Author: Tyneside Loipers

High point of the day - Weetslade Sculptures A day of warmth and sunshine was promised and it certainly lived up to expectations. Five Loipers (Lewis, Howard, David, Neil and Alan) led by Alan, rode a 35 mile off road route from Rising Sun Country Park in Benton to the coast via North Shields fish quay, Tynemouth, Whitley Bay and Seaton Sluice. Lewis donned his shortie wet suit and he and Alan braved the icy water of the North Sea for a short swim while the rest of us looked in wonder. After quickly drying off in the sunshine our group set off on the return leg via some super tracks and bridleways through Holywell Dene, Backworth, High Weetslade and Gosforth Park. Lewis offered Tea and Cakes back at his…

Always keen to try something new! Our virtual pub meet last week had an interesting new flavour. Eleven club members joined our online Zoom meeting to hear about some recommended reading from Neil, Alan, Vivienne, Lewis and John - 'anything about the outdoors or nature, mountains and skiing and adventure'. We had 5 very different books - it was a fascinating evening. Neil started off with Robert MacFarlane's latest book 'Underland'. Neil has read all of MacFarlane's books and is a real fan of his writing style. In his latest book Underland he has plenty of material, describing his own adventures in a cave in the Mendips and elsewhere, underground exploration around the globe, passages built beneath cities such as Paris, climbing into ice caves beneath glaciers and working in…

Stephen MacShane came back from a week at Dalseter a bit disappointed with his progress – mainly track skiing with coaching from Dagmar.  He made a resolution to get out on roller skis and immediately enrolled with XC Ski Nation (https://xcskination.com/ ) and discovered lots of really good tips about cross country ski technique. After his return from Dalseter he was practising on the cycle track at Hetton Country Park nearly every day, putting into practice the tips he was picking up from XC Ski Nation.  The XC Ski website subscription also allowed Stephen to upload video clips of his skiing with subsequent feedback analysis from the experts. Skate skiing practice near home in Consett. Another breakthrough came when Stephen’s cousin Brian from Alberta was marooned in the UK over…

Hello Loipers and other Nordic skiing enthusiasts. This is my attempt to bring together the Zoom talk and some of the photos of Mosstrond that I showed on 21st May (Alan Mitcham). This is our planned venue for next year's Norway trip, flights and travel restrictions permitting. Mosstrond is an old schoolhouse on an island in Mossvatn to the west of Rjukan in southern Norway. It is currently run as an outdoor centre and used as a base for Nordic ski touring over the winter season. It is a favourite venue for Exodus who have groups at Mosstrond on typically 3 or 4 weeks of every winter. It is also much favoured by several Loipers including Martin Read who is one of the shareholders who bought the schoolhouse from the…

Six hardy Loipers - Neil, Lewis, Ben, Paramjeet and Peter and Alison - spent most of one week at the comfortable Dalseter Høyfjellshotel and then travelled to the northern Rondane (Norway's first National Park) to ski the renowned Rondane north-south traverse, staying in DNT mountain huts along the way. With unexpected hut closures, plus the Norwegian shutdown (due to corona virus), stormy weather and mixed snow conditions, the team got more than they bargained for! Read the story of their adventure (written by Lewis Preston) - click on the link below. Six Loipers ready to depart from Dalseter on 12th March Their plan was to take them from Hageseter in the north to Rondvassbu and Bjørnhollia in the south. Then they would ski out to the rail line and collect…

Don't blame the corona lockdown as an excuse for losing fitness. UK biathlete Scott Dixon has devised a series of home training sessions which you can join using the virtual meetings app Zoom. The sessions starting this week (today) are graded for different ability levels. Scott Dixon will be on screen guiding you through various ski-specific exercises for mobility, balance, fitness and core strength. Details of how to join the online video training sessions are in this explanatory document from Scott (see link). Group sessions are only £5 per session or £25 for six sessions (2 per week over the next 3 weeks). It seems like a good offer and is no doubt a worthwhile programme.

Sixteen Loiper members turned up at the Dalseter Hoyfjellshotel for this year's GB Nordic season organised by our own John Mordue. Loipers Martin Read and Stephen MacShane arrived at the beginning of March and the rest of us turned up a week later on 7th. This was the 3rd time for some of us - it wont be the last! The Dalseter hotel is friendly and comfortable and Grethe, the hotel manageress, made us feel very welcome as usual. There is plenty of good skiing to be had (both hill-touring and cross-country track skiing). On the tracks Out on the hills - Robert enjoying off-track touring The season had started with an abundance of snow. For our week (7th March) there were well over fifty GB Nordic guests and leaders…

Kevin and Kimberley sent through some photos of their Japan skiing trip Jan/Feb 2020. The Japanese powder snow looks great! The group included Loipers Martin Read and Steve Campbell plus various friends from our occasional Loiper trips to Canada. Japanese/Canadian guide Yuji and his colleague did a great job finding the best skiing each day. Wow! Great telemark skiing from Loiper Martin Read. Great snow too! Kevin telemarking in fine form - with selfie camera fixed to his right ski tip!

Alasdair travelled to Seefeld in Austria in late January 2020 to take part in the World Masters Winter Games - the Winter Olympics for veteran skiers. Alasdair's article (download here) is a lovely account of the Nordic cross-country racing and ski-orienteering.

Mike Hall and Les and Gwenda Cavill enjoyed a top-quality week of cross-country race training with Totally Nordic at Obertilliach in Austria and then followed it up by competing in the 50th running of the Dolimitenlauf Ski Marathon. Read Gwenda's description of the week here. Have a look at these great videos of the race taken by colleagues at the Totally Nordic week. The start of the freestyle race (click here) is quite inspiring - perhaps I will try it one day! And Les Cavill finishing the marathon (here) - well done Les, demonstrating Skate 2 technique (very impressive after 3 hours and 38 minutes of skiing)!