I’m at the 2015 Haywood Ski Nationals, a yearly end of season championship that attracts over 650 elite skiers from across Canada. This year we are at Lappe Nordic Ski Center, which offers fabulous trails and Finnish charm (the ski center has saunas in the change room, and serves up delicious Finnish pancakes!).
The trail network, designed by Lappe Nordic founder and former Olympian Reijo Puiras, is popular with everyone. It has great flow, is fun to ski, and the trails have entertaining names that make you smile as you ski past (e.g., Toilet bowl, Humpty Dumpty, Leena’s Leap, and the long climb at the end of most courses is called “the Grunt”).
The event is typical of other xc ski championships, with a variety of races – there are 5 races over 8 days. The first day of racing was Saturday – a skate team sprint event I did with XC Ottawa partner Ingrid on a fast 1km course (we had fun, wore glitter — courtesy of Chelsea Nordiq athletes — and came 9th).
Sunday we got to skate again, in an individual start 5 km race. Conditions were hard packed and very fast, not quite my forte but I put in a good effort and finished 22nd senior woman. The race was won by Whitehorse’s Darhia Beatty and Olympian and Nakkertok athlete Perianne Jones was second.
Today was our first day off, and tomorrow we’ll be racing 10 km classic on two loops of a challenging 5 km course (so we get to ski up the Grunt twice . . . ). And it’s St. Patrick’s day! My Irish heritage and childhood memories of having to wear green on St Patrick’s day prompted a trip to Dollarama to celebrate and race in style.
