A gust of wind strikes Nordic skier Frances Bursch’s already numb face as she pushes herself to the finish. Her breath visibly condenses in the frigid air. Her leg muscles burn but she powers forward. Then she splashes through a large puddle.
Don’t be misled by the chilly temperatures: There is no snow on this course. Bursch (pronounced “bursh”) is running on a red rubber track, putting in the hard work needed to build peak fitness. This twice-weekly, intense training far from the snow will make all the difference for Bursch and the rest of the University’s Nordic Ski Club when they ultimately compete on the white stuff.
Unlike the relatively short adrenaline burst involved in downhill ski racing, Nordic skiing is characterized by perseverance and endurance. Nordic ski races grind out over long time periods and vast snowfields on courses ranging from 5 to 50 kilometers in length. Nordic skiers traverse through snow-blanketed woods, climbing and sliding down large slopes.
“(Nordic skiing) is really physically demanding,” Bursch says. “It’s like long-distance running, but you have to trudge through snow the whole way.”
Bursch, a sophomore, grew up in the fishing village of Homer, Alaska, where snow falls much of the year. Alaska produces strong Nordic skiers because residents of the Frontier State typically cultivate the drive and toughness critical for succeeding in the sport.
Bursch fell in love with skiing when she was just 4 years old.
“My mom would take us out to the driveway when I was little and I would just play around in the snow with my skis on,” Bursch says. “It really helps to have lived in a place where there is snow on the ground for several months of the year.”
In high school, Bursch joined the Nordic ski team and emerged as one of its stars. In her senior year, she finished with one of the top times in the Alaska state championship. When it was time to choose a college, however, skiing was barely a factor.
“I was pretty burned out from skiing after racing so much in high school, so I didn’t want to choose a school just based on skiing. And I knew I wanted to leave Alaska and try someplace new,” Bursch says. “I liked that Oregon was definitely different than Alaska because there were a lot more people, but also similar to it because of the same passion for the outdoors.”
Some people might have struggled to make the transition from growing up in a remote community of about 5,000 people to living in a major college town like Eugene, yet Bursch embraced the change and adapted quickly.
“It was a little weird coming from a small high school where you know everyone to being an anonymous student on campus,” Bursch says. “But I got used to it and I really like it.”
After taking a break from skiing for the first half of her freshman year, Bursch decided to join the Oregon Nordic Ski Club during last spring term.
“Part way through last winter I realized I missed (skiing),” Bursch says. “When I found out that there was a club team here I knew I had to join.”
Club coordinator Casey Gifford and her friend Jake Abrahams revived the team last year after it had been inactive on campus for nearly 15 years. The club currently has about a dozen members, ranging in all levels of experience.@@http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120855834597602&v=wall@@ @@http://pages.uoregon.edu/uonordic/Contacts.html@@
“We’re hoping to have more people involved as the ski season approaches,” Bursch says. “There are a lot of people who are really casual about Nordic skiing but I think they would like competing in the sport if they tried it out.”
During fall term and the offseason, the team works hard to train and prepare for races. Practices take place on Mondays and Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., beginning with a four-mile run. The team then works on plyometrics, training designed to build explosive speed and power in the leg muscles.
“Anyone walking by our practices might laugh hysterically when they see plyometrics because we are doing weird skips and jumps,” Bursch says. “But the exercises correlate quite well if you’re actually thinking about skiing.”
Training for Nordic skiing also requires an emphasis on core strength in the abdominal muscles in order to maintain balance.
When the ski season does arrive, the club actively travels to compete in races. Being one of the three collegiate Nordic ski clubs in the Pacific Northwest (along with Whitman College and Central Oregon Community College), the new team only participated in a few open races last year, traveling to Bend and the Hoodoo Ski Area. But members of the team are hopeful to compete in their first collegiate competition later this year. In addition, Gifford is already planning for the team to travel to Idaho for the Boulder Mountain Tour and also to Mount Bachelor for The Great Nordeen Race.@@http://www.mbsef.org/NordicRaces/@@ @@http://www.bouldermountaintour.com/info.asp@@
As for Bursch, the pure joy she experiences while gliding over the snow is worth all the hard work she puts into conditioning in the offseason.
“Nordic skiing is the perfect interaction between physicality and the absolute beauty of nature,” Bursch says. “I love the excitement of competing and it’s just great to get out there on the snow.”