BC Ski Team in Sweden
2025 B-Tour
April 2nd, 2025
After falling asleep to a sky showered in northern lights, we started the day with a ski at Hellner Stadion. Skiing on the World Cup sprint course on our set of intervals was a fascinating experience. In addition to the cold the strong winds pushed us around, but a fun plan masked the adversity throughout our intensity session. We skied a few hundred meters over to the downhill area and caught an exhilarating few laps on the T-bar.
We had a lunch of ham and potatoes at the school before heading over to the waxing huts to prepare our skis for our race on Saturday. After a nap to catch up on sleep we drove over to Hellner Stadion (again) for a dinner of pea soup followed by delicious traditional Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam. As the day wrapped to an end we began tidying and packing up our stuff as a long travel day over to Luleå awaited us the next morning.
By Mark Shapovalov (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
April 1st, 2025
Today, after a relaxed morning and a Swedish breakfast of oatmeal, we headed to Hellner Stadion to start our long ski. We started out along Harrträsket Lake, and followed an amazing trail through the forest. The trail we followed was a circumnavigation of Dundret, the mountain above Gällivare. Our plan was to ski a 30km route around the mountain and have a picnic lunch at the midpoint. After about 20km we stopped for lunch at a firepit where Lisbeth and some of the Gällivare athletes had brought burgers and refreshments. After a relaxed lunch some of the boys decided to take the trail to the top of Dundret, while the rest of us continued on the 30km loop back to Hellner Stadion. After our ski, we spent the remainder of the afternoon in our accommodation working on homework.
In the evening, we headed back up to Hellner Stadion for a delicious dinner cooked by the Swedish athletes. The meal was accompanied by traditional midsummers food and dance. We all tried some Swedish specialities including midsummers cake, Swedish caviar and pickled herring, the latter of which some of us didn’t enjoy. After dinner we attempted some traditional Swedish dances and discovered that one of the dances was more of an April Fools joke than a Swedish tradition. We then finished up the evening by playing some outdoor games that the Swedish athletes organised.
By Koby Clark (Kimberley Nordic Club)
Below are the links to recordings of the races in Sweden last weekend:
https://www.arbetarbladet.se/2025-01-15/smart-energy-cup-och-bauhaus-cup-kiruna-dag-3/
https://www.arbetarbladet.se/2025-01-15/smart-energy-cup-och-bauhaus-cup-kiruna-dag-2/
https://www.arbetarbladet.se/2025-01-15/smart-energy-cup-och-bauhaus-cup-kiruna-dag-1/
Day 1: first Open Girls, Boys, then U18 Girls (starting at 2hr:43min).
Day 2,3: first there are U18 Girls, then U20 Girls, then U18, U20 Boys, then Open Girls, Boys. E.g. on day 3 U18 boys start at 1hr:50min.
Reports from March 29th-31st: https://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-ski-team-sweden-2025-b-tour-update-2
Reports from March 26-28th: https://crosscountrybc.ca/bc-ski-team-sweden-2025-b-tour
Athletes
Aleah Smith (Nelson Nordic Ski Club)
Andreas Inkster (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
Axel Hostyn (Black Jack Cross Country Ski Club)
Gavin Chatterton (Strathcona Nordic Ski Club)
Isabella Pighin (Telemark Nordic Club)
Kiara Pighin (Telemark Nordic Club)
Koby Clark (Kimberley Nordic Club)
Lucas Gitt (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
Mark Shapovalov (Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club)
Maya Abraham (Nelson Nordic Ski Club)
Nadia Wallin (Williams Lake Cross Country Ski Club)
Xavier Wallace (Overlander Ski Club, Kamloops)
Coaches
Maria Lundgren (CCBC Assistant Coach)
Adam Elliot (BC Development Squad Coach
