With the race season just around the corner, athletes are finally switching from wheeling to gliding: pavement to snow. Roller skiing may look like a lot of fun to the curious onlooker, and at times, it can be. But when I’ve roller skied countless hours over the same cracked, weather-beaten pavement, I can’t help but try and loose myself in anything other than roller skiing. I imagine myself back in the Yukon, silently striding along the 80km of groomed trails, through the thick spruce forest. Then suddenly I hear a loud rumbling noise as a dump truck puffs a cloud of diesel in my face and I’m hit with the strong draft which scoops last nights rain off the pavement and blasts it in my face along with the trail of sand the truck spews out as it plows down the road. I’m back. There’s no escaping from Quebec’s November fury: rain, sleet. She’ll even kick up a hurricane-like wind that’ll knock your socks off.
Lucky for me, I have a one-way ticket to Yukon on November 9th… turns out there is a way to escape Quebec’s November fury. The Yukon is my home, and home is a very special place for an athlete because they’re so seldom there. For me, it’s a place where I can forget about my training load and drain the “stress valve”. I visit the old ski club and I ski for fun, not to become a faster skier, but to become a better athlete. Because a good athlete has fun doing what he does best.
On November 26th, I’m off to Canmore to start off the race season. It’s almost a relief to finally begin racing after all the hard work in the summer. Usually the team (CNEPH) travels straight to Sovereign Lakes to get a little extra on-snow training in before the first North American Cup. The change was made to Canmore for a few reasons. One: because Canmore is at a lower altitude, which makes for easier training, and two: to race some Alberta Cups. The Alberta Cup races are not FIS races, meaning skiers don’t receive any beneficial “points” for international events. I guess you could call them practice races. For my teammates staying in Quebec, this will likely be the first time on snow since our glacier camp in Austria.
From Canmore, we’ll travel straight to Sovereign Lakes to race the first of the North American Cup series. In my opinion, Sovereign Lakes is one of the only places in Canada that can compete with the trails at the Whitehorse Cross-Country Ski Club. Because of its elevation there is guaranteed early snow, and lots of it. This is why it’s chosen as the site for one of the first races of the year. Although only a twenty-minute drive from Vernon, Sovereign Lakes is a completely different world than its neighbouring city. The Drive takes you from a warm, shrub-desert environment, into a winter wonderland. This year, we’ll stay at Silver Star instead of down in Vernon. Sovereign Lakes is one of my favorite places to ski. There are two races, a sprint and a distance race. The courses here are hard; lots of hills. Not to mention we’re racing at 1600m above sea level. Skiing here is almost like being on a rollercoaster.
After These two races, the team rushes to Rossland to compete at the second of the North American Cup Series. For these races I really don’t know what to expect because I’ve never been to Rossland. The team went last year but I had decided to return home for some extra rest. Not this year! I’m excited to see how it’ll go.
Then its time to come home for Christmas! It won’t be quite as long as most people’s holiday but still a good break. It’s one of those rare times that my whole family will be together again. Something I used to take for granted. For those who don’t know I have three sisters: Annie, the youngest, and two older sisters, Solvey and Aurora. I might be a bit late to help with the tree this year. I hope it’s a bit warmer for Christmas this year. I don’t mind the cold but intervals at -40 don’t work very well.
New years! I mean: “oh new years”… For the past I don’t know how many years, new years has been spent on an airplane or in a van. World Junior/U23 Trials are always one of the biggest events of the year. Especially this year because its my last year as a junior and my last and best chance of qualifying for the World Junior Championships in Turkey. I’m pretty confident that if all goes well I will be going there. Then again, I was also confident last year. I’ll try not to dwell on this too long. I’ll just pretend it’s a time trial. Too much pressure can get to a man.
Because the rest of my season (where I’m going and what I’ll do) all depends on these races, I can’t really plan ahead any further. I believe its better to live in the present than future anyway so I’ll just stop at that.
More updates to come as the race season unfolds!
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