We’ll be publishing a few select gear reviews moving forward. It’s not business as usual for FS or readers: we are posting gear reviews as a brief respite from grim news. We know minds are on more serious Coronavirus related issues. ‘Tis the season for layering. Here in Colorado, the high altitude sun wrestles with the snow packed mountains to create highly variable temperatures. One moment the sun is shining and I’m stripping down to...
Åre, Sweden — the site of the national (alpine) ski area in Sweden. Also the site of Stage 3 of the Ski Tour 2020’s skate sprint. Short at 0.66 k, but oh so steep with a finishing climb with slopes at 28 percent. Yah! 28 percent. Maybe part sideshow, maybe not. Either way, athletes had to get themselves to the top. In what was a leg-burning affair, for a one-off event, it was sporting entertainment....
Let’s explain. The format was basic, a freestyle sprint. Otherwise, that’s where sprints as we know it ended. The 0.66-kilometer course shot off from the start up a gradual V2-able climb. It then rounded a left-hander where athletes descended what looked like a salted banked turn found in a X-Games terrain park. Down to the course’s bottom zoomed the skiers. Then things turned skyward. The course ascended a mini-Alpe Cermis lasting around one-minute for the...