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Travels with the Leavenworth Olympian - "Up to Sverige" - Torin Koos Photo Story October 2006

UP TO SVERIGE

From here, the road only goes up. Up from the Wenatchee Valley river floor to the wheat fields of Waterville. Up, high with the hips before every pole impulse. Up with the effort and one-shot intensity. Up. Up. Up the results page.

Welcome into the Cold! As a sport, skiing presents unique challenges. Finding powdery white stuff to stride on is one. For ski junkies, three or four months on snow a year does not fill the addiction. By mid September skiing the southern hemisphere is a thing of the past. For the lull between seasons glacier skiing fills the void with guaranteed snowfields. But glaciers are found at high altitudes, tucked into difficult-to- access corners of the world that trade in names such as Dachstein or Val Senales or La Vallée Blanche.

Scandinavia has exactly one accessible glacier (Stryn), and only one winter ski season a year. The region also has plenty of passionate skiers. To remedy this situation, engineering and economics collided in the sleepy town of Torsby, Sweden [190 kms East of Oslo. 400 kms West of Stockholm] where a 1300 meter refrigerated track runs underground, making skiing available year round. Torsby’s Chamber of Commerce calls this sports tourism. I call this the ideal locale to get on the race boards before the World Cup opener in Dusseldorf, Germany.



Martin Stockinger, an Austrian national team skier, putting in the kilometers at Torsby’s Tunnel. Interested? Want to know more? www.fortumskitunneltorsby.se.
 

Sweden’s Countryside Scene - Red Houses in the Hills

Across Scandinavia wooden cottages and barns painted red poke through the countryside. The color isn’t a flashy fire engine red. Instead, it’s a deep, dark red formed by mixing linseed oil with the oxides and compounds left from the copper mines of Falun, Sweden. Back in the 17th century, when Sweden was a great power, the Falun mine supplied 70% of the world’s copper. For the last ten years the mine has been shut down. Even still, if you go the local hard wear store for a bucket of Falun Red paint it still contains 18% ruddle, the red ochre from the Stora Stöten mine.

So the next time your driving the Volvo through southern Sweden, or Minnesota, you’ll know why most every home, barn, shed and doghouse is red with white trimmed gables and corners. Swedish practicality. Here, in the region of North Varmland, the dream of the little red cottage by the lake lives on.
 

North Varmland is home to more than just skiers and red houses. There are woods and wildlife and, being fall, hunters. Beside the cabin where I prep my Rossignols, Swedes in camo and orange caps congregate post moose hunting.

At a thousand pounds on the hoof a full-grown moose is one tough customer. Yet from what I’ve seen, these outdoorsmen know what they’re up to. This group of hunters has already taken ten moose this fall. They tell me ten more will be theirs before the locking of winter sets. Who am I to argue? They took two this afternoon.

It’s only been a week, but rootbeer floats, relaxing with my golden retriever on the deck, and watching college football on Saturday afternoons seem like an almost forgotten dream. Different times: traversing down Tightwad Hill to the cheap seats with Colby Frazier and Janie McCauley and Co. for the Cal vs. Oregon football game in Berkeley.

To everyone, I wish you the best. See you when I see you. -Torin

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Torin Koos is a member of the National A Team for the United States and a World Cup, World Championship and Olympic competitor.

Equipment: Rossignol Skis, Boots and Bindings, Toko gloves and wax, Marwe, Exel poles, Rudy Project Eyewear, Powerbar
Home Ski Club: Leavenworth Winter Sports Club ( www.skileavenworth.com )
Headgear Sponsor: USA Pears ( www.usapears.com )
Best Western Icicle Inn ( www.icicleinn.com )
BioSports NorthWest Physical Therapy ( www.biosports.net )

Contact Information
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If you are interested in supporting Torrin Koos we will be happy to pass your information along to him.  Your partnership will help support the lifestyle needed to keep the dream alive. As an athlete, Torin hopes his Olympic journey inspires the community to participate in the free air lifestyle, the same customers that come to visit the Leavenworth area.

email: kevin@icicleinn.com
phone: 888-353-0595
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