Dear XC Skiing Community,

On-snow activity has started early this season with a couple of decent early dumps, hopefully this continues on into a bumper season. While I haven’t yet made it down to the mountains myself, it’s been great to see some fantastic conditions via social media and a stack of Strava updates on the Falls Creek and Perisher trails in particular. No doubt many of you have these sites book-marked, but for any new subscribers here are some essential links:

• Perisher XC grooming report
• Falls Creek grooming report (scroll down)
• Falls Creek groomer tracker
• Mt Hotham trail report
• Lake Mountain trail report
• Mt Stirling snow report
• Baw Baw snow report

Our first National Team on-snow camp is coming up at the end of next week down at Falls Creek, based out of the Howmans Gap Discovery Camp. Reflecting on nearly 40 years of these early training camps, we've included in this update some athlete flashbacks going back to the first AIS camp at Mt Beauty / Falls Creek in 1987.

With school, club and championship racing soon to commence in the coming weeks, I'd like to highlight the XC event section on the Snow Australia site. The calendar has been updated this week with some minor changes. Please note the timing of the Perisher events of the Australian Championships on August 1-2, with the Sprint scheduled for Friday and the 15km on Saturday. This rolls straight into the traditional events of NSW XC Week, where we are expecting to see an increase in National Team participation.

Also included in this update, we look over the shoulder at the historic 2024/2025 international season while planning begins for 2025/2026. In addition to World Cup and the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games, the team will return to Trondheim for the 2026 World Junior/U23 Championship next March. Coaches interested in being part of this venture should submit expressions of interest via the details in the article below.

Best wishes to all for a great winter of skiing in its many different forms!

Finn Marsland
Cross Country Skiing Program Director

The 2024/25 season for AUS XC will go down in the history books for the feats of a rising star who went where no other Australian athlete has gone before.

Rosie Fordham’s silver medal at the Under 23 World Championships marked a new high mark in the history of Australian cross country skiing. Her incredible performance in 10km Freestyle in Schilpario, Italy was the first time an Australian athlete had ever finished on a cross country podium at any World Championship event.

Since the late 1980's the early season on-snow camp at Howmans Gap has been a staple for the National Team, but the tradition actually started with an AIS camp based out of Mt Beauty in 1987.

As the National Team prepares for the next camp coming up in July, we reflect on four decades of Falls Creek training camps with a few blasts from the past.

Australian cross-country skiers were put through their paces recently by physiologists at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra. This annual pre-season camp is the prelude to a busy domestic season that is aimed at getting athletes primed for the crucial northern winter.  

Twelve athletes took part in the camp, including three Para-Nordic athletes vying for selection to the 2026 Paralympic Games in Milano Cortina. This was the first time that a joint able-bodied / testing camp for cross country skiing has been held at the AIS, with the camp also supported by Biathlon Australia. In Milano Cortina 2026 the Para Nordic athletes are potentially able to compete in both Cross Country and Biathlon events.

Snow Australia is seeking expressions of interest from coaches and other suitably experienced persons to work with the Cross Country Skiing High Performance Program at the following international events/tours during the 2025/2026 season:

• 2026 World Junior / U23 Championship, Trondheim, Norway
• 2025/2026 Junior Development Tour 

Additional information on possible job responsibilities is provided below via this linked PDF: EOIs - 2025/2026 Junior Tours

Interested persons should apply via email to Cross Country Skiing Program Director Finn Marsland (fmarsland@snow.org.au) by Friday July 4.

The Federal Government’s strong and continued backing of the Australian Paralympic Movement has been applauded by Paralympics Australia after $2.068 million in new funding was announced to support the 2026 Australian Paralympic Winter Team.

Federal Minister for Sport Anika Wells confirmed the investment as part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to provide certainty and opportunity for Australian Paralympians to succeed on the world stage.

On behalf of Snow Australia's Women of Winter (WoW), and APSI's Advancing Women in Snowsports (AWS), we welcome you to a in the snow sports industry networking evening to support women to stay involved in Snowsports.

Whether you are a seasoned professional or new to the industry, this event is aimed at promoting and supporting the presence of women in the industry and increasing awareness of career paths.

The evening will feature a panel discussion exploring coaching and instructing pathways within the snow industry. A group of accomplished women, each with a wealth of experience, will share insights and reflections from their career journeys.

Tickets are $20 per person, which includes canapes. There will also be a cash bar.

We hope to see you there!

Other Women of Winter Networking Events

• Falls Creek - Tuesday, July 29 (tickets will be on sale shortly)
• Mt Hotham - Sunday, August 10
• Mt Buller - Wednesday, September 4

Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) continues to provide the sports community with integrity education via their monthly webinar series.

These webinars provide a practical guide to help us address integrity issues.

See the calendar of webinars below with the first one, focusing on Anti-Doping 101 for Athletes, being held on Wednesday 2 July 2025.

Memberships for the 2025 season are now open! 

Don’t forget to renew your Cross Country membership for the upcoming season! To renew, please click on the 'read more' button below.