Model event, WCup finals

Team USA headed in to the Pagla Ski Stadium today, just to check out the waxing facilities and check in with the organizers. It's a pretty cool looking arena, with a big hill overlooking the stadium that has cliffs on the side, and a steep alpine run on the other side. And they have ski bridges over the road - I really hope we get a route choice tomorrow that takes us over a bridge. Driving in we noticed one or two flags hanging in the forest, hopefully they're just as easy to see tomorrow!

From there, we headed south a bit to Sävast, for the model event. It's always fun to be at a ski-o model with all the other teams there, they looked way professional. I, on the other hand, was experimenting with dumb shortcuts and seeing if I could get air off the snow lips on the sides of the trail. The crust is decent, we'll see how tempting it is tomorrow in the sprint...

With this much daylight and these nice warm temperatures, it's hard to remember that we're so far north. It feels fairly normal. We did the usual things one does in Sweden, such as buying bulk candy and acquiring a big sausage from the oven. (Last year's Ski WOC organizers fed us "big sausage from the oven" at least three times over the week). Tomorrow is the first race, and with gorgeous sunshine and warm weather, it should be fun!

There is a horse track (for trotting horses) in town. We saw some real live horses out training with their little carts, but they were moving too quickly for me to get a decent photo, so I just took a photo of the statue...

Choosing between all the various types of polarkaka.