News Bytes

• NRK reportedly learned that FIS rejected Alexander Bolshunov’s neutral status request. Sources within FIS apparently are concerned that a Russia appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will grant the ski star permission to race on the World Cup, which he hasn’t done since 2022. The Russians have neither confirmed nor denied the status of Bolshunov’s application. Meanwhile, Dennis Spitsov is back and Natalia Terenteva is racing in Muonio this weekend. We talked about the Bolshunov drama on our recent CARCAST on Monday.
• I appreciate this story on the Ski Classics opening weekend. Sounds like there’s a couple wicked climbs in the race. Perfect.
• In a rare demonstration of hardcore journalism, we followed up with Alayna Sonnesyn on Sunday to ask her about why she joined up with a Ski Classics squad this winter. Here’s a snippet of what she had to say: “Last season, to be frank was very heartbreaking. … I really questioned do I really want to keep doing this. And originally I had gone into the season thinking that would be my last season. And after something like that, it didn’t feel right to end it on kind of a sour note like that. I realized that I wasn’t done with ski racing; I also realized I didn’t want to continue going about ski racing the same way.” …. there’s a lot more to her answer … Become a member of GripWax Nation today to get early access to the interview.
• I chatted with CU head coach Jana Weinberger last week about the upcoming NCAA season. I think the Buffs are going to be formidable this year. “For this year, we pretty much have the same team,” Weinberger said. “We graduated Tilda, that’s a big loss, but I think other girls are going to step up and do well.” The men added no one and returned everyone. That includes fifth-year Hugo Hinckfuss (see below) as well as Norwegians Johannes Flaaten and Storm Pedersen and German Olympian Jakob Moch. Based on my conversation with Weinberger and SSCV coach Dan Weiland two nights ago, it also seems like the former Vail stud and multi-time Junior National Champion Will Bentley is coming off a very strong off-season and looks poised to have a much stronger sophomore campaign. While the women lost Baangman, they have a strong core of veterans coming back in Astri Lunde, Selma Nevin and Nina Schamberger, plus twin recruits Britta and Niki Johnson. Weinberger seemed particularly high on Nevin, who has apparently been busting out some impressive time trial performances. “They’re from different backgrounds, the girls and boys, they’re pushing each other in every workout and working together to make the team better. Overall, it’s a good group of kids.” For early access to the full interview, become a member of GripWax Nation; we’ll post that for you guys this week; full convo drops for everyone on Nov. 26.
• We also caught up with DU head coach Eliska Albrigtsen last week. The second-year coach, who spent several years building up the program at UAF before coming back to the Rocky Mountains, didn’t hold back in expressing her excitement for her team’s potential: “Those guys, I can’t really say — if you were to give me $1000 — with the inflation, right? — to tell you who would be on the NCAA team, I would not know. I have five guys that can all qualify, and every single one of them has a chance to win. It’s the strongest team I’ve ever coached and it’s insane to watch them do the workouts together. It’s really fun,” she said. To hear that full interview, you’ll have to wait until Dec. 3 (early access to GripWax Nation members coming later this week — stay tuned.).
• GROOMING REPORT: there is snow on Turquoise Lake Road and it is skiable! The 10-12 inches we received in Leadville was probably more like 13-15 out on the shaded, cold road. Couple notes: 1) the usual section from Abe Lee to the start of Hagerman Pass is blocked from vehicle traffic. This is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you’re looking for. On the one hand, the established classic tracks are not getting trampled; on the other hand, the lack of car-grooming means your poles are punching right to the pavement. I drove around to Mayqueen on the other side of the lake on Monday morning. A little ways beyond that spot you can park and double pole up firm car tracks (I also tried to widen it with my truck, just a little). The snow is good – it’s better than nothing, right? My suggestion is probably this: park at Abe Lee, put on a little kick wax, work on striding technique for 1.5 miles, then DP to your heart’s content once you get to the Hagerman junction. If you want to get on some real trails, Grand Mesa is rockin’ and rollin.
• Speaking of grooming reports, check out this new site, SkiScout – founder Stephen Conley posted this on Facebook: My wife has been bugging me to create a crowdsourced Nordic ski trail reporting website and app for about a decade. I finally retired now, so lost my excuses (at least most of them) and got around to it (I know, where have my priorities been?!). The website is up and running at SkiScout.org (currently includes the US and Canada), so anyone can take a look at that. Please DM me if you have comments or suggestions or if you find ski areas that are missing or in the wrong location, etc. We really need testers for the phone apps, especially on Android (because I’m an iPhone fellow) so if you are willing, send me a message and I will add you to the beta test group. I realize it’s not quite ski season yet, but with some help we can have this ready for action by the time the trails are groomed. Thanks! … Alright, you heard the man. Give him some reports!
• Interesting story about a former biathlon who has turned to Ironmans — a recent indoor one was part of a super intense research project looking at nutrition. Maybe a potential Friday Food for Thought. This is extreme!

Super Tour News: Oldham on illness

• The Bridger Ski Foundation completed a successful altitude stint in Park City in October. Andy Newell’s squad followed that up with a couple weeks back in Bozeman before heading to Canmore to get on-snow. Check out their newsvlogget to read blogs from Kate Oldham (an honest look at dealing with illness for a monthlong stretch….it’s a great read and probably deserves a little commentary on our next podcast to be honest!) and Anders Weiss (on hobbies like photography).
• Craftsbury GRP skiers commented on their performances at the Schutzenski XC Festival at SoHo on Oct. 16-17 in a team blog posted last month.
  • Jack Young (167th in 10K, 11th in sprint): “I had a good qualifier (historically, I have qualified quite poorly at this event), and I used the draft to my advantage taking second in my quarter. I was coming around to make a similar move in my semifinal when I clipped the bolts of my rollerskis together and faceplanted going 50 kph. Luckily I came out with only some minor road rash!”
  • Young on the altitude camp in general (from the blog): “The 18 days I spent at altitude in Utah was my last high volume block of training before the gradual taper into the competition season starts, and I’m happy with where my aerobic fitness is,” he said. “These races make me optimistic about the coming season not because of the result on its own but because of the result compared to Schutzenski results in the past and my training at altitude before the races. … I trained hard in Utah, had two acceptable results, and I’m really excited to spend the next month in Craftsbury getting fast.”
  • Joe Lynch (sixth in sprint): from the blog: Lynch said the race’s best benefit is “the opportunity to pull a good, hard, sprint qualifier against some very skilled competition.” After qualifying, he wanted “to ski tactically well in the heats and work on the long sprint finish that this course provides.” The (not so) secret on the Soldier Hollow sprint course, he said, is “don’t be in the lead at the top of the downhill into the finish. I executed that in all my heats, but wasn’t able to draft my way into a good position in the final. Those guys are too good to chase down over 100 meter drag race!”
  • Coach Annika Martell, from the blog: “It was rewarding to see the athletes show up with composure and execute some great performances in such a stacked field.” Of Joe and Brian, she said they “carried themselves with confidence and poise. I am truly impressed with all the athletes’ approach to the racing and all of their results show progress.” The focus now, Martell said, is to “keep it rolling! Get some good quality intensity, drop the volume down a bit and build our confidence” before the first races on snow.
    
• We’ve reached out to the Super Tour/pro teams in the U.S. with pre-season questions. As we receive some information from coaches and program directors, we plan to post them here in the Weekly Wax.
• Full Super Tour schedule and new website

Club news: Ski and Snowboard Club Vail

I hopped down to Vail to meet up with members of the SSCV comp team. Program Director Dan Weiland was leading them through a skate distance session that also included some agility drills. I jogged around the golf course alongside some kids and then spoke with some of the seniors as well. A few thoughts are below.

By the way, I’ve emailed many club coaches/PDs across the country (like, over 35….) requesting some pre-season preview type information. If you’re a coach reading this, send me your responses and we’ll get you in the WEEKLY WAX. If you’re a high school coach and would like to participate, feel free. Questions are below – send your replies in an email OR, and this would be super cool, an AUDIO message, which is quite easy…. if you do the latter, I’ll even put you on the Seder-Skier Podcast (though, I don’t have to do that, I’m just trying to make things easy, and not everyone derives as much satisfaction as I do from pecking on a keyboard.

Weiland: Said he’s happy to be back in his coaching role after a couple years in an administrative position with SSCV. “It’s good for my soul,” he said. While the team is rebuilding a little, Weiland said there’s a “fun mix” of personalities, ages and abilities; many athletes bonded in St. George over October break during a week-long training camp. Weiland said his goal is to get every athlete to JNs, but his favorite part is tracking the daily improvement and getting to know the kids from the time they join as members of the Future Stars Program at 5 or 6, to when they graduate and — as often is the case — head out to ski collegiately.

“You don’t see that in an office,” he said.

Teddy Brunner: (Brunner will row for Cornell next year and is the younger brother of 3X state track/cross-country champ and current Harvard runner, Will): “Last year was kind of my first season skiing club. It was a great experience, I learned a ton. One thing I was focusing on was pacing throughout the races,” said Brunner who learned that the supra-anaerobic nature of skiing demands something different than the locked-in power-based efforts of rowing. Brunner found himself applying the same strategy every week, no matter what the course was like. “I learned pretty quickly that doesn’t work the best,” he said. “Talking with Dan and coming up with my own strategies to give my best performances depending on the course.”

Isla Elton: (Elton will likely ski at the NCAA DI level next year, but is also a state-caliber runner and excellent soccer player, too): “I’m hoping to maybe make it to some bigger races this year and just learn how to ski in a bigger field. We also got a lot of practice with different snow last year; so, keep learning the technique and nuances of skiing – the little things I can change too and just keep enjoying it.”

Hattie (7th grader): This homeschooled middle schooler is a serious piano player, so you know I had to interview her as well. Does she identify as a musician or a skier? “I like both,” she said. “I mean, I’m sure I’ll have to choose someday.” Not necessarily. Not necessarily. How’s the rollerskiing? “I just learned this year,” she answered. Could have fooled me.

John (middle schooler who has two sisters who currently ski at the DI level): “They inspire me by just how much they love and appreciate the sport,” he said of his siblings. “Like, there’s not really things that they’re like, ‘I’m so tired of this,’ …. They’re always so thankful to be skiing, be on the snow and on the team.”

Georgia (middle schooler who also plays basketball and does equestrian): is there a connection between Nordic skiing and equestrian? “Balance,” she replied. “To be able to sit in the middle of the horse, you have to balance basically in like a plank on top of something moving.” Georgia said she’s been honing her mental strength throughout the last couple seasons. “For me, it’s always just try my best and push as hard as I can and definitely get into a positive mental state where I can push as hard as I need to….Putting myself out there. And if you’re prepared, you don’t have to worry.” Great advice!

Isabella (new follower of the podcast on social media): What’s your goal this year? “More V2.” Favorite part of the club? “Probably being with all the people; and like, having all these connections with everyone and building all the friendships.”

Questions for club and high school coaches across the U.S. (all states welcome!…where you at Caribou, Maine? Let’s go!)

(Feel free to answer via email, voice message – sederskier@gmail.com

1. Provide a photo I have permission to use (can be a training session shot, team shot, race shot… anything….)
2. Who is your top male and top female returner? (list notable accomplishments, results, if possible)
3. Key graduates/losses from last year (list current college or club situation if applicable)
4. About how many total skiers do you have in the program/on the team?
5. Give us some context coming into the season. What have the last 3-5 years been like over at the club (participation #s, coaching changes if any, individual/team JN podiums/titles, notable alumni performances at NCAAs/Supertour/World Cup, or other key storylines)
6. What would you say the main storyline is coming into this season? What threads are you eager to track?
7. Which athlete or two (or 4!) has a unique story or is a person fans should keep their eyes on this winter?
8. How many athletes do you expect to qualify to JNs?
9. What are your goals for the year — for your athletes, the team as a whole, and for you as a coach?
10. What makes your club unique?
11. What’s one thing piece of advice you’d give to other young club/high school coaches?
12. Anything else you’re looking forward to this year? Anything else you’d like to include?

Thank you for your time!

Loppet Ledger – Tour of Meissner

Hey! I found this cool website to track all the races! – https://loppetlist.com/

If you operate/run a race and would like it to get highlighted in The Weekly Wax, send us an email at sederskier@gmail.com!

Today we’re talking about the Tour of Meissner.

“A classic-only ski tour that usually takes place the third weekend of January each year, the Tour of Meissner highlights Meissner Nordic’s 47 kms of groomed trails at Virginia Meissner Sno-Park, 15 miles west of Bend, Oregon,” the event website states. “The Tour of Meissner has been designed to remind regional Nordies, new and veteran, how great classic skiing can be. Join us to spend part of your day kicking and gliding through 17 or 30 km of rolling terrain while experiencing the charm of Meissner and its unique community of skiers.”

The Tour of Meissner’s history is well documented.

“Like the Olympic Games, the Tour of Meissner has persevered through two different eras, including COVID,” the website states. “We affectionately refer to each of these periods with tongue in cheek as the “Modern Tour” and the “Ancient Tour”.

I highly-encourage you to read about the Tour’s history, which is well documented on the event website. I corresponded with Dave Smullin, who designed the original race as an untimed, free classic tour to highlight the various trails at Meissner.

“It really all started as a selfish indulgence,” Smullin admitted. “I really like longish classic races and many of the classic races in the Northwest were disappearing. I also really love the terrain at Virginia Meissner for classic skiing and wanted to show it off to the public.”

Smullin designed a 27-kilometer course that covered as much of the trail system as possible with as little out and back sections as he could manage. In an effort to create a fun, party-like finish-line atmosphere, local breweries donated free beer and volunteers provided complimentary chili and soup.

“I wanted to have live music at the finish and along the course (drumlines, etc), but was unable to get that going,” he said. “I also was tired of $60 race fees and wanted something low cost or free that was a lot of fun to ski, so we had no entry fee but a $20 (now 30) suggested donation to the Meissner grooming program.”

Everybody donated and many went above the $20 (some as much as $100), Smullin said. The Tour was re-invented as a freestyle event in 2010 and 2011 by Bend Endurance Academy founder Ben Husaby, the website notes. These days, Smullin usually skis the event on his old wooden race skis. Two years ago, however, he used his modern set up, using the race as training for the Vasa.

“This year I am training for the Birken and plan to use my DP skis, but will return to wood next year,” he said. “I used to use my old alfa boots with 3-pin (bindings), but found that they drag on the sides of modern tracks. Two years ago I bought some old Adidas boots and 38 mm bindings, so I can still be retro but go faster.”

Epic. Absolutely epic.

Here’s the key details:

Tour of Meissner 2027 event information
Registration: TBA
Date: Sunday 1/17/2027
Venue: Virginia Meissner Sno-Park
Race Format: 17 km and 30 km, Classic
Mass Start in Waves: 8:00 AM
Finish: 1:00 PM
REGISTRATION CLOSES Wednesday January 13, 2027 at 11:59 pm
This is a Benefit for Meissner Nordic- Suggested Donation is $30
Donations will be accepted at bib pickup at WebSkis: Saturday 1/16/2027 from 2-5 pm
157 NW Franklin Ave, Bend, OR 97703
Interactive Course map: https://meissnernordic.org/TourOfMeissnerMap.html
For more info contact: Ben Husaby, bhusaby@gmail.com

Seder-Skier Podcast news

• NEW: Nov. 10 – CARCAST: We dig into the Russian drama
• Nov. 12 – Cami Thompson, Dartmouth
• Nov. 16 – Alayna Sonnesyn, Team BSV Ibex, Sno Racing
• Nov. 19 – NENSA’s Ben Theyerl
• Nov. 26 – Jana Weinberger, CU
• Dec. 3 – Eliska Albrigtsen, DU

NCAA feature: Hugo Hinckfuss, CU Buffs

Hinckfuss is a 6-foot, 6-inch senior from Sydney Australia. A two-time second-team All-RMISA, he was a finalist for CU Freshman of the Year and has qualified for the NCAA championships in all three of his collegiate campaigns. Hinckfuss has seven top-5 finishes and four podiums at the NCAA level and also competed for his home country at the 2026 Olympics.

Seder-Skier.com: Tell us your ski story.
Hinckfuss: My ski story is a little bit different from a lot of the people on the team. I started skiing when I was 11. I grew up in Sydney, Australia, which was about seven hours from the snow, and some of my family friends took me down skiing for the first time, which was really awesome. I skied for just under a week the first time I went, and then begged my mum to let me continue skiing after that. A big inspiration for me growing up was Petter Northug, especially after he won four gold medals at the 2015 World Championships, so that really made me want to continue in skiing for as long as I could. What makes me unique in the ski world is probably my background in the sport. I really was extremely lucky to get into the sport in the first place.

Seder-Skier.com: What are your goals for this season?
Hinckfuss: Undoubtedly to become NCAA champion with the team, but especially individually. I’ve worked really hard this summer to focus on one of those events, and I’m really excited for it.

Seder-Skier.com: What’s the best piece of ski/sport advice you’ve ever received?
Hinckfuss: It’s probably from my mum, really. She used to tell me, “If you really want it, you’re going to find a way to make it happen.” I think we’re very lucky in this athletic environment in college to be given so much, so that memory and that piece of advice really inspire the idea that you have to be hungry for it, to squeeze the lemon as much as possible and get as much from the experience as you can. I really try to take that into every single day of training.

Seder-Skier.com: Who is your favorite skier and why?
Hinckfuss: It’s hard to say that my favorite skier isn’t Petter Northug, but someone else I really liked watching growing up, and still do now, is Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget. Really cool guy, too.

Seder-Skier.com: What’s on your ski bucket list?
Hinckfuss: I would really love to ski in Japan. That’s got to be on my bucket list.

Seder-Skier.com: Favorite ski memory?
Hinckfuss: Just a nice cold day in Anchorage, Alaska, with good snow. Last fall over Thanksgiving break, skiing with my teammate Luka Riley in Alaska. We were starting just before six in the morning and getting to watch the sunrise by the end of our sessions. It was just the two of us kind of exploring the darkness for the first two and a half hours. That was really fun.

Seder-Skier.com: What’s your degree? What is your dream job?
Hinckfuss: I study applied mathematics, and my dream is to continue to pursue the combination of sport and mathematics as much as possible. Analysis in any department related to sport, whether it’s something like F1 or working with Garmin, Strava, anything like that, would be the dream.

Seder-Skier.com: What are three other things we should know about you?
Hinckfuss: I’m really, really talented at singing poorly. That’s probably the biggest one. I’m completely mediocre at chess, and I could live off pizza and Chipotle for the rest of my life.

Buffs fan? Stay tuned, because we’ve got head coach Jana Weinberger hopping on the Seder-Skier Podcast on Nov. 26!

Commentary: Learning from the Pros

We talked last week about why hearing how pros train has become less and less interesting to me as I’ve aged. You can re-read it here if you’d like to decide whether or not I’m onto something or on something. Either way, I promised I would pull a few takeaways I garnered from listening to or reading about four different athlete’s training approaches.

Klaebo: The importance of rest

When Rich Roll asked Klaebo whether he used Normatecs or any other specialized recovery device, I was sort of hoping he’d say, “Yes, Normatecs all the way.” At least then I could justify my 4-year-old’s convincing my wife to spend hundreds of dollars on them for her dad (true story). Alas, Klaebo made everyone (especially the influencer bros who preach and promote the latest gadgets to waves of eager cold plunge buyers) take a hard look in the mirror when he sad that, and I’m not making this up, “sleep” is his go to recovery tool. Yes, the body knows what to do. Just give it a chance. Establish a routine. Buy a nice mattress. Go to bed early.

Unfortunately, naps are hard to come by in the toddler trenches.

Schumacher: Skiing in the spring

After a long World Cup campaign, skiers traditionally take all of April completely off. I’ve advocated for an on-snow approach to spring, since its often the best ski weather span in the cold, bleak, dark winter. Gus took an approach I’ve applied and advocated for on my podcast, which is to soak up this season with heart-rate monitor optional crust ski pleasure cruises, excursions into the backcountry at lengths and intensities de votre choix. I think logging low-pressure hours like this, even for two or three months (or whenever the batteries are totally recharged) is better than taking 1 month completely off, sun tanning on a beach. Different strokes for different folks, of course, but I feel at least a little more justified and supported in my approach.

The principle I think skiers (or runners or gravel cyclists for that matter) can take is this: you need to have down time on a macro level, but that down time doesn’t have to be forced separation from the sport you love and the activity that keeps you sane. The thing you want to avoid is trying to get into mid-season form-and-focus 8 months away from your target race. If you do, you might head out into a windy, cold fall day, ready to conduct an interval session, only to get halfway through and realize you’re mentally and physically cooked (spoken from personal experience, sadly….).

Ketterson: Going against the traditional training model

Ketterson has done what Carpenter said. He’s experimented, he’s paid attention and he’s constantly tweaking, pairing away things that don’t seem to work with things that do. As a result, he’s arrived at this unique place wherein he doesn’t feel like he has to follow the 1989 Norwegian model advocated in a book of the same name. He has his 4-day cycle approach, it’s paying dividends, and he’s continuing it — with open eyes and an open mind.

One question I’ll pose on this point — to Ketterson and skiers like him: lately, we’ve heard about the value of listening to the body and being willing to postpone a key interval session a day or two if necessary. I agree with this. But, does anyone ever go out for an easy or moderate session only to discover that their body is good, the weather is perfect, etc., and then decide to do the opposite: conduct a hard session that might originally be scheduled for the next day.

It’s still listening to the body. It’s being flexible. It’s just doing it from the other side.

Speaking from personal experience — and maybe this idea is most valuable for parents — I’ve found great success applying this. In fact, I often conduct two straight days of ‘key’ sessions. If I’m unexpectedly feeling good, have the time, and the weather is right for pushing my body, why waste it? One tip: this works best if your ‘key’ sessions are not man-maker workouts. For instance, I might be fit enough to do 45-minutes worth of running intervals at 5K or 10K race pace. But I tend to hover between 27-35, because it allows me to do a double-threshold that evening or come back the next day and still do a ‘key’ session. When I do something really big (i.e., 12-mile trail race, 100-mile bike ride, etc.) I tend to go easy peasy the next day. But not always. Listening to the body, like Ketterson said, is what matters.

One of the best feelings there is, I think, is going out for an easy day and realizing 5 minutes in that you actually NEED the easy day. That means you pushed yourself hard the previous day. I know that might seem obvious, and I know many people advocate for only polarized approaches, but I think there’s value everywhere. Some stretches, I will intentionally hover in a zone that is moderate — I’m never going so hard that I need to baby jog/recover the next day, and I’m never going so easy that I don’t feel some fatigue. Then, I’ll mix it up and do a few weeks where it’s very polarized. Typically, for me, polarized training takes more mental energy and comes with an increased overall cost, so I save it for race-specific periods of my calendar.

Lars Dewall: Consider the context

I have a lot to say about Lars’ training, but am running out of time and space. Two main things: people need to give this guy credit for the level of training he’s doing — and time on feet in general — while being a middle school teacher. Middle school teacher and 120-mile weeks is like the toughest double ever. Kudos to him …and I told him that in a message last month that I was impressed, particularly as someone who once was an elementary school teacher piling on similar mileage.

The other, more universal takeaway is to consider the context. Lars built up a tremendous engine gradually by using both sports (skiing and running). For him to run 120 or 130 miles a week probably feels like an easier load than running 55 a week plus doing Nordic training. And the overall hours might reflect that.

Basically, the performance benefit an athlete enjoys in the present needs to be analyzed by considering not only his current training, but his entire life’s work.

I spoke about this on our first podcast of the season, but in my own life, going from 175-pound basketball player who lifted and did plyos 5-days a week to someone who started running low mileage, then high mileage, then no mileage but a ton of skiing and biking, then back to where I am now — skiing, biking, and running — I can definitely trace different physiological stresses I put on for various months or even years and see how they helped me in the ensuing chapters. All that lifting, for example, as a high schooler, made me more durable when I shifted to running. It also preserved my tendon stiffness for a time and made me quite fast, even though I wasn’t doing a lot of sprinting. That caught up to me, eventually, however.

So, when you make judgments about ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn’t,’ don’t just look at the micro scale. Think micro and macro together.