If you are from New England, you’ve probably heard of Will Sweetser. Originally from Auburn, Maine, Sweetser, 47, has been coaching nordic for the last 25 years. He skied for Dartmouth and coached at Bates College, the Jackson Hole Ski Club, Carrabassett Valley Academy, and Rangeley Lakes Ski Club before spendingOutdoor Sports Institute and expanded its mission to four seasons of outdoor sports in Maine. With a baby on the way, Sweetser and his wife, Sarah Dominick,...
When it came to investing in snowmaking, New York State’s Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) went with the go-big mentality, leasing a TechnoAlpin Snow Factory for the Mount Van Hoevenberg nordic center and using the technology throughout the 2016/2017 winter season. Following the previous 2015/2016 season, in which Mt. Van Hoevenberg, “Van Ho” for short, was open 37 days, according to ORDA’s annual report, the authority acquired and installed a self-contained snowmaking system at Van Ho, the 1980 Winter Olympic venue in Lake...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — There are several strategies for winning the Tour of Anchorage, the annual 50-kilometer freestyle marathon from one side of town to the other that is the unofficial citizens’ race championship for the State of Alaska. There is one obvious way to lose it: Go out too hard on the climbs of the first 10 k, only to lose steam and be swallowed up by a chase pack at some point in the...
When is a race-time temperature of 2 above not so bad? When it's 16 below at the airport. Team Alaska was named as the Besh Cup series wrapped up in Fairbanks over the weekend, in conditions that one local skier described as "not too cold."
Qaniq Challenge 2017 by the numbers: Two days, 35 kilometers, three feet of fresh snow. 33 racers. $10,000 purse. Why the country's second-richest cross-country ski race is in Valdez, Alaska, in mid-January.
Jack Novak has never been to Asia before. Lauren Fritz has skied on five continents. Both Alaska Pacific University skiers are crossing the Pacific Ocean this week to race in the tenth annual China Tour de Ski, which begins in Changbaishan on January 1. Expect camels, long bus rides, communal poop shacks – oh, and a $36,000 purse.
Note: In addition to the Dublin School, at least one other private school in New Hampshire has FIS-homologated trails. first high school in the world to receive the FIS homologation distinction. Founded in 1935 by Paul and Nancy Lehmann, the Dublin School had unusual criteria. For location, according to its website. In addition to the new race loop, the Dublin School developed three additional kilometers of track that are not homologated. ...
Note: Photos from this story are courtesy of John Lazenby. Many more photos from the Eastern Cup weekend are available U16 boys – men Temperatures warmed on Sunday and the snow turned to rain, but luckily the manmade base of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center’s 2.5 k loop held up well through nearly 400 racers doing two to four loops each. In the U16 girls’ 5 k skate, Lehmann held onto her lead, as did Koch...
Note: FasterSkier is accepting submissions for regional race reports. If you would like to see a particular race circuit covered and have the writer with the will to do it, please have them email last eight domestic 15 k races, dating back to West Yellowstone in November 2015, he has eight podium finishes, including five wins. But he is quick with an answer when asked about the last 15 k skate he did not win:...
The first official cross-country ski races of the season West Yellowstone Ski Festival, which has been known to attract 3,500 skiers and has been an early season tradition for more than 30 years. Katharine Ogden, another U.S. Ski Team (USST) D-team member who trains with SMS, took the win. She beat out CU’s Petra Hyncicova, originally from the Czech Republic, by 11.8 seconds with a winning time of 11:45. One of Ogden’s training partners, Erika Flowers (SMST2) placed...
APU’s Scott Patterson and Jessica Yeaton, UAA’s Hailey Swirbul, and the UAF team all skied well in Fairbanks over the weekend in the continent’s first FIS races. Patterson jokes that he plans to purchase a time turner, so that he can “continue to win every single race in the U.S.”
With the IBU season opening this weekend with preseason races in Sjusjøen, Norway, FasterSkier contributor Aleks Tangen checked out the venue and spoke with some of the movers and shakers at the venue.
Ski racing on natural snow has returned to North America. APU skier Scott Patterson used Saturday morning's Race to the Outhouse #1 to "lay down the law on some juniors and masters" en route to an easy victory.
The earliest FIS race ever held on natural snow in the Northern Hemisphere occurred in Fairbanks on this date in 1996. It was also one of the best races that two-time Olympian Ben Husaby ever had.
Canada's famous Frozen Thunder officially opened Saturday after the Canmore Nordic Centre dumped an estimated 400 truckloads of snow onto its 1.3-kilometer loop in Canmore, Alberta. By Sunday's end, the loop should be roughly 2 k.
Nordic has upstaged tubing in North Creek, N.Y., where a state-operated alpine area has made FIS-homologated, cross-country ski trails a priority. Along with 2.5 k and 3.3 k race loops, the Ski Bowl also has snowmaking, lights, and coming soon, Wi-Fi.
Often associated with Scandinavian culture, the concept of friluftsliv has helped shaped the nordic ski communities we all know. In Bend, Ore., a museum exhibit called "Winter Comes" celebrates the legacy of friluftsliv.
For many years the Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) was a staple of cultivating domestic biathlon and cross-country talent at the elite level. There's been a name change; MWSC is now OSI, Outdoor Sport Institute, and its focus is on fostering long-term healthy living across the state.
After spending this past winter as a wax technician for Caldwell Sport and previous years coaching juniors, Austin Caldwell is following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father by becoming a full-time coach with the Bridger Ski Foundation in Bozeman, Mont.
Leading up to the prestigious Mt. Marathon footrace in Seward, Alaska, APU teammates David Norris and Scott Patterson, both race rookies, were marked as strong climbers but unproven downhill runners. Would they hold back to avoid injury? They went on to place first and fourth overall on Monday in the 89th edition of the race.