Birkie Break

 The Seawolves have been on the road, traveling from place to place around the mountain west for the past few weeks, though the list of venues able to host ski races is a lot smaller than usual this year. That's because there's hardly any snow on the ground west of the Mississippi River. In fact, we are scheduled to be in Bozeman, Montana this weekend for the RMISA Championships, but we're in Utah instead because there isn't any snow in Montana. And it was decided last week that the NCAA Championships, slated to be hosted by Montana State, will also be moved to Soldier Hollow, the only place that has a ribbon of man-made snow thick enough to host a serious ski race. 

Yes, it's really that warm here at Soldier Hollow today. And the forecast calls for a lot warmer this weekend. Our skiers came on this trip prepared to race in shorts.

So I decided I needed a little change of scenery for a few days. And that's how I ended up in the north woods of Wisconsin last week, for the running of the American Birkebeiner ski race. I didn't go to Hayward to race. I just went there to watch, and to do a little race announcing. But there were plenty of Seawolves at the Birkie, just as there are every year. 

For example, Hannah Rudd (2020) won the women's classic Birkie. So I got to meet her at the finish line with a microphone in hand and get caught up on the latest Hannah Rudd news in front of thousands of spectators lining main street.

Hannah Rudd

And who are these two characters at the start line?  Any true Skiwolf fan knows that's Seawolf and 2014 Olympian Brian Gregg (2006) and our current assistant coach Chase High wearing the Seawolf green!

In the end, these two stuck pretty close to each other all day, with Chase ultimately crossing the finish line a half-second ahead of Brian, to take 25th place. 

And who's that in the black and green Craftsbury suit (below) just to the left in the frame, reaching the finish just behind the lead pack in lucky 13th place?  Why, that's Seawolf Michaela Keller-Miller (2020)!

The Birkie is a big deal. Big enough that if you listen to local radio in Hayward during Birkie Week, you'll be serenaded by a long list of Birkie songs floating across the airwaves. Birkie Fever is alive and well.

ps. The Birkie even has its own rock concept album. You can listen to Bifurcated Monkey's EP, Birkie Extra Blue, here. And you can thank me later.

Champagne Dreams

When I was a freshman at the University of Wyoming in the fall of 1987, my roommate, Mike, was from Steamboat Springs. There was always tons of snow in Steamboat, so we occasionally made the two and a half hour drive from Laramie for a couple days of training and a change of scenery. Mike's family had one of those little pets that looks like a dog, only smaller, like a little schnauzer or a poodle or some such little vermin. Mike would slide open the door to the rear deck and toss that little animal as far as he could out into the back yard, where the snow was so deep that the little guy would vanish into the light, deep snow, out of sight. Mike slid the door closed and said, "That should give us about a half-hour of peace and quiet."  By and by, the dog would swim its way back to the slider door. We'd let him in and he'd fall asleep by the fire, well-exercised for the evening.

Steamboat Springs is the land of "Champagne Powder". That's the trademark tagline that the Steamboat tourism marketing people came up with many decades ago to describe the winter experience here, where the snow tends to fall heavy, and lie deep on the ground for months at a time. Steamboat is known for its reliable, bottomless, light, deep snow, and the powder skiing in the wooded glades on Storm Peak is legendary. 

The dream of the Arnold Barn in Steamboat

The 2026 reality of the Arnold Barn in Steamboat.

But this winter in Steamboat is not turning out to be so legendary. Unless you're talking about a legendary lack of snow.

The view from my bench on the sidewalk outside the Lucchese store on main street yesterday afternoon. I was wearing a t-shirt.

The snow was a little thin on the Howelson ski trails yesterday.

But we found a little snow here and there. And we aren't complaining about a lack of sunshine.

Tredje Igjen

 Racing took place today at 9,000 feet above sea level, in the glorious Rocky Mountain sunshine.

Chase and Trond, at the office.

Chaos in the women's race

Dashe was fast today. Her first top-ten RMISA finish.

Garrett was fast today. Sixth place. His best RMISA result yet.

Less than one kilometer from the finish line, and Corbin is trying to win this race. But two Buffaloes were stronger today.

Enjoying the après-ski

How long will it be before Corbin gets tired of third place in RMISA races? Maybe we'll find out tomorrow. 

Don and Kallie made the trip over the mountain to see their son race.

Thanks for the peppermint patty, Corbin!

Answer Key

Everyone's been asking which Seawolves will be in the Olympics this year! You may recall that the staff of the UAA Nordic Ski Team blog speculated a few weeks ago about which Seawolves will be there. Here are the answers to the questions you've been asking:

Magnus Norøy will be at the Olympics. He'll be waxing cross-country skis for the Canadians.

Tuva Bygrave probably won't be at the Olympics. I didn't see her name on the list when I looked up the Australian team roster.

Lukas Ebner will not be at the Olympics. As recently as last week, he was riding his bike around one of the islands in the Mediterranean Sea.

Pascale Paradis will be competing in Biathlon for Canada at the Olympics.

Andrew Kastning will not be at the Olympics. Other commentators will be making the call.

JC Schoonmaker will be competing in his second Olympics.

Erik Flora will be coaching Team USA at the Olympics.

Peter Hinds will be competing for Slovakia at the Olympics. I'm no Slovakian Olympic Team official, but with two men on the Slovakian team, my guess is Peter will likely have lots of opportunities to be on the start line in Val di Fiemme.

Derek Dueling will not be suiting up to race for the Canadian team. But there's a rumor going around that he may be waxing for the Canucks. Derek, if you're out there, call in to the Blog and tell us what's up!

Hailey Swirbul will be competing for Team USA in Italy.

Toomas Kollo will not be at the Olympics. He will likely be somewhere along the Bering Sea coast of Alaska, exploring around.

Nevio Zeni has been spotted several times around Tesero and Predazzo by various traveling Alaskans since he was featured in this blog's Olympic preview edition in December. Nevio will indeed be in the Olympics, likely as a roving jack-of-all-trades. The word from the blog's paparazzi is that Nevio's wife operates a hotel in town. You can bet that Nevio will be in the thick of it.

Murphy Kimball will not be at the Olympics. But he will be going to World Juniors soon.

I can't wait to see how our Seawolves do at the Olympics this year! Good luck to all of them!

Parke's Back Yard

No matter where in the world I go, I always enjoy coming back to Anchorage. It's the place I chose to live when I graduated from college over thirty years ago, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. I especially enjoy being on the Alaska Airlines jet on final approach to ANC when I know there's a lot of snow on the ground. And that was the case when we returned home from Utah last week.

Here's a graph I saw in the Anchorage Daily News last week. I liked this graph.

Nevertheless, if you're a member of this ski team, you're not going to be in Anchorage for long before you need to get on an airplane and go ski racing somewhere. And this week, the destination is Colorado - where rumor has it that there's never been a more snowless winter in the Rocky Mountains than they're having this year. Ski races are being cancelled, or relocated, and this weekend's race, which was supposed to be in Minturn, will now be in Frisco. I have to admit that I was not looking forward to leaving snowy Anchorage to come down here for a rollerski race around a parking lot or some such nonsense.

My house, in its best light - covered in deep snow.

But the situation in Colorado is a lot rosier than I had imagined. While it's true that we're scratching around on small loops, and every one of us has hit a few rocks with our skis the past couple days, it's hard not to enjoy the warm sunshine, and there's nothing wrong with the quality of the (admittedly meager) snowpack. 

Here's the forecast for this weekend. Not too shabby.

So today, we skied at Breckenridge Nordic Nordic Center. It was pretty good!  Yesterday, Hedda and I were skiing together at Frisco Nordic Center when we crossed paths with someone named Scott who used to ski for the Colorado Buffaloes in the 1980's. He told us the skiing was good at Breckenridge, and just like that, the Seawolves found ourselves at Breck this morning.

Erling

Erling again. Do you sense a theme here?

Hedda and Dashe

Naturally, Parke was our guide today, since he grew up in Breckenridge and knows all its nooks and crannies. He took us out for a little loop that topped out at about 10,878 feet above sea level. (That's 3,316 meters to you Euros and Canadians.) 

(Here's my GPS watch to prove it.)

Constance, Marit and me

Chase, Garrett and Corbin at 10,878 feet above the sea.

All things considered, I'd say we're surviving and thriving at almost 11,000 feet. This weekend we'll be racing way down low at 9,000 feet. The air down there is going to be so thick and packed chock full of oxygen!