First, CONGRATULATIONS to Noah Hoffman (a loyal reader of this blog and designer of my fantastic training program) for being named to the XC Olympic Team to represent us at Pyeongchang, South Korea. Aspen also has Simi Hamilton on the XC team and on the alpine team: Wyly Maple, Torin Yater Wallas, Alex Ferreria, and Alice McKinnis. All are AVSC alums so Aspen is well represented.
We took the bus on a circuitous route, as a smaller group, over to Leutasch to XC ski. There is about 200Ks of XC skiing here, so it’s good to check out some other trails. After finding the trail, people split up and five of us ended up we skiing back to Seefeld. Just as we were getting underway, we were told we had to change our planned route because of high avalanche danger, which closed our intended route. We found an alternative route, and skied back to Seefeld, covering some of the same trails I had skied yesterday.
I cannot believe how many people here are into XC skiing — it’s like a crowded Aspen ski slope (albeit on a narrow path) at Christmas or a race, sometimes. Everything is groomed nicely and the weather was great. There is a ton of snow here, so that helps. The temperatures range from -4 to +4C (25 to 40F). The range of abilities is beginner and there are beginner areas and lessons, to, obviously, World Cup.
Anyway, just as we were getting underway, I looked at my heart rate monitor and it hit 42 or something even lower — I’m either in shape or the high altitude really does have a fantastic training effect.
Here’s a video at the start of our ski:
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We took our time, sort of, and skied about 25K from the drop off in Leutasch to Seefeld, stopping at a hut for a coffee and cakes. With us were two Jims, a Kim and an Elena.
The slopes are rated just like alpine ski runs (European ratings: green, red, black for easy, medium, harder). Everything is well marked and it’s super scenic, quiet and can be slow or fast as you want.
I meant to take an easy day which turned out to be a medium day. It turns out our alpine day sharpened up my downhilling and to go up, you have to go down.
There is one guy, Vlad, who befriended someone in the group when they were in Crested Butte, Colorado, on vacation and then showed up here. I guess he thought he’d save the money and mooch off the group. He seems to be a creap and is omnipresent. I ran into him lurking in the ski room and he asked if I was going to watch the races across the street (today is the combined — Nordic jumping then Nordic (XC) skiing. I said yes although I was going over to meet today’s group of skiers at the James Bondish outdoor bar, assuming he would go out to watch the event. Instead he turned up where we were. Just weird and to be ignored.
Speaking of the bar, the music at the bar is kind of amazingly old and hokey. I can hear it in my room until about 10 PM so I know. The playlist includes …tbd.
Here is a photo of the finish area for the races, at sunset. The tower has a video camera mounted to the top and is controlled from a seat at the bottom.
Another long meal, and not vegan at all. Vegan is out the window! Bring on the butter (lots of it), cheese, meat, etc… Speaking of meals, we have been eating those as a group but one of the guys got sick and he has cloistered himself apart from the group—no one wants to get sick. Even his wife won’t sit near him. Lousy situation!