January 2016 January 2016 | Page 12

can quantify, because he tracks his hours for both pursuits – but in some weeks it can be close. Gavin skis both on his own and with the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Club (APUNSC) masters ski team, where he benefits from the incredible coaching of Galen Johnston and the resources of the APUNSC community. “In skiing you’re a master at thirty,” explains the 34-year-old skier, “so I qualify. I joined the group about two years ago, and it’s just been great. Galen has been amazing; his coaching has really helped me improve in the last year.”

Gavin also lauds the greater APUNSC community. “I mean, I look around the weight room on Friday afternoons [when he does his second strength session, and when much of the APUNSC Elite Team is also in the gym], and everyone else there has been in the top ten at U.S. Nationals. Many of them have won national titles. A few of them skied at

Sochi. Then there’s me, whose biggest skiing accomplishment has been age group medals in the Tour of Anchorage. And we’re all down there, in the windowless APU basement gym, working on becoming better skiers. It’s a blast.”

Outside of the gym, Gavin has spent several days in each of the past two summers training on snow at the APUNSC facility on Eagle Glacier, in the mountains above Girdwood. It’s the same setup that the APUNSC Elite Team and the U.S. Ski Team use; this year, Gavin and his fellow masters athletes were on the glacier a week after Kikkan Randall, Sadie Bjornsen, and other boldface names of American cross country skiing. “I tell people it’s sort of like being a football fan and getting to go to Seahawks training camp,” Gavin says. “Oh, and because [longtime APUNSC head coach] Erik Flora is up personalized coaching from Pete Carroll. It’s just an amazing opportunity.”

Skiers are made in the summer: putting in the K's on Eagle Glacier in June