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Skiing is more than just a sport, it is a way of life. Articles discussing the life style of a Nordic skier, as well as suggestions to bring balance.
ESPN ‘Body Issue’ Prompts Diggins to Open Up About Past Eating Disorder

Jessie Diggins is having a big month. Nominated for an ESPY Award (along with Kikkan Randall for “Best Male and Female Athlete With A Disability”), Diggins recently posed ESPN The Magazine’s annual “The Body Issue”, which features various famous athletes sans clothes. In a “The Body Issue 2018” came out, Diggins, 26, explained her reasons for agreeing to the “tastefully nude shoot that shows off athlete’s muscles”. The post, titled “Body Issue(s)” (which she called...

Wednesday Workout: ‘Exceptional Off-the-Couch Fitness’ with Zoë Roy

BEND, Oregon — Zoe Roy. OK, OK. First things first. Don’t forget the umlaut. So it’s Zoë Roy. (Zoeeeee. Not Zo.) If you don’t know Roy and you’ve been to Bend, Oregon, well then, maybe you haven’t exactly been to Bend. Roy is at once keen, kind, clever, artistic, athletic, and nine parts out of ten fun. She is an icon of fun here. But let’s cut to the chase. We cover nordic sport and...

Who’s Still Skiing? More People Than You May Think

This article has been updated with additional information on pro skiers who volunteered with Skiku, and additional pictures from Montana and New York. *   *   * It’s the last week of April. Skier New Year, May 1, looms next Tuesday. It’s roughly six months till  So, caveat lector: Just because your favorite skier has been taking a well-deserved break from finding and curating Instagram-worthy content for your enjoyment, this doesn’t mean that they’ve been sitting on their...

Climate Change Wreaks Havoc on Nordic Clothing Companies

With an incredibly elaborate hoax from the Chinese now in full swing, winter athletes from all over the world continue to struggle with our planet’s changing climate. Snow sports have been particularly hard hit, as rising temperatures and increasingly erratic weather patterns have resulted in less predictable snowfall, mid-winter rain storms, rapidly abating trail conditions, and thusly greatly shortened training and racing seasons. This fallout from these changing climactic conditions is far-reaching and appears to...

Why Skiing (and Am I in the Right Birkie Wave?): Part III

In March of 2016, we published an article penned by Scott “Bjorn” Cummings, a Postbaccalaureate student working towards his Academic Behavorial Strategist K-12 (ABS) Special Education License at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), titled “Part II” update in September. Here’s his latest Birkie leadup piece. *** The annual benchmark nordic ski race is here. The American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wisconsin, for nordic skiers is like the Hajj in Mecca for Muslims. Everyone who is physically and...

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Concept2, Olympic cross-country and biathlon cheat sheet, and not long after, we received a comment from a reader asking for a uniform cheat sheet. We, too, found ourselves sometimes befuddled. During Saturday’s skiathlon, this reporter found himself looking for the emblematic stars on the U.S. Ski Team’s new unis. There were stars, think Diggins and Kalla, just no obvious stellar-like branding on the USST suits. So for you and for us,...

Nordic Nation: Vordenberg’s Call to Action/Climate Challenge

Part 1, and here. Does your team already have a climate or climate activism project?  Let us know what it is and we can share it with our community! Contact Pete Vordenberg with questions, ideas and to register your team. pvatuphillskier@gmail.com (To subscribe to the Nordic Nation podcast channel, download the iTunes app. If you have iTunes, subscribe to Nordic Nation here.)

Closing the Gap: Head Games

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series proposed by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier embarking on his first season training abroad. In August, he made the big move to Norway, where he’ll be training and racing with Team Asker for the entire winter. Through these updates, Maks hopes to share his personal “observations, stories and lessons learned” to help close the gap between North American and Scandinavian nordic skiing. Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. ...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 12

DDay 2 | Day 4 | Day 6 | 7 | Day 9 | Day 11 *** Day 12: Masters World Cup Total World Domination Package Day Twelve. We made it. Wow. Sure, we lost a few along the way, good men (and women, though most women were likely smart enough to not set foot on this sinking ship in the first place) As a quick aside, I bartended at Smullin’s rehearsal dinner, so I naturally wore a name tag...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 11

DDay 2 | Day 4 | Day 6 | 7 | Day 9 | Neck Gaiter Since the alpine vs. nordic debate can be a bit of a contentious one, we’re going to easy into today’s offerings with a product that straddles the line nicely — a neck gaiter. These are awesome for both alpine and nordic — and this is not just any gaiter, this is the “$22 at BeccaRorabaugh.com ***   $30 – $99 L.L. Bean U.S. Ski...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 10

DDay 2 | Day 4 | Day 6 | 7 | Day 9 *** Day 10: Tech Tech — what exactly does that mean? Technology? Phones that cost >$1k but still die after being exposed to cold for less than an hour? Michigan Tech? The dudes who stay up late drinking and prepping skis? All of these? None of these? Inquiring minds want to know. In the vernacular that I am establishing here is it really more of the...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 9

DDay 2 | Day 4 | Day 6 | 7 | Ride your bike? I rode my bike across the country several years ago and while it was awesome, it’s probably not the most time-efficient manner of travel, in particular in the winter. And that was before cell phones, so nowadays, thanks to distracted drivers, you’d probably be dead within 50 miles of your house. Walk? We’re not far from this being your best option. Thankfully, all is not...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 7

DDay 2 | Day 4 | Day 6 *** Day 7: Nordic Tech Since no one has more style, steez and flow than the FBD, we’re going to mix it up a bit today and bring in, for lack of a better expression, an expert guest speaker to help walk us through today’s gift suggestions for Nordic Tech. I actually tapped into two experts for today’s gift ideas, Nathan Schultz from Boulder Nordic Sport and Zach Caldwell...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 6

Day 1 | Day 3 | Day 5 *** Day 6: Kick-Ass Gear  There is gear and then there is kick-ass gear. You know what I’m talking about — that backpack that you got in college, have taken all over the world, and is still going strong? Those skis that always seem to do well in testing despite getting “a little long in the tooth.” Your lucky “windies,” the wind briefs that have help guide you...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 5

Day 1 | Day 3 | Great Dane/neighbor pizza incident, thanks to the Tactipup collar “restraint handle,” I was able to apprehend my monster as he was making a run for the delicious smelling pizza before any real damage was done. Sure adequate training and even a slightly above average canine I.Q. would also be effective abatement, but sadly, those both seem to be in short supply with this particular beast. These collars are also incredibly...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 4

Day 1 | Day 3 *** Day 4: Casual Wear Even though I clearly established on Day 2 with training clothing, and on glove model, but did you know that this hunky Dartmouth graduate also has a vision to “Make Skiing Great Again?” It’s true. Now before everyone gets all worked up that we (really, he, in particular if you are mad – write Zach, NOT me) are normalizing the theme that this hat is...

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 3

Day 1 | Day 1, since one loves you like I do, I am going to share my tried and true path to enlightenment, happiness and ski speed: Step 1: Embrace the grind. Step 2: Buy all of the gear listed below and use it exactly as prescribed. Step 3: Go ski. Step 4: Bask in the awesomeness that we have together created. Step 5: Lather, rinse, repeat. Step 6: (Optional) Buy a Great Dane....

FasterSkier’s 12 Days of FBD Christmas: Day 2

his SuperTour win last Sunday and I told him that it was nice to see a good guy win. His response was excellent too, as he asked me, “Thanks FBD, but honestly, are there any guys out here who aren’t good guys that you wouldn’t want to see win?” This is such a good point and it goes to show you that even at the highest level in the sport, those fighting tool and nail...