Recurring Dream

 

We’ve been following the career of our old friend Viktor Brännmark for years now.  If you’re a paid-in-full gold-level subscriber to the UAA Nordic Ski Team Blog, then of course you already know that, because you have special access to the Blog’s members-only area, with its exclusive content and special feature stories about Viktor’s progress with his ski career.

 But for everyone else, here’s a little recap: Since leaving the Seawolves in 2013, Viktor has been grinding it out on the Swedish elite-level racing scene, chasing his dream of representing his country in one of those white and yellow zoot suits. For several years now, Viktor’s status in Sweden could be described as “just about as fast as you can be without actually being on the Swedish National Team”. Year after year, Viktor keeps after it, training like a maniac and eagerly chasing the racing circuit. Every once in a while, the national team will sign him up for a World Cup race, and he usually finishes in the points if he’s on the starting line. But after a few years of generally level results, Viktor was looking for a breakthrough. So over the summer he decided to go in a different direction with a new training plan and a new coach. 

 Anyone who knows Viktor knows that he takes an honest, raw, blue-collar approach to his sports. He’s ready and eager at all times to race anyone, anytime. At the finish line, Viktor may be first, or last, or anywhere in between.  But you can bet that at the 1km mark of any race, he’s going to be in the lead, or pretty damn close to it. He loves to compete, and when you hang out with him, you get an irresistible urge to take up his challenge and race him – at whatever sport happens to be on the menu. He just has that effect on people. You probably know somebody like that. For example, I went out biking with Viktor a few years ago in the French Alps and I knew I was outmatched on the climbs, but I figured I might be able to take him on the descents. The obvious result was me crashing on an Alp at about 50mph and ruining a perfectly good pair of bike shorts. But I was ahead of Viktor when it happened, so I definitely think it was worth it. 

(As a side note, I spent a couple hours in the care of a doctor at a little local French hospital, and walked out of there with a shopping-cart full of bandages and ointments and creams, and the bill came to a grand total of around $32. The doctor apologized that I had to pay anything at all. But by my reckoning, I still owe the people of France a lot of money. I'll gladly pay those highway tolls and speeding tickets without complaint.)

Anyway, the word going around on the streets of Sweden this Christmastime is that Team Sweden has decided to do the right thing and sign Viktor up for the Tour de Ski. This is not some Podunk, run of the mill World Cup. This is the Tour de Ski - the real deal! 

Check out this press release.  Who on this team looks ready to race?  I think it's auspicious that the only guy in this picture actually doing anything is Viktor. Everyone else is just sitting around in their fancy jackets, but Viktor's in his spandex and making it happen! So you'd better sign up for whatever streaming service is going to bring the Tour de Ski to your living room, because this is a week of racing that you're definitely not going to want to miss. The entire staff of journalists, editors, and the Board of Directors at the UAA Ski Team Blog wish Viktor grand success at his first Tour de Ski!  We think he's ready to slay!

All Over The Place

Coming back to the USA after being away for so long in Canadia, all I wanted to do was flop down on the couch with an icy cold can of Narragansett and watch some "Leave It To Beaver" reruns. But it was not to be. Because no matter which channel I chose, all I could find was ski racing. And the only people I saw ski racing on my television set were current and former UAA Seawolves, racing their little hearts out. 

First thing I saw when I flipped on the TV was JC (or, as he's affectionately known in Europe, "James Clinton"). JC's been hogging all the airtime lately with his sprinting prowess, and nobody else seems to be able to get any attention.

Giving the ol' "street number salute" - a classic in any day and age.

I see enough of JC around here, so I didn't feel like I needed to see him all over the TV, too, so I flipped the channel, and who before my wondering eyes did appear, but Tuva Bygrave! Last I knew, she and I and the rest of us were doing intervals on the Hillside trails.  But then I went to The Yukon with the alpiners, and next thing I know, Tuva's racing in a World Cup in Switzerland.

I found it intriguing that half our team seems to be racing on the World Cup circuit these days, so I surfed around and saw that former Seawolf Casey Wright was also racing the Davos World Cup!

Not to be outdone by the Aussies, former Seawolf Hailey Swirbul earned herself a spot in the leader's throne today. And she had enough time to get good and comfortable there for a while!

All of this leads to the question: Is our old friend, former Seawolf Lukas Ebner, waxing the Aussies' skis again this year?

Meanwhile, back here on the home front in Anchorage, we're continuing on with our humdrum lives, doing our thing.

10am in Anchorage at this time of year still feels kind of dark.

Assistant Coach Toomas took it upon himself to wade out into the brush beside the trail and try to tame the encroaching forest.

Astrid and Tuva. Pre-race.

Trond

Pascale had a good weekend in the Alaska Cup against UAF.

Kendall Kramer of UAF in the lead. Karly in second.

And on the men's side, it was Peter Hinds leading the field early, though the Nanooks took charge in the second half of the race.

Tuva

Karly Coyne was second place in the skate race at the Alaska Cup. Kendall Kramer of UAF won.

Crossing The Border

 Unless the alpiners will let me come and hang out with them on the training hill here in Anchorage, I'm likely not going to see much more plastic-bashing action for a while. Two and a half weeks of alpine training camp has come to a successful conclusion. 

This training camp would have been VERY different (in a worse way) if not for the generous hospitality of Amanda and Judd Dueling, and Elizabeth Reid and Perry Hynes. Our athletes invaded their homes and terrorized their household pets for over two weeks, and it seemed like everyone was still smiling at the end of it. You already know, of course, that Natalie Hynes recently completed a very successful college career here at UAA, as did Marcus Dueling. Derek Dueling is skiing for us now, and their sister Hannah recently graduated from UAF after four years skiing and running for the Nanooks. The close relationship between the Yukon and Alaska is a natural thing, and we've always appreciated the long line of successful skiers and wonderful personalities that our neighbors to the east have sent our way.  But their hospitality and generosity during our training camp was far above and beyond. Thank you so much! We truly enjoyed our stay!

Our last giant slalom day

Sparky. Around sunrise on Thanksgiving Day.

Moro and Friends

Nicole

Ashleigh

Hunter

We got to try out some high-tech GPS timing, acceleration and video analysis equipment with Alistair Smith of Proturn, who just happens to be a Yukoner.

Remember above, when I was talking about the generosity of our hosts?  Well, you may be aware that Thanksgiving in Canadia was celebrated way back in October. Nevertheless, on the American Thanksgiving Day in November, the Duelings did it all over again, and prepared a big holiday feast in honor of the occasion.

During the drive home. Somewhere in Alaska. Ashleigh and Kristina. -30C

Yukon Life!

In non-Covid times, our ski team's alpine delegation would let me tag along to their training camps so I could get my fill of metal-edge knifing and plastic-bashing. After years of holding our annual pre-season training camp in Colorado, we discovered our very own local training base in 2018 in a secret location along the muddy banks of the Yukon River. It's colder, darker, and more remote than any other place we know, and it's the perfect place for us! Ever since we discovered this place, we've been coming here for training whenever the Canadians will let us enter their country. And this time they did.

The only hiking we do is when we miss a gate. This place has a chairlift!

For $49.99 a piece, I had assumed these plastic sticks were ready for racing. You can imagine my disappointment when Morten and Sparky told me we would spend the evening putting these cloth thingies on all these plastic sticks.

The finished product. In place in the northern wilderness.

Could you run a World Cup GS on this hill? Yes, you could.

Us coaches spend most of our day hauling stuff around and standing around in the snow. So it's usually after dark before we can get out for a little exercise. Sparky and I have been going out for night rides.

We are out at the crack of dawn, sticking those plastic sticks in the snow.

Here's Morten, my volunteer assistant counterpart on the alpine side of our Seawolf equation. All week, he's been teaching me alpine-coach stuff, like how to carry two bundles of plastic sticks at once, and how to carry a couple of drills and a backpack full of timing gear on the lift, without falling off.

We're in Canadia, which means we're measuring stuff in metric. This is how I dress when the temperature is -31 Celsius. That's nine layers of clothing, two of which are down parkas.

Sparky's got plenty of skiing advice to give. Here's Leon, getting his daily quota.

Ashleigh Alexander - freshman.

In covid times, they keep us separated. Here's our base lodge. It's working just fine.

Jan Ronner.  Freshman.

Not only is it cold, but there's ice fog. That's Sparky back there.

Kristina Natalenko

Hunter Eid - freshman.

Moro Bamber

Ashleigh

Leon Nikic

Between runs, we review video

And we compare our bruises.

Nicole Mah

Didrik Nilsen - senior