NSCF-FXC Racing

Day 8- April 4^th, 2012 - A day on the “slopes”

Today was my favorite day so far on our trip. We are still in Yllas, Finland enjoying the 300k + of trails at our leisure. After an exciting night of sparking last night we were ready for more adventures. Waking up a little groggy, we drove our three cars and ten people to the bottom of the down-hill slopes to start our easy classic ski. The trail head we started at sits at the base of the tree-line in very Alaska looking trees (small and wimpy.) We started climbing right away and wound our way around the mountain a little and up above tree line. The view was simply breathtaking and well worth the climb. The best part still to come through.

We reached the top, regrouped and prepared for our trip down the other side. My nerves were starting to act up a bit, but I have always loved down-hill skiing, so it couldn’t be much different than that right? Boy, was I wrong. The down-hill started gradually, winding through a snow crevasse – bordered by avalanche warnings, always a good sign… We all took it pretty hesitantly then the very steep part came, it was all open and pretty much a straight bomb run on down-hill skis- but to our luck, cross-country skis lack proper edges. Just slight, fast curves brought us to the bottom in what seemed less than ten seconds. It was a pretty fun run and we all waited at the bottom. Then Nick came down and told us to do it again, good practice for the races. Some of us were not as excited as others about repeating the experience. After my first run I was indifferent.

We headed back up, doing quite an impressive duck walk I must say. At the top we took a breather, and we headed back down. I was the first to go, eager to go faster than the last time. I tucked the whole top portion, gaining speed quickly and dropped off the edge to the “luge” portion of the steep down-hill. I flew past Nick taking pictures on the side of the trail, and was getting too much speed. At this point snow plowing would only make me fall so I just kept on going. I went screaming past Erica and Jenny on one of the curves and got too close to the edge of the trail and the soft snow pulled me right in. I was going down and there was nothing I could do about it. My knees sank first, then my hips, then my face was the next point of contact to the snow. I was in full force white wash and snow went up everywhere creating the illusion of swimming in snow- somewhat violently. When I came to my resting spot, I climbed out of the hole I had made for myself and looked around. Erica and Jenny were laughing so hard, Eliza was heading down behind me snow plowing and I had come to stop ten feet in front of a Finish couple who had looks of terror on their faces.

I could not stop laughing and was cheering the rest of my team on as they came down the hill. We all regrouped at the bottom and I was giddy with laughter. Absolutely best part of any ski I have ever been on. Full on down-hill skiing wipe out and it was great. I again led the way down the rest of the hills. Weaving in and out of beautiful trees and scenery while working on our downhill skills on somewhat more gradual slope while still very exciting. We stopped at a café to re-wax our skis and skied the 6k back to our apartment. The ski was exciting, good practice, and one that I will remember for a very long time.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning, packing, prep waxing our skis and relaxing for our travel day tomorrow. Yllas has been a great host to us these past four days. The trails have been amazing and we only wish that we could spend even more time here.