Skiing, Waterloo Style

So like a good portion of the rest of Ontario, Waterloo did indeed get some snow over night, which of course meant one thing. Golf course skiing at Westmount.

With about 2 sm of snow on the ground and more falling, it was not kind on par with Kussamo, but it created some solid grass skiing. Since it was nice and powdery it provided a semblance of glide and overall was a very good grass ski experience.

No pictures this time, as the photography staff was worried about their equipment being damaged during the game of snowball tag. They probably made a good decision with the reckless abandonment that Ryan was displaying.

Looks like Highlands is currently getting dumped on, so it looks like there will be some quality skiing there tomorrow.

Rollerski Duathlon "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?"

Editor Note: This blog entry is very much overdue, seeing as this race happened earlier in the month. UWNN would like to point out that other important events have happened since then that have led to its delay. Such as the start of the World Cup season, there was a little race in Gallivare last weekend and a mini tour coming up this weekend in Kuusamo. Which meant that all of the staff was on assignment. If you haven't been paying attention, go to your favourite skiing news outlet and catch up. Oh, and you should probably watch some of the races this weekend, seeing as there are two sprints which are always exciting. Now, on to the race report, with lots of pictures!

UW skiers traveled done to Badenoch to participate in the annual rollerski dualthon organized by the University of Guelph. Entitled "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?", the event tested the shear determination, will and endurance of every athlete, pushing them to their physical and mental limits.
Okay, so it was a little tamer than that with the women running 2 km and then rollerskiing 10km and the men running 4 km and then skiing the same 10km with the women.

The event was well attended with athletes from the University of Toronto and Queen's joining those from Guelph and Waterloo. In all, there were approximately 30 participants, with 6 Waterloo athletes/coaches taking part.

Everyone lined up at the start waiting for the go.

Alison and Katie, among others, running off of the start.

Katie coming into the transition off of the run.

Alison and Katie in the transition.

Katie heading out from the transition into the rollerski leg.

Coach Rhodes coming in from the run to the transition.

Nathaniel (Top) and Ryan (Bottom) coming in off of the run.

Glenn heading out on the rollerski.

At the end, Glenn was narrowly edge out at the line to end up in a solid 2nd place and earn himself some baked goods. Overall, the Waterloo athletes had successful days and everyone was deemed "Bad Enough for Badenoch".

Editorial - No-Good November

For most cross country skiers, the end of October and most of November is useless. This is especially true when you attend a post-secondary institution in Southern Ontario.

You want to train after school? Do it in the dark with the sketchy dude drinking beer by himself on North Campus. You want to rollerski? Wear a vest and a light, or some crazy soccer mom from the suburbs will have you as a hood ornament for her Acura MDX. You want to ski? To &*%$ing bad – it’s Southern Ontario, probably between 5-10 degrees and raining and cold, but with no real hope of snow. Want to go out of town to ski? Tough – you have classes and midterms, or if not, a bunch of lazy jabroni’s on your ski team who say they don’t have time to drive 10 hours each way to Quebec. So what are you left with, you ask?

You’ve come to the right place.

Last year, the UW Nordic Ski Team pulled off a pretty solid November session that involved a figure eight loop, a bunch of shovels, and a shit ton of enthusiasm.

In previous years, we’ve rocked Westmount G and CC with minimal snow, which is more fun that you might think, unless you’re a G and CC member, in which case, those were not my ski tracks on your greens.

But if you’re still without snow in the middle of November, there is really only one activity I can truly recommend to avoid a complete and utter skiing meltdown.

A trip to St. Jacobs Market.

That’s right, eating. Who cares how much ass your workout sucks when you can come home to awesome (and cheap) Mennonite bacon? Or those sausages that you know are legit, because they cut them off a 200 foot roll for you when you buy them? How about 20 lbs of potato’s for $5 from a guy who is still covered in dirt from the field where he dug them out of? Fresh bread? Apples? Or maybe a Sherpa jacket?

November – the month to come home from your miserable, rainy, cold, dirty, not-quite-snowing, school-work-talk-filled hell of a workout and settle into some good food, and not moving for at least an hour. Get it in ya.

Snow! and Skiing!!

Well attending "R U Bad Enough for Badenoch?" rollerski dualthon on Saturday (results and post in the near future), word was received that Highlands Nordic had received 10cm of snow and then had panned some trails for skiing!!! Excitement was rampid with all of those in attendance and the very, very easy decision was made to head up early Sunday morning for some skiing. Upon arriving back from the duathlon, most members of the ski team obviously went and checked the Highlands website to verify the snow and no one was disappointed as this is what greeted them.

Photo credit: Highlands Nordic (www.highlandsnordic.ca)

So a couple car loads of skiers headed out at 7 am to make their way to Highlands and get some early season skiing in. What greeted them did not disappoint, as there was in fact snow and the trails were in good/excellent rock skiing conditions.


The trail leading up to Larry's Glacier had some water/mud portions, but it was possible to ski up. The good skiing was at the glacier, as the yellow, along with portions of the orange loop were panned and very excellent for early season skiing. Overall, the loop was long enough to ski about 20 min continuous on the loop. And so the skiers went out putting in numerous loops in order to take advantage of the snow.

Lots of snow and good coverage on the trails made for some excellent skiing conditions, considering it is only November 7th. Now the countdown begins until their is consistent snow, but obviously everyone was very excited to get the opportunity for some skiing this early in the season.