Midwest On Snow!

Oddly enough Nordic skiers love snow. That’s why my club F.A.S.T. Performance Training endured a 1400-mile odyssey through the forests of northern Minnesota, the doldrums of North Dakota, and finally (and more tolerably) the Canadian Rockies. Now we’re here in the City of Canmore Alberta, a mountain resort town 1 hour west of Calgary near the mountainous border with British Colombia.

Canmore is one of the few places in North America that is currently offering snow to ski on, and it’s arguably the best, the others being limited by weather and grooming capabilities. In the park called Frozen Thunder, which hosted the cross country and biathlon events of the 1988 Calgary Olympics, there is a 1.8k loop of beautiful—albeit soggy and granular—manmade snow. That’s why for the next two weeks a consortium of the North American ski community will be descending on Canmore.

Perhaps most excitingly the Canadian national team has arrived and the US Ski team is only a few days behind. The idea of skiing behind groups of the best American and Canadian Skiers is thrilling, especially to juniors, because that is how skiers can improve technique and learn from one another about all aspects of what we do. And learning from so many older more experienced athletes all at such a high level is an opportunity seldom seen.

But it’s not just snow and clientele that makes Canmore a training Mecca. Mountains surround the town, reaching so high from so close, that they seem to envelop us. The dramatic mountains provide countless, ascents, hikes, bike routes, and running trails making Canmore a silent sports paradise. FAST has been having a blast since we arrived late Friday night. We awoke on our first morning to a big sunrise hitting the faces of the Canmore’s most engaging peaks the 3 Sisters. A run turned into an adventure as we ran from our lodging in town up to Frozen Thunder and back down before precariously if not good naturedly fording a rapid and waist deep glacial river that runs through town and heading back to the hotel.

Of course that couldn’t be enough for one day, so FAST went up to ski on the snow for the first time this year. After roller skiing for months little bits of your technique start to change and you learn the feel of the road. Making the switch to snow is awkward and slippery but after 5 minutes the apprehensions everyone feels due to the new sensations fade away and the metamorphosis back to a snow skier is complete.

There are only two weeks of bliss left for us in Canada, and though it seems wrong to complain about how much time we have left in Canmore when any time here is a gift, it’s just because oddly enough, we love snow.