News

I have been dabbling with cross country skiing for some years now and have had a go at most of our free heel skiing disciplines.  More recently I have been contemplating a Nordic ski race.  My former employer (Architect- Sir Norman Foster) takes part in the Engedin marathon most years.  I am nearly thirty years his junior and, if he can do it, so can I!  I signed up with Totally Nordic, run by Alan Eason, for the short race week culminating in the main 42km event on the Sunday, the biggest race in Europe.  Despite upping my roller-skiing in preparation, my first day on snow was pretty shabby.  I couldn’t believe how bad my technique seemed and I was wasting so much energy.  Alan Eason somehow disassembled my skiing technique and reassembled it in 3 days - No mean feat!   Come the race day itself…

Congratulations to Alasdair Wilson who competed in the World Masters cross-country ski championships in Beitostolen Norway in early March. Alasdair is a regular member of the GB team (undoubtedly our most well-travelled and competitive skier)! He travelled to Beitostolen after spending a few days with the rest of the Loipers in Dalseter. Held over a full week with races of different distances up to 45km, the Masters attracts teams from all over the world and the GB team are hard pressed to compete against more experienced opposition, many of them ex- world cup athletes. Alasdair was pleased with his own performance and delighted that team-mate Kelley Haniver (almost a Loiper!) won bronze and silver medals early in the week, then finally gold in the last day of competition. It was…

Club members Gwenda and Les Cavill and Alasdair Wilson joined the Snowsport England on-snow coaching week in Kvitavatn, Norway, in early April 2019. They had a good week of late-season snow with excellent coaching from top SSE instructors including Patrick Winterton and Alan Eason. Gwenda summed it up nicely by saying that the week delivered all that she had hoped for.. "significant improvements to my technical skiing ability and an enjoyable holiday". Read a full account from Gwenda here. Alasdair was returning to Kvitavatn having done the World Masters cross country championships in Bietostolen only a few weeks earlier. He was looking to sharpen up his skiing technique and to upgrade his qualifications to Level 2 on-snow instructor which he successfully did (with the proviso that he does a one-hour…

-We are holding our usual end of season get together on 14th May - this year hosted by Mike Hall and his wife Sally in Darras Hall. Full details are coming out by email. Please contact Mike to let him know you are coming and to give him an idea of what food you will bring along. The usual plan is that the club provides the wine and members contribute with food of some kind (savoury or sweet). Come and join us - find out what others have been doing over the winter, catch up with the slideshow (anything to do with cross-country and telemark skiing) and talk about what we might be doing over the summer and next winter. Hope to see you there!

Tyneside Loipers are again hosting this weekend of roller ski coaching at Hetton Country Park near Durham. There will be at least 3 ability groups (probably 4) from beginner to advanced, with coaching from SSE-qualified coaches, led by ex-Olympic athlete Patrick Winterton. Hetton Country Park has a 1.8km tarmac track which encircles a large lake and includes two short hills for more experienced skiers and gentle terrain for beginners. Participants will improve their cross-country ski technique (classic and skate), gain confidence for skiing on snow, pick up loads of helpful training tips, and just have a fantastic time. You can also chose to put your new-found skills to the test in the Saturday afternoon race. For more information, contact the organiser Alan Mitcham. Download the detailed course brochure here and…

Eight Loiper members are signed up for the Mistaya Lodge trip next March, returning to one of our favourite wilderness lodges in the Canadian Rockies. A number of us were there in 2015 for a wonderful week of guided ski touring - some of us on telemark skis and others on alpine touring gear. Skiing from Mistaya Lodge in 2015 Mistaya Lodge is accessed by helicopter from the town of Golden in BC. Once at the lodge we are looked after by a resident cook and two guides who are well practised in finding the best skiing terrain, usually with fresh untracked snow every day. Some days we will be skinning up the nearby peaks and skiing down from the summit. On other days we will be skiing in the…

Loipers Peter and Alison Aldred are the first this winter to get some local skiing. They skied today up from the Durham/Cumbria county border between Alston and Middleton in Teesdale. There was only a thin snow covering but, with a cloudless sky and no wind, it was almost a perfect day! Photos look great (see below).

Good luck to Mike Hall who is heading to Switzerland in March for his debut (Engadin) ski marathon. Mike is doing a few days of training before the race with Alan Eason (a senior coach with Snowsport England) and was heard getting tips from Heather at the New Year Meal on Thursday! Alasdair will be competing in the World Masters Cross Country Ski Championships at Beitostolen in Norway (60-plus age category). Alasdair will be racing 3 or 4 events (classic and skating) up to 30km distance. He is no stranger to the World Masters and has competed most years at venues over Europe and N America. Good luck to Alasdair and the rest of the team.

The Snowsport England Coaching week is returning to Kvitavatn (near Rjukan, in Norway's Telemark region). The three top SSE coaches Patrick Winterton, Mike Dixon and Alan Eason will be running a whole week of training focussing on cross country skills (classic and skating) and racing. Dates are 31st March to 7th April 2019. Highly recommended by several Loipers who have participated in previous years. Accommodation is available in the comfortable Kvitavatn Fjellstue. Full details can be found here.

More details and contact info are on the Events Page.  In March we will be based in the lovely Dalseter hotel in Norway for a week of track skiing and off-track touring. There are 23 of us signed up for the trip and 9 of us are then moving on to the Jotunheim area for a week and a half of hut touring. We are hoping to ski Norway's second highest peak Glittertind. We also have a couple of trips organised by Tim Owen - a telemark coaching week in Val d'Isere with Telemark Tracks in December and a week of telemark/alpine guided ski touring in the Queryas national park in Jan/Feb. Jane Brantom is also organising a week of track skiing in Dobbiaco Italy. And we are expecting to…