U.S. Ski & Snowboard recently announced its U.S. Ski Team nominations for the 2022-23 season. Of the 22 athletes named to the team this season, six were not on the previous year’s roster, either newly named or renamed: Michael Earnhart, Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, Finn O’Connell, and Sammy Smith. To help fans get to know these new(er) faces, FasterSkier is doing a series of interviews, providing insights into the factors that have contributed...
To say Coronavirus is reshaping our world is to state the obvious. Even in the tucked-away haven of the Methow Valley, COVID-19 is having an impact in more ways than one. An article written by the Methow Valley News in October, details how the valley is becoming a “zoom town”, a phenomenon echoed by many mountain towns around the country as the pandemic encourages remote work and less densely populated living environs. Just three hours...
Bright lights in PyeongChang. The men’s second semifinal of the Olympic freestyle team sprint was a career highlight moment for Erik Bjornsen. Fourteen teams would crowd the start lanes with Martin Johnsrud Sundby in bib 1. The Norwegian was paired with Johannes Høsflot Klæbo: The duo blessed with Sundby’s stamina and his younger counterpart’s break-from-the-pack speed. With Simi Hamilton racing the second, fourth, and sixth legs for the U.S., and Bjornsen leading off, the semi...
All things aligned: a gauzy low fog burned off into bluebird skies and the snow skied crisp along a 42-kilometer gem during the Methow Valley’s inaugural Ski to the Sun Marathon and Relay. Last year, we ran a piece exploring how the Ski to the Sun Marathon organizers were rebooting their marquee ski race. The valley’s signature race had for years been a two-day pursuit. An attractive format to many, but it eventually stagnated with...
In a fitting setting for the the inaugural Ski to the Sun Marathon and Relay, hundreds of skiers emerged from a fog-blanketed morning dreamscape in Mazama, Washington as they cruised down the Methow Valley to brilliant sunshine and the finish at Sun Mountain Lodge. Kent Murdoch, who splits his time between Mazama and Fall City, Washington, took advantage of his familiarity with the final climb to lead the marathon field over the 41 km...
Washington’s Methow Valley is the literal end of the road in winter. There’s one way in from the south. There’s route 20, a sinuous side spur plunging down from Omak in the Okanogan Highlands to the Methow’s eastern edge. Otherwise, travel by car terminates just beyond Mazama — the small town nestled in the valley’s north. The Methow’s charm remains its solitude and mellowed pace. Despite the wifi and cell service, there’s the real...
In an effort to showcase the North Americans competing at this past week’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) 2018 Youth and Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia, we asked those qualifying athletes several questions about themselves — actually, we had them fill in the blanks. Here we have 18-year-old Eli Nielsen, of Washington state, who represented the U.S. at his second Youth World Championships. In his last race of the week, Nielsen placed 47th in the...
overcome chronic foot injuries and bronze bling from last year’s World Championship team sprint with Jessie Diggins. When asked about interesting media exposure she’s had during the run up to the Olympics, Bjornsen mentioned a
(Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Canadian coach Ivan Babikov on his team’s recent camp in Park City, Utah.) Two days after Andy Newell and Erika Flowers tied the knot in Bozeman, Mont., seven members of the men’s U.S. Ski Team and eight U.S. women’s team members jumped into an intensity training block at their respective dryland camps in Park City, Utah, and the Methow Valley in northern Washington. The 10-day camps...
*Note: This article has been updated to include email comments from Laura McCabe as of Wednesday. Don’t let the name “Old Lady Intervals” (designated by Leslie Hall) fool you. The interval ladder she and Laura McCabe complete every Wednesday and submitted to FasterSkier is one that takes experience and willpower. Hall doesn’t recommend the workout for juniors, but more for masters and those with limited time for harder training efforts. *** If their houses were any...
In this 20-something-question, fill-in-the-blanks series, we checked in with the world-class U.S. and Canadian biathletes before they competed at 2017 International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth & Junior World Championships Feb. 22-28 in Osrblie (also known as Brezno-Osrblie), Slovakia. Here’s 17-year-old Eli Nielsen, of Methow Valley Nordic (MVNT), who represented the U.S. at his first Youth Worlds. In two individual races, Nielsen finished 82nd in the youth men’s 7.5 k sprint and 91st in the 12.5 k individual. *** “My full name is Camren...
U.S. Ski Team and Alaska Pacific University skier Sadie Bjornsen has seen a few changes this summer including an increase in monthly training hours and the number of those sessions with her teammate Kikkan Randall. "It was definitely a new level of training for me, but I felt like I was able to absorb it, so that was cool," Bjornsen said.
This week, grooming began on the Methow Trails in anticipation of the earliest opening in the nordic center’s history. This kind of start to the season is warmly welcomed by Washington state's Methow Valley community, which endured two consecutive summers of record-setting wildfires.
If you’ve never heard of Momentum Northwest, you’re not alone. The nordic program is a new push from the Seattle community to bring back nordic skiing to the Pacific-Northwest’s largest city. Led by Sam Naney, the program hopes to develop into one of the countries best junior nordic programs.
The MOD grew by three with the addition of both Brian and Caitlin Gregg and junior Maya Seckinger. "The new additions have brought challenges but great rewards, too," coach Scott Johnston says. "At times were are going 4 different directions but all with the same ending destination."
Note: This is the seventh preview in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team: Methow Olympic Development (MOD) Coach: Scott Johnston Roster: Sam Naney What’s new: Brian Gregg as a training partner. Gregg will spend much of the summer...
Snow arrived early in the east, and in Colorado, and Alaskans are already skiing on good snow. So I'm happy to see that snow is finally on the way to us here in the Methow Valley.Most mornings are well below freezing now, so when the precipitati...
Snow arrived early in the east, and in Colorado, and Alaskans are already skiing on good snow. So I'm happy to see that snow is finally on the way to us here in the Methow Valley.Most mornings are well below freezing now, so when the precipitati...
Snow arrived early in the east, and in Colorado, and Alaskans are already skiing on good snow. So I'm happy to see that snow is finally on the way to us here in the Methow Valley.Most mornings are well below freezing now, so when the precipitati...
I spent Saturday morning out on the Methow Valley's race trails, helping to prepare skis for racers at the Methow Valley Pursuit. Day 1 was a 10km individual start classic race. Conditions were hard-track klister skiing, with a track sno...