Fellow XC enthusiasts! This will be the last ATOMIC XC Camp update as the camps start this week-end. Skiing conditions here at Silver Star Mountain are great with the earliest and best snow I have seen on the mountain in years. All of the village XC trails are open and grooming is being done with the alpine grooming machines. In fact, we have enough snow for the alpine season to open tomorrow. Check out the...
With the start of the Yellowstone Ski Festival (
The Yellowstone Ski Festival November 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26, 2005 West Yellowstone, Montana The mountains around West Yellowstone are white. In town, we got two inches of the white stuff last night and more is expected off and on through the weekend. Looks like it might be time to ski soon! You have to love winter to live in West Yellowstone and our winter begins with the Yellowstone Ski Festival. This year the...
October 31 Dear Campers! The last quick update for October and just in time for Hallowe'en, the snow has arrived in the village at Silver Star Mountain. Check out the web cam on www.xccamps.ca { www.skisilverstar.com for updates, and subscribe to the Snow Ghost newsletter.
I got the idea to write this story when I recently spoke to the Miller family, who own and operate the Enchanted Forest XC Ski Area in Red River, NM (http://www.redriver.org/). They are running a special on season’s ski passes in which you can ski at four of the [desert] Southwest’s best-known Nordic ski areas that, in addition to Enchanted Forest, include: Flagstaff Nordic in Flagstaff, AZ, and the Rim Nordic and Green Valley Nordic...
The first snow track in Vuokatti, Finland attracted total of 350 visitors during its opening weekend. The figure is more than last year same time. â€Excellent openingâ€, says Jyri Pelkonen, the director of Vuokatti Sports Institute training centre. The 2-kilometer first snow track was opened on Saturday. Despite of warm weather, the conditions were excellent. To secure the excellent conditions, only skiing on free technique is possible at this point — no track for classical...
The signs of winter are appearing way up north, and some people have been skiing already. Today we published an article from Fairbanks, Alaska that showed snow on the ground. We also received this email from Thomsen D'Hont, who is a 2nd year junior boy from Yellowknife, NT, Canada: I just read how you're interested in new pictures, so here are a few from the past week. Like last year, I have been out skiing...
Marit Bjorgen hit the wall after only two kilometer when the Norwegian women’s team did a rollerski time-trial at altitude in Italy on Monday, reports Norwegian newspaper Adresseavisen. Bjorgun was not the only one that experienced problems. Several of her teammates also stopped and jumped into the support car in the tough hills up to Livigno. – I was a bit too optimistic when I started and hit the wall. It's bitter to have to...
This is a story written by Greg Harkay about his experiences at the Vermont Academy Summer on Snow Camp in Vuokatti, Finland. This year it was the 10th annual European Summer on Snow Camp run by VA coach, Alexei Sotskov. Anyone interested in next year's trip can contact Alexei at To add more excitement we ran up and down a 60 degree slope covered with foot-deep sand for half an hour at top speed (and...
Every good road trip must have a partner in crime. Colby Frazier’s my usual Southwest mate. Since turning in his running shoes after graduating from the University of Utah, Colby’s been writing for the Salt Lake Tribune. In August he heads west to Sideways country to learn the winemaking ropes from Longoria Winery (www.longoriawine.com). Could this be our last trip together to Southern Utah? I hope not. First day out, and we’re racing the sun...
FAST, the Sun Valley, Idaho based Foundation for Active Sports Training, is a very active masters sports organization, and this group is not messing around. The organization has for some time been sponsoring masters ski groups in the winter, dry-land ski conditioning in the off-season, a ski trip or two, and most recently a summer-time road biking program. We caught up with the FAST President, Jon Engen, for a quick chat recently while he was...
In keeping with the slower pace of Argentine culture, the beginning of groomed nordic skiing in Tierra del Fuego is being announced nearly two weeks late [I was on vacation, away from email]. The grooming machine started work in the last days of June in the Valley of Tierra Mayor, near the alpine area of Cerro Castor, about 30 minutes drive outside the city of Ushuaia. Local skier Sebastian Menci stated in the first days...
Here's a link to a great article on skiing in New Zealand by Canadian Ski Team member Devon Kershaw:
Illinois Skiers: See The Underwater People At The House Of Blues In Chicago Friday July 15 Rocker and cross country skier Jim DiDomenico’s band, The Underwater People is hitting the BIG stage and will be the headline at the World famous House of Blues in Chicago on Friday night July 15th http://www.hob.com/tickets/eventdetail.asp?eventid=33166. or at the door that evening (if you count on luck). The band is also performing this Friday (1st) at noon at the...
The European uphill championship will be held in Austria on July 10th. Norway has entered a team of three good skiers including Anders Aukland. Source: Langrenn.com altitude profile The men will start at 1301 meters altitude in Heiligenblut and the women at 1415 meter. The altitude difference from start to the finish at Keiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe will for men be 1069 meters and for women 955 meters. The total climb is even greater since there are some...
Editor's note: This is Sun Valley, Idaho US “super master skier†Jon Engen’s article from the recent Norwegian Skarverennet. My body was stiff and sore after a 5 hour train ride, I had gotten up at 4:15AM to catch an early train in Oslo after a sleepless night, and I had stepped off a 24 hour flight schedule from Sun Valley, Idaho two days earlier. The legs felt like jello and I would have thought...
This is a follow up to the recent artice about three Oregon skiers at the Sapporo Marathon. After a suffering throught the toughest world loppet race, we visited the Okurayama jumping hill, site of the 1972 Olympics. This modern facility will host the 2007 Nordic World Championships. The sprint races will take place inside the Sapporo dome, which seats some 40,000! Following a visit to the Sapporo brewery, we spent a few days the at...
The Great Race from Lake Tahoe to Truckee, California on March 6, is only 30-kilometer long, but has what it takes to get FasterSkier’s five-star rating and highest recommendation for “do it at least once†races. The Race Five kilometer of easy rolling terrain is followed by 10 kilometer of solid uphill, 5 kilometer of downhill and 10 kilometer of gradual downhill followed by a few short uphills with a steep 200 meter full downhill...
Sarah Peters from Canada won Norway's second largest ski race, the Holmenkollen marathon on February 12. Here is her race report and some photos. See previously posted stories Sarah Peters Wins Holmenkollen Ski Marathon podium shot top three women (foto Oyvind Aas) polse (hot dogs) Sarah Peters
Team TorbjornSport skier Dan Packman and friends Jan Spurkland and Levi Hensel all from Bend, Oregon went to Japan and raced the Sapporo Worldloppet ski marathon on February 13. Here are some photos: The Sapporo Worldloppet is held at the Sapporo Dome, on the outskirts of Sapporo City of 1.8 million people. The conditions were excellent with a base of more than 1 meter. The snow temperature at race start was -10 Celsius with 70%...