Loppet

What is a Loppet?

On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, shmedlap wrote:

What is a Loppet?

"Lopp" (noun) is Swedish for race, run, etc. "et" is the
singular, definite suffix == "the"

The most famous use is "Vasaloppet" == "the Vasa ski race"
In general it means any mass-participant race.

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

Thankyou for your reply.

Can a Loppet be any style of cross country ski race? Or does it assume a
certain style?


"David Dermott" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, shmedlap wrote:

What is a Loppet?

"Lopp" (noun) is Swedish for race, run, etc. "et" is the
singular, definite suffix == "the"

The most famous use is "Vasaloppet" == "the Vasa ski race"
In general it means any mass-participant race.

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

[ ]

Can a Loppet be any style of cross country ski race? Or does it assume a
certain style?

Now I'm not Swedish (but Norwegian), but I think it's a pretty general
term in Swedish. Mostly used for mass-participant ski races, as David
wrote. I'm not sure if it's used for non-ski races of any kind; in its
basic form I don't think it has any intrinsic 'ski' meaning.

Norwegian for 'ski race' is 'renn', BTW.


Martin
--
"An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader."
-Paul Graham, On Lisp

The word is used more narrowly in non-Scandinavian contexts -- like a
foreign technical word.

A "loppet" is a long cross-country ski race on groomed trails. The most
frequent distance is 50 km / 31 miles. The trails are mostly pretty gentle
by backcountry skiing standards, _very_ gentle by ski mountaineering
standards. For some examples:
http://www.worldloppet.com
http://xcskiworld.com/events/ASM/ASM_sitepreview.htm
Since the courses are gentle and groomed, most people do them on very light
gear, and the more athletic skiers skate most of the way (though some
loppets have old-fashioned rules that forbid skating). Despite the relative
gentleness, some of the curvy downhill sections can be a bit exciting at on
ultra-light skis and high speeds. To further help with going light, there
are stations for food and drink about every 10 km.

I've found loppets to be a fun and challenging experience, even though I'm
mainly a backcountry skier. I do one or two each winter -- especially the
Lake Placid Loppet, with its fun and athletically challenging Olympic course
(which connects with the best backcountry skiing terrain in New York state).

A (non-Scandinavian) loppet is like a running marathon, but on skis. Lots
of people ski in a loppet with no thought of trying to win -- just try to
finish, and see how their time compares with their buddies or with last
year. The winners typically finish 31 miles / 50 km in less than 2.5 hours.

Ski races interesting for this newsgroup which are _not_ "loppets":
http://www.pierramenta.com
http://www.pdg.ch
http://www.life-link.com/race.htm

Ken

[ Ken Roberts ]

A (non-Scandinavian) loppet is like a running marathon, but on skis. Lots
of people ski in a loppet with no thought of trying to win -- just try to
finish, and see how their time compares with their buddies or with last
year. The winners typically finish 31 miles / 50 km in less than 2.5 hours.

That's very much like Vasaloppet, Birkebeinerrennet and the other
Scandinavian mass ski races. Some of the national elite, and many of
those not quite in the World Cup class, do the races as a competition,
but most participants only compete against themselves or their
buddies.

These are done with racing gear on well-groomed tracks. In
Birkebeinerrennet you have to have some basic extra gear (or rather a
pack of more than a specific weight, I think five kg or something like
that); some races in less mountainous terrain doesn't have any gear
requirements. There are mountain skiing races, some both up and down
mountains, others only down (although you have to walk up to the
start), but these are done on randonnee or downhill telemark gear. I'm
not aware of any "flat" backcountry races -- that is, no groomed tracks

I'm doing Holmenkollmarsjen each year, that's 42 km through the woods
North of Oslo, ending at Holmenkollen (Oslo's ski stadium). That's one
of the shorter races. I (reasonably fit) beat the winner of the 80+
age class last year, but not by very much.

BTW, talking about "a loppet" is very strange to Scandinavian ears.
The -et ending signifies definite form ("the" in english, but we put
it at the end). The indefinite form is "lop" (generally we don't end
words in two of the same letter, so "lop" loses its second p in
indefinite form).

BTW2: Snow on the gound in the higher parts of Oslo! Not many cm yet,
but if the weather stays cold there might soon be enough in the woods
to take out the rock skis...


Martin
--
"An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader."
-Paul Graham, On Lisp

Ken Roberts wrote:

A (non-Scandinavian) loppet is like a running marathon, but on skis. Lots
of people ski in a loppet with no thought of trying to win -- just try to
finish, and see how their time compares with their buddies or with last
year. The winners typically finish 31 miles / 50 km in less than 2.5 hours.

Ski races interesting for this newsgroup which are _not_ "loppets":
http://www.pierramenta.com
http://www.pdg.ch
http://www.life-link.com/race.htm

you could add the famous Mezzalama (Monte Rosa, Italy), but all that
courses - to me - are'nt really sympathical, because of the obvious
doping of many many of the partecipants. More in the spirit of this
group, i think, are the Derby della Meije or Galdhoeppigrennet or ...

Greetings,

Ulrich

--
reply to: uhausmannATbluemailDOTch

"Martin Thornquist" wrote I'm
not aware of any "flat" backcountry races -- that is, no groomed tracks


Ski orienteering offers the choice of leaving groomed tracks to take a more
direct route. The ski-O maps indicate the groomed tracks and show whether
they are groomed for skating. In actuallity, the penalty both in terms of
time and of effort involved in breaking trail and the tendancy of all the
competitive ski orienteers to use skating skis means that ski-O is actually
done entirely on prepared track.

Tommy T.

[ Tommy T. ]

Ski orienteering offers the choice of leaving groomed tracks to take a more
direct route. The ski-O maps indicate the groomed tracks and show whether
they are groomed for skating. In actuallity, the penalty both in terms of
time and of effort involved in breaking trail and the tendancy of all the
competitive ski orienteers to use skating skis means that ski-O is actually
done entirely on prepared track.

Oh yeah, there's that. Ski orienteering never really caught on over
here, though, and there's definitely no mass participant races.


Martin
--
"An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader."
-Paul Graham, On Lisp

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, Martin Thornquist wrote:


Now I'm not Swedish (but Norwegian), but I think it's a pretty general
term in Swedish. Mostly used for mass-participant ski races, as David
wrote. I'm not sure if it's used for non-ski races of any kind; in its
basic form I don't think it has any intrinsic 'ski' meaning.

I think there are running (ie foot) races called "lopp(et)" in
Sweden, eg - Lidingöloppet - a running race in Stockholm.

Swedish athletes also use the word "motions-lopp" lit.
"exercise-race". It's a race where there is no ranking of finishing
times- everybody competes just to finish. I'm more familiar with it as a
cycling term, eg in the 300 km bicycle event "Vätternrundan". But I'm
sure I've seen "motionslopp" used for skiing, skating, etc. races. I
think Norwegians also use the word "mosjonsløp".

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/