The Tierra Mayor valley a few km north from Ushuaia had abundant snow early August. But just a few days before Ushuaialoppet planned on August 12, strong rains and high temperatures destroyed the snow cover. Skiers who visited the area on August 10 thought that it was impossible to organize a race when there were only some scattered patches of snow on the ground and predominantly grass, mud, frozen ponds and small streams of water. But the organizers worked very hard, shovelling snow and building small bridges. It was evidently impossible to use the normal course. But the solution was similat to what we had seen recently in the Czech Republic and in Estonia. On the race day we enjoyed an excellent 6 km snow avenue in the plain in the vicinity of the ski center Tierra Mayor, to be made eight times for the 48 km Gold race and four times for the 24 km Silver race. It was mainly flat but included a little climb, and on the return a descent where we could enjoy an appreciable speed.Two classic tracks remained in good condition for everybody and there was ample space without any crowding. The time-keeping was manual, no chips.

61 skiers finished the 48 km race and 31 the 24 km race. There were more foreigners from other continents than South America (49) than skiers from South American countries (43).

On the race evening a nice prize distribution and a dinner were available at the ski center. Russian skier Alexei Cheredilov who finished his first Worldloppet passport was celebrated and received his Master medal and diploma. The ambassador of Finland in Argentina Teemu Turunen made a speech and reminded hat this year is the 100 year jubilee of Finland’s independence. That was celebrated at Finlandia – hiihto where a 100 km race was organized.

Some results of IAWLS members :

48 km race

Joseph Luce             FRA    5 :21 :17

André Viry               FRA    5 :15 :14

Jörg Kaiser               GER    3 :41 :55

Monika Kaiser        GER    4 :13 :34

Kralova Ivana         CZE     4 :15 :36

Kral Josef                 CZ E    4 :15 :37

24 km race

Matti Huotari          FIN     2 :48 :10

Veli Rautiainen       FIN     3 :30 :01

Raimo Valkonen    FIN     2 :30 :01

Hannes Larsson      FRA    2 :05 :36

Tom Sutherland     USA    1 :40 :47

Marchablanca took place on August 20. This 21 km race followed the normal course with a turning point at the Cerro Castor alpine center. This year it was a FT race. It had been snowing during the week but not quite enough and in some places the glide was not perfect because of grass or mud. Shorter promotional races were available for beginners.

Some results of IAWLS members :

Kralova Ivana         CZE     1 :47 :27

Kral Josef                 CZE     1 :47 :26

Matti Huotari          FIN     2 :55 :04

Veli Rautiainen       FIN     2 :54 :48

Raimo Valkonen    FIN     2 :33 :08

Hannes Larsson      FRA    2 :54 :46

Kaiser Jörg               GER    1 :33 :07

Kaiser Monika        GER    1 :45 :36

Tom Sutherland     USA    1 :36 :22

Hannes Larsson