Top Secret Training Plan and Birch Sap

Well I didn’t make the national team, so life goes on as usual in the land of the midnight sun. And actually it’s going along really well. I kept the training pretty steady through April, following a top-secret training plan put together by Graham Nishikawa (thanks Nish). Also new to the Yukon Elite Squad coaching staff is Coach Pav, returning from Ontario. Usually there’s a maximum of two at our intensity workouts, now I’ll at least have someone cheering me on.

It seems like the race season is my time to relax, now that its over I’m busier than ever. Here’s a little taste of what I’ve been up to…

 As part of our sponsorship with Air North, Colin and I flew up to Old Crow in April to ski with the local kids.

Old Crow has a rich history in Cross Country skiing that goes back to the T.E.S.T. days where Father Mouchet coahed the Gwitchin First Nation’s people into national champions. However skiing has died out in the community in the last couple decades. It was great to see the kids getting outside and enjoying the snow that lasts until may!

Trapping is a big part of Old Crow and is still many peoples livelihood. We set a few snares along the ski trails and cooked up a rabbit stew for dinner!

Collecting birch sap: I have a bad habit of under taking projects I really don’t have time for and this was one of them. As you probably know I’m really into the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. My favorite foods are meat, berries, and sugar. Meat and berries are generally easy to come by in the Yukon but sugars like honey or syrup are not. With the exception of a short stint in Quebec, I’ve never made syrup. Unfortunately there’s no maples in the Yukon, but you can find the odd birch. They’re the only hardwood found in the Yukon and apparently you can make syrup from it.

I cut a bunch of pipe, drilled some holes in trees, stuck the pipe in there, hung a 4L milk jug, and before you know it I had an operation taking in over a hundred litres of birch sap a day.

Colin helped me collect the sap, and my dog helped drink it

Its a 100:1 ratio of sap to syrup, lots of boiling

finished product after a week of collecting 800L of sap. 8 litres of syrup and a really high electricity bill

As you could imagine it was hard to boil off a hundred litres of water a day. I started on my kitchen stove and had to expand to my nieghbour’s stove, Colin’s bbq and an outside fire pit. Even then it was hard to keep up and you have to keep up because the sap will spoil in a couple days if not used. This got me started on my next project.

I’d left a barrel a little too long. “Smells a little fermented I thought” then I thought a little more. Then I had 3 barrels of birch beer fermenting in my laundry room.

Colin pouring the yeast over a piece of rye bread floating in honey birch sap

Some of the finished product

My first bottle bomb. 160fl oz of beer down the drain. By down the drain I mean all over my bedroom floor. Maybe I'll measure my priming sugar next time.

The beer should be ready for drinking in a few weeks. I'll probably share some.

My friend Malkolm landed me this sweet opportunity to get flown up to the Kluane Icefields at the base of Mt Logan. The deal was I get a free flight and all I had to do was help with digging out the cache. Wouldn’t you know it, Mt Logan gets 3 meters of snow a year. And wouldn’t you also know it, digging out the “cache” involved hauling out full size propane ovens frozen in ice, 3 meters deep.

Our hole/cave. still a few things buried in there

jumping over our hole with ice axes

Hard work aside, we enjoyed the worlds largest non-polar ice field to ourselves. 

Not bad

I’ve also been able to fit in a little fishing. We skied into a remote lake and were slaying some little lake trout through the ice

white tube jig with some belly meat on it

smallest lake trout ever caught?

going for a hike with a stringer of trout 

sailing canoes on Tutshi Lake with our tent fly

May long weekend

Colin owning everyone at disc golf

Work is pretty steady on the side of things. This guy’s getting a new kitchen in his rental unit.

Nice work there Jonathan Kerr.

And thats about it. I'll save the rest for the next blog post. 

Racing is like Bison Hunting

This race season was a good one! I’m very proud of Colin and Myself for pulling off another year as Yukon Elite Squad.

Yukon Elite Squad sporting Air North hats 

I was able to stay atop the mound of hard work I piled up this past summer and slid off only a few times with a cold, or bad skis. I won’t babble about every race I did this year, rather look at what went well.

I was 21^st at the U23 World Championships. I hadn’t set a goal for myself. A race is a race and I try as hard as I can no matter if it’s a NorAm or a race at U23s. I’m often unsatisfied with a result, but at least I’m always satisfied that I did the best I could. I’m Excited to see where doing my best will put me next year at U23s.

U23s, Val Di Fiemme

It’s hard to make a breakthrough internationally. There are three races at U23s. Can’t sprint? Course doesn’t favor you? Slow skis? Sickness? It’s easy for your three chances to disappear, that’s why I’ll always snap at an opportunity to race overseas. I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to do some more races in Europe on the Scando Tour. I raced well in Latvian Nationals right before the Scandinavian cup races. Unfortunately I succumbed to the sickness that had already plagued half our team and the rest of the trip was a bit of a write-off. I didn’t get to race the World Cup in Lahti.

3rd place in Latvia

I was bummed out but now I had Nationals to look forward to. Not racing Lahti gave me an extra week to regroup before jumping back into race mode. For Colin, myself, and the whole Yukon, It was a record book Nationals. I came home with two bronze and one silver medal. I’ll try and work on my sprint finish a bit more this year to turn a couple of those into gold. It was awesome to see the younger Yukon skiers win medals at their first ever nationals.

Yukon Elite Squad 3rd and 4th in the 10km Classic

Thanks to Alain for giving us the fastest skis all week!

I’m asking myself a lot of questions now that the season is over. What could I have done better? Am I going to make the National Team? If so, will I be allowed to stay in Yukon? If not, what will I do?

I went Bison hunting to clear my mind with my good friend Jonathan Kerr, my old (and sometimes present) ski coach. We put on a lot of miles in two days in search of the elusive bison but came home only with a sun burn and tired legs. Jonathan had to go to work the next day but I wasn’t going to let the bison win.

It was the last day of the bison-hunting season. I backed into a snow bank and drove the sled into my pickup, drove two hours up the Klondike Highway, and took off up a creek bed. I might as well have been on a crevasse filled glacier as the creek had frozen overflow everywhere and water running underneath ice caverns that would collapse as you drove over them. I wasn’t too keen on having to abandon my borrowed skidoo in knee-deep ice water so I took off on foot. After only a couple of hours, I’d spotted five bison on a far off hill about 5 km away. It was early in the day but I knew that I’d be pressed for time if I ended up getting one. I didn’t have any overnight gear. It took about another two hours to travel that 5 km through deep snow and bush. I studied the bison for a few minutes to decide how to go after them. They were way up on an open hill. There was no cover from below so I decided to sneak around the back of the hill and get above them. It turns out while I was sneaking around back, they were moving up the hill too. I poked my head over the hill and found myself 30m from a 1300lb animal. I slammed a bullet in the chamber and had my crosshairs on him. There were a few spindly little poplar trees between us, which made me hesitate whether or not it was an ethical shot. The bison however did not hesitate to run away. I chased the heard of bison for a half marathon through the forest before I finally had to accept the outcome. The walk back to my skidoo felt like a decade. I hung my head, frustrated, dehydrated, hungry, soaking wet, and very sore. It’s lucky for the bison, and probably my well being that the hunting season is now over. I was unsatisfied with the result, but satisfied that I did the best I could. 

Sorry for the lack of hunting pictures. Here is a hand loaded 225gr Nosler Accubond Bullet, very capable of shooting through some poplar twigs.

Filling in the Gaps

A lot happened this summer. Obviously there was a lot of ski training being done but I tried to jam as many other things in between as I could. Working carpentry to pay the bills, going to music festivals, building sheds, hiking mountains, canoeing rivers, cutting wood, picking berries, and hunting, lots and lots of hunting.

 building stuff

training on the Eagle Glacier

I caught up on training during the Anchorage camp (which was a sweet camp btw), now it was time to catch up on hunting season. We already missed the first two weeks! I helped Colin get this beauty 39” ram on the 3^rd day of our hunt after hellish hush-whacks/ridge-walks/multiple-steep-ass-mountain climbs. In the final stalk, Colin dressed up as a sheep (turning his white Yukon Elites Squad race suit inside-out) and crawled for 4 hours on his hands and knees up a mountain to get into position.

Colin's sheep

A couple weeks later I was back at it. My girlfriend and I went to an area we had scouted earlier in the summer. We were looking for sheep but a caribou popped out in front of us and spoiled our sheep hunt. Soon after, the sky started puking on us. We packed up and drove home. Successful… at least in regards to bringing back some meat.

before it started raining/snowing

Then I went out to get my own sheep. I left with 2 friends. After winching our quad and dirt bike out of a few waist deep mud holes we finally started hiking. I got my 38” ram on the 2^nd day of our hunt.

My Sheep

My last hunt was for moose and goat. After a really long drive to the opposite edge of the Yukon border, we lined our canoe upriver 20km. It was cloudy and snowy the whole time but I managed to spot some goats up on the mountain. We hiked up a big old gnarly mountain face, stalked up on the goats, only to find it was a nanny and a kid, no billies. We did bag a moose though.

Our tastey little moose

Now with part of 2 sheep, a caribou and half a moose, I’m pretty set for meat. I eat an astounding amount of wild game, which I believe to be extremely good for an athletes diet. I’ll be bringing much of it down to any races/competitions as long as I can confirm there’s a freezer where we’ll be staying.

I love October in the Yukon, but I’ll admit sometimes the training can be marginal: too much snow for roller skiing, not enough for the real thing. And so, my next big adventure began in Arizona to avoid the awkward transition period of the changing seasons, and to get some quality altitude training in.

roller skiing in Arizona

I got an early start on snow, skiing on Frozen Thunder in Canmore, Alberta. The 2km loop made out of last years stockpiled snow under mountains of sawdust did pretty well. The skiing was awesome but really I was just waiting until the snow finally came back home. When it finally did, I was home in a jiffy.

time trial at frozen thunder- photo cred. Julien Locke

The skiing in Whitehorse is top notch now and I’m itching to start the racing season off in Silverstar. 

Yukon Summer

The Yukon is known for its long winters, less is known of our hot, dry, and sunny summers. The Yukon Elite Squad is now only Colin and myself but we've been putting in long hours under the midnight sun. Early in the Summer we'll do tons of hiking, canoeing, road biking and running. Its seems like the only time I'm roller skiing is when I'm pushing out intervals or a double pole workout. Later in the Summer we'll get more specific (roller skiing, and skiing on glaciers).

Here I am on top of a mountain. Many more to conquer.

Colin has been away for the past 2 weeks in Canmore. I almost followed him down there to do a training camp, but am I ever glad i didn't. Not only would I have been stranded in Canmore's flood water state of emergency but I would of also missed some of the best Yukon June weather ever. So far I've been able to drag people along to the gym to replace Colin but I have been doing some long, lonely roller ski workouts.

I dont tend to take pictures on lonely roller ski workouts but heres a picture David Greer took of me on a lonely road bike ride in the Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay… close enough

Our team came first in the 4 person category and 3rd overall. It was an awesome weekend with temperatures pushing 30 degrees. I cooled off after the race by going for a really long swim in the ocean.

I've been working hard in the gym and on my woodskis but I also been working hard making money. trying to sell myself to sponsors wasn't working out for me so between training I'm working construction about 20 hours a week, building a big timber frame pavilion. Mostly its to pay for food that I can't kill or pick myself. As long as I'm in the Yukon, all my meals have wild meat or fish. recovery drink is a steak and smoked fish and jerky are my gels and bars.

Heres Fabian grilling a typical lunch on the job site, moose roast and fish with a grilled cheese.

 Carpentry tools are great in the kitchen

Other than that I've been getting ready for hunting season by shooting my compound bow quite a bit and can now shoot a 4 shot, 3 inch group at 50yrds. I went white water rafting for the first time with my girlfriend Erin who is a guide for Tatshenshini Expediting. I'm doing some yard work like tending to the garden and hopefully building a new shed soon. It seems like I'm super busy with everything from work to training but I'm feeling great in every workout and have shattered my last years time trial results. I'm trying to not get too exited like I did last year in the fall and still take it easy when I feel the need to. Better to under do it a little than to over do it a little.

Looking to August I'll be joining the APU ski team again this year on the Eagle Glacier. Big thanks to Eric Flora making it happen for the second year in a row!

Heres some random GoPro clips of some Yukon powder, canoeing, fishing, and sliding down mountains.

Nationals, Super Tour Finals, and another Nationals

Finally. Finally I’m racing where I should have been all year long. Though I had only two weeks left to take advantage of my shape I suppose it was better late than never. One race to the next from December onwards I was always on the edge, on the edge of being healthy and on the edge of recovering. I was consistently OK. But I’ve had enough mediocre races to learn that mediocre races don’t get you anywhere. All it took was a couple easy training weeks, 8 hours or less, lollygagging around some easy trails every other day, none of this peaking nonsense. I’m convinced now that there’s too much science involved in skiing and all you have to do is come into races healthy and rested. There are people out there training more hours than I am, they’re glued to their heart rate monitors, they fill their training log everyday; well-rounded athletes no doubt. But you better make sure you’re listening to your body and not your watch, and you’re filling that log for yourself, not your coach. Otherwise your making work for yourself and the moment skiing becomes more work and less fun you’re going in the wrong direction. Disciplined fun is what you want.  Anyways…

At Nationals I started things off right in the team sprint with Dave. We didn’t let being the Yukon’s “B” team get in the way of our performance and cruised through the semi final in first place. In the final Dave tagged me off in second place and I managed to hold that position thanks in part to a fall that took out rival Phil Widmer. Colin and Graham were third and the Yukon filled 2 spots on the podium!

The 10km skate was won by the amazing Brian McKeever who is legally blind but can somehow still weave his way around the course faster than anyone else. I had a good day finishing 22^nd but not as far off the pace as my position may suggest.

Classic 15km: best race of the year so far! Alain gave us killer skis and striding the hills was rhythmical like one of those conductors waving a stick in front of an orchestra in perfect harmony. That’s how I skied. I finished in 8^th place, 6^th Canadian.

My form continued in the sprint the next day where I ended up 6^th, 5^th Canadian. I felt strong as ever from my qualifier to the final but in the end my top speed is just a little less than those other guys.

The 50km skate did not feel like a ski race. I felt as though I was skiing on stilts. From 20km my legs were so crammed up I straight legged it up the stupidly hard course as fast as I could. I managed to get through it to keep my final aggregate position but it didn’t quite match up to the previous days.

I had planned on calling it a year after Canadian Nationals but I was pleased enough with my results I figured I could fight it out for another week down in California at the US Super Tour Finals. I’m glad I did.

In a frantic rush to change plane tickets, sort out who would wax my skis, where I would stay, and a million other things I ended up hopping in with Thomsen D’Hont and Kajsa Heyes. The Honda Fit was packed to capacity as we barreled down the highway towards our final destination: Truckee California. Stopping only briefly to spelunk some lava caves. We made it to Truckee with a day to spare before the first race.

The first race was a 3.3km skate: a prologue. The course was intimidating. The “wall” as they call it is the 3-minute long up-hill in the course, steep as a cow’s face. To make things worse we were racing at an altitude of over 2000m. My legs felt like garbage and breathing was like sucking air through a straw. Starting 40 minutes behind the fastest seeded guys, the course was slowing down. A mixture of snow and rain was falling from the sky but I somehow made way around the miserable course in the second fastest time of the day. This is the best result of my LIFE! All the fastest guys in the US were there and I just placed 2^nd. I am still dumbfounded at how the best result of my life was at a race that I felt like crap in.

The classic race the next day had the same hill in the course, only we did it 3 times! Grown men walking (with skis on) up hill was a sorry sight to see. It’s a weird feeling to be walking, yet breathing at your lung’s maximum output. Hardly a ski race if you ask me. I finished well behind the leaders in this race. After the prologue, was this a slap in the face to put me back where I belong?

The classic sprint was interesting. Snow and rain alternated throughout the morning. Wax techs worked hard as racers were switching between harries (wax-less skis), klister, and skate skis. Nobody could decide what was best. Double poling (skate skis) seemed to be good in the qualifier… but only if you are a strong double-poler. Anyone who used skate skis in the heats suffered big time. I stayed on klister the whole day and finished off in 8^th, a solid result.

Next was the hill climb. I would hardly qualify this as a ski race either. The course is UP a downhill ski mountain. The course favors lightweight guys but anyone who was actually able to ski up it and not walk on their skis would do well. As we neared the top of the mountain we were blown sideways by 80km per hour winds. Course marshals pointed you in the right direction, as it was a complete whiteout. I held it together best I could to finish 18^th.

I had a few days to kill between the hill climb and the 50km. That was good because I was once again scrambling to find out who would wax my skis, where I would stay and how I would get back home after the 50km. APU saved my ass by letting me crash at there big house and they also gave me waxing support for the 50km.

I was seeded near the back half of the mass start so it was hard to weave my way towards the front. Instead I decided to be patient and ski in my position until people started to drop off and I had an opportunity to make a move. Before the end of the first 10km lap there was already a breakaway. I was still stuck behind a wall of skiers but as others started to fade I kept a good pace. I was skiing my own race. I’d catch a group of skiers but then just pull away from them on the up-hills. I was catching people constantly but had no idea what position I was in. Apart from a few mild tricep cramps starting at 40km I knew I was in a good position to make up some time on the last lap. I got into a good rhythm, put my head down, and hammered the last 10km, catching people as they were bonking. I had Tad Elliott in my sights a few hundred meters to the finish and I really pushed to catch him right before the finish. I finished in 4^th place. It doesn’t beat my 2^nd place prologue in terms of position but it was a better race for sure and an awesome way to end the season.

I hitched a ride with Andy Shields and Jimmy Gunka to San Francisco. The next 24 hours where quite shitty and included flying a few hours out of the way to Phoenix and sleeping over night on a bench in the Vancouver airport. But I must say, its good to be home. 

Bison Hunting

As real life speeds up, I've fallen into a bit of a blog slump. Too much going on to want to sit in front of a computer, especially when I'm already writing a bi-weekly article for Whats Up Yukon newspaper. Nevertheless I feel guilty. I’ve also discovered that I get way more hits on my blog when I write about something other than skiing so here’s all about the Bison hunt I just came back from with Dave.

I rammed the 340 Arctic Cat onto the tilt deck trailer. It didn’t tilt and I slid back down. I took another run at it, same thing. I stacked firewood and a jerry can at the top of the trailer for extra weight and took one last run at it. Success. I swung by Dave’s house and we loaded up his 250 Bravo, much easier with two guys. The rig we’re driving costs us a dollar a mile in gas (literally) but luckily our starting point was not far out of town.

We arrived to find five or six other trucks and trailers at the trailhead. I thought, “this must be a good spot” but I also thought, “if there’s any bison out there, surely those guys have already beat us to them”.

We loaded up the sleighs and started putting along with our underpowered machines. We stopped along the way to make sure the rifle was still sighted in since I bumped, fell on, and dropped it while chasing rams behind Kusawa last fall. It was dead on. Dave popped a grilled cheese into his HotDogger before we continued down the trail. HotDogger? It’s a mini Dutch oven fixed to the exhaust. It’ll cook you a wiener in no time, or a grilled cheese for that matter.

It took about five K to get the cheese nice and gooey and we stopped for lunch. A couple bison-less hunters passed us going back to the vehicles. We were happy that they didn’t find our bison but worried there was no bison to find. We’ve never hunted bison and those guys looked like pros.

We were too cheap/didn’t have enough time to buy a topo map so I drew one on a sheet of lined paper from looking at google earth. According to the map, we were just entering bison territory. We finally spotted what we thought were bison tracks. We strapped on our snowshoes and followed them until we realized they were moose tracks. I saw some more tracks up on a side hill across the lake. We trekked over to where the tracks were but they were old and we couldn’t even tell if they were bison tracks. “Ahh they’re just old tracks”, Dave said. I like to think it was our stone-age ancestors who were looking down on us that guided us overtop of the next hill to another lake. “HHOO FUCK!” we whispered loudly, simultaneously. “We found em Dave!” I said in the voice of a giddy little schoolgirl.

We quickly thought out a route best suited to get within shooting range. Trying to tip toe through a foot of crusty snow we were being anything but sneaky. It soon became apparent that the bison knew we were there. Now it was a game to see how comfortable they would be with us. We inched forward to try and get a clear line of sight. There were three monster bison on top of the hill, two calves just below them, and another medium sized one lower down. The big ones were too big, the little ones too little, and the medium one just right. We each had a rifle at the ready. If I missed him, Dave was going to blast a second shot.

“Ready Dave?” “Yup… Oh wait, there’s a twig in my crosshairs.” Of course it was then that the bison started to gallop over the hill, out of sight. “Come on, turn you big bastard”, I said under my breath. Sure enough as he crested the hill his curiosity got the best of him. He just had to see what that was on the opposite side of the hill. Boom! His hind legs crumpled and he stood still for a second before bolting into the bush. I worked the action frantically and squeezed off another shot as he was disappearing. “Did I get em”, I asked. “Looked like it”, said Dave.

We looked for blood. Nothing. And then, a drop, and another, and another; pretty soon we were following a steady blood trail along the ridge. A hundred meters further and Dave spotted him. “There he is… he’s dead!” We hi-fived.

As the excitement wore off we realized we had three hours of daylight left and a kilometer of dense bush between our skidoos and the bison. We hadn’t eaten dinner or set up camp. We rushed back to the skidoos. Aside from a kilometer of bush there was also a big daddy hill we had to climb right off the start. 45-degree slopes everywhere we looked.  A ways to the left we found one hill that was slightly less steep. Our little kitty cat snowmobiles screamed as we tore through the powder. First run we made it half way, then three quarters, and third time’s the charm as we made it to the top. With the sun setting it was apparent we would not get the snowmobiles to the bison that night. I’ve never had to skin a cold animal before but I know enough to know it would suck.

We left the skidoos on top of the hill and headed back to the bison with a daypack full of skinning knives, game bags, and trail mix. It didn’t take long before we realized our bison was in fact a female (Don’t worry, everything all good and legal). We skinned and skinned. We skinned into the night. With darkness upon us, and fiddling knives with numb fingers it wasn’t long before Dave cut himself. Hands already covered in bison blood it was hard to tell which was who’s. We got out the headlamps and kept at it knowing that it would be damn near impossible to field dress a frozen bison. Hindquarter after front quarter, rib cage after rib cage, we pieced apart the bison. Exhausted and hungry I would stick my bloody hand into the trail mix now and then and swallow a hand full of nuts and raisons.

It took what seemed like all night but was probably about 4 to 5 hours. We were cold, soaking wet, covered in bison blood, and hungry. Dave set up the tent and I lit a big bonfire to warm up. I changed clothes and propped up my soaking wet, now frozen, bloody clothes on sticks next to the fire in a hopeless attempt to dry them. We boiled water to heat up our army rations: premade meals packed in MSG and sealed in a foil package. At around midnight we crawled into our sleeping bags.

Morning. I looked over at Dave who had apparently put on every piece of clothing he could find during the night and was still shivering. We made a pot of oats over the fire and didn’t waste time getting to work. First thing to do was find the best route to get the skidoos to the bison. Either that or pack 600 lbs of meat from the bison to the skidoos. I noticed an old trap set yesterday which led me to think there might be an old trap line trail somewhere close by. I returned to the trap set and it didn’t take long before I started to spot some old blazes on the spruce trees. They didn’t lead exactly in the right direction but I was able to get a good deal closer. A half hour’s work with the axe and I was through.

We loaded up the toboggans and broke trail through the bush to the old trapping trail which led us to the bison. I took a hindquarter, both front quarters, the ribs and a bag with the loins, backstrap, neck meat and heart. Dave took the hide, head and the remaining hindquarter. Our little machines worked hard to crawl at walking speed. I was glad we shot one of the smaller bison.

It was a bumpy 60km trail back to the truck. We stopped a few times on the way back to throw a sandwich in the HotDogger and to let the machines cool down. They were working pretty hard.

We were back in good time. To be honest I could hardly believe how well it worked out. I was kind of expecting to take the wrong trail, have our snow machines to break down or to run out of gas. We were back a day early with a bison. Makes up for the numerous unsuccessful hunting trips this fall. I’ll be eating steaks for breakfast, burgers for lunch, and roasts for dinner from now on.

Out East

Right from the get-go I've been feeling pretty tip top this year. Summer training, fall time trials, there was never time I've felt so good to be a skier. I think I did get a bit excited right at the start of the season however. My races in December weren't quite matching up to my november time trials. First distance race of the year: 15km Classic, I killed myself. I really pushed myself too hard and I blew up. A month later I think I'm finally recovered. 

Over Christmas break I played it safe. I didn't go out to all of those Christmas parties, I didn't play a lot of hockey or interval workouts in -30. Even so, I did manage to get sick. Only for a week though and I was healthy just in time for trials in T Bay.

Being sick just prior, I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare but I was pretty confident none the less. I didn't have to have stellar races to qualify… and I didn't. I had three decent races, unfortunately for me a lot of other guys seemed to pull the race of their life that weekend. So here's how it went…

The first race was a 30km Pursuit. In a pursuit race you change equipment (poles and skis) half way through the race; starting in classic and finishing in skate. These are always fun because we usually only get to do one or two of these a year if we're lucky. It was a mass start and the pace was slow of the start. It was more of a ski 15km and then do a 15km skate race. A big group of skiers came into the exchange at the same time. All of a sudden the race started in the skate portion and I got dropped pretty hard. Not a bad race but far from what it could have been.

Sprint day was similar. I qualified seventh (first U23). I made it through the quarterfinal and had the option of using David's skis for the semi. They were lightening fast but when I came to the big hill half way through the race course I was slipping all over the place. I finished the day in second U23. If I'd won i'd be going to Czech. So close…

                                      My quarterfinal        photo by John Sims

I still had a chance. All I had to do was have a good race in the 15km skate. I had an good race, but it turns out some other guys had great races and I ended up just short. They took five junior skiers to Czech and four U23. If they took 5 of both I'd probably be going. Everyone going is a year or two older than me though so I have a couple more years. My teammate Colin Abbott pulled off some really good races last weekend and made the team so I'm happy for him. 

I'd sort of expected, even planned on being in Czech Republic this coming week but instead I'll be racing some Super Tours in Minnesota. I'm actually really excited because I haven't done many of these and you can often get better points here than racing overseas. 

The weather is dismal and skiing is hard to come by but I have no doubt the races will go on. After a good rest during Christmas I think it just took a weekend of racing to get me back in shape and I'm expecting to see some Yukon Elite squad on the podium in the Tour de Twin cities in Minneapolis.