Blowing & Drifting

Exactly one year ago – on December 23, 2010 – I skied for 45 minutes in the Carleton Arb. According to last winter’s training log, I’d skied a total of 12:27:48 by then, beginning on November 14. So far this winter, I’ve skied one hour, a couple weeks ago, just after we received our only [...]

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Skiers are supposed to fetishize their skis, but I love my ski boots as much or more than my skis. No matter which skis I’m on, I’m wearing these beauties. But today I put them away for the off-season. I hope I can get them back out around Thanksgiving…

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The nordic skiing world championship in Oslo are well under way now, with five great races down. Even better (after lackluster crowds at the 2009 and 2007 worlds), the Norwegians are turning out in force: 70,000 turned up on Sunday to watch one of the premiere events, which was won by Norwegian Petter Northug: The [...]

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On Wednesday, the 2011 Nordic Ski World Championships begin in Oslo, Norway – the city that almost literally invented nordic skiing, and the country that still dominates international elite cross-country skiing. I’ve been eagerly anticipating the Oslo Worlds since Oslo was named as host a few years ago, and now that they’re (almost) here, I’m [...]

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The City of Lakes Loppet was, as usual, fun and tough. I put together a pretty good ski, suffering the whole way but working hard and ultimately enjoying it. This year’s result can be interpreted in two ways. By time, I did a tiny bit worse this year, finishing in 1:46:16, five seconds slower than [...]

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Twelve hours from now, I’ll be about a half-hour into the 25km “Hoigaard’s Classic” event of the City of Lakes Loppet ski festival. I’m pretty excited about the race, which is my only real ski race of the year. (One of these years, I’ll do two or even more – but not this year.) I skied the classic [...]

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Today the Northfield High School nordic ski team held its annual fundraiser race in the Carleton Arboretum. I think I’ve raced this event four years in a row now, and I’ve always had fun – a 5 or 6 kilometer run through the Upper Arb, hitting pretty much every hill and skiing past groups of [...]

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Beginning tomorrow, the snowy, far-off land of Estonia (squished between Russia and the Baltic Sea) will host the Nordic Junior & U 23 World Ski Championships – basically, the Olympics for top-level skiers under age 23. The United States is sending a very good group of 22 skiers which includes Jessie Diggins, a 19-year-old from Stillwater, Minnesota, [...]

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According to Carleton’s weather station, the temperature at two this afternoon was about +5°F, with windchills in dipping down past -10°F. This is undeniably cold, but with the City of Lakes Loppet coming up in a week and a half, I needed to do one last long ski this afternoon – at least a couple [...]

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I went for a long ski tonight. Thanks to the exertion and an oddly wet snowfall, things got blurry just a few minutes into the session  and continued to get blurrier until I finished. At one point, I noticed what seemed to be a glove or mitten half-buried in the snow alongside the trail. On [...]

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Over the Christmas break, I took advantage of a week away from work and plentiful, excellent snow to hold my own little ski-training camp. Not only was the “camp” a great way to burn off the Christmas calories, but it turned to be a decent way to get into something like ski shape as I [...]

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A family friend dropped by right before dinner to give the girls chocolate-dipped Oreos. Both girls can brush their hair extremely well and very quickly. An hour’s ski lesson helped me improve my skiing and immediately eliminated my back pain. The girls think that our last name is normal, but that “Callaghan” is beyond-the-pale weird. [...]

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Some people believe heaven is in the sky. Myself, I know that it can come down to earth, as today’s National Weather Service forecast suggests: Tonight: Snow, mainly after 9pm. Low around 21. East wind between 8 and 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible. [...]

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Go cross-country skiing and wear your breath.

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Friday’s snowfall – mini-blizzard, at best – laid down an excellent layer of snow, and by gum Northfield’s intrepid skiers had created some excellent trails by the afternoon. I enjoyed a good hour-long ski (actually, 40 minutes of skiing and 20 minutes of happy conversation with other skiers and a bowhunter [!]) in the near-perfect [...]

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