"Maybe I Had Too Much Wine and Cheese at Christmas"

Just like you, I'm on CV19 lockdown here at home.  Nothing to do all day; can't get out for adventures; running out of ways to occupy my time.  So lately I've been spending my days perusing the world's skiing publications and periodicals.  I had no idea there were so many!  Seems we here in the USA aren't the only ones who like ski racing.  I've been devoting one day to each country's skiing magazines.  Today: France.

Erik at the 2011 NCAA Championships in Stowe, Vermont

And look what I found! A full article dedicated to our friend and former Seawolf Erik Bjornsen's professional ski career!  

I'm sure you're well aware of Erik's recent decision to step away from the World Cup circuit and shift his focus in a new direction. It's pretty much the news of the week in American cross-country skiing. Faster Skier wrote a nice article about him a few days ago.

But the beauty of the internet is that it allows you to read articles from 'round the world.  So here's a chance to brush up on your French. Any article that starts with "Il est le plus francophone des fondeurs américains" when discussing Erik Bjornsen is mandatory reading material. In this article, Erik recalls the highlights and favorite memories from his World Cup skiing career. Read all about it here or just click on the picture below.  

ps. I've translated a little bit of the article for you in the title. For the rest of it, you're on your own. Don't read French yet?  Take a French class - they're offered pretty much everywhere.

        

Doing Time

When you're on CV19 lockdown in the springtime, there's no better place to be stuck than in southcentral Alaska.

It's been good touring conditions on the Anchorage hillside.

And springtime always brings out the best of the Kincaid ski trails.

This is the time of the year when many those places that are difficult to get to for most of the rest of the year become easy to access, because the rivers and lakes are frozen and all that alder, willow, cow parsnip and devils club is buried beneath several feet of snow.

You still have to push your bike occasionally, though.

I went out crust skiing with Seawolf Toby Schwoerer the other morning.  You never know where Toby's going to take you. He told me he packrafted the Grand Canyon earlier this winter. That sounds like insanity to me. Toby said it was awesome. I asked him if he got scared. He said yes.

ps. If you're wondering what a packraft is - it's one of these little things. They're about as big as a duck. Toby packed all his stuff for his 2-week trip in one of these one-man rafts. 

There's good crust skiing here in town.

And there's good fat-biking at this time of year, too. This was yesterday.

Anchorage isn't a bad place to be stuck for CV19.

Can't Let It Go

I'm not too big into the social media, the facebooking, the podcasting, the tweeting, the instagramming and all the rest of it. My smartphone spends most of its time at the bottom of a backpack in a closet somewhere, and my computer mostly gets used for office work and for checking the Viktor Brännmark blog. But in these precarious times (and I'm not talking just about the Coronavirus; I'm talking about the past few years) I've started listening regularly to a podcast about politics on NPR that's called "The NPR Politics Podcast".  I like the name of the podcast - very straightforward.  It's a title that doesn't make me feel like someone's trying to yank my chain. Every Friday, though, at the end of the podcast, they always do a segment that they seem very proud of, but in my opinion it's boring and a waste of my time. In this part of the show, called "Can't Let It Go", the reporters talk about whatever it is that's been on their mind that week, politics or otherwise. Despite my telling you just a moment ago that "Can't Let It Go" segments are boring and dumb, I'm going to give you my own version of Can't Let It Go today. Here are my two Can't Let It Go's for this week: 

Viktor Brännmark in 2013

For one thing, I can't get over how much Toom has been out skiing lately! The other day, I was chatting with him about this or that, and I guess we started talking about how good the ski conditions have been around here lately on our City trail systems.  This blog is not a place where I typically air my grievances, but I'll just note here in passing that I'm sometimes disappointed in the grooming standards on our local ski trails during the first half of each winter. But every winter, around the end of February or the beginning of March, the NSAA grooming world tilts on its axis or something, and the trails suddenly get amazing - with all the trails groomed regularly, and perfect conditions any time you get an urge to go out for a few laps around the trails. And if this spring is like every other spring, and I'm sure it will be, the crew will be out grooming those trails relentlessly until the snow has completely melted away and they're driving the Pisten Bully through the mud.  I'm a huge fan of spring skiing, so this time of the year is like heaven on Anchorage's city ski trail systems. And if our current weather trend continues we should have another month of excellent in-town skiing ahead of us. With everyone trying to avoid infecting others with the Corona, or catching it themselves, it seems everyone in town's got nothing better to do with themselves than to go out skiing.  There are loads of people out kicking around on the ski trails these days, and it's nice too see, even if it does mean you have to be vigilant if you're going to succeed at staying away from people.  

Around 8pm yesterday evening at Kincaid

Anyway, back to what I was saying about Toom. The thing that's been on my mind is the part of the conversation where he told me he'd been out skiing more than 100km every day, all week long, just because the skiing in town has been so good.  That sounded kind of preposterous to me. I've never heard of anyone skiing so much if it wasn't in the service of some kind of crazy "challenge" of some sort.  And especially Toom!  I mean, Toom's a good skier and all, and I have known him to enjoy going out for long workouts, but wasn't this the same guy who, two weeks earlier in West Yellowstone told me he'd never raced 50km before and he assumed he'd bonk badly in the last part of the Yellowstone Rendezvous race because he didn't know if he could ski that far?  Of course, as it turned out he was strong all the way through and finished third.  But all the same, racing a 50k is quite a different thing than going out day after day for 100km+ cruisers around town.  So I probably asked him to prove it or something, and he said, "Well, for example, here's where I went today..." and he sent me this:

So here's my second "Can't Let It Go" for this week: The other evening, since we can't go out anymore, I was at home watching a documentary that I'd rented about Joan Jett. I guess I was never as into Joan Jett as my sister was when we were growing up, but I've always liked her style. And being the feminist that I am, I've always respected how hard she's had to work to carve out a place for herself in the male-dominated rock and roll scene. Anyway, I enjoyed the film and it sort of made me think of our old friend Viktor Brännmark  As you may recall, Viktor left us in 2013 after placing 3rd at the NCAA Championships so he could focus all his energy on his goal of becoming a regular on the World Cup in a Swedish team suit.  I've been following Viktor along the way via that social media that I claimed earlier to never use, and one afternoon last month when we were at the team house in Bozeman for the RMISA Championships, I checked in and saw that he was planning to race a World Cup in Lahti, Finland.  The next day, I checked the results on the FIS website and saw that he'd scored points with a 27th place finish!  A week later, he was again racing World Cup for Sweden, this time in the Holmenkollen 50k in Oslo, where he finished 24th! Things were getting better and better for Viktor! 

Viktor in 2020

It was bittersweet, though. The Holmenkollen 50k was raced in a silent, empty stadium. No spectators were allowed, due to the Coronavirus. And the rest of the season was, of course, cancelled.  Anyway, just like Joan Jett, who had to work her ass off for many years to make a place for herself in the music scene, Viktor has been working his ass off for a very long time to make his dreams reality.  Viktor has a full summer of training ahead of him, but he's been breaking through lately and I would love to see him pick up next November where he left off a few weeks ago, as a regular World Cupper in a Swedish National Team zoot suit!

2013 at Middlebury. If we can get a handle on this virus that's going around, we'll be back there again next March.

Mad Season

Seniors Natalie, Hannah, Anna, and Michaela

This winter was truly a Mad Season, and not only because Toom spent the majority of it listening to Layne Staley (and Selena Gomez).  The season was madness from the very start, way back in early November.  And the madness continued, right through to the final day, when everything was suddenly and abruptly cancelled mid-way through NCAA week.  

Espen

For me, the winter started when I joined the alpine team for their pre-season training camp in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in early November.  We were to leave Anchorage on Friday morning super early, and I made one last work-related trip on Monday/Tuesday to Kodiak Island, which would give me an office day midweek and plenty of time to track down and prepare my alpine gear prior to our Friday morning departure.  Problem was, a storm rolled into Kodiak on Tuesday just when I was planning to fly back to Anchorage, and my flight was cancelled. The next two days' worth of flights were cancelled, too. And soon Sparky and I were considering alternate ways for me to join the team in Whitehorse whenever I finally escaped the grip of the Kodiak's bad weather.  But at the last minute, the weather cleared and I got out at around midnight on Thursday night. It was like being on the last helicopter to leave Saigon.  I was home in bed by 2:30am and up by 4:30 for the drive to Whitehorse... and so it began.  

Anna

After a productive week of alpine training in Whitehorse, we went out to the Whitehorse airport to fly back to Anchorage. But a snowstorm blew in while we were in the departure lounge, our Air Canada jet didn't land, and we were in for a long night.  Another midnight departure to Vancouver out of Whitehorse, a missed connection in Vancouver, the team split up to get two hours' sleep at Vancouver hotels, and reservations on separate return flights to Anchorage from Seattle meant that various members of the team drifted back into Anchorage over the next 24 hours.  And just like that, the season had officially begun. 

Sigurd

But that wasn't the last time I got stuck on Kodiak Island this winter. It happened again mid-winter, with a three-day blizzard grounding me and threatening to keep me from joining the nordic team for our Aspen / Utah RMISA trip. But again, I escaped Kodiak at the last moment and made the UAA Ski Team flight in the nick of time. 

Natalie

The air travel wasn't the only thing that was crazy this winter.  The road trips were also a little crazy. In February, a 3.5 hour road trip to Aspen turned into a 12-hour epic slog through a snowstorm, at least for the two of us who were in the van carrying all the skis. 

Hannah

And team personnel changed over the course of the season, too. Sigurd had decided after last season's success to stay in Norway this year and try to qualify for Norway's U23 World Championship team. But somewhere along the way, he decided last fall to rejoin the Seawolves. I heard about it sometime around mid-December. And suddenly, at the beginning of the racing season, we had Sigurd on board, adding his considerable firepower to our men's team. 

Sigurd

Somewhere in the middle of the season - I can't quite remember how or when, JC flew to Germany and scored World Cup points in a sprint race. Has any American junior cross-country skier ever scored World Cup points before?  I'm too lazy and too busy to take the time to figure out the answer to that question. So until someone tells me otherwise, I'm going to say it's never happened before. And unless I'm mistaken, JC will officially be named to the US Ski Team this spring.

JC

And somewhere along the line, Toomas Kollo became our assistant coach.  It might have happened in September. Or it might have been in late December. Or early January.  Or it might have been an inevitable, incremental realization that Toom was gradually becoming the assistant coach.  I really don't know exactly when or how it happened.  But by January, Toom had firmly taken the reins as assistant coach.  I can say this: I've never seen anyone work harder, sacrifice more, or commit more fully to the assistant coaching job than what I witnessed this winter.  Toom was, in my opinion, the solid center of our group. He stabilized our team throughout the winter, always in the thick of it, keeping us on an even keel and enabling us to have the success that we had. I was thoroughly and completely impressed!

All of the coaches, alpine and nordic.

By and by, through the madness, we came to Bozeman for the RMISA Championships and the NCAA Championships in the beginning of March. Holed up at two houses in the mountains, accessible via long, treacherous, steep ice-covered drives. Locking the keys to one of the team trucks inside and rendering it unusable for a couple days was just par for the winter. But we had some success at RMISA regionals. And by "success" I mean we didn't do very well.  Because, as Toom noted near the end of the season, "...The guys will tend to have a good race, but then they get overconfident, and then they get a beatdown in the next race, and then they get angry and morose, and then they're back in the right state of mind - like angry hornets, and in their next race they win and get their revenge, but then they get overconfident and the cycle starts again."  So, coming out of the RMISA Championships, seven of us hunkered down in West Yellowstone for a week of team bonding and focused training in a big house that allowed everyone plenty of personal space to relax and prepare for the NCAA Championships. We were three senior women, a freshman and a sophomore on the men's team, and Toom and me. 

Marine and Toom. In Seattle.

We had a good thing going in West Yellowstone.  Toom was leading the mens' interval sessions from the front, and everyone was focused and happy. On our last day in West, Toom entered the Yellowstone Rendezvous marathon (and I did the kids' race). The athletes came out and supported us with feeds (the women) and cheering (the men). Toom managed to win a bunch of money for being third in the marathon (and winning the halfway sprint prime), and I finished second in the kids' race. 

Here's Toom winning his award for third place in the Yellowstone Rendezvous

And me in the kids' race. Or maybe it was the old man's race?

Sigurd, Espen and Toom just before the last interval of a training session at West Yellowstone.

Dinner time at West Yellowstone training camp for the seven of us.

Four seniors in Bozeman: Michaela, Natalie, Hannah and Anna

And one freshman: Tuva

It was pretty clear to me that our team was physically, mentally and emotionally prepared for good performances at NCAA's.  The men, in particular, seemed really eager for the 20km mass-start classic race. They'd been excellent in classic races all year, they were improving as the season progressed, and they were confident they could win at NCAA's. Sigurd wanted revenge for not winning the RMISA Championship (though he was the RMISA MVP - best skier in the West Region), and he also wanted revenge for not winning the NCAA's last year (he was runner-up).  He was confident he could get the job done this year.

Toom, JC and Sigurd

The role Marine assigned to me this winter was centered around kick waxing for classic races.  So when the team left West Yellowstone to return to Bozeman for the NCAA Championships (where the first race was a skate race), I drifted off to Jackson Hole for a few days of alpine skiing.

Marine let me play with the heat gun this winter.

We were off to a good start in the skate race at NCAAs.  Four of our six skiers were All-Americans. All three of our men were in the top ten, Anna was tenth, Natalie was twelfth. Our men were the second-best team, behind Vermont, and our women were fourth. It was a good start to the week, and we were confident we'd be better in classic, where we'd been better all season. I returned from Jackson Hole to Bozeman on Thursday evening after the skate race, ready to test kick waxes on Friday morning in preparation for Saturday's big mass-start classic race.  I checked into a hotel and checked my messages. I got a WhatsApp message from Toom: "We did pretty good today. But NCAA's is cancelled due to Coronavirus. So we're flying home tonight. See you in Anchorage!"

A lot of green on the podium on Thursday; two Vermont and two UAA. For future reference, always bring at least two Seawolf flags to NCAAs

And suddenly, just like that, it was over.  

I'll always have warm memories when I think back on this winter. It was a really special group, and a really special racing season. I'll never forget it.

note:  all the good, fun, well-lit photos of our team in this edition of the blog were taken by Joan Darnell.  All the mediocre, moody, blurry, melancholy, dark, and poor ones were taken by me. Most of the ones in this post, as you can imagine, were taken by Joan.  Thank you, Joan!

Ben Sonntag

Sad news today.

Seawolf Ben Sonntag, while out training on his bike yesterday, was hit and killed by a car. He was 39 and a professional cyclist.

Ben skied for UAA from 2004 to 2006, and during that time he was an NCAA All-American three times, and the NCAA runner-up in 2006.  Ben came to UAA from Germany where he'd grown up and was one of the best in the world in Winter Triathlon (running, cycling, and skiing). In fact, Ben was Winter Triathlon World Champion in 2006.  

Ben is third from left in the sunglasses

After a couple years at UAA, it was clear that Ben had a bright future in professional cycling, so he left to pursue a career on the bike. He transferred to Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, won two college cycling national championships and began a pro cycling career that continued until yesterday, when he was out training for some upcoming races in Colorado.  

What we'll remember best about Ben, though, was not his long list of accomplishments, but his personality. He was the most approachable, humble person you could ever want to meet.  And hanging around with Ben, you'd start wanting to try to be more like him, with his easy smile and eagerness to share a laugh.  At least, that's the way it was for me. 

There have been news stories all over the internet today about Ben. I encourage you to read them. From the interviews in the news stories, it's clear that I wasn't the only one who thought the world of him.

https://durangoherald.com/articles/317099

https://www.velonews.com/2020/03/news/friends-and-teammates-remember-ben-sonntag_505917

https://durangoherald.com/galleries/1000-ben-sonntag-through-the-years

https://www.velonews.com/2020/03/culture/payson-mcelveen-on-ben-sonntag-he-was-the-model-endurance-athlete_507837

Bug

I've mentioned The Cricket Guy a few times recently in this blog.  A few days ago my interview with Chris Gilberds during a UAA alpine training camp finally made it through production and aired on Alaska Public Radio.  If you click on the picture of the bug hunter below, you can learn all kinds of fascinating facts and figures and hear the sound of me biting into a nice juicy scorpion.