David Mackintosh
OUTSIDE
A Sport to Love for a Lifetime The Teacup Nordic masters program grows as an extension of the junior team story by RUTH BERKOWITZ | photos provided by TEACUP NORDIC
I
Mia Corkran
t’s a wintry February afternoon and the Teacup Nordic masters and junior ski teams gather outside the rustic warming hut on Mount Hood, 35 miles south of Hood River. We are donned in spandex tights, with headlamps on our heads and hydration packs on our hips. Coach Karl Andersson directs us through warm up exercises: making S-turns around a course of orange cones with only one thin narrow ski and two long poles. I have trouble balancing, although I notice that bending my knees and looking over my shoulder while turning helps.
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WINTER 2019-20 II THE GORGE MAGAZINE
This is the first year the juniors and masters loosely train together and it’s successful because Nordic skiing is a sport where people of all ages can enjoy the trails simultaneously. Ebullient junior member Catcher Kemmerer asks Andersson to make the course even harder. “You can ski it backwards,” Andersson says, laughing. The cobalt sky melts into darkness, enabling the nearly full moon to light our path. It’s been a snowy month and the trails are perfectly groomed. The night feels magical. Most of us are on skate skis, which require a diagonal ice skating movement, as opposed to the more traditional classic skis — think running with skis on. Some of the hardcore junior skiers are extremely fast and in excellent cardio shape. Then, there are entire families here, like the Corkrans: Doug Corkran competed on the Teacup team as a youth in the 1980s and tonight his wife and teenage daughter join him. There is no other place I would rather be. Last winter, Andersson spearheaded the pilot masters/adult program and it will continue this year. “It just might be my legacy,” Andersson says with a twinkle in his turquoise eyes. I am thrilled that he has opened the team to adults,