x-c skiing

[pyxichick]

Thanks for the pictures, Yellow. That trail looks so fast and inviting... Just the perfect amount of snow and grooming.

[Bron]

Okay, I know it may be a little early to bring it up, but are there any other cross country skiers here?

Kate

It's never too early to think about skiing, I think I have been planning for this season since about March.

You're in training for the Birkie aren't you? That's a race that I would like to do one day, the website makes it sound like a great event.

My challenge is going to be learning good classic technique for the Vasaloppet. For some reason I found skating much easier when I started.

Now all we need is snow....

Bron

[Bron]

So, have any of you girls been out skiing yet? We are having the worst snow winter ever on the side of the pond. No after-work skiing , so we are trying to get fit by gym work and running.
On the plus side, when we did get to some snow last weekend, I managed to have a classic lesson which helped a lot. Still not sure how much fun 90km in one go will be

How is the Birkie training going?

Bron

[yellow]

Bron, we have snow here though not as much as last year. I didn't get my first day until early December. I have 9 days of skating and 2 days of classic so far; feels like more, though. I'm going skating this morning as we got a dump of snow yesterday (I had today off of work already...I did not call in "sick"). I'll be going down to Bryce Canyon for a long weekend this weekend and will thus ski there for 3 days (probably mostly classic-touring with hubby and friends); I've never done this before and have always wanted to. The after work skiing should start in another couple of weeks as the days get longer. I'm really looking forward to that, too!

Funny, with the new snow I told myself I'd go telemark skiing today since I really shouldn't pass up the Utah pow...but I realized I'd rather skate. This is a defining decision for me. I never thought I'd pass up a powder day to go skate.

[Bron]

All spare snow this way please!
I can't belive what a bad season it has been so far - you know the snow is thin when you trip up over mole-hills which are sticking up into the track. I hope all of you ladies in the US are having a better time of it.

How is the training going? We head off to Finnland next week, followed by Sweden for the Vasaloppet. This is going to be interesting, I've only raced once so far this year which was not part of the original plan.

Bron

[mudmucker]

I live to xc ski in the winter. Similar to living to bike in the good weather. I'm lucky and I can go right from my house or if not there are about 15,000 available acres within 20 minutes of the house. If we have a good season of snow and the more severe the winter, the healthier I am during that winter. I've been xc skiing for 32 years since I got my first skiis at 15. I've done the backcountry skiing and the ski skating. But now I mostly just do classical. I don't go to paid areas so I can be one with the earth, and also just on principle, unless the season gets bad, so I'll break trail or seek out the snowmobile tracks in remoter areas. Although I will go to a groomed area with a person who is new to it so they have a good experience. I try to do one moonlight ski each year and of course boy those nights are real cold, sometimes 0 degrees because all that radiational cooling. What is fun is that I skate 50% of the time on my classic skis. Up until about 3 years ago I was still using my old wooden Bonnas and was skating on the 3-pin bindings. I now have waxable fiberglass and I can beat em real good and not worry. This season has been pretty pitiful for the snow (up until today). Wahoo.