Minnesota Nordic Ski Association

The 2011 Minnesota Nordic Ski Association Lifetime Achievement Award will honor long-time racer, skiing advocate, and infamous leader of hill-bounding sessions, Bjorn Lasserud. Bjorn and other Minnesota skiers will receive their awards at the MNSAwards banquet on April 2nd. Click here for details and to reserve your tickets.

Selection committee chairman, Darby Nelson, spoke with Bjorn recently and offers this biographical sketch:

Bjorn Lasserud was born in Norway. As a teenager he participated in youth soccer and also did ski jumping. Surprisingly, he did not participate in cross-country skiing until he and his wife, Anne-Lise came to America. Bjorn acknowledges a drinking problem during those early years. He resolved to quit, but needed an activity to keep his mind occupied and alcohol at bay. He began running and met a man who asked him what sport he was training for. Bjorn said he wasn’t training for any sport. The man said, why don’t you ski with us? He got a pair of used skis and became acquainted with Norm Oakvik. That made all the difference.

He has gone on to become one of the most storied master skiers in Minnesota history. Bjorn’s trophies fill the walls of more than an entire room. He has excelled at every level including national master’s championships as well as international competitions, finishing second in the Norwegian Birkebeiner. He is most proud of winning the World Master’s Title.

Bjorn has made significant contributions to cross-country skiing in Minnesota. Starting about 1965, he and Norm Oakvik established training sessions at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. Eventually the fall training group shifted to Hyland Park where seventy to eighty people began showing up. One of Lasserud’s most endearing qualities is his willingness to help beginning skiers improve. Uncountable numbers of novice skiers, struggling awkwardly down the trail, have been approached by this man with the Norwegian brogue who would ask, “Can I help you?” Bjorn is a one man ambassador drawing others into his sport. Bjorn was also heavily involved with the Minneapolis Ski Club, a cornerstone organization in the early development of cross-country skiing. Bjorn did much coaching for the club. Bjorn also helped with the Ski For Light program that brought blind skiers from Norway to Minnesota. Lasserud helped blind people learn to ski in the program for three years. Bjorn says, “Skiing has made me a better person. It is the best sport there is.” He feels helping others is his way of giving something back to the sport that has meant so much to him.

Bjorn Lasserud has been an outstanding contributor to Minnesota skiing and is a most deserving recipient of MNSA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

[Editor’s note: Biographies of other recipients of the MNSA Lifetime Achievement Award will be posted in an online archive soon. – MB]

The City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation has submitted a plan to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to consolidate Theodore Wirth Park as an outdoor recreation hub:

“The Minneapolis parks system has lakes and riverfronts with asphalt walking and biking trails. It has dramatic features like Minnehaha Falls. It has pocket parks within reach of most citizens. It has soccer parks and baseball fields, and hockey rinks and ice arenas. What it does not have is a park devoted to lifetime activities – also known as active or silent sports. The northern portion of Theodore Wirth should be that park.

The idea is to create a central location for silent sports like cross country skiing,
mountain biking, trail running, disc golf, cyclo-cross, hiking and perhaps BMX bike riding.  The central location would act as a hub for these activities, with a central building, parking lot, and facilities catering to the silent sports community.  For instance, the building would contain a great room for meetings, a bike and ski shop (a North Minneapolis version of the Midtown Bike Station), office space for organizations devoted to increasing all, but especially youth participation in these activities, and a restaurant or coffee shop.”

Download the full proposal.

The additional income provided by a Minnesota Ski Pass fee increase will allow the State grant-in-aid trail fund to increase support for trails. The MNSA has recommended to the DNR that funds be used to:

• Increase grants to existing trails
• Expand existing trail systems
• Include new systems in the grant-in-aid program
• Fund capital improvements to grant-in-aid trails

Looking Ahead
Cross-Country Ski Trails
DNR Maintenance Forecast

By Megan Huls
Trails Reporter

If you’re a true Minnesotan, you’re looking forward to the possibility of several feet of white stuff covering the earth this winter. And if you’re a true cross-country skier, you’re hoping the trails will be ready and continually maintained for a long season.

Several trails throughout the state, nearly 700 miles worth, are maintained through the DNR Cross-Country Ski Trails Grant-in-Aid Program, which was created by the State Legislature in 1973 and is funded from the sale of cross-country ski trail passes. Ski passes are required on state forest lands, state trails, state park trails, and all Grant-in-Aid trails. Ski passes are available for one day ($5), a year ($15) or three years ($40).

“Buying a ski pass is an investment in the sport of skiing because funds are used to build and maintain trails,” said Andrew Korsberg with the Minnesota DNR Trails and Waterways Division.

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