FXC Ski-by!

Hello all, just another exciting day in Gallavaire, Sweden! We started the day off with a morning ski at Dundret, where the traditional Swedish Dundret Runt (race around the mountain) took place with over 800 local Swedes  participating, along with our very own Erica Carroll! The race,while not actually timed, was Erica's first 30 km. She tells us the only reason she really wanted to do it was to enjoy the famous blueberry soup they serve at the feed stations along the way. But she did great anyways and finished the whole thing without stopping to take a single picture along the way! We also had fun cheering her on when she came into Hellner Stadion for the finish. We then spent the afternoon lounging around, waxings skis, and finishing off our second jar of Nutella. The afternoon ski was short and sweet. We took a loop around the local trails just two minutes from our Bed and Breakfast which are also shared with dog walkers, snow machiners, and any other active members of the community. I also am taking credit for finding Linky's lost room key in the parking lot afterwards! Oh and klister sucks because it gets everywhere, including my Fast and Female shirt while it was in the washing machine, and it did not have any on it prior to being washed.

Anyways tomorrow morning we are headed off for an exciting first race in the next town over, Kalix. 

Stay tuned for classic sprint results and details from Kira...

P.S. I'd like to give a shout out to my mother Ginger and to let her know that I am still involved in the team activities I was just taking pictures of everything so I can share every detail of my trip with her!

Love you!

-Yours truly, Mikayla Hamlin

All matching under the sun!

Cool Swedish Graffiti (taken by Mikayla)

Thats right, we're skiing on the World Cup course!

We love Intersport! Nick buys us nice wax here! cute clothes too.

Day 3- What an amazing day in Gallivare, Sweden! The temperature has been a balmy -2C uhhh I mean 28F and the trails are much much better than yesterday. With an inch of new snow, the trails up at Hellner Stadion have been World Cup quality.  Throughout the trail system there are camera platforms to film the WC races that happen here and also media booths in the stadium for TV channels like EuroSport to broadcast the races all over Europe.  

Hellner Stadion with the media booths and main building. Kira, Claire and Ema skiing.

We started off the day with sun shining through our window and with everyone in a much better mood than the last few days. Jetlag has finally worn off. Yay!!!  After a Swedish breakfast of... Nutella, and many other things of course we were off to the trails.  Nick divided us up into groups and while some went skiing, he worked with one group and filmed technique and attempted to criticize us, although he's to nice to do that.  It was very cool to watch the video and see yourself skiing just like WC skiers do when they are skiing down the trails (well almost maybe not as fast though).  I was amazed at the transformation the trails had undergone from just the small amount of snow that had fallen.  The Piston Bullies are amazing and its going to be awesome the see the new one in action up at our ski trails in Fairbanks.  After our ski everyone gathered to take pictures and play around on the fast snow.  We drove back and had lunch then had homework/nap/more eating/play games/work on the computer time.  'Quite time' as Nick likes to call it, but NOT 'nap time' as that would throw off our sleep schedule, yet someone always seems to sneak by the rule. 

After 'quiet time' Nick and Linky stayed behind at the Bed and Breakfast, and the rest of the crew went walking down the hill into town.  I could tell that we weren't in Fairbanks anymore.  The friendliness just wasn't there and I could tell that I was a tourist just by the way people acted around us.  There were cases though were people would say 'hi' and stuff but it felt weird to almost be ignored... oh well though, its still an amazing place.  We walked down to the walking trail by the river where there was of course a ski trail and we made our way to a big castle that everyone was fixed on getting too.  Everyone in Sweden are very fit and while we were walking on the path lots of people pasted walking, running and skiing.  Its cool to see that type of lifestyle here.  On our way back from the walk we stopped to get Pizza that Erica insisted was the best ever.  Inside the shop she had to speak Swedish (which has become a valuable asset on this trip) in order to get it.  Most people here speak English but there are a few that don't which can cause a problem... But the whole team is beginning to learn.  One of our favorite words so far is 'utfart' which means exit road.  Many of their words here are very long so we have fun trying to pronounce the word but know we are totally butchering it.  That's all from this side of the world!

Quote of the day: "It's not a team sport, that's why I do it (skiing.)" ~Mikayla

Here are some pictures from the day!

-Neill Toelle

Kira cruising through Hellner Stadion!

"FXC"!!! 

The matching gals.

Artsy snow picture from our B and B 

Castle that we walked to.

European Trains!

Quote of the trip: "Where Mikayla?" She was taking pictures somewhere

European Chairs!!

European Roundabouts!!!

Day 2- We are currently in Gallivere, Sweden. We arrived yesterday afternoon after driving for three hours from the town of Lulea. If you are reading this, assume you are pronouncing the town names wrong, most likely you are. I have butchered every word I have read here and Linky and Nick have found it quite amusing.
The trip started out at 8 am at the Fairbanks international Airport. We flew to Seattle, then London where we ran to our next flight, took the express lane through customs and barley made our flight. We were sweating when we finally arrived. We then flew to Stockholm where we realized our bags did not travel with us from London. We then flew to Lulea, where we arrived at 1am as is tradition on any trip with Nick. We picked up our two small station wagons and drove fifteen minutes to Park Hotel in Lulea. Kira is not a fan of the shower, toilet, sink combo here and Sweden when everything gets wet when you shower; hopefully we will figure it out soon.
We arranged for our bags to be delivered the next day to our bed and breakfast in Gallivere, very convenient actually. Day one in Sweden we woke up, walked around the small town about and drove 3 hours to Gallivere, Sweden .Pronounced (Yawl-i-ver-uh). Good thing I new that ahead of time... Not sounding like a dumb American can be a good thing at times.

 We crossed the Arctic Circle while driving North. We got to our Bed and Breakfast and relaxed a bit then headed up to Dundret Ski Area to do a short ski. Hellner Stadium was very exciting for us all, thinking we were skiing somewhere that really fast people have been made us feel even faster! We had our first encounter with a Swede on the ski trails. This old man started talking to us in Swedish - at least we kind of look like we fit it- and we said no Swedish, sorry. He then started to ski away, then stopped and realized that Yes, he could speak English. We skied up to him and we told him we were from Alaska- maybe he won't think we are dumb Americans, but somewhat, okay, Alaskans!! His best advice was to not fall because if we did we would "rip our faces off" , hand gestures included. Not a nice visual on that ski.
This morning we woke up and headed out for a ski at Dundret again. It is about a ten minute drive from where we are staying. There are not many ski trails there but they are fast and have been icy due to the warm weather.  I like to think it is one big Rain and Ice and Snow storm- that is what it looks like outside anyway. Today was a productive day, I hit a tree on the morning ski and fell on my face, as well as skied over a huge pile of dirt and rocks and managed to fall and take Nick with me. I have a few momentous to take home on my skis- aka big gashes all down both of my skate skis.
For the second ski we tried out the trails here in town; only 300m from our house. They were nice, until I hit the dirt path. That has been Erica's favorite ski in Sweden so far.
Erica lived in Sweden in high school for a year and is teaching us all Sweden, I know my three vowels and that is it, but it is a work in progress. Maybe by the end of the trip I will be able to not offend any locals, maybe... Here are some pictures from the trip so far, its going great and everyone is getting along- that i know of : )
-Claire Ferree
Claire Waxing in front of the B&B

Where's Kira??   In Gallivere- walking the town

Claire and Kira heading out for the fist ski in Sweden! Dundret Ski area

Lunch in our kitchen at the B&B in Gallivere.

THe church we saw while walking around Lulea the first day. 

Kira In Hellner Stadium!!

Neill has fallen through the crust. Can He get back up?

The Group Skiing the first day at Dundret Ski area- Hellner Stadium

Welcome!

Welcome to the new NSCF-FXC blog!  After too long an absence from the blogosphere, we are returning to give a regular look into the training and racing activities of this group of young Fairbanks skiers.  We hope you enjoy it!

P.S.  As things are fairly busy at the moment, the site may look a bit rough to start - we are planning on getting the site buffed-out prior to the start of Summer 2012 training.  Til then enjoy the rough-hewn, Fairbanks frontier style.