The CXC Team joined in on the US Ski Team for the October camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York. Other Olympic Development programs and a handful of top junior athletes also participated in the camp, making this camp a unique opportunity to train with other top skiers prior to the ski season. Training volumes and training load is presently high, so our goal is to limit travel, focus on individual...
If your team or club does epic and creative workouts like this, we want to hear about it! Email us at 1st leg Classic Roll Team heading out on the bike leg Mali Noyes breaking trail for Mike Matteson Reid Pletcher bringing it home.
Johan Kjœlstad felt like his form was so good after the recent stair workout he did in Livigno (site of a recent Norwegian Sprint national team camp) that he wants to try it prior to the Düsseldorf sprint. “I’m planning to do some stair training on Friday. I’m doing this in order to get some spenst in the legs and because it worked well in Livigno,†says Johan Kjœlstad to langrenn.com. Half Length Kjœlstad isn’t...
Editor’s Notes: Øystein encourages his readers to submit questions. If any FasterSkier.com readers have questions, email them to
Burke Mountain Academy’s Nordic squad is settling back into the routine of school after returning from ten days of training and the season’s first race in Torsby and Mora, Sweden. Burke’s schedule is laid out in blocks of academic time interspersed with periods of training time that are long enough to take advantage of training opportunities in other parts of the country or the world. The Fortum Tunnel in Torsby had been getting great reviews...
Go up another 2,000 feet and this is what folks have been doing the last two weeks at Hatcher Pass, Alaska. Not too shabby for October skiing!
Skiers loaded up and drove one hour north of Anchorage this past week to get some early season skiing in one of the most scenic places around… Hatcher Pass, Alaska. People have been training on race skis on the groomed tracks. Special thanks goes out to APUNSC assistant coach Holly Brooks and Mike Matteson for the photos. …..and the money shot.
Jackson Hole athletes Willie and Eliot Neal, as well as Jackson Hole high school coach Walt Berling took a day trip to Grand Targhee Ski Resort to classic rollerski up the road, which climbs a substantial amount at a steady grade (from 6440 ft to about 8000 ft). The weather was perfect until the very end, and the temperature was warm. What was not anticipated though was the amount of snow that would be on...
The Bright Side Bryn Knight I spent the last week at home in Whitehorse, Yukon. The smiles (and upside-down smiles) I saw from both athletes and coaches at Yukon Ski Team training sessions got me thinking about the part attitude can play in sport and life. I’m not sure who first taught me the importance of staying positive – it could have been any one of the enthusiastic Yukon coaches. Whichever one he or she...
The Italian Biathlon Team tested this training method at Stelvio Pass (ital. Passo dello Stelvio). Located in Italy, the Stelvio Pass is at 2,757 meters, and is the second highest paved mountain pass in the Alps. In preparation for the Olympics in Vancouver, Biathlon head coach Paolo Riva thought to try something different at Stelvio Pass. For the past two weeks, the Italian biathletes lived on the mountain at 2700m, but trained in the valley...
Before leaving for Europe, Andy Newell sent us two technique videos from the recently completed USST camp in Lake Placid, NY. You can see some of the best athletes in the world in action! Classic Skate
Athletes from the Callaghan Valley Training Center, a new Canadian National Athlete Development Center are submitting weekly reports to FasterSkier.com. The writings bring personal perspectives on training, skiing, and life in general. This will be an ongoing series so check back for more reports from these young athletes! The first several pieces are from earlier in the fall. For the past 3 months a small group of very talented cross country skiers and a world...
The USST members were not the only ones showing their preseason muscle recently in Lake Placid. Many juniors from the New England region did not hesitate to hop in and rub shoulders with the big guns. NENSA capitalized on the opportunity to schedule a fall camp that coincided with USST training camp so their skiers could put some hours in alongside (or maybe a little behind) the top skiers in the country. Among the junior...
Here's some photos of skiing Friday in Fairbanks Alaska. Sunny skies and 30-degree weather greeted skiers at Birch Hill in Fairbanks Friday. Snow is thin, but over 10k of trails have been rolled and the skiing is pretty nice. Both UAF and the FXC junior program as well as a few other local enthusiasts were out taking advantage of the early season conditions. The attached shots are of the FXC group during their workout focused...
Winter is getting closer and over the last couple of weeks the Alps saw the first snow of the year. Skiing at Dachstein (Ramsau in Austria) in fall is always a special experience. The skiing last week was excellent, with the first two days nice and sunny with temps in the high 30s and first class trail conditions. There were few national A-teams, but plenty of junior teams from Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. The focus...
Houghton, MI – Last Saturday, the Michigan Tech Nordic Skiing teams set out on an epic adventure through the north woods of the Upper Peninsula. The goal was simple, a distance run on the North Country Trail to the raging torrent that is the falls on the Sturgeon River. The peaking fall colors and the scenic Sturgeon River Gorge drew the Huskies more than 30 miles from their home in Houghton, MI, the site of...
Lake Placid, NY: Prior to this year’s EISA (Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association) meeting, the Nordic coaches had a chance to attend a technique session hosted by national team coach Pete Vordenberg and Continental Cup coach Matt Whitcomb. Although many of the EISA coaches had recently attended other coaches’ conferences, this was a great opportunity and was well attended. While some aspects of technique (and technique training) haven’t changed in many years, other areas seem to...
Team Today reports on the ongoing camp, detailing workouts and providing excellent photos. And Head Coach Pete Vordenberg answers a few questions – Question 1. We only have X amount of time to train? Thought: maximize that time by focusing on 1 to 2 things every workout and making sure you accomplish those things within the time you have. Waste no time. If it is rest, rest well, eat a lot and drink lots of...
Far West Nordic Junior skiers began the transition from summer training to Autumn intensity last weekend at the first-ever Virginia Lakes Fall Camp. Set in an incredibly beautiful canyon in the Eastern Sierra, at 9,400 ft elevation, Virginia Lakes offers a great combination of high-altitude roller-skiing and hiking amid the pine and aspen forests of the Sierra Nevada. The weekend was designed as a high-intensity mini-camp for some of the top athletes in the division...
The Norweigan Sprint Team recently gathered in Trondheim to undergo the season's toughest camp. One of the key workouts was a wickedly tough uphill workout under the supervision of 800 meter gold medalist Vebjœrn Rodal, who has been collaborating with the sprint team over the past few seasons. The sprint national team is in a very difficult training period and the camp in Trondheim included a large number of challenging workouts. Under the instruction of...