Riding the shuttle to the venue

Headed to the venue

Most of the WC teams stayed in three or four different hotels so we had to time our shuttle rides up to the venue from the Radisson hotel carefully.  Once the racing started the shuttle drivers did a great job ferrying athletes so we never had to wait much more than 15 minutes before another bus would come along.

Similar to the Quebec World Cup, the event organizers provided all the athletes with a warm and well stocked lounge for changing and refueling after workouts and races.

Biathlon range house/athlete lounge

Looking out over the wax trailers and stadium area. The US wax room is second to the left. A quick trip with skis to get trailside!

The whole town was really supportive of the event going on in Canmore. The drive up the the venue was filled with flags from the different nations competing. Local school children had even drawn welcoming signs that were hung throughout the wax rooms and lodges! This sign was right inside the entrance of the warming hut for the NZ athletes

Perfect tracks every day in Canmore!

It was amazing to see the amount of time and resources involved in hosting a World Cup. Course access was tightly regulated throughout the week with designated training and wax testing times.  All athletes and servicemen had to be accredited with their specific bibs to even access the trails the days leading up to the races. I spent a few bus rides digging through my bag afraid I had forgotten my athlete bib!

Techs running countless laps and skis in the stadium area. Norway apparently brought 90 pairs of test skis- 9 sets of 10 pairs each with a different grind and hand structure applied over the top

More testing…

One aspect of a World Cup that I hadn’t given much thought to before Quebec and Canmore was the amount of work that goes into shooting and editing all the footage that goes into the TV production.  Part of the reason for such strict crowd control and the kilometers of fencing is to ensure that on race day the cameras still have clear shots of the athletes competing.  Almost every meter of the courses in Canmore were covered from some angle by TV crews either from the crane mounted stadium camera to the mobile snowmobile cameras.  The morning of the guys 15k classic race when I was skiing I had a chance to stop and talk to one of the camera boom operators who was the high point of the course practicing his shots for the upcoming race. The whole setup was really impressive and looked to take a huge amount of skill to capture the athletes whizzing by.

All the components for the boom and platform were snowmobiled 2 kilometers up to the highpoint of the course

The unit was counter-balanced with free weights and joystick operated. Left side controlled the camera zoom and angle, right side controlled the direction of the video camera at the end of the boom

The unit also had video monitors with live feeds from the TV crew directing in the stadium below. That way the production crew can instruct the camera operators to follow certain athletes as the race breaks apart or shoot a specific type of shot for the TV production

Here are some pictures I shot from the the Sprint race on Friday and the Pursuit race Saturday.  It was great to see so many US  fans out on the trails at Canmore cheering on the racers. And a big congrats to all the athletes for some great performances!

Kikkan and Sophie in their Quarterfinal

Sadie up front in her Quarter

Ida sitting in and skiing smart in her Quarter

Skyler trying to get away from Emil and the chase pack

Andy skiing smooth in the Semifinals

Kikkan passing in her Semi

Sophie in the pursuit

Caitlin switching to skate out of the stadium

Kikkan powering over the last hill into the finish of the pursuit

Ida staying strong

Caitlin into the finishing hill

Nils striding it out in the 30k

And finishing the last skating lap

Next up, Nationals in Utah!

While I was a little nervous and star struck arriving to dinner at the team hotel Wednesday night that nervous energy quickly faded and was replaced with excitement for the upcoming event. It was really cool to have all the teams eating and staying at one hotel within walking distance from the race courses. Athletes could head down to the lobby to eat meals from the buffet throughout the day or easily head off on foot into the old city to walk around and sight see. My room on the 5th floor looked right out across at the trail and I could watch as the organizers prepared the fencing, sponsor banners, and tweaked all the camera angles for the coming races. Thursday morning I headed out to test skis, preview the course, and snap a few pictures.

View from the finish line look down towards the start lanes

Rows of wax trailers for the different countries

Coaches and techs working inside the USA trailer

And the lounge area nearby

Event organizers making sure no athletes would suffer from chapped lips

I ended up racing the team sprint on Friday with Reese Hanneman from APU.  It was awesome to team up with Reese for the event as I usually have to compete against him on snow instead of as teammates. Despite some really soft tricky skiing (and my tanking the last half lap) we ended the day in 19th position and the second American team. We were both happy with this result and it was great to be able to mix it up with the top guys on course.  Kris Dobie took some nice pictures of the team sprint on Friday here  and Reese posted a blog from Quebec with much nicer pictures than I could ever take here.

Racing out of the start lanes in the team sprint (photo: Eric Packer)

And headed around the first corner (photo: Eric Packer)

Waiting for Reese in the tag zone between laps (photo: Eric Packer)

The individual sprint on Saturday also was a blast for me. I felt I skied well in the qualifier despite being seeded near the back of the pack and having to fight some soft snow and deep ruts. I ended the day 53rd, about 5 seconds out of qualifying. Although I was done skiing for the day I was able to get right next to the start/finish area with my athletes bib and get a second workout in cheering all the other US racers who made the rounds.  It was so cool to see how many spectators showed up to cheer on the US athletes, it really felt like we were racing on our home turf! Some great photos of the sprint day can be found here and here and full results from the weekend here.

Sprint Qualifier (photo: Kris Dobie)

Overall the Quebec weekend was an incredible opportunity that I was glad to experience. Stayed tuned for more from Canmore!

Alpine Air's A-Star helicopter lifting off

And headed up towards the glacier

View from the cockpit. Despite being only a 40 minute drive from Anchorage, and looking down on the town of Girdwood the facility is still very remote. All food, skis, gear, and even the Pisten-Bullys have to be flown in by chopper

Passing Alyeska Resort on the way up

A typical scene looking out from the facility. The training center sits on the edge of a 1500 ft drop off and the clouds often get hung up on the mountains below. The yellow rope is there for a reason... Somewhere under the cloud cover is the town of Girdwood and the Airport

Keith, Alpine Air's main pilot "dropping off" the edge going back for another load of skier and gear. The A-Star kicks up some serious rotor wash. (photo: H Mooney)

The view into town on a clear evening. In the front of the picture are two of four shipping containers for storing all the maintenance gear during the summer and the grooming equipment during the off season. Everything is bedded on concrete and bolted down to withstand the high winds and heavy snowfall.

Meltwater pond in the foreground, trails on the glacier way off in the background. All the water for the facility is pumped and filtered from the meltpond. Electricity comes from a diesel generator. The facility uses composting toilets. All trash is sorted into to two categories. Burnable is disposed on site and the remainder is flown back into town be disposed of.

The loop starts with a fast 1k downhill from the facility. Thanks to a good snow year this winter, even the Bergschrund (the head wall) crevasse hadn't opened up like last year so we were able to ski down and back from the loop to training every day.

Bergschrund from last year

It was pretty nice some days at the end of the long ski to catch a ride back up the big hill on the back of the PB last year though...

Great tracks and great skiing

Pete moments after some impressive klister grab had him doing a superman across the trail

Lots of skiing means big meals!

A huge thanks to Erik Flora of APU and Craftsbury for making this trip happen! Only a few more months and we will be back on snow gearing up for the race season. Summer has really flown by!

Perfect trails awaiting us the first day

Reserve snow-pack opposite the biathlon stadium last year

This years pile... The groomers said they stockpiled more snow for upcoming season than ever before but a warm rainy September resulted unprecedented melt

Workers at Olos uncovering the last bit of snow summered over in the half pipe by the alpine area. The excavator breaks up and removes the frozen wood chips that cover the snow-pack and the front end loader moves the 6 month old snow

And foot tracks this year (Photo: Ethan D)

High noon, 11-10-10

11-7-11 (Photo Ethan D)

The white ribbon below (Photo: Ethan D)

Got wind? (Photo: Ethan D)

Moving snow (Photo: Ethan D)

Although the weather seems to be conspiring against us, the skiing has remained solid.  Its seems we are past the worst of the rain and the mercury is finally dropping after 2 pretty nasty weeks. Big thanks to the workers at Olos for all of their hard work keeping the tracks open and several hundred people on snow. The races this weekend should certainly prove interesting with large competitive fields tearing around the shortened race loop. Might look a bit like this…

Trainin' in the train

A typical day on the Eagle Glacier...

Although the weather for this camp wasn’t as nice as for the woman’s camp, the overcast sky and mix of fresh snow actually made for harder faster conditions which was a nice reprieve from mushy corn snow and disapearing ski pole baskets that we experienced the first day.

Thursday afternoon classic ski on hardwax

Another addition to the camp was riding the new Pisten-Bully to and from training in the morning. A summers worth of melt coupled with a strong earthquake weeks prior had opened several large crevasses  between the main building and the ski loop. Riding the back of the PB up the big hill to the training center for a waiting meal at the end the long day of skiing was another huge plus!

Falling in one of these guys would ruin your ski!

Some of the ladies enjoying the sun at the end of a ski

Powder skiing in August? Can't complain about that!

By the end of the week the clouds had fully blown out and we were treated to some pretty spectacular views of Girdwood, Alyeska resort, and the surrounding mountains and snow fields

The training center with Eagle Glacier off to the right

And the town of Gridwood, Alyeska resort and the Turnagin Arm several thousand feet down to the left...

Hiking down to the edge of the glacier on Sunday morning

Down the scree field

Out the ridge towards Girdwood

Gelso suiting up for the ride down

And down the moss they go!

Through the Alaskan Bush

And back to the van and civilization after 5000+ feet of descending over a few miles!

Lots of snow still on the core trails!

All the snow farming from the fields onto the trails mid winter...

means there is still great skiing into the middle of April!

Ida sneaking across the downhill on Ruthies where spring melt jumped the stream and flooded across the trail

Wilbur's field

PB grooming and fresh tracks April 15th! Can't ask for much more than that!

If your looking for some great late season skiing and are in the area make sure to hit up the COC. The snow is going to go fast this late in the year and there will probably be some bare patches but judging by the amount of snow left on parts of Race Loop, Bailey Hazen, and Lemons Haunt there should be skiing in Craftsbury for a while yet! Ski it while you can!

Ida and Caitlin up the Hammer (photo: Ruff Patterson)

Tim skiing smooth (Ruff Patterson)

Hannah starting the climb (Ruff Patterson photo)

Dilly, same climb (Ruff Patterson)

Kikkan leading the train for 10k

Hannah chasing

Sprint qualifying (photo: Sverre Caldwell)

Ida into the finish of the 10k

Skiing in Park City, pre Spring Series

The snow is going fast here in the East but hopefully there is still enough for a few more awesome skis in April!

A 50k is a very interesting distance to race because it is so different pace wise than a 10 or 15k race. Yes you breathe hard, and your muscles burn on the hills, but everything is much more drawn out than the shorter races. Instead of racing for 30 or 45 minutes you’re going hard for 2.5+ hours, and during that time some funky stuff can happen. The weather can change a lot (it did), you run out of glycogen which is your primary fuel source when racing (I did), your muscles can cramp up from over use (they did), and then you might not be going as fast as when you started. Somewhere between the feed station and long hill going out on my 6th lap I knew I was done. I went from skiing pretty easily with the main pack on earlier laps to survival mode in the span of just a few kilometers. Judging from the number of people I passed pulling off bibs or taking off skis trying to stretch and loosen cramped muscles I wasn’t the only one hurting during the second half of the race. The last two laps I was skiing to finish.

A 50k is one of my favorite race distances because it is so much about the right mindset. You really don’t know how the race is going to go until you have a bib on skiing down the trail. There might be times when you feel great, and there are certainly going to times when you feel terrible and want to stop but few things feel better than crossing the finish line exhausted knowing your done and you raced a long long way in the process.

Ida cheering on Kikkan (USST) and Maria (Utah) race leaders in the 30k

Han skiing away from a chase pack on the last climb

Apologies for the lack of photos so far. Super Tour Finals starts tomorrow with the freestyle prologue followed by a classic mass start the next day. Should be a blast!

Perfect tracks right from our front door

Dylan, Tim, and I started out for a long skate OD this morning with the goal of skiing all of the Center’s open trails. Temps started out around freezing with the sun starting to climb in the sky and not a cloud to be seen.  In a few hours we were starting to shed layers and the snow was really starting to transform and slow down.  By the end of the ski, it felt way more like a spring day skiing out west than mid February in Vermont! My highlight from the ski (aside from the incredible weather and perfect grooming) had to be racing down Elinor’s field right behind Tim and witnessing one of the more impressive Superman diggers I have seen in a while.  Too bad I didn’t have my camera out for it, but for those of you curious it looked somewhat like this, especially with our flow and shades…

Grand Tour- hour 1

GT- hour 2

Cranking out some turns down Elinor's towards the house

Although temps were warm and the snow really settled down, there should be enough to last us well into the spring. A great day of skiing up in Craftsbury!

Checking out stockpiled snow in preparation for the 2011 Sprint Tour