Cross Country Skiing

I’ve been back from Argentina for over a week and will be focusing on cross country skiing for the next month or two, before heading to Nepal in late March. The skiing is both great training for Everest and a bit of a “return to my roots”.

In my teens and early 20’s, I raced pretty seriously at the collegiate and national level. (This was a long time ago, when U.S. greats like Bill Koch and Tim Caldwell were making a mark on the international scene). My own ski experience included strong results as a junior on the US national level (under age 18), a “gap year” spent in northern Sweden pre-college, and four treasured years racing with the Dartmouth Ski Team under coach John Morton. Skiing was definitely my top priority in those years, and – for better or worse- a huge part of my self identity. I always thought I would keep racing after college, as many of my fellow skiers and friends did. Instead – a story for another day- I walked away from skiing and ended up spending three years traveling the world, planning and leading expedition tours and cruises.

The tour leading somehow ended up with me in business school, business school ended up with me working as a management consultant, and the combination of being a management consultant while trying to be a good husband and father ended up with me not skiing a cross country ski race for over thirty years. I have skied every year and stayed somewhat connected to the sport, but haven’t trained or raced at anything like the level that most of my former ski peers have. When I mapped out my current gap year, the opportunity to re-connect with something that had intense meaning for me 40 years ago, and that shaped me in many ways, had huge appeal.

At one point, I considered planning my entire gap year around a stint on the world masters ski circuit. I thought it would be neat to see at what level, (age adjusted), I can still perform, to see how many of the sources of meaning and satisfaction remain the same, and to see what feels different through the psychic lens of 60 year old relative to that of a 20 year old. But mountain climbing and sailing exerted a powerful pull, and I decided to make cross country skiing just a “sliver” of my gap year, sandwiched between Aconcagua and Everest. That said, the training I have been doing for the the past year and a half – aimed primarily at the mountains- has been highly similar to what I would have been doing if I were preparing for a year entirely focused on ski racing.

Re-connecting with the sport has been really fun on multiple dimensions. The first thing I did was call my good friend of fifty (!) years, “Uncle Bob”, for some advice. Bob is one of those guys who didn’t drop skiing after college, but rather has spent the past four decades coaching many of the country’s top junior racers and skiing pretty darn fast himself. In multiple, patient emails and phone calls, Bob educated me on the latest equipment and training trends. Then I called another good friend of forty-five (!) years, “YM”, who I raced and roomed with at Dartmouth, and talked him into jumping into a couple of races with me. YM went out and found some shiny new racing uniforms for us, and the team was (re)-formed!

Earlier this week, I drove up to Craftsbury, Vermont to a training center we used to frequent when on the Dartmouth Ski Team. I did a long ski through gorgeous Vermont countryside, inhaled dinner in the same dining hall we ate in forty years ago, slept ten hours, and got up and did it again. I didn’t take any pictures while skiing, but -as odd as it may be to include this – here is a photo of my room in the training center. I loved every minute I spent in that room. Partly because of its simple clean lines, which reminded me of training centers in Sweden and Norway I was in years ago, partly because it felt great to be reconnecting with that lifestyle again, and mostly because of all the beta endorphins coursing through my bloodstream after a three hour ski in cold, windy conditions.

Which brings me back to this weekend. Uncle Bob, YM, and I , (and our better halves Ann, Anne, and Jill), just spent the past two days skiing at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, where we have skied pretty much every year for the last four decades. The conditions were perfect, albeit on the cold side. Yesterday, we bumped into “Beaner”, (who we also skied with at Dartmouth), and the the four of us skied two and a half hours together. Today, Bob, YM, and I went even longer. If you are a cross country skier of – ahem – a certain vintage, there is nothing better than perfect “double tracks”. Here is a picture of Uncle Bob and YM this morning in perfect double tracks.

Over the course of both days, I was struck by how much of the experience felt identical to when I was doing this at a serious level forty years ago. I am moving more slowly, but don’t feel like I am. (Note: I am in possession of charts which map the inexorable annual decline in speed which starts in one’s late thirties). The other great things are still there: the feeling of freedom, of moving swiftly through crystalline winter beauty, of pride in one’s body performing, the camaraderie of sharing the experience with close friends, and how good it feels to finish up and pull on dry clothes. Above all, I was intensely grateful to be doing this same wonderful thing, in the same place, with the very same people, that I have such fond memories of from decades past.

Next weekend, YM and I are racing in a 51 kilometer, (31 mile), ski race outside of Ottawa, Canada named the “Gatineau Loppet”. Time to break out those new racing uniforms and see how we do. I’ll let you know how it goes, and what my first ski race in over thirty years feels like. Anne and Jill have graciously volunteered to be support crew. We then have a second ski marathon lined up for early March in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

Between races, the training will continue. Most enjoyable will be the cross country skiing, but I also need to keep getting out in the mountains with a heavy pack on my back. Can’t lose the core mountaineering strength that I built up before and on Aconcagua.

Continued thanks for following along!