Kongsberger Ski Club

A fun look at both sides of last month's World Masters in Vuokatti, Finland: from the racer's perspective (Suzanne's report) and from the coach/observer's perspective (that would be Rob, and the photos are Rob's).  Now you know what it was like to be there! Racer's report: Suzanne Vuokatti, Finland in February: another XC World Masters experience, my sixth since 2011. Someone from Alaska had warned me last year not to do this one. He said it would be dark, gloomy, and cold. When it came time to sign up, I figured I could handle dark and gloomy, and took my chances on the cold.  How cold could it be, after all? I now know. Way cold. -30C and under pretty much every day for the first week, warming to a tropical -20C and above for the last few days. Since according to FIS or other rules it must be at least -20C to run a race, the first two days of races, Sunday and Monday, were cancelled. Racers like me moped around their hotel rooms, read novels, painted, sighed.

Hero snow.  That's how Peter described it on Sunday morning before the race, and he totally nailed it.  Our rock star groomer has been nurturing the snow pack like it was a cranky toddler all winter, with heavy rain heavy snow heavy rain heavy ... you get the picture.  Sometimes he had to skip grooming because the snow was too wet to hold the weight of the groomer; sometimes he groomed in the middle of the night, only to see multiple inches of rain fall on his handiwork.  But what we ended up with on Sunday morning was perfection: a solid smooth firm base (that might hold up all of March?), with a skiff of fresh snow on top to give your skis something to think about.  The conditions were, in a word, sublime.  We started the 10k with 54 racers, and everyone but one finished, led by the men's winner Dan Packman, in 26:48, and the women's winner Lucy Alexander, in 29:37.  Racer ages ranged from 7 (7!) to 83 (83!), and skiers were almost evenly split between women ((27) and men

Many thanks to Joy for corralling the various locals who made it to Canmore to get their impressions of the World Cup.  Sounds like the rest of us missed a really good time! ***** Rachel's photo We were an enthusiastic and supportive bunch in Canmore, along with other skiing friends from the Methow, Teacup Nordic and many other clubs in the United States and Canada. Here are some of our thoughts.    Why did you go to Canmore instead of Minneapolis and what did you enjoy most about watching the races there?   Jodie & David & kids:  We chose Canmore because we knew it was a beautiful place to ski and was going to be a smaller crowd. To be honest, I (Jodie) was a little sad to miss out on the Minneapolis party, but once we got there, we knew that Canmore was just the best place to be. We enjoyed that it was a small venue and we could really interact with the athletes and the crowd. The kids got to talk to so many of their heroes and got so many autographs and fun memories. The