Pretty much Russian Championships, in Saariselka

Week two of my season-starting excursion to Northern Finland took Ida, Pepa and me to Saariselka, Finland. It’s a nice little town way up north, somewhat of a resort town for alpine skiing. During the heart of the winter apparently there are hundreds of kilometers of cross-country skiing trails, but since we’re here at the beginning of the winter, there is only a maybe 7-8k out-and-back segment of trail with manmade snow that has reliable skiing. It won’t be long until they open all the other trails around here, because it just keeps snowing, flurries all day and a considerably accumulation overnight! Sunday morning after the races Ida and I even got out onto the tourist trails which had great natural snow and grooming.

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Race time!

It’s November 17th, and I’ve already raced two times!

This must be the earliest I’ve ever started my cross-country ski racing season, at least the earliest real-FIS-race with close to 100 competitors per gender, not counting time trials and low-key openers of past years. I have no regrets, I’m not wishing for a return to summer at all, I’m ready to get this season rolling and so very excited to be racing.