Tunnel Vision: The Road To Milano Cortina Took A Snowy, Underground Detour In Sweden In July
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by Alex Abrams
Michael Kneeland had heard stories about what it’s like to train inside an underground ski tunnel and how there’s always snow on the ground regardless of what the weather is like outdoors.
But Kneeland wasn’t sure of what to expect until he actually entered such a tunnel for the first time. He got that opportunity in July while taking part in a training camp that U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing holds every offseason in Torsby, Sweden.
The 19-year-old sit skier from Bozeman, Montana, said he initially felt strange being inside the tunnel, which is located roughly 380 miles west of Stockholm, not far from the Norway border. But he enjoyed himself as soon as he got adjusted to the artificial light and freezing temperatures inside the nearly mile-long arched lair.
“It was kind of weird at first because it was 30 degrees in the tunnel, and then outside it was 90 degrees. So, the temperature (change) was a little hard,” Kneeland said. “But once you get into the tunnel, it feels so good.”
For many of the top Para Nordic skiers, the summer can feel long and their constant training in the offseason can get tedious. They’re able to stay in shape while roller skiing on pavement or racking up miles on their mountain boards, but it’s not the same as being on snow.
Kneeland is a member of the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing development team. After spending much of the offseason doing dryland training in Bozeman, he welcomed the chance to join several of his teammates for roughly a week of skiing and target practice in Torsby.
“I thought that I was going to be struggling a little bit (inside the ski tunnel) since I was on roller skis for the summer before the trip. But then I tried (skiing again), and I really did pretty well with it,” Kneeland said. “It helps when it’s just a tunnel and there are no external factors like wind or the condition of the snow, where the tunnel is always the same.”
The training camp in Torsby was the first time that a group of American athletes had the opportunity to get on snow together since May, when they participated in a training camp that U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing held in Bend, Oregon.
As Ty Wiberg, a sit skier who’s also a member of the U.S. development team, put it, the ski tunnel gave all the athletes a chance to get “our skis under us and just mix up the training scenery.”
And with the Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 less than a year away, it was important for the Paralympians and Paralympic hopefuls who traveled to Sweden to avoid several-month layover without getting to train on snow.
“It felt good to get some snow under the skis,” said sit skier Aaron Pike, a seven-time Paralympian who’s a member of the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing national team. “Roller skiing is one thing I get to do a little bit, and I’ll be doing more of that, but there’s nothing that is quite like snow and what that pole planting feels like.”
Pike said he expected to have to ease into the training camp in Torsby and take it slow during the first few days inside the ski tunnel. But his body responded well to being back on snow, and he usually practiced twice a day while in Sweden.
The time inside the ski tunnel also gave Pike an opportunity to try out several adjustments that he has been making to his sit ski, including getting a new seat for it and changing the angle that he sits at while skiing.
“I was testing those things on snow because it’s really the only place where you can get a good idea like, ‘This is working, this is better (and) this is worse,’” Pike said. “And I was able to figure out some things with the sit ski that’ll hopefully pay dividends next season.”
The training camp wasn’t all work, though. Since many of the athletes are scattered across the country, they were able to reconnect and joke around with each other in Torsby. They also continued a tradition of exchanging gifts while in Sweden.
“It’s great to have touch points throughout the year where we get to spend time together and get to do workouts together,” said Dani Aravich, a two-time Paralympian and a member of the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing national team. “Every time we go to Sweden, we always do like a Secret Santa no matter the time of year. And so we really do try to keep a light, fun atmosphere while we’re together.”
Kneeland said he lost track of time while practicing inside the ski tunnel because he couldn’t see the sky. It threw his body off, and he needed to glance at his watch to find out the time.
“It’s just kind of an interesting feeling of being in a fridge pretty much, and you just stay there and just do exercises,” Kneeland said. “And you come out and it’s like, ‘Oh, the sun has already moved a lot and it’s already the afternoon.’”
Kneeland said he feels he’s at a point as a skier where his strength is good, but he has room for improvement when it comes to his skiing technique. While training in Torsby, he noticed how simply changing his hand placement while holding his ski poles led to him skiing much faster.
Like Kneeland, Pike had to get accustomed to the freezing temperatures inside the ski tunnel. He said it was really hot in Champaign, Illinois, where he lives, in the days before he left for Torsby, and he welcomed the chance to get out of the sun.
“It was pushing into that 90-degree, really humid stuff that we have in the Midwest, and then switching to walking into like an indoor freezer was a little bit of a change,” Pike said. “But it was kind of a nice change actually because I was a little bit sick of the heat.”
Alex Abrams has written about Olympic and Paralympic sports for more than 15 years, including as a reporter for major newspapers in Florida, Arkansas and Oklahoma. He is a freelance contributor to USParaNordic.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
