SnowSport England On Snow Skills Week – Kvitåvatn 2009
Soo much to do, soo little time…
Kvitåvatn: What can I say? Apart from the travelling – I had a GREAT week skiing and would like to do it again! I really enjoyed the variety, the opportunity to taste other Nordic disciplines, the people and the coaching. Despite signing up for the XC improvers course, I took every opportunity to try new skills, in fact I was spoilt for choice; I wanted to do everything, early morning tours, telemarking, listen to group talks, etc…
With regard to the XC Skills Course, Alan Eason initially took the whole group because Mike Dixon and Patrick Winterton were delayed travelling (due to Eurosport commentating commitments). The following day, the group was divided into sub-groups - Improvers (Patrick), Racers (Mike) & Coaches (Alan) – I was in the Improvers supported by Ros who was undergoing coaching assessment (I’ll leave Ros to write about that).
I recall Ros saying “It’s valuable to observe somebody else coaching” – referring to Alan Eason on the first day / in relation to coaching styles and ideas. In fact this statement sums up SSE coaches. However, I can not forget Alan Shepherd’s valuable coaching prior to Engadine 2008, his comment of “No, no, no, no, no!” echoing in my ears, which always brought a smile to my face – Maybe Alan ‘ The Unofficial Coach’ Shepherd will be at Kvitåvatn next year?
The Improvers had the pleasure of two coaches most mornings and more intensive 2 (skiers) to 1(coach) in the afternoons, which I believe was new this year. The group mainly concentrated on skating due to personal choice; however, there were a couple of classic sessions. The ski orienteering was fun once I’d found my first marker and settled down – maybe because I had not really skied anything other than ‘Orange 5’ up until then. There were fewer competitors this year due to the popularity of Telemark – most telemarkers remained on the piste.
On the last day I did get to do the Blue 23 with Patrick and Helen Murray (another fell runner). It was great skiing in a tee-shirt, sunny, blue skies, fantastic views but hard work due to the snow conditions. Patrick was a real gentleman and waxed our skis twice, whilst we watched!! Mike had been able to get hold of a couple of laser rifles so there was also the opportunity to join in a biathlon competition but I couldn’t do everything despite wanting to. Again fewer numbers joined in with the fancy dress ski competition preferring to telemark instead. There were some interesting costumes – I’m sure the editor will print one or two. Oh! I probably wouldn’t have got through to the last day without the stretching sessions each evening. Shame I missed Mike’s due to sorting out skis to do an early morning tour – Thank you Ian & Andy for introducing me to telemark skis, skins and mountains touring.
WELL DONE SSE
Coaches and Organizers.
NB The majority of the skiers and coaches at Kvitåvatn belong to MCCSC, which shows that the club is thriving and contributes towards promoting Nordic skiing in the UK. I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to Ros (who introduced me to the club), Alan Shepherd for his patience, Ralph, Dave and all the coaches at MCCSC for doing such as good job arranging coaching and tours.
author: Jane Mellor
publish date: July 2009
This was my first trip to Kvitåvatn, in fact to Norway, and I was in for a real treat. Various members of the club had enthused about this club holiday ever since I joined MCCSC, and not that I doubted them, but somehow the week always seemed to clash with other arrangements.
The Fjellstoge was a warm, welcoming base with unadulterated views across to Gausta, from some angles to my mind the Suilven look-alike, with excellent food and plenty of it! To add to these delights there had recently been a fresh covering of snow, I was already dribbling in anticipation.
My original plan had been to attend the morning telemark classes and then track ski in the afternoons (I just wanted to do it all!) but it was obvious after the first morning that this was going to cause me somewhat of a dilemma.
The pistes were practically empty (after about an hour my suggestion that perhaps the ski buses had got held up en route was received with knowing glances from the other all-been-there-before members of the class) and this, together with Andy’s excellent tuition, just had me thirsting to get back on the telemark skis in the afternoon. Especially worthy of mention is Ralph who seemed to go through a visual transformation and metamorphose into this vibrant, buzzing TM junkie attacking the piste with speed, ease and elegance. So dilemma over, all this getting high on TM just decided it for me, I had to telemark in the afternoons as well.
And then there were even more goodies on offer – early morning ski tours arranged on 3 days by Andy & Ian who expertly led a large party of mostly novices up & then down some routes on the surrounding mountains so easily accessible directly from the accommodation.
It was so exciting setting off in the dark, over the frozen lake, and then gently upwards to be shortly rewarded by a beautiful, peaceful sunrise over a snowy crystallized kingdom (free the heel, free the mind).
If you still hadn’t had enough fix there was also night skiing on a couple of evenings, which meant you could ski from 6 thru till about 20.30h - now that’s what I call maximising your ski time!
On day two the wind was so strong that all the lifts were closed (still only a breezy day by Scottish standards I reckon) and after overcoming the initial devastation I realised here was the opportunity to get my xc skis on. Alan Eason soon had us all charging up and down so focussed on various tasks that we almost forget about the menacing wind.
Oh and over and above all that lot, at the end of the day there was the sauna, the daily review/work sessions with the highly entertaining ‘It’ll Be Alright on the Piste Tomorrow’ video clips, stretching sessions, talks and, and …
So, despite having a stinking cold and actually feeling pretty lousy all week, I had a fantastic time. A big thank you to Wendy and Ralph for the organisation, Andy for his TM instruction and, of course, to Ian for his endless supply of tape. Thanks Duck!
author: Sylvia Flohe
publish date: July 2009
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