Walking in a Winter Wonderland? Not so true this year. Unseasonably warm weather and lack of precipitation has led to a rough season forEdina’s Nordic Ski team. The team has been skiing at places like Hylands, Elm Creek and Theodore Wirth parks, along with doing dryland when they cannot ski.

Sophomore Peter Illig said “we’ve had a lot of dryland training, which mostly consists of running and strength exercises. Whereas last year we had a few days of dryland before we were on snow, this year we’ve been training without snow for almost two months.”

When it comes to meets, it’s been somewhat hard to stay on schedule. “We had three meets that were scheduled to happen by now: The first one was cancelled due to a lack of snow, the second one was moved to a location inWisconsin, and the third went ahead as planned.” Illig said. Sophomore Sam Caspar said that “many places that we ski meets at make their own snow.”

The lack of snow has been hard for first year skiers too. “This is my first year in Nordic, so it’s been hard for me, because I’m just learning how to ski, and I don’t get to practice on snow as much as I’d like to” sophomore Elizabeth LaLuzerne said.

So, how will the lack of snow affect our Nordic team in the long run? “Overall, we’ve been making it through this winter skiing where and when it’s been possible, so when we get snow we may have some catching up to do. But I don’t think that’s going to be a huge problem for us once we can start skiing more often, and as I said before, all of the teams have the same conditions and the same difficulties to deal with.” Illig said.  LaLuzerne added that “I think that in the long run, it will be okay, because all the other teams in our area are in the same position.”

Illig said that for now, “We’re all just hoping/praying/dancing for snow!”