As news spread of the pending end of Alaska's two NCAA ski programs, prominent alumni and local skiers begin to weigh in. Brian Gregg, Sadie Bjornsen, Holly Brooks, and others share their reactions.
During the U.S. Ski Team's Alaska camp this month, FasterSkier caught the team during a rollerski in Anchorage and chatted with U.S. women's coach Matt Whitcomb. He addressed everything from the upcoming World Championships to Kikkan Randall's return, the assimilation of new team members, and what gives the U.S team its competitive edge.
The story of why one citizens skier trekked six hours (each way) for a race in a southern port city of Alaska. "Sometimes it’s important to travel for five days so that you can spend less than two hours racing, but do so on a course that goes from a mountain overlook to the shores of the Pacific Ocean," the author explains.
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/en/sitecore/content/home/programs/t
Records were destroyed this Fourth of July in Seward, Alaska at the 88th edition of the annual Mount Marathon. In impressive fashion three runners bested previous course records, with international running stars Kilian Jornet and Emelie Forsberg claiming the men’s and women’s titles, respectively.
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.
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!