More Skiers Go Camo

More Skiers Go Camo

Leaders, Newsfeed, Trivia
April is the month when professional skiers descend ( quite literally) from the mountains and come out from the forests where they live and train most of the year and for a short while become the ordinary citizens. Yesterday we shared with you a link to Niklas Dyrhaug's Instagram, featuring a Team Norway trio of Didrik Tønseth, Finn Hagen Krog and Dyrhaug himself in Norwegian Army uniforms with assault rifles. Unspoken message is quite clear – locked & loaded for the next season! Today Tønseth have added some heavy artillery to the message – here's the trio on top of Leopard 2, one of the biggest & meanest main battle tanks in the world. https://www.instagram.com/p/BTHjXrtFJwN/?taken-by=toenseth If the Norse men were hoping for their photo challenge to be answered, today they…
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In the Army Now…

In the Army Now…

Leaders, Newsfeed
Niklas Dyrhaug shared with 55 thousands of his subscribers on Instagram a photo of himself along with Didrik Tønseth and Finn Hågen Krogh sporting a rather different uniform of Team Norway Taken at Setermoen Leir, Norwegian Armed Forces largest military base near Tromsø, the image features the trio in brand-new Army uniforms , including bullet-proof kevlar vests, Tønseth, Dyrhaug and Krogh are seen holding various versions of a standard Norwegian Army assault rifle, Heckler & Koch HK416N. No pacifists there, it seems! Since no explanation for a sudden militarization of the trio of most promising new talents in the Norwegian team was provided with an Instagram post, we are all left wondering whether they seek continue their careers with the Heimevernet or the Home Guard. https://www.instagram.com/p/BTG8pA9B9d1/
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Elbow pain from poling? StaffanSTAVEN to the rescue

Elbow pain from poling? StaffanSTAVEN to the rescue

Gear News, Newsfeed
Low impact on our knees and feet is one of the benefits of the cross country skiing that we appreciate the most. There is one caveat though – from time to time, at least some of us develop a pain in the elbow due to the overuse of sticks, causing tendinitis, a minor inflammation. Once upon a time the doctor's verdict was simple: give it a rest and avoid training for a while. Now, all that is coming to an end thanks to a Swedish innovation, the StaffanSTAVEN shock dampers. StaffanSTAVEN (or "Staffan's poles") is the brainchild, of Staffan Larsson, the winner of the 1999 Vasaloppet, and Gunnar Winroth, an orthopedic surgeon. Together, they figured out that inserting a specially calibrated spiral spring encased in a carbon-fibre tube into a pole handle would provide a very…
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Night Ski Racing Is King

Night Ski Racing Is King

Travel & Mass Sport
The outgoing season o 2016/17 was the year when the popularity of night/dark racing has exploded. It's not like the nordic racing enthusiasts the world over didn't figure out how to put their silvas and petzls to good use before, but the future historians would likely name the last season as the one when night skiing became a true sport. Because the last year two of the most popular cross country skiing festivals in the world both were nocturnal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1BD5WWv8YA First Vasalappet franchise gave birth to NattVassan, arguably the most challenging Judge for yourself – instead of the usual for Vasaloppet's checkpoint per every 10 kilometers, only one, halfway through the 90 kilometer course was organized ( with a few more basic feedstations along the way). Instead, all the participants were…
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Ski Programme Shutdown Causes Outrage

Ski Programme Shutdown Causes Outrage

Money & Finance, Newsfeed
Nordic skiers of New Mexico don't mince their words. "...We are the University of New Mexico Ski Team, and we desperately need your help... This is the message on Change.org that outlines the cause for the decades-long programme abrupt shutdown: the UNM ought to urgently find money to  pay a basketball coach a nice round sum of one million dollar for early contract termination. Yeah, that's what college basketball coaches get in the U.S. - and the only way the money could be found,  allegedly,  is by chopping off the skiing program, that was run since 1968 and that provides funding for two dozen young athletes and two full time coaches. The terminated xc skiers refuse to go down quietly, however, and have launched an appeal, demanding a reversal of…
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