Wanna ski a loppet?

Loppets are recreational races of 15-50+ km. Preparing for and skiing a loppet is a terrific way to challenge yourself, improve your skiing, and see the ski trails of the surrounding communities at their finest! We'll be co-ordinating a training group that will meet Thursday evenings at 7:00, starting in early December. Note that this is a change from our previously scheduled Wednesday evenings, to avoid a conflict with the master’s ski clinic being put on by Stride and Glide Sports.

Workouts will be designed to improve our technique, strength, stamina, and speed, and will be suited to skiers who've gotten the basics down for both classic and skating techniques. Our very own Caledonia Loppet is a 15 or 30 km free technique event that goes on January 17, and it’s followed by Quesnel’s Hallis Lake classic technique loppet on January 23, the BC Cup in Prince George on the weekend of January 30/31, the Bulkley Valley Marathon (classic) in Smithers on February 27, and the Lakes Loppet (free) on March 7. For a complete schedule of skiing events happening in British Columbia this winter, check out:

www.crosscountrybc.ca/dbfiles/249.pdf

Participants should have both classic and skating gear, and we recommend having both in the car. We may switch at the last minute as the snow conditions dictate. There’s no fee for participation – all that’s required is a Caledonia Nordic Ski Club membership. In future we may take up a collection for a loppet group wax box for races, but that’s not on the immediate horizon.

We’ll be using this page for getting information out about waxing conditions, whether we’ll be on skating or classic gear, and upcoming loppets. Be sure to check this page 24 hours prior to the Thursday practice for each week.

See Building A Northern BC Wax Box Ver. 1 for a post on putting together a wax box for northern BC, and Example Training Plan for Northern BC Cross Country Skier for an introduction to training for cross country skiing and the example training plan that the loppet group will be sampling from.

For more information, contact Nikki Kassel nkassel@hotmail.com or John Hagen hagen_john2@yahoo.ca .

John and Nikki

December 2/09