Some years ago I came up with a brilliant idea. In 2021, when it's the 500th anniversary of when Gustav Vasa is supposed to have skied through Dalarna, why not commemorate that with skiing in clothes from the time period. I decided to do kort-Vasan, which is the shortest of the distances around Vasaloppet, the big ski race that goes 90 km in memory of Gustav Vasa's skiing. I got some more people interested in the idea, but things happend (like injuries and a pandemic). In the end I was the only one left. At this point I was thinking about just doing it in regular skiing clothes, but I also realized that I was not in a particularly good shape. If I'm going to go slower than I ha hoped for, well then I could just as well just do something fun of it. I decided just a few days before that I would go through with it in 16th century clothes.
At the start, you can see what other skiers wore behind me
The last week the beautiful winter also turned into a quick spring, with temperatures above freezing. This made it actually harder for me to decide what I would wear. My green wool gown would definitely be too warm, and my jacket that I had made a bit with this race in mind would also be too warm. In the end I decided to go with my first thin wool undergown and my shortsleeved teal gown. Both these gowns are my least historically accurate gowns, not the least because they are made in more modern kinds of wool, but that also means that I can throw them in a washing machine afterwards unlike my finer wool glothes. I also wear my old smocked shift, also a worn piece that I don't mind getting sweaty and can throw in the washing machine. On top at the start, when it was bit chilly I had the black cape that I actually made for my fandom fashion Enfys nest, my oldest wulsthaube and just a veil that I tied around the head. I also use the old wulsthaube since I didn't want my new one to get all sweaty. Under it all I also wore a modern set of under armor.
Taking a break at the resting place at the midway point, 13 km left after this.
The weather was lovely. Already during the first km I realized that my sleeves were too tight and they really restricted my movements. At the first control, after around 10 km, I had to ask the volunteers for a pair of scissors, and I got help with cutting up the sleeve seam. That was definitely a first for the people working the control. After that it was a lot more comfortable. Still it was very, very warm. I was sweating a lot. If I'm to do something like this again I definitely would need to bring my own water so I could drink in between the controls.
Overall I decided to not hunt for any times, just try to enjoy the weather and get to the finish eventually,
I did reach the finish line, about 40 minutes later than I had hoped, but still I did finish. You can also see that my wulsthaube had more or less slid off, this older one has stretched with age and is a bit too big to start with. I really missed that audience, usually on this race there are people almost all along the tracks, but of course with the pandemic that wasn't allowed this year. The few that saw me were very happy and it was fun to stop and talk with them. The other skiers also kept shouting to me and cheering me on. It was great being able to spread some joy in the track. Most people thought that I was skiing in a folk costume though.
Along the track there were some cameras, and they made a film from the clips they took there. (it's also an ad for the sponsoring car company). So if you want to see what it looked like when I moved.
I have tried to take some grabs from the film here.
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