Grimsbu Turistsenter

Starting up Route 27 and into the clouds...
A view of the Rodanes.
Lunar.
Home.
Spark a la Lacy.
Patterson hot dogging.
Guiney.
The surroundings.

We made it to the venue. After a fun drive through a lunar like landscape we emerged a top the Rondane Mountains to be greeted by snow covered hills and a bright blue sky.

We had to stop and take some quick pictures which I will get up here after our ski today. The weather is cold and clear here...dare I say, sort of like Anchorage? We were greeted by a very nice woman who runs the tourist center here, she and her mother will be cooking and serving the food for all the teams competing here this week! We also met the organizer, Arne Olav, who took me on a ride to the venue in his "Cadi!" (Volkswagon Cadi that is..).

The venue is at the foot of the jumping hill, complete with a traditional, sod-roofed warming house, built in the 1800's. We are starting to put cold layers of wax on the skis this morning and about to head out for our first ski.

We are the first team to arrive. Estonia and Finland will be here today. Norway has a lot of there juniors slated to race, and Arne tells me many of them are here to prove that they deserve to be named to the National Team. Should be fun.

Rest Day Fun

Norwegian Styling.
Lillehammer.
Some jump training.
The crew.

Pictures of a Successful Day!!

The "warm up" race we chose to attend was a wild card until the snow began to fall four days ago. This morning we drove south more than a hundred kilometers to the Svea District Championships (with freshly changed snow tires!) in a blanket of new fallen snow. The idea of the race was to give the kids a chance to race before we get to Folldal this weekend and get rid of the feeling that, "we're going to get passed by a million Norwegians."
I chose the picture above to lead the post because Scott's cool mannerism showed the whole teams approach to the day. Scott was our first male out of the gate and my zero for race splits. I can't tell you how cool it felt to tell Scott, "geez buddy, you're having a great one AND you're seven seconds UP on the winner of yesterdays race!" The rest of the guys chased Scott's times and all finished within a minute of eachother, placing very respectively in the field.
The women skied great too, and got to blow out some carbon and jitters in this new arena. The results have the potential to shift just a little bit, stay posted. Regardless, the coaches were all impressed how each of the girls skied and the fact, which I have noticed before in Italy, that at this age, our kids are not behind. Technically our kids are skiing as well or better than their peers and we even seem to have an above par level of quickness. Before blowing to much sunshine, it is also important to note that this team is representative of our 'best' kids and this is a local Norwegian race.
I am proud, as are Dan and Brenna, to be a part of this trip and these points warrant the importance and value of competing against our foreign competition at this age. A great start indeed--it's going to fun to watch and be a part of this next crop of American skiers taking on the international stage.
A special awards for Team America! Note the kid in the window.
Confidence.
Starts were done by chip. The course had sweet skiing, transitions and soft, but skiable snow.
Ms. Pastore and a Durango smile.
Lacy coming through to lap. Three laps for boys, two for girls.
Kristin Halvorsen working on knee angles and charging.
Mr. Kornfield.
Watching the other boys climb while awaiting start.
Durtschi showing good form.
In the start.
Brenna took these pictures. Here she is with a former Bend Nordic Team member, Allie Phillips, who is on a yearlong exchange in Oslo. She hopped a train and walked to the venue from the station. Kristin's uncle also visited us today, via a 55km ski from Oslo. He was only there for a brief while because he had to ski back!! Impressive.
Good work is getting done here. Stay tuned as we continue...

Link to Folldal Lodgin and Invitation to Champs

Folldal Lodging.

The Norwegian Ski Federation invites to the

NORDIC JUNIOR SKI COMPETITION 2009

Stormoegga skiarena, Folldal, Norway,
the 30th of January – 1st of February 2009


The Nordic nations Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Island, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden and Norway together with USA are invited to the Nordic Junior Ski Competition in Cross Country, Jumping and Nordic Combined 2009. Also other nations are welcome to participate in the different competitions.

Folldal is a municipality in the middle and eastern part of Norway. In about twenty years, the 1.700 inhabitants of Folldal have built an intimate and modern arena for winter sports with five jumping hills, arena for cross country skiing and biathlon.

Folldal Idrettsforening is the organizer of the Nordic Junior Ski Competition 2009 in cooperation with the Norwegian Ski Association. All the competitions will be organised at Stormoegga Skiarena and all the athletes and team-members will have accomodation at Grimsbu Turistsenter.

Together with the Nordic Junior Ski Competition there will be athletes competing in the national / regional RC Jump (recruit-cup) / RC Nordic Combined and Sjusjø-cup (Cross Country)

Programme

Friday January 30th

Team Captains meeting
Place: Grimsbu Turistsenter

Ski Jumping and Combined: at 09:00
Cross Country: at 10:30

Further captains meetings will be organized if necessary.

Training Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined:
Free training from 10:00 – 13:00, K74

Nordic Combined:
Sprint Competitions
14:30 Jump (only one jump)
18:00 Sprint, 5 km

Cross Country:
Sprint Competitions (classic technique)
15:00 Qualifying round ladies, 15 sec start intervals
15:20 Qualifying round men, 15 sec start intervals
16:00 Sprint Finals ladies. (30 athletes to quarter-final).
16:30 Sprint Finals ladies. (30 athletes to quarter-final).


Saturday January 31st

Nordic Combined – Individual Competition
10:00 Trial Round K74 (including Jump and RC Jump / RC N.Combined)
10:45 Competition K74 (including Jump and RC Jump / RC N.Combined)
15:30 10 km F (including RC N.Combined)

Cross Country – Individual race
13:00 Women 5 km F (including Sjusjø-cup)
14:00 Men 10 km F (including Sjusjø-cup)

Ski Jumping
10.00 Trial Round K74 (including N.Combined and RC Jump / RC N.Comb.)
10.45 Competition K74 (including N.Combined and RC Jump / RC N.Comb.)

Price ceremony with dinner
Place: Grimshallen (about 300 meters away from Grimsbu Turistsenter)

18.00 Price ceremonies for the competitions of Friday and Saturday
19.30 Dinners

All competitors and leaders are invited to dinner. The cost for the dinner is included in the accommodation offer. Additional tickets will be ordered with the entry for 20 Euro/person.


Sunday February 1st

Nordic Combined
09:00 Team Jump
11:15 2 x 5 x 1 km

Ski Jumping
10.15 Team competition.

Cross Country
09.30 Relay Women 3 x 3 km C-F-F (max 2 teams per nation)
10.15 Relay Men 3 x 5 km C-F-F (max 2 teams per nation)

Price ceremony
12:30 At Stormoegga Skiarena

Link to Start List and Course Map for Sondag

In front of the Hakkon Hall, site of Olympic Hockey.
Sorry it was dark!
A fun team building game with a hook tied to strings that everyone controlled.
The hook and the wooden blocks with a ring to snag and carry.
Out on the tracks. Libby and Alicia Rose. Pictures by Brenna!

Make sure to check out the Svea Skilag site: KlubbenOnline

Find a course profile, start list and a special note to the American Skiers!

We had a nice new snow today and we classic skied in -5 C, with 95% humidity. Multigrade Violet was nice.

Skiers did variations of short intervals and skied for up to an 1:40. There were many skiers on the trails again today and we are starting to get a feel for some of the Olympic courses.

Skiers are waxing with a mid-flour to test which skis they will use Sunday.

A little race on the Trails we skied today.

Skiing Lillehammer Style

Scott Lacy on his 18th birthday in front of our home for the next six days. We are enjoying excellent meals only a few km from the Olympic Trails from 1994. On the track this morning we saw many biathlon and nordic athletes training. Great snow up there. Temperatures varied from -2 down low to -10 up higher near Sjusjoen.
Roomies, Jake Barton and Max Durtschi, lounging at the Oslo Airport.
And the Alaskan's, "Let's find the biggest hill and ski up it. That's what it's all about."
Andrew Dougherty atop one of the steep bridges.

We Made It! Residing at Birkebeineren Hotel

Fresh off the plane and already racing...

After mostly uneventful travel the 2009 J1 Scandinavian Championship Team is safely lodged at the Birkebeineren Hotel. All twelve Athletes and three coaches are here and ready for two weeks of training and racing.
Upon arrival in Lillehammer we unpacked the vans and got in a quick snowy jog around the Olympic Park. It has snowed here the past few days and there is over a foot of new wet snow. Thank goodness we have some Rossi and Fischer Zeros among us!
On the run we were all surprised to find a full on soccer practice taking place on a heated turf surface. The football players seemed rather ironic to a gun ho group of skiers visiting the mother land of nordic skiing for the first time!
We were able to run up some groomed trails to get an awesome view of town and the dramatically lit Ski Jump.
Our first dinner included a good laugh at Coach Beckwith, who mistook a fishy pasta sauce for soup!