It's A Small World

As soon as I arrived at college in Wyoming in 1987, I started hearing lots of stories about the all the great things that had happened there in the years just before I arrived. Isn't it always like that, though? You should have seen the huge fish we caught yesterday! That party you missed was totally insane! We won all the ski races last year!  You know, that kind of stuff.

It may have been because I found a pair of left-behind ski poles in the ski room that had the name "Grethe Lise" written on them that were a better model than mine so I made them my own, but it seemed all the stories I was hearing were centered around Grethe Lise Hågensen. And they were great stories!  But Grethe Lise had gone back to Norway so I assumed I'd never meet the person whose ski poles I was using.

Many years later, when I started helping out with the UAA Ski Team, Grethe Lise had become the coach at Montana State so I started seeing her frequently. In 2005, I spent some time around Christmas in Bozeman and met Grethe Lise's daughter, Bjørk, though she would never remember it because she was only seven or eight years old then.

Last week, Andrew told me that Bjørk has agreed to become a Seawolf this fall! After finishing high school in Bozeman, she spent last winter training and racing in Tromsø, Norway, and finished her season with a couple of gold medals at the Barents Winter Games in Murmansk, Russia.

I'm looking forward to getting to know Bjørk Hågensen, and we welcome her to Alaska as the final installment in this year's UAA Ski Team women's roster!

Bjork is the one in the middle.

Sylvie Went To Eagle Glacier And All I Got Was This Stupid T-Shirt

Actually, nobody even got a t-shirt out of it.  Andrew was relegated to watching his daughter Sylvie fly off in a red helicopter with Calisa to spend the morning skiing with the US national team while he had to settle for a hike up Alyeska's north face with his daughter Svea. 

Hey, Isn't That a Pripps Blå?

Hanna has taken her road show back to Sweden. 

Reportedly, she won a triathlon last week. 

You win triathlons by paying attention to the details. 

In the photo below, for example, observe Hanna's attention to detail as she is careful not to knock over her can of Pripps Blå. 

We can learn a lot from our graduates.

Summertime in Sweden...

Meanwhile In Estonia...

The UAA Ski Team Blog covers local, national and international events. We travel the globe to bring you all the UAA Ski Team news that you just can't get anywhere else.  And that's why the UAA Ski Team Blog was hiding out behind some shrubbery last weekend in Estonia*. The UAA Ski Team Blog had traveled all the way to Estonia because we'd heard thru certain channels that Tommy, our favorite Estonian Seawolf, would be competing in a ski race there. The rumor turned out to be true.

The UAA Ski Team Blog is not particularly concerned about results, so we didn't inquire.  Mostly, we just care about whether the Seawolves look fast and look good.  Tommy looked plenty fast here, and he always looks good, so that's good enough for us.

*actually, credit for the video is due to whomever took this video - perhaps one of Tom's family members?  We don't know.  But thank you.

Summer Break

Skippy's had nine straight winters in a row. After spending the northern hemisphere's winter on skis, she would go back Down Under each year to spend the other half of the calendar on skis, too. But this summer, she's breaking with tradition. She's sticking around Alaska to reacquaint herself with shorts, sunblock and rollerskis. 

Skippy likes to do an overdistance workout each Saturday.  I asked her if I could tag along today. She said that would be OK. She took me for a run/hike our local woods.

Skippy's working as a lifeguard this summer. The water in that pool is warm.  The water in this lake is not as warm as the water in the UAA swimming pool. Guess whose feet those are.

Last Sunday Seems Like a Very Long Time Ago

Thousands of miles by airplane, all within Alaska

Monday: Shishaldin Volcano is a perfect cone, and it's always steaming. This could be a great future ski trip from False Pass!

Approaching Unalaska by air

I had time for a short hiking trip in Unalaska after work

There's no nicer place to be than Unalaska on a sunny summer day

And no better place for hiking

Wednesday:  Back in Anchorage for hiking with Marine and Etienne above town

Former University of Alaska skiers Etienne, Theresia and Marine

Thursday: Back out west. Here's Veniaminof.  A huge crater.

The vent on Mt Veniaminof. Another volcano that's always steaming.

The cemetery in Sand Point. 11pm

Sand Point on Thursday night

Onto the Alaska State Ferry for the overnight trip to King Cove. Here's Mt. Pavlov at 3:30am.  Why was I awake?  What can I say - I like boats.

King Cove arrival at 7am

Climbed into Guy's airplane for s short trip across to Cold Bay to catch a flight back home.

Saturday: Out west one more time - to Naknek where the commercial fishing season is in high gear.