Contributor Seth Adams recounts his recent experience in a point-to-point wilderness race across the north side of the eastern Alaska Range called AlaskAcross.
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In April, FasterSkier contributor Seth Adams joined the volunteer ranks of NANANordic and headed north to Noorvik -- a remote city in the Alaska's Northwest Arctic. The following is his editorial recapping the experience.
The 2015 U.S. Junior Nationals wrapped up with the 3 x 2.5-kilometer classic relays at Auburn Ski Club in Soda Springs, Calif., where New England and Midwest both tallied two relay wins, and New England won the overall the Alaska Cup. Photo gallery by Mark Nadell and a weeklong recap video by Skyler Mullings.
The University of Colorado was crowned champions of the RMISA college racing scene this season after championships were held in low-snow Anchorage, Alaska, on the back of the UAA Invitational. Mads Stroem and Rune Oedegaard of CU and Emilie Cedervaern of the University of New Mexico dominated the proceedings.
Decisions on the World Cup circuit, like when to stop when the going's good or whether to stay in Europe when things aren't going exactly according to plan, aren't easy. But they have to be made. APU Head Coach Erik Flora explains the thought processes behind some recent U.S. Ski Team member moves.
"It's not about skiing," Shungnak School Principal Roger Franklin wrote in an email to FasterSkier about NANANordic, newly expanded and known as Skiku. "It's much more, and it's saving lives daily." This year, the program brought skiing to 27 villages in Northwest Alaska.
Here is the final video in our four-race recap series from 2014 U.S. Junior Nationals at Trapp Family Lodge in early March. Intermountain swept the three-person U16 relays, New England topped the podium in both the U20 men's and women's relays, and Alaska got a win in the U18 category.
Last season, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was down and out. Little by little she has built back her fitness and self-confidence, with a secret ingredient: fun. After winning silver in the Olympic 4 x 5 k relay with her teammates from Finland, Saarinen thanked the U.S. women for inviting her to train with them in 2012 and said she had learned that you can't be so serious all the time.
The Watershed School in Fairbanks, Alaska, turned its sledding hill —an underused pile of dirt — into a Nordic terrain park. Picture a bunch of enthusiastic kids zipping around on cross country skis during recess. That's exactly what the principal/groomer envisions.
This week, World Champion, Jessie Diggins (SMS T2, USST) joins a collection of the strongest women in nordic skiing in Alaska. Known as the NAWTA (the North American Women’s Training Alliance), the camp brings together the strongest skiers during a camp in Alaska for a chance at the best competition and training. Here we are, halfway through the annual NAWTA (North American Women’s Training Alliance) camp in Alaska, and I feel like I’ve already learned...
Not even a navigational gaffe could derail the New England J2 girls in Tuesday’s 3x3k classic relay at Junior Nationals. Katharine Ogden, New England's lead skier, lost the substantial lead she’d gained on Rocky Mountain’s Hailey Swirbul after she accidentally skied into the finish lane instead of the lap lane — despite large signs that directed skiers — as she approached the end of the first leg.
Sara Studebaker is an Idaho-raised, New-Hampshire educated, Lake Placid-based Olympic biathlete – who just happens to be adopting Anchorage, Alaska as her second (or third) home. While Studebaker lives and trains primarily out of the Olympic Training Center in upstate New York, her boyfriend, former biathlete Zach Hall, stays in Anchorage, where he has works and trains junior biathletes part-time. Between traveling on the biathlon World Cup all winter and the distance separating the East...
In Anchorage, getting on the front page of the Alaska Daily News is a big deal. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Olympian and U.S. Ski Team member; Holly Brooks was still pumped to be wasn’t even wearing a watch. A three-time runner up, Brooks had finally sealed her first Mount Marathon win. Engaged the day before the 2008 race, in which she came in second, she had a special history with the event. She...
Aino-Kaisa Saarinen’s got a lot on her plate. Finland’s celebrated cross-country skier is currently on Eagle Glacier with the North American Women’s Training Alliance, a group of about 20 women from the U.S. and Canadian national teams. A multiple world champion with three Olympic medals, Saarinen, 33, has been in Alaska for more than two weeks, staying with U.S. Ski Team member and World Cup sprint champion Kikkan Randall during the first part of camp...
Toko ran a Facebook promotion where the public was asked the question “Which division’s JO team has the most fun?” The winning team was to receive $2000 worth of Toko waxes and tools. The promotion ended 12 January and Mid Atlantic took the win with 1034 votes. New England was second with 896 and Alaska a distant third with 373. Congratulations to Mid Atlantic!
With barely an inch on the ground, it would have been hard to scrape up enough to make a snowball. And yet there it was, 30k of remarkably groomed trails. The crazy thing about the Birch Hill Cross Country Ski Area in Fairbanks, Alaska is how little snow accumulation it takes for the skiing to be great. The trail surfaces are very smooth, and mostly covered with organic peat, so skis really only need a...
Anchorage has long been home to many of the country’s best nordic skiers. With elite teams like APU, Alaska Winter Stars, the University of Alaska Anchorage, several strong high school programs, and a thriving recreational and masters race scene, skiers couldn’t ask for a more supportive community. But biathletes? That was another story. “I started biathlon in 2003, back when the Kincaid [shooting] range was at its old location,” 2011 World Junior Championships team member...
Stephen Takes Advantage of Summer Training; Primed for Winter
Kieran JonesSeptember 26, 2011
Despite her small stature, Liz Stephen had a big season in 2011-2012. She had the best string of World Cup results in her young career, finishing in the top 30 three times over the course of the World Cup season. Stephen also had a strong performance at the World Championships in Oslo, finishing an impressive 16th in the 30 k freestyle, as well as 24th in the 15 k skiathlon. The diminutive 24 year old,...
2011 Tour of Anchorage
FasterSkierDecember 21, 2010
In its 24-year existence, the Tour of Anchorage cross-country ski race, hosted by the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage, has grown from just a few hundred participants to almost 2,000 ski- enthusiasts—making it one of the largest ski races in North America. This year’s event, slated for March 6th, will start at the foot of the Chugach Mountains and wind through beautiful birch and aspen forests, around the University of Anchorage campus, through Anchorage’s midtown...
For many of us, July 4th is a day to spend with friends and family, take in a parade, eat a lot of good food and maybe watch some stuff blow up, but in Alaska, Independence Day means one thing: Mount Marathon. Sunday marked the 83rd annual running of the grueling competition in which runners climb almost 3,000 feet in elevation over 3.5 miles before turning around to run back down. The race ends on...