From Oslo to my last National Canadian Championships

From Oslo to my last Nationals Canadian Championships


First few days training in Oslo

After coming home from a very exciting and overwhelming World Champs in Oslo,Norway.
I had some time to think about my ski career and what to do with the season coming to a end. I came home exhausted from such a crazy cross country experience that i will never forget. To make the Oslo world champs was a big goal this year and to ski well in the those championships and on the world cups of course. We all know that Oslo was going to host a shocking amount of people camping,cheering, waiting 5-6 hours on the course to have a great view of there favourite nation and ski heroes.



Every day i was amazed how many people would come out and watch. I remember the first event the skate sprint. I was in the starting pen getting ready for my start listening to my music to pump me up. Normally i have no problem hearing the music. When petter Northug started which was about 5 min before i did all i could hear is the roar of the crowed. If i was not nervous by then after that i sure was.


5hrs before the start of a race.

Being able to race in 3 races at the world champs was awesome and to be cheered on by the crowds roughly 150 thousand Strong was impressive to say the least. Obviously a big moment came the morning of the team sprint. We all new it could be special day. We all made sure to train before and then be down in the stadium and cheered on our teams. I lost my voice before alex crossed the line in the first and what a feeling for our Canadian ski team to be top of the world in skiing in Norway!


The Boys WORLD CHAMPS!

We are now down to one race left here in Canmore in my home town. I was excited to come home to race what would be my last nationals and to be able to race at home. I love these tracks here and have always raced well on them. I came home tired and got a little sick before the races started. That was not going to stop me from entering in all the races. I have a had some good to ok results so far. I was hoping for a better result in the sprint, because well sprint classic is my favourite. To get beat by our new sprint star lenny V. i am going to except that and i know we will be seeing him on the international podium soon.



All we have left is the 50km skate. This race is not my specialty but i will give it my best as it will be my last race here in Canada as a national team athlete. I will be heading down to sun valley to take part in the super tour finals with some of my team mates. These are always exciting races and i look forward to some good battles on Saturday and down in Sun Valley.

Preparing for Oslo World Champs

Preparing for Oslo World Champs


Putting in some hours after the race. Great trails in Orford

After having a great Christmas i traveled to Thunder Bay Ontario for some Noram races and to find out who would get the last spot for the World Champs team. I was feeling good heading into thunder bay and skied a great Classic part of the first race which was a Pursuit 30km. The winner of that race punched his ticket to world champs. It was tough battle and it came down to a lunge which George grey won Congrats buddy.


the view up a sunshine, ykes

Then was a classic sprint which i was looking forward to. It was tough to get going due to the cold weather, by the time the final rolled around i was more excited to race but was in tough to make it to the top of the podium Brent M. ski very well and took the win. After arriving back home we had the team announced and we where starting to plan out training camps. We started with a sunshine camp which was fun but was not going to work out for some reasons that where out of our control.


The boys have a good time up at sunshine

For me the next plan was to get as many races in as i could before we leave and get some good training in as well. So the last two weeks have been volume weeks and this week had a little less volume and mini tour in Quebec. Next week is finally a rest week which my body needs i will take part in the mini tour in BC.


Interesting accom's at Mnt.Orford.

I will be just doing the the two short races to make sure i am rested heading over to Norway on the 9th of Feb. I am super excited to for this opportunity to race a world champs in Norway the experience will be pretty crazy. We get a great warm up world cup race in Drammen which is not that far away from Oslo and it will have all the top contenders and more.


Coach/Wax tech Chris feeling the toll from the mini tour as well. classic mid day nap

Dussledorf to Davos to Mini tour Rossland

Dussledorf to Davos to Mini tour Rossland

There was allot of exciting moments the last few weeks and some ups and downs skiing related and others not skiing related. We traveled to Dusseldorf anticipating a fairly short travel form Finland.

(Plenty of snow in Davos)

Arriving a day later and with no bags was not ideal. The weather was a bit of a shock as well. -10 and every other time i have raced here it has been no cold then +5. The racing went well i was 0.4 sec form qualifying so close. The team sprint was exciting as normal and it looked as Lenny and i would make it threw till a collision on my last lap cost us the positioning we needed. We slowly start to pick up or bags one at a time traveling from Dusseldorf to Davos.


I was so happy to get to davos amazing skiing/food/accom and sunshine to boot. I was all set for a good classic race and a new sprint course that suited me well. The body thought other Wise still not sure what happened. I ended the week a very upset skier. After skiing well for three weeks it was a hard one to swallow. So i had to re-group quickly and focus a a huge task at hand.


Since or two sprint boys made a quali standard in davos it was down to one last spot the win in rossland BC sprint on Friday. So a solid travel home and a quick turn over in canmore before i knew it we where skiing amongst good friends that i have not seen in a while on the Canadian circuit. I was staying with George and his family which was perfect to catch up on some sleep and relax just get back to normal life. The racing for me was perfect i had amazing skis and a the body was able to push. I won the skate sprint which gets me to Oslo World champs.


Big goal achieved wow that was intense day. Then next part of the mini tour was for me racing to get my self in better shape for Oslo. I skied really well in the skate race, and i had an awesome day in the classic part to catch the leaders and have a classic battle with my friend George Grey right to the line.


With me out sprinting him that was fun and exciting. I am home now and excited to enjoy the holidays. Merry xmas to all have fun and enjoy some egg nog!!

Rovaniemi/Kuusamo

Rovaniemi to Kuusamo

The travel to europe was pretty exciting this year as the team was a full quota team. We Started off in Ostersund for a few days of easy training. Then we moved to our favourite early season spot Bruks. The snow was average this year but it still means brighter days and we could ski 3 hours no problem.

( George and Ivan and I training at Sunshine , fun little photo )

I took part in both races on out first weekend there. Saturday was a skate sprint and sunday was a 15km skate ( which i was going to use as a training work out)The Skate sprint i felt a bit slugish but started to feel better after the first quarter but i didnt get to go through as it got pretty tight and i got tangled up with another swede.


Then team then split into distance and Sprinters. The Distance dudes went up to the start of the World cup in gallivare and we sprinters went to rovaniemi for a Classic sprint and 10km classic. Perfect i thought. Rovaniemi was a lot of fun, we celebrated two birthdays and had a awesome house to chill at and the skiing was not bad. We enjoyed a few self cooked meals, as the finish buffet is not allways up to par.

( lenny and Crawfords Bday )

The team got back together in Kuusamo for out first mini tour starting with one of my favoutire races the classic sprint. Followed by a 10km classic and a 15km skate ( which i did not do) The sprint went fairly well 4 seconds back of the winner in the prologue. I Had a good heat going, but i strugled with the fresh snow up the last hill. Coming in last30th was ok, I came out of that day with good confidence that the shape is right where it needs to be. The 10km classic went allright. We are now heading to Dusseldorf for a mutch awaited skate sprint and team sprint.

(The Brightest part of the day)

PC Life

PC life


We have been in Park City now for just around three weeks. For most of us this has been a first visit to PC for a training camp. I must say this is an awesome place to live or visit.


Training here has been amazing and over the last 3 weeks we have almost never done the same trail run or roller ski twice. We have hit Soldier Hollow a few times to get in some hard intensity sessions. Doing intensity at Soldier hollow is extremely hard because we have a great group here to push each other and because it also has an elevation of 1700 meters.

The camp has gone fantastic for me and really enjoyed this new venue for altitude training. The team has also had some good times goofing around playing some doubles tennis under the lights. Our team seems to also enjoy growing out the moustaches when we are at these long camps.


(notice Kershaw went with growing his hair out over growing a moustache)


One of out last intensity session we did a Team sprint relay. That was great way to end the camp with a competitive sprint like that. I was teamed up with Kikkan and we battled it out against George and Dasha. It was a close finish but we got the win. Before we started the sprint event i spat out that the winner had to buy the beer that night. So that evening there was Kokanee on ice for the whole team as we enjoyed one of our last nights before heading back to canmore.

The Team after a solid 2hr uphill ski.

New Zealand at it's best

New Zealand at it's best

Well another long travel day back home and i am a little shocked how fast this trip down under went. I really enjoy the NZ camp because of the skiing and small possibility to going surfing. Although this time the surf was not happening with only just over two week camp was just not going to happen :(


We had some amazing weather, for any body that has been at the farm knows how quickly things can go sour. We had a few days where we headed down for a run or had to change plans. For those other days we had some amazing weather and some interesting monopoly games to pass the time.


We also participated in the local NZ races where the stakes where high for some of us, from one of my team mates Devon Kershaw i won a tasty 6 pack for his stellar win in the 15km classic.


I tryed to do the same in the sprint the next day but just had enough jam to take third. The American team was down there at the same time which was awesome to train and hang with them as well. Now it's back to summer i hope in Canmore and some recovery to enjoy as well.

First Training camp of the year Bend,Oregon USA

First Training camp of the year Bend,Oregon USA




The first training camp of the year is behind us. It was great to go to a new place with our team ready to really get the ball rollin. We didn't have the greatest weather but we made sure we had a lot of fun.



Bend is a super cool place you can do so much from your door. Amazing skiing,climbing at smith rocks,Biking,running, The ocean is only 3 hours away, Fishing is fantastic too.



We did some workouts with the USA team which was allot of fun some serious work outs on ski's or roller ski's and some fun work out to which included a USA vs Canada soccer match, we lost unfortunately. There will be revenge i hope this summer. We are back in canmore now chilling out for the most part.



We have our next camp coming around very quickly which is the very tough yo-yo camp where we run in and out of the glacier over a 3 1/2 week period.