On Saturday we raced the 5/10km classic at the Austrian National Championships. The race was held at Rettenbachalm, a little ski area in Bad Isch, Austria which was 15km up a single lane snowy road that bordered a steep drop-off into a raging brook. It was really fun to experience a different kind of National [...]
Last weekend we had a classic double header in Otepaa, Estonia. Saturday was a classic sprint and then Sunday was a 10km classic. We’ve had a lot of skate races and especially skate sprints this winter so I was excited to switch it up. Just a week and a half ago we had heard that [...]
Its funny how things work–first I didn’t make any plans for my season, hoping to qualify to race in the IBU cups. Then when I raced poorly and didn’t qualify for that, I decided that I didn’t want to set myself up for more frustration, so I made plans for the season that didn’t involve [...]
After Nationals I had a couple days at home unpack, do laundry, and unwind after a week of racing. The skiing in Craftsbury was a huge improvement over the conditions in Rumford and being able to ski out the front door was once again a huge treat. But luckily I didn’t have time to get [...]
The last weekend of Period 1 World Cup racing was in Slovenia. We had once again heard rumors of no snow and those rumors proved to be true when we arrived Wednesday evening to a heavy warm rain in Zrece, the town where we were staying for the weekend’s races. The venue was in Rogla, [...]
We traveled from Dusseldorf back to Davos with rumors that it was actually snowing! I was hesitant to believe it as it was pouring on the drive from the Zurich airport but when we climbed out of one of the upper tunnels on the drive, big fat fluffy flakes were falling. Snowflakes in the air and accumulating on the [...]
I’m actually in Minnesota right now, not Craftsbury–it’s funny how I always feel like I don’t have any time to write blogs when I’m in Craftsbury–but here in Grand Rapids, MN there’s plenty of time for things like that. I’m a little bummed to be missing out on the excitement of the big opening Eastern [...]
The ribbon of snow with Dusseldorf's impressive architecture in the background This winter I’ve become accustomed skiing on a ribbon on snow threading through the dry woods. First it was Muonio. Then it was Sjusjoen which was closely followed...
This has been a very special week for me. Yesterday was the first World Cup race of my career; something I’ve been dreaming of and working towards for several years. It was an exciting race in some rather surprising ways, and I promise I’ll write a detailed blog post about it [...]
There are three separate and unconnected manmade loops of skiing in town that are each not much over a kilometer in length. It’s okay for intervals and shorter days of skiing but can get boring for longer distance days. Yesterday we decided to drive to Pontresina, Switzerland a town near St. Moritz where there was [...]
Davos, Switzerland could be a winter wonderland. Nestled in the Swiss alps, the town is surrounded by tall mountains. Christmas lights decorate the downtown section of the alpine village. It’s perfect for winter sport with ski lifts on all the mountains, Nordic trails running up and down the valley, an abundance of outdoor ice rinks, [...]
After a brief leave from northern Finland, I came back to race the Ruka Triple. The Ruka Triple is a three day mini-tour of World Cup racing in Ruka, Finland, a resort town near Kuusamo. Ruka is famous for steep and long uphills, fast downhills, darkness, and bitter cold weather. Since winter is late in [...]
On the World Cup there is little room for error. The times are so tight that being a little off is magnified greatly on the results list. The field is so competitive and deep that save for Marit Bjoergen (who after watching her ski last weekend I’m not convinced she’s totally human) a flat race [...]
As you might have heard, there is not an excess of activities here in Mounio. When I’m not skiing or eating or writing blogs, I’ve taken up a small pet project helping my friend Tim with a little problem. There is something blocking his left ear. We are not sure what it is, perhaps a [...]
After a long weekend of racing, I decided to take Tuesday completely off. This gave me the perfect opportunity to carry out a project that I’d been thinking about. I thought it would be fun to stop by the local school to see if a visitor from the US would be welcome in an English [...]
I said my goodbyes to Muonio and traveled to Norway yesterday. While it was great to be able to do a big block of training on snow before the season started, after three weeks in Muonio, the darkness was setting in, and I was ready for a change of scenery. The first World Cups of the season are [...]
Today marks the three week anniversary of our arrival in Finland. Over the course of this time, we have shared 21 dinners together, skied by the low light of the arctic winter sun, frozen our legs in the icy (and questionably healing?) waters of the Muonio River, and competed alongside some of the world’s fastest skiers. [...]
Today marks the three week anniversary of our arrival in Finland. Over the course of this time, we have shared 21 dinners together, skied by the low light of the arctic winter sun, frozen our legs in the icy (and questionably healing?) waters of the Muonio River, and competed alongside some of the world’s fastest skiers. [...]
For those of you who can’t read Cyrillic and don’t know Bulgarian, that means “dinner with the Bulgarians” (well, according to Google Translate, anyway). We’d been looking forward to dinner with the Bulgarian ski team ever since they had extended the invitation to us last week via Pepa. And I think it exceeded all of our [...]
For those of you who can’t read Cyrillic and don’t know Bulgarian, that means “dinner with the Bulgarians” (well, according to Google Translate, anyway). We’d been looking forward to dinner with the Bulgarian ski team ever since they had extended the invitation to us last week via Pepa. And I think it exceeded all of our [...]