A New Season Begins

felgesior
Nov 30, 2016
2 min read

Silver Star , British Columbia

View from our lodging in Canmore, Alberta

It was time for the CXC team to head out west in search of some snow! Because of low snow conditions at the West Yellowstone ski festival our team decided to go to Canmore, Alberta to kick off our Thanksgiving training camp. The first few days we were in Canada the snow would not stop flying. We skied on natural snow up past Banff near Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. We were all excited to get on our new skis and head out for the first snow skis of the season.

Once the man-made snow had been moved around the Frozen Thunder loop at the nordic trails we started training right in town. They had an exciting 2k loop setup with several large climbs. We were joined by many other Canadian teams getting in some volume before the start of the race season. At the end of our time in Canmore we had the opportunity to jump in the first Canadian NorAm of the year. I decided to double pole the 6k womens classic race and was happy with my first place finish!

After our time in Canmore we loaded up our van and trailer and headed to West Yellowstone for the first Super Tour race of the year. The trails were not short on snow here. We raced a powdery skate sprint on the first day and an even more snow covered 10k classic the second day of races.

After West Yellowstone, we once again packed up the van and trekked up to Silverstar, BC. I was blown away by the breathtaking views that greeted us. The huge evergreen trees were heavy with snow framing the already gorgeous mountain views. Between the Silver Star Mountain Resort and the Sovereign Lake trails (the race venue) there is 105 km of nordic trails. We competed in both Super Tour events which included a classic sprint and skate 10k. Another highlight of this part of our journey was our marvelous dinner with some CXC master skiers who were vacationing from the Milwaukee area.

After the Silver Star races it was time for the CXC elite team to head our separate ways for the winter holidays. My next stop? Durango, Colorado!