Mora Vasaloppet 2006
As I told you earlier, we went to Minnesota this last weekend. More specifically, we were in Mora, Minnesota staying with family. Mora is a small town. Cambridge is the big town nearby and that’s where we can find Wal Mart, Perkins, and Caribou Coffee. Generally speaking, from what I can tell as an outsider, Mora is a pretty quiet place for 364 days of the year. Then, on the second Sunday in February, the weekend we happened to be visiting, things change when the Vasaloppet comes to town.
The Mora Vasaloppet is a series of skiing races that range from the little kids’ Miniloppet and the adults’ 13k race to the full glory and crowd pleasing 58k race. A couple thousand people participate. People come from all over the world. The top male and female finisher in the 58k race get a free trip to Sweden to compete in the Swedish Vasaloppet.
So what do I know about cross country skiing? Just about nothing. But an event this large couldn’t be missed. We’ve been to running, biking, and tri events in the past year. Marathon skiing should be fun to watch. Especially when it’s one of the largest events in the country.
We walked through town along the streets now covered in snow. This is the one day a year when snow is wanted for a great finish in town. The snow throughout the countryside was apparently quite good this year. The announcers at the finish reminded us of the Car Talk guys with their inane banter mocking the names and hometowns of the various finishers. We loved it.
We walked out of town toward Lake Mora and found a group of people standing at the top of the hill by the belltower looking down toward the lake. It was painful to stand here and watch the skiers fight their way to street level from the frozen lake. The good skiers made it look easy. The not-as-good skiers, or those with bad luck, made it look absolutely painful. We quickly learned that the other spectators in the snow knew a lot more about the Vasaloppet and its players than we did. We just played along.
Guy: Ya know, I hear that Giese is just around the corner. He’s going to do it again this year, I suspect.
Me: I don’t know. There’s some good competition this year… from what I hear.
Guy: I guess you’re right. But Giese is going to do it again this year.
Me: (I nod my head)
Obviously this guy knew more about this competition than we did. Other than a newspaper story that morning about Giese, the local favorite that had won the event the last few years, we knew nothing about the characters involved in this event. We slowly stepped away from the know-it-all and wandered alongside the course through the middle of the lake.
The lake was filled with skiers from the various races of the day. Then, not too long after we got into the snow, we could hear a hum of excitement. It was like seeing a Formula 1 car pulling onto the freeway onramp. Up ahead were four skiers coming at us with blazing speed. These were the leaders of the 58k race. I have no idea who is who, but it was impressive to watch skate skiing with this level of skill. The others on the lake looked like they were standing still. We watched as one competitor pulled out a camera from his fanny pack as he was being passed.
We headed back into town. I had some great walleye at a cafe. We walked past all the competitors in the finish area and found our way back to our car.
Maybe we should learn to skate ski and come back next year. Now that would be fun. By the way, Giese won again this year.
I took a few photos using my plastic Holga and a 35mm film camera and have put them online here:
Link to the Exit133 Mora Vasaloppet 2005 Gallery