Beautiful view overlooking Urnerboden from Gemsferenstock (2972m)
It's September? I swear it happens every year. Summer just slips through our fingers. My lifestyle doesn't really lend a hand to the matter because I hang around places that favour the winter seasons and avoid the last few days of summer on snow in a tunnel in the middle of Germany. The month of August was spent exploring 'new territory' in the canton Glarus as well as a training camp in Oberhof.
It blows my mind how small Switzerland is in comparison to Canada and how different every valley, town and dialect of Swiss German can be. At the best of times, I can understand people from the canton of Graubünden. Then, only one valley over, and they pronounce everything different and switch up a bunch of vocabulary too. Just when I thought I could get a handle on the language! Glarus was spectacular - even so it was cloudy. I definitely have to go back so I can get my eye on the Tödi (3614m) . One day, one day I will do a ski touring tour and summit that beauty.
The Swiss Team (TG 1,2 and 3) combined forces and tromped the loop in the Oberhof ski tunnel more times than I care to count. The conditions were stable ... ha ... and it was great to be on snow in a new racing suit, with a new team and getting that feeling on skis again. The loop is almost 2km long and if you ski the entire perimeter it takes about seven minutes. The air temperature within the tunnel is about -3 degrees so it was definitely a shock to go from +20 outdoor temperature into a mild winter day. Wearing a mask was a new fashion statement for me, but it saved my lungs from a lot of havoc by 'warming' the air before it reached my bronchioles. The team and support staff have also had good experience with inhaling salt water in the evenings to keep the lungs and respiratory track well hydrated. The training side of the camp was difficult, as to be expected, but the coaching staff, and support from physio and massage made the week a whole lot easier.
Not only does Oberhof have a ski tunnel, it also has two wicked rollerski tracks. One is super gradual and families, kids and parents of all ages are out cruising the track and we used it for easy skiing. The other track is a bit more technical and was great to do classic imitation sprints on. Considering that everyone was preparing me for the Oberhof 'fog fest', we had pretty awesome weather and only dawned the rain jacket once.
I'm back in Davos for a week or so to recover and recharge before the Nordic Weekend in Andermatt. It's a set of three races that include a skate prologue, classic distance and an uphill run. I've seen many suffer faces from the mountain run on the last day of this tour and I don't doubt for a second that I'll be adding my own mug to the gallery. In the meantime, I'll be checking out the library here in Davos (new favourite spot), hacking away at my German (staring a german course this week, similar to a community class) and training away.
Thanks for checking in. Bis später homies.
Before you leaves... Joke of the moment (courtesy of Meglette): The snail in the race car was sick of people telling him how slow he was. He came off the race track one day and painted an 'S' on the side of his car. The next day when he was back on the race track, the crowd screamed and shouted 'look at that 'S' car go!'.