Nordic Racers Ski Club:
The Leading Edge,
December 2001

Welcome New Members

The seasoned members of the Nordic Racers Ski Club would like to welcome all the new members who have joined us this fall for a year of skiing, racing, training, and participation in a large range of social events. Those of you who made the trip to Silver Star will have undoubtedly made new friends and enjoyed the best early-season cross-country skiing in British Columbia.

The cross-country trails at Hollyburn are now open for the season. This past Sunday, there was a large contingent of club members practising their improved Silver Star technique on the hard packed (slightly icy) lower Hollyburn trails. Club jackets were ubiquitous.

A reminder to anyone who was unable to attend the Wine and Cheese: memberships are due for renewal immediately.

Club & Other Events

CANSI Level 1 Instructors Course

For those planning on getting their ski instructors certification, this year's CANSI Level 1 course is scheduled for Hollyburn on Saturday, December 15th & Sunday, December 16th. The cost is $250.00. Check out CANSI's website for more information (http://www.cansi.ca/) or e-mail the CANSI office at info@pacific.cansi.ca for more details and/or to register.

Diamond Head Ski Weekend

Since most Nordic Racers are really busy during the loppet season, Craig Oliver is leading an early season backcountry trip to Elfin cabin at Diamond Head on December 15th and Sunday, December 16th.

Elfin cabin has propane heat and propane cooking stoves, plus bunks upstairs for sleeping. Parks charge $10.00 per night per person, on a first come - first served basis. The cabin sleeps about 25 people. The trip will be leaving from Lions Bay, Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. sharp.

There is great skiing close to the cabin for beginner, intermediate, and advanced skiers. All ski gear can be rented at Sigge's or MEC. Book your rental gear early. There's the choice of telemark or alpine touring skis. The ski in from the parking lot takes about 3 hours with a stop at the Red Heather warming hut, which is about an hour's ski from the parking lot.

For Nordic Racers who haven't backcountry skied before, please note that if you can XC ski then you can easily backcountry tour. Carving telemark or alpine turns is what takes patience and practice, although -- for those with an alpine background -- most alpine skiers pick up powder skiing quite quickly on alpine touring skis.

The Diamond Head-Garibaldi Park road starts at the Highway 99/Squamish Golf and Country Club turnoff, located just north of Squamish, and is marked by a blue Parks sign. East, past the Golf Club Clubhouse, the road turns to gravel. At about 8 kilometres from the highway, take the left fork and proceed for 5 kilometres up a ploughed dirt road to the parking lot. A four-wheeled drive vehicle is recommended. If you are interested in coming on this trip or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact Craig.

Please advise Craig what type of vehicle you have and how many people you can take so that Craig can arrange carpooling.

What to Bring

1. Avalanche beacon/transceiver (MEC @ $8.00/day)
2. Backcountry snow shovel (MEC @ $5.00/day)
3. Avalanche probe
4. Cooking dishes/pots
5. Alpine or telemark gear

Please note that we will be skiing moderate slopes and that the trail in to Elfin Lakes is very protected, so that chances of avalanches will be very, very low, but everyone will still need to rent or borrow an avalanche transceiver.

Recommended

• Gore-Tex style jacket
• Gore-Tex style pants
• Fleece pants or rad pants and long johns
• Synthetic top and bottom (cotton for cabin use only)
• 2 pairs of gloves/mitts plus 3 pairs of socks
• Water bottles (2) and a small thermos -- optional
• Goggles and/or dark sunglasses
• First aid kit with extra blister care items
• Fleece hat and/or balaclava
• Earplugs!!
• Fleece and/or down jacket
• Spare set of tops and bottoms for the cabin, in case, all of the stuff you're wearing on the trip gets wet.
• Sleeping bag good to 0 or -5 degrees minimum.
• Thermarest or closed-cell foam pad
• Internal frame pack to carry everything

New Year's at Big White

No plans for New Year's Eve? How does a cozy luxury chalet, with private hot tub, overlooking the Monashee Mountains sound? There are a couple of spots left for Sam Mottram's Big White trip December 27th to January 1st, 2002. Big White has downhill skiing, cross-country trails, and snowshoeing. Interested? -- For more information, please contact Sam.

Hollyburn Hot Chocolate

Starting Wednesday, January 2nd, from 7:45 till 9:00 p.m. and on all subsequent Wednesdays, there will be a prominently-identified Nordic Racers Club host in attendance at the Hollyburn Lodge to dispense a ticket that is good for one free hot chocolate. Note: this is a club benefit that is for current (read paid-up) members only.

On this season's first Hot Chocolate Night, sign up for our Manning Park Bus Trip.

Learn to Loppet

The club's popular Learn to Loppet ski technique improvement sessions start Wednesday, January 9th at Hollyburn. In six consecutive Wednesday evenings, learn how to prepare for a XC ski race. You must be a club member to participate in this program.

Topics covered include nutrition, what to eat the week before the race, how to wax your skis, a training plan for the next six weeks, and many other useful training exercises and tips to help you complete your first loppet or to improve your previous loppet time. For more information on the Learn to Loppet program, please check out our website at http://www.nordicracers.bc.ca/events/learn.html.

The cost is $65.00 (payable to the Nordic Racers Ski Club). Sign up with Dave McKee before the cutoff date -- December 30th. Please help us plan by sending Dave McKee an e-mail saying whether you are interested in skating, classic, or both and at what level you ski at.

Coaching

Interested in coaching? The NCCP Level 1 Technical course is scheduled for Friday, January 11th to Sunday, January 13th. For more information on coaching, check out: www.coach.ca/eng/certification/nccp_for_coaches.

For more information on XC coaching or to sign up for the NCCP Level 1 Technical course, contact Brad Gilbert.

Manning Park Bus Trip

Want a change of scenery? Then spend Sunday, January 13th at Manning Park! The cost is $35.00, and covers your bus ride to and from Manning Park, your trail ticket, six hours of skiing, and some treats on the bus ride home.

We will be taking the Sigge's bus, with pickups at Sigge's in Kitsilano, at Boundary/Broadway, and at 152A Street/102A Avenue in Guildford. However, if you book through Sigge's, you will pay their full rate of $41.73, not our discounted rate.

To save a seat, to arrange payment, or for more details, contact Feng Chen. When booking seats, say where you'd like to be picked up and please provide your home phone number so you can be contacted on the immediately preceding Saturday if required. The deadline for payment is Wednesday, January 2nd, on Hot Chocolate night at Hollyburn Lodge; be forewarned that this trip fills up quickly, though, so the earlier you reserve your spot the better.

Club Race at Hollyburn

The Nordic Racers Ski Club will be hosting a 20 km free-technique ski race at Hollyburn on Saturday, February 9th. The race will commence at 9:00 a.m. and will probably start on the flats, adjacent to the upper warming hut. A shorter-distance race will also be held for Juniors.

Club members who are interested in and available to assist the club in running this race please contact Tony Chin.

Check out the Nordic Racers' website at www.nordicracers.bc.ca for updated details on these events.

Vancouver Skiers Bus Trips

The Vancouver Skiers Cross-country Club (from which the Nordic Racers split off years ago to concentrate on racing) has made available most of their bus trips to members of the Nordic Racers. If you are interested in a weekend bus trip to other ski destinations, but don't want the hassle of a long drive, you might want to check out their website: www.theskiers.ca. All of the trips are listed there.

Of particular interest to members of the Nordic Racers are bus trips to Salmon Arm for the Reino Keski-Salmi Loppet -- January 19th and to 100 Mile for the Cariboo Marathon -- February 2nd. The prices are very reasonable. You only need to contact the leader of the trip and send in the appropriate cheque. You do not need to be a member of the Vancouver Skiers as long as you are a member in good standing of the Nordic Racers. For more details feel free to contact Chris McPherson.

--Chris McPherson

Tony's Loppet Primer

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Click image to enlarge
Photo courtesy of Sonia Marazzi

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"You want constant propulsion rather than impulse propulsion!" Who said that? Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise? No, this is Coach Lyle Wilson speaking to the Ski Camp participants at this year's Silver Star season opener. (I won't go into details about Coach Wilson's insights into ski racing as I'm sure many of you are hearing about it already but don't be surprised to see a lot more people doing the step-double pole and one-skate around Hollyburn then ever before!)

This year's Ski Camp certainly ranks as one of the best ever! Great snow, great accommodations, great coaching and great friends to ski with! The only way to follow up a great weekend at Silver Star is to have more weekends at other great cross-country ski locales. So mark your calendars for the following ski trips:

Nickel Plate Loppet -- Friday, February 22nd to Sunday, February 24th (n.b.: dates corrected).

Vancouver Island Loppet (at Mt. Washington) -- Friday, March 15th to Sunday, March 17th.

Nickel Plate is one my favorite places to ski. In my opinion, it is the best cross-country ski area in Southern BC. Nickel Plate is about 6 km from Apex Ski Resort. I have located several houses which I believe will be every bit as comfortable as those at Silver Star. As a race (this is a 30 km classic race; there is also a 15 km recreation category available if you don't want the full race), I enjoy Nickel Plate for the excellent terrain and because it is a smaller, less crowded race. The two times I've done this race, the weather has always been perfect. Only thing to remember is that the altitude is just over 6,000 feet, so be prepared for a lot gasping. Also, the timing of this race is good in that it comes immediately after the conclusion of the Learn to Loppet Clinic.

Mt. Washington is a late season skate race (30 km or 15 km). Mt. Washington has a new Nordic Centre and consequently, the racecourse this year will be different than in the past. Mt. Washington, unlike Apex, does not have a great bar for après-race cutting loose. So this weekend will be "quieter" than the Nickel Plate weekend. Again, I have located some great chalets, which I think should make for an enjoyable ski weekend.

The Nordic Racer mandate is to promote ski racing. We fulfil this mandate by offering clinics which help skiers become better skiers/racers (Silver Star Ski Camp and Learn to Loppet), by organizing trips to races, and by developing race-support personnel (Course Conductors, CANSI certified instructors, NCCP certified coaches). This explanation is provided for the many club members who have never joined in on a loppet trip weekend. You do not have to race to join in on the weekend. If you are able to provide race support, you are encouraged to join in on the trip.

Should anybody wish to organize trips to other loppets (Cariboo Loppet at 100 Mile House, Reino Keski-Salmi Loppet at Salmon Arm, Sovereign Lake Loppet at Silver Star, etc.) and would like some assistance in doing so, I would be more than happy to assist you.

In the three years that I have been with the Nordic Racers, I have noticed a huge improvement in skiing and fitness in everybody in the club. I look forward to this year being even better. See you on the trails!

--Tony Chin

Nordic Racers Junior Challenge Biathletes at Silver Star

At the inaugural BC Biathlon Cup races at Silver Star Mountain December 1st and 2nd, the Nordic Racer biathletes continued to pile up the medals. The training facilities provided by Ski Hemlock (biathlon range), Cypress Bowl (skiing), and by the Pacific Shooters Association (our summer and fall shooting range), continued to pay off in great results.

It was snowing buckets all week at Silver Star and the going was very soft, favouring lighter skiers with better technique. Despite the soft snow, our gentle giant, Mioi Sawada, claimed a 3rd and a 4th in his first year in the Sr. Boys category. Martin Utley, racing in the same category, won two gold medals although he raced both days with the team's spare rifle.

Not to be out done, our young women came back with a bunch of medals too. Jen Martin won two gold medals in the Sr. Girls category and Britta Tilgner, coming back after a year off in Germany, was close behind with two silver medals. Karen Douglas also contributed two good races in a category dominated by Nordic Racers. In the next category down, Jr. Girls, Claire Corbett won a gold and a silver and Aletha Utley -- in her first race -- won two bronze medals.

Micha Smirnov and Alex Butinskiy, recruits from the Cadet Biathlon program, also acquitted themselves well in their debut races as Nordic Racers.

The coaches for the team were Alan Ball and Celine Feagan, ably assisted by Brenda Sawada, Celia Utley, Rick Corbett, and Gilda Erasmus. Gilda is from Vanderhoof and her family often races with us on the BC Cup circuit -- her three children, Hans, Sonya, and Nils contributed four gold and two silver medals to our combined total. A very satisfying weekend for us all.

--Alan Ball

Why Classic?

Adapted from an article by Geret Coyne, Head Coach, Canmore Centre of Excellence Biathlon

Weight shift: Classic skiing requires good weight shift to make the wax work. If you don't weight shift, you don't go anywhere. Classic gives immediate feedback on weight shift. Good weight shift contributes to good balance.

Gliding: In classic, the skier has to balance on one ski to glide, and so develops the skills necessary to "ride-the-glide." Put this together with weight shift and suddenly, the glide phase in skating becomes longer and more restful. And your weight is in the right place for the start of the power phase.

Forward lean: Classic coaches are forever chanting, "get your hips forward and the weight over the ski." This is so important to balance in classic and upper body propulsion in double poling. As Geret says about its effect on skating, lack of forward lean leads to squatting and "squatting results in more strength being used for each push off and a decreased forward reach of the arms." Getting your centre of gravity over your foot decreases the load on your quads and is less tiring, especially if you are carrying a rifle. As for the forward reach, a longer forward reach gives more leverage and more propulsive power for the same effort.

Explosive Power: In classic, you have to pre-load and kick downwards, very fast, to go fast. Sound familiar? Propulsion in skating is exactly the same except that the follow through on the kick is outwards rather than back. In classic technique, if you don't have a good kick, your wax runs out and you have to double pole at a lower top speed than your rivals [or herring bone lower down the hill]. The difference for learning and racing is that you can get away with a sloppy, more gradual, less explosive kick in skating. But a fast kick is more powerful, so you go faster for the same effort. [Check out Newtonian mechanics -- it's true!] To improve ski-specific explosive power -- race Classic.

Big engines: Many young athletes rely on a big engine and/or early maturity to get them to the podium. At the top end of the curve, all the athletes have big engines; if you can use your horsepower more efficiently [economically], you'll go faster for longer. The economic skier works hard at perfecting technique.

Nak/Yak Peaks -- Trip Report

October 14th, 2001

Heavy rain Saturday evening. People phone and ask me to look out the window! Too late to call the trip off; joint with the Nordic Racers X-Country Ski Club. Rain stops as predicted during the night. A good crowd shows up for an early start. Blue sky appears. Breakfast stop for pies at the Home Restaurant in Hope. Chain saw put to use. Bridge added across swampy creek. Rest of trail up Yak in excellent shape. Lots of new snow. Deep trail breaking. Good gaiters, priceless. Yak, then Nak, climbed. Decision to complete round trip via back (north) bowl and Nak-Thar col. Ice axes handy. In the shade now, no time left to climb Thar. Descent into some unavoidable light bush. Flagging has disappeared from route down to pipeline road. Dinner at the Homer in Chilliwack. -- An excellent day hiking through the first snow of winter.

--Peter Gumplinger

Participants: Jos van der Burg, Don Chandler, Amanda Church, Anne-Marie Conte, Theresa Duynstee, Silke Gumplinger, Nancy Henderson, Marco Iucolino, Doug Pulleyblank, Stefan Reinker, Ian Voboril, Philippa Wall and Peter Gumplinger (organizer & reporter)