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Written by Brian Olsen
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Tuesday, 01 November 2005 00:00 |
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Location: Geilo, NOR
Last night, the big red train delivered me from Oslo to Geilo. Exhausted from travel and the time change, I collapsed onto the sofa while Anne Marie cooked dinner.
Just getting to this point has been three weeks in the making. When I arrived back in northern Maine in early October from Utah, I hit the ground running, getting all of the last minute things completed before the season would commence. There was equipment to receive, sponsor agreements to finalize, skis to prepare, a rifle to complete, and all the while, continuing a hard training schedule.
The most difficult task of the past three weeks was packing everything up and moving out of the lodge in Fort Kent. Not only did I have to move out all my belongings – from cookware to clothes to equipment stored in the wax room – but so too did I have to pack everything that I would need for the next five months of traveling.
Having been in this sport for a while, I have concluded that less is always better when it comes to packing. Always leave plenty of room in each bag. Not only do you keep the airlines from charging you excess weight fees, but you save your back the agony of carrying even more weight inside airports, through train stations, and up never-ending hotel staircases.
Still there are hard decisions to make. Are the snow conditions good enough to warrant carrying around all of my race skis? I decided no, so I left most of my skis to wait in Maine until I return in late December. It has turned out to be a good decision since the snow conditions here probably will not improve in the next week or two. One ski is light, but ten pairs together are surprisingly heavy.
Then there comes the questions of wax and service tools. Are the conditions going to be cold, warm, or too difficult to even use kick wax? I decided the latter and opted for a pair of waxless skis (thanks Hansi). Rossignol is introducing this season a “new” model of classic skis called the AR series. Well, the pair I have is the original AR from about ten years ago with the original NNN step-in bindings. Do you remember those? Though they are heavy, bringing them meant that I could leave behind my kick waxing supplies. Moreover, they make my classic ski training sessions more strength-oriented since they do not glide so well.
The final question is what clothes should I bring? For me, this part is easy. All the socks I own. Base layers for training, some hats, and some gloves. Ski jacket and pants. Normal pants and maybe a shirt or two. There is no need for a whole wardrobe. This is skiing, not an after-ski modeling shoot. Looking at our European competitors, though, and you would think that you are at a fashion show. Wow, do they love expensive clothes.
In the end, I was able to check-in for my flight without paying a single overweight charge, though two bags were a few pounds overweight. Of course, as always, I had to pay for a third bag since there is simply no safe and secure way to fit my rifle into a ski bag or duffle. Since they do not allow scissors on planes, I think trying to pass through security with a biathlon rifle on my back might result in a flight to Guantanamo Bay, not Norway.
So I arrived here safe, with all of my luggage. The ground is still bare after a few days of rain that melted and washed away the two feet of snow that was on the ground just last week. We will see how it goes… I am glad that I packed my rollerskis, just in case.
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