTube about Jackrabbit Johannsen. This 1975 video produced by the National Film Board of Canada chronicles the life of the Norwegian outdoorsman turned backwoods legend. Johannsen is widely credited with being one of the first Europeans to popularize cross-country skiing in North America. I’m not certain how...

Magic Mountain, Indeed:  SMST2 and West River Nordic Party on Vermont’s Very Last Snow.

June 3, Magic Mountain Ski Area, Londonderry Vermont It’s full summer in the Green Mountains of Vermont: high temperatures and summer thunderstorms, every tree leaf-covered, every meadow knee-deep in new grass, and the entire world the richest shade of green. Even those New England resorts that pride themselves on being the very last to keep their chairlifts turning had packed it in a week ago. But there’s still snow at Magic Mountain, stored for just...

The Coach with the Voice: Conversations with Chad Salmela

Chad Salmela has a gift for pinpointing the critical characteristics of a moment and building something special from it. See “Here Comes Diggins,” the emphatically shouted announcement of an historic performance in American skiing, one that defined the careers of Olympic champions Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall, and of Salmela, himself. When it comes to Nordic skiing, Salmela knows what to say, how to put analysis into a context that audiences will understand, how to...

The Loppet Looks Ahead: How Minneapolis is Preparing to Host a World Cup

In 2024, Minneapolis, Minnesota will host an FIS World Cup. That fact has been the source of pure excitement across US Skiing, and also of déjà vu. For many skiers and ski fans, the cancellation of the planned World Cup races at Theodore Wirth Park in March 2020 will forever be associated with those uncertain first days of the COVID-19 pandemic. American World Cup athletes had come home, the banners and bleachers were up, when...

My Friend Anni Goes to the World Cup: The Trail to Gold Fellowship Experience

All friendships have a mythology, and all mythologies have their origin story. For Annika Martell and me, that origin story takes place in a marsh outside of West Bend, Wisconsin. Anni and I did not meet until college—we were both part of the incoming class of 2020 at Colby College that arrived on campus in Waterville, Maine in August 2016, but my mother and her father were both raised in this same heart of heartlands...

We’re All Vikings . . . Adaptations and Impacts of Virtual Racing: Part I

The message from the event organizer was devastating . . . we’d been waiting years to cheer on World Cup skiers in person. Jessie Diggins had worked her magic to get the Sprint Finals onto American soil—and here in Minneapolis no less! But COVID was spreading misery across the globe and our race was cancelled: the Sprint World Cup Finals would not occur. $300 in tickets gone in an email. No swag or alternative compensation...

NNF: NNF Cup Celebrating Club Excellence Returns to SuperTour for Another Season

With the first round of SuperTour racing complete in Sovereign Lakes, British Columbia, the NNF is proud to announce the return of the NNF Cup as a presenting sponsor of the US SuperTour this season. Originally launched in 2012, the NNF Cup celebrates club excellence in America’s premier domestic ski competition by tallying performance of club teams across the SuperTour season. The NNF Cup was awarded to Alaska Pacific University last season. The recent success...

Women Ski Coaches Association Launches GearUP, Pairing Women Coaches with the Connections They Need to Outfit Their Programs

  Formed in 2019, the Women’s Ski Coaches Association (WSCA) has been a consistent and ardent supporter of creating gender equality in all areas of North American skiing. With WSCA founders—St. Scholastica Head Coach Maria Stuber and Staffer, Craftsbury Green Racing Project Biathlete (and former St. Scholastica skier) Kelsey Dickinson at the organizational core—a strong actor-network has been formed to advocate for women in the ski coaching profession. This has included some notable partnerships with...

National Nordic Foundation Says Thank You for Drive for 25 Success (NNF)

Dear US nordic skiing community, The National Nordic Foundation (NNF) would like to extend a sincere thank you for the astounding display of generosity and belief in supporting a world-class skiing development system during last week’s Drive for 25. We are humbled, and incredibly grateful, to be part of a grassroots movement propelling our sport forward in this country. This year’s Drive for 25 further demonstrated that our American ski community is a rare one...

A Happy Holiday: North American Skiers Finding Snowy Trails

  In the west, snow has been falling for some weeks, and consistently low temperatures (and no significant rain) have allowed western skiers to enjoy early snow. West Yellowstone, Steamboat, Grand Mesa, Breckenridge, Devil’s Thumb—just to name a few—have all been seeing snowy trails and smiling skiers. And it sounds like a storm is headed for Leavenworth, WA and the Methow Valley. Silverstar, BC is snow-covered and open for business, with teams soon to arrive...

Q and A: Sun Valley’s Rick Kapala on coaching, sport development, and constructing a “complete ecosystem” in the skiing community

“I’m sorry, but once I start talking cross-country skiing, I can’t stop,” admits Rick Kapala. Remove the “talking” from that statement, and it’s still a succinct summary of long-time Sun Valley coach Rick Kapala’s career. This season will mark the first time in thirty-five years that Kapala won’t be manning the wax bench on race day for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. This summer, he turned to a new role at the Sun Valley...

Remembering Nils Vikander

On Sunday, October 30 Nils Vikander passed away in Levanger, Norway at the age of 80. He is survived by his wife of 30 years Margarita who was by his side until his last days. Nils spent his life sharing his passion for Nordic skiing and his deep love for Nature. He inspired and mentored many and is known for his talents for connecting ideas and people. Nils began his ski career in Sweden, where...