Cross Country Skiing

Yesterday I went to Wachusett for some lift-service telemark skiing again. This time I went with a friend who is a more experienced tele skier than me. We knew it was going to warm up and rain so we wanted to get out there before the weather got here. The season is getting short. It was a beautiful sunny day with very good conditions. Got there nice and early and basically had the slopes to ourselves till about 11am or so. It was really nice to have someone watch my form and be able to critique it and give good pointers. It really is awful hard to see yourself. We came across another tele skier, an older fellow, who was just art in motion and beautiful to watch. We three ended up hanging out together for quite a spell and I was able to get excellent tips and advice from the other guy too ( I've never come across other women doing this). Tele Man gave my friend a helpful hint also, where he felt a great improvement after making one adjustment.

Both these guys had the hard core tele equipment. I was using my more flexy type boots so in order to speed up my learning curve I decided to go over to the ski shop and demo some beefier boots. I tried out some Garmont Veloce's (only $15 for the day). Went back out to the slopes and met up with the guys again. Sure enough the boots helped and by end of day my form was getting a lot prettier. Always room for improvement but even Tele Man said I was was "pretty much there". Just need to keep practicing.

I'm not going to want to do lift-service telemarking often but maybe once in a while. So the day was loads of fun but boy are my legs feeling it today. This weekend I'll probably get out to do a little more gentle backcountry - I still have over 2 feet of snow.

It was doing the rain/snow thing yesterday so the snow was really sticky. We took the dogs out for a ski out our back door in the morning. Poor Toby, our rough collie, he had HUGE snowballs in his ruff and between his legs. We had to keep stopping to pull them off of him. I had sprayed his paws with Pam so they were OK, but his poor belly and chest...

In the afternoon I got a little housebound, so I went over to the cross country center for a short ski. The lodge was right at the transition zone. It was raining at the bottom, but snowing after just a short climb. The conditions were weird, but at least I got out of the house.

Finished up a week in Colorado today - downhill at Breckenridge. Texas is on Spring Break this week, and I think the entire state decided to ski Breck today. Good grief, what lift lines!!! :eek:

But on Saturday, we broke up our week of downhill with some xc skiing at the Keystone Nordic Center. My friends from Boulder drove up for the day to join us. It was pleasantly warm....loads of sunshine, but not too mushy. It was my first time on xc skis in several years - the first time on (paid) groomed trails in an eon! It was DH's first time ever on xc skis. As predictable...he did great. We stuck to the green "easy" trail, as it was only the second time on skis for our friend's 8-y.o. daughter.

Nice way to spend a day.

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...-22-43_844.jpg

Jealous.
Ski season is over here, unless I want to go up north.

Going to the XC center for probably the last time this season today. The center closes next Sunday and we'll be going away for a few days this week. This has been my best season. I got out there 47 times! That's at least double what I've been able to do before. Yay!

My God, Can Cross Country Skiing is a cool action, I'm so envy you!:eek:

It is almost that time of year again!!! Snow storm heading to CO tomorrow!!:D

Oh... I was just about to dig up this thread and someone else did it for me!
We got our Vermont Ski Magazine yesterday and there's a pair of skis in there I am interested in. Anyone have or know about the Fischer Silent Spider 62s? The ad says they are skinny enough for tracks, but have an "off track"pattern on the bottom, good for back country, full metal edges, and are shorter, for control. Sounds exactly what I want....

I can just hear DH now. "What a custom bike isn't good enough?"

I think this is going to be the year I finally try it...there's a place a couple towns over that sounds like a good one to start out at.
http://www.harrisfarm.com/skiing.html

Snow is on its way!! Up to 12inches in the Front Range!!:D

We bought our XC passes last week. Ready and waiting now...

I am also looking forward to XC ski season. DH and I have dreams of going to Yellowstone NP and doing some backcountry XC skiing there. How cool would it be to ski around some Bison and thermal features in winter.

Trek-chick, that sounds fabulous. I'm here in Michigan too, wonder when we'll get our first snow. Where do you ski in Michigan?

Might be skiing tomorrow. Already 2 inches on the ground. I'll have to go to conservation land trails, but, hey better than nothing.

We're still getting rain in this part of the state, but maybe there will be a blanket of white in the morning...skis are waiting, and ski boots have been brought to the front of the closet.