Nate Erlandson and the US National Jr. Biathlon Team

The following post is by Nate Erlandson, Catalina Island Camps Assistant Site Manager. Nate works full time on the island making sure camp is functional and safe for all our programs. Nate came to CIC as a Power Boat Driver, became an instructor in our school year program (Catalina Environmental Leadership Program), was the Lead Boat Driver the past two summers and has worked in his current position since September 2007. Nate is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Minnesota.



I got involved with a sport called biathlon when I was about 14 years old. Being I grew up in northern Minnesota where skiing is commonplace, I feel I should explain the events involved for our warmer climate readers. Biathlon, a winter Olympic sport since 1960, (while it debuted in 1924, it took 36 years for the competing countries to agree on the rules) combines the disciplines of cross country skiing and rifle marksmanship. The sport has its origins in Scandinavia where Norwegian soldiers would use it as an exercise in military training.

A biathlon competition consists of a race in which athletes ski around a cross country track in the form of a loop that starts and finishes at an outdoor stadium. At the stadium is a shooting range consisting of 30 lanes with corresponding targets 50 meters downrange of the firing line. A race is either three or five ski loops with a shooting round between each loop. Thus, an athlete will shoot either two or four times depending on the race format. The shooting bouts are always half in the prone position (lying down) and half in standing position. The prone and standing targets are different sizes and to come up with some analogies…a standing target is more or less the size of a DVD, while a prone target is about the size of a half dollar. Keep in mind the athlete has just finished racing a 3km loop and they are trying to hold steady and control their breathing with a heart beating around 160 times per minute. Each athlete carries a .22 caliber rifle on their back while skiing and upon entering the shooting range will choose a lane and shoot 5 shots at the 5 separate targets in their lane. The black targets when hit will turn white so the athlete knows how many hits/misses they have. This is important because the athletes must complete an additional 150 meter loop for each target they miss. As in most races, the athlete with the shortest total time wins.

I raced cross country skiing and some biathlon during college with my last Junior World Championships in 2003. After graduating in 2006, I was excited to switch things up a bit from Minnesota and not only move to California, but proceed straight to Catalina Island to begin working summer camp as a boat driver. I liked it so much I also stayed for the CELP program in the fall. During my first winter on Catalina my old, and the current, coach called me up and asked me if I would like to accompany the Junior National Team to Italy as a wax tech for the athletes at World Championships.


This year marked my third “annual” trip as a wax tech and since we are in a pre-Olympic year, everything was held Canada…though not at the 2010 Vancouver venue. We spent the last week and a half in the beautiful Camore/Lake Louise/Banff area. The competitions took place at the ’88 Olympics venue and the hospitality was amazing! Our days would begin at 6am testing different waxes and ski structures before the athletes arrived at 8am. After finding what we considered the fastest combination of the day we would wax the race skis and then go out on course to cheer our athletes on. It’s always great to see our athletes do well and it’s also fun to hear the many languages and cheers from the 20+ countries that usually compete. Unfortunately there are only 2 athletes and 1 coach from Spain, making my Spanish rather useless, but thankfully most teams speak English as their second language!

While I had to return to Catalina for work instead of accompanying the other ski guys to Vancouver for a trial of the Olympic tracks, I can still say I have the privilege of enjoying the best of two worlds, small winter breaks at world class ski venues and the warm quiet beaches of Catalina year round. I am already looking forward to next year’s competition in Torsby, Sweden! Thanks for the time off Tom… 