It's May. Up in the mountains the crust skiing is still amazing, but the remnants of winter are soon to be gone. The telltale signs are in town... The trees are beginning to bud, and the vibrant fresh green of spring is beginning to burst out over the formerly dull brown landscape. The new training year began two weeks ago, so nearly every morning I've been making my way up from springtime into the mountains in search of hard, crusty, fast snow to ski on. Crust skiing is something Nordic skiers looks forward to in the spring. At a time when the days are warm and sunny and the nights are clear and below freezing, the snow goes through a magical freeze-thaw cycle, turning any terrain that is still snow-covered into a firm surface perfect for gliding on.
My APU teammates and I are back into the swing of training for the race season still many months away, and we're doing our best to take advantage of every on-snow opportunity, since it's a matter of days before the last skiing will melt away, and we'll be on the roads rollerskiing. But before I get ahead of myself, I suppose I should make sure to properly wrap-up the 2009-2010 season and the short period of down time in between then and now...
After a great time in Europe, I traveled back to the US, stopping in Vermont for a few days to see my grandmother, skiing at nearby Bolton Mountain Nordic Ski Area for training. After a little rest from the travel, some great time visiting, and a little (or more than a little!) laundry washing, I was back on the road heading up to northern Maine- Fort Kent and Madawaska, to be exact. There I finished off the season with the 30km freestyle National Championship, followed by three more races. In the end it was four races in five days, a good, solid finale to the season.
30km skate National Championship in Fort Kent, Maine
On the day between the 30km and the last three races, I was an instructor for Fast and Female, a program designed to empower young girls through participation in sport. Chandra Crawford, a Canadian cross-country skier and 2006 Olympic gold medalist founded Fast and Female, which now organizes events throughout North America. This was the first US events outside Alaska, as the only other Fast and Female ski days have been in Anchorage and Fairbanks. Kikkan Randall, APU's own 3-time Olympian, has spearheaded the US Fast and Female events over the last two years. Once again, she (with the help of the Maine Winter Sports Center and NENSA) pulled together all the elite women racing in northern Maine and encouraged us to be ambassadors for our sport.
Well over 100 elementary-aged girls from Madawaska, Maine participated in Fast and Female.
The girls were divided into groups based on age and assigned to a few elite athlete ambassadors/instructors. Once we'd met each other, we made headbands (with the colored paper assigned to our group) to display our names, and we made up a team name and cheer- which we performed for all the other girls.
Fast and Female, along with the last four races in Fort Kent and Madawaska, marked the conclusion of my season, and after a fun, but tiring time, I was headed home to Alaska.
Once at home, it was time to get out and play... but before I had a chance for that a nasty stomach flu knocked me out for a few days. With that behind me, I set out making the most of my spring. I got out back country skiing a couple of times...
Practicing my tele skiing in Hatcher Pass, Alaska
Not long after I'd settled into the pace of life at home, I was back on the road, visiting Crested Butte, Colorado and spending some time in Moab and Lake Powell, Utah.
I crust skied in Crested Butte, despite the red dirt that had blown in from the desert and covered the snow. The conditions were surprisingly good, dirt and all, and the terrain for crust skiing was spectacular. For some variety, I did a little tele skiing and skinning (summiting Mount Crested Butte), as well as a little snowshoeing.
After a few days in Colorado, it was time to get warm, so off to the desert we went. We stopped in Moab for a night and went mountain biking the next day before jumping in the car for Lake Powell.
The four days in Lake Powell were hot and sunny, and I added more variety to my "off" season training with some swimming and hiking. The lake was largely vacant, as it's considered to be early in the season, which meant we had lots of space to ourselves. We camped on a beach across the lake from Bullfrog, a small establishment and marina, and during the day we hiked, boated, and swam. At night we roasted marshmallows over the campfire, grilled sausages, and told fireside stories. For this Alaskan, the cool nights were a nice change after hot days in the sun and sand so warm it hurt your feet. Despite my low tolerance for heat and having to put on endless amounts of sunscreen, I had a wonderful time in the desert.
Hiking around Lake Powell
Checking out the Defiance House Native American ruins in Lake Powell.
After a break jam-packed with fun and different activities, I am now back home. Two weeks ago we shocked our bodies back into routine with the 3rd annual APU team start-up camp. There was no easing back into training. Nope, it was a jump-right-in kind of week, complete with testing, hard intervals, lots of distance training and LOTS of skiing on snow in Anchorage. It felt a little brutal at first, but my body soon adapted, remembering that life's usually this way!After the start-up week, the team buckled down and made last minute preparations for our 1st annual APU team fundraiser. Since the beginning of April, we'd been planning a huge end of the season celebration and fundraiser to help cover our racing expenses from the past year. We'd gone out into the community to ask for donations for our live and silent auction, sent hundreds of invitations, planned floral arrangements and decorations and slide shows, and on May 4th we had an incredibly successful event. Thanks to many generous donations, we were able to raise more than enough money to cover our travel and racing expenses from the season, with the remaining money going into our competition fund to help with our bills for next year.
This fundraiser was an incredibly eye-opening experience. It helped me realize just how amazingly supportive the Alaskan community and my own individual community is. After a long season and at the beginning of a new one, I'd like to take the chance to thank my family, friends, and supporters for everything they've done for me. I'd like to thank my hometown- Talkeetna, Alaska- for believing in and supporting me. I'd like to thank the people who attended the APU fundraiser, as well as those who made donations. I also want to recognize my sponsors, who have made it possible for me to be a ski racer. All of you are part of my community. You are part of my dreams and goals, and I can't thank you enough!
So now it's onward towards another season. It's time for more hard work and more training, and I'm psyched and ready to begin. Thanks for following and stay tuned!
