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Alaska

For Finnish Star Saarinen, Return to Greatness Has Roots in Alaska

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.

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...

Junior Nationals: Alaska, New England Dominate J2 Relays

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.

With Added Flexibility in National Team Schedule, Studebaker Finds Balance In Anchorage

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...

Holly Brooks on Winning the ‘Olympics of Alaska’

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...

Saarinen Speaks from Eagle Glacier

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!

Fairbanks Training Camp and First Tracks Ski Camp – APU Report

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’s New World-Class Biathlon Range Is a Game-Changer

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...

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

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...

How Did You Celebrate the 4th? Alaskans do it Right with Mount Marathon

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...