June 4, 2011 – This week, the number of entries for the 2012 Vasaloppet reached the registration ceiling set at 15,800 participants. This means that Vasaloppet is once again fully booked and perhaps more popular than ever. Over the last three years Vasaloppet has sold out – by November 14 in  2009, August 25 in 2010 and now a new record of May 30th in 2011.

“It’s really great that so many skiers have already decided to participate in the classic Vasaloppet. Too bad for those that didn’t manage to register in time, but the opportunity to take on the Öppet Spår is still there,” commented Vasaloppet CEO Jonas Bauer.

“We thought, and indeed suggested to the media, that the Vasaloppet could be full just before mid-summer. But it looks like many took the opportunity to register in May and enter before the entry fees increase on June 1,” added Bauer.

There are a total of nine races scheduled for Vasaloppet’s Winter Week 2012 and so far 24,500 people have registered, representing an increase of 40% compared with the same time last year. Among the other races, there are the KortVasan and TjejVasan which so far have the most entries. Many teams have already signed up for the StafettVasan – an increase of 200% – which is a good sign as there were a lot of teams who were too late to register for the 2011 race.