Keweenaw Land Trust - Voice for protection of land and water in the Western Upper Peninsula

The Keweenaw Land Trust (KLT) is retiring the TalviTohinat cross-country ski and skijor races as a KLT event. We would like to acknowledge Mike Abbott and the staff of the MTU Sports & Recreation Department for their contribution in hosting past TalviTohinat events at the MTU Nordic Ski Trails. The TalviTohinat was initiated in January, 2006 as not only a fun winter fitness community event, but as a service project for MTU students to help support a local land conservation organization. The event was named the TalviTohinat, or “Winter Scramble” in Finnish, to note both its contribution to the Heikinpäivä Mid-Winter Festival and to parallel the HorseTail Scramble, our annual summer trail hike/run. The 2007 event added a skijor race, where a skier forms a team with a harnessed dog or two, and these races were popular with dog lovers and spectators for the last two years. The task of running the TalviTohinat, however, has proved to be more than the student group and our core volunteers could sustain, especially as several key volunteers experienced with organizing cross-country ski races have moved away from the area.

We hope another group can step forward to offer a similar event to replace the TalviTohinat, such as a skate-style ski race to complement the long-running Chassell Classic striding race as did the TalviTohinat on an open weekend in the regional ski race schedule. Mike Abbott would also like to see a skijor event continue at the MTU Nordic Ski Trails to highlight this sport and its contribution to the diversity of recreational opportunities in our community. As for the KLT, we are excited to turn our energy to a new series of KLT events called KLT Outings that will engage our volunteers, members and the community with our mission and year-round enjoyment of our protected lands.

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