x-c skiing

[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.

[mudmucker]

Ya know, I said I don't really like to go to paid areas to ski anymore. Mostly because it's just too good around where I live so I don't want or need to pay. But I keep looking at that second picture of Yellow's - nothing like fresh courduroy in the morning stretching across an open meadow - what a beautiful thing. Woohoo, now that looks fun. Ski skating heaven.

[alpinerabbit]

WOOT!

I was thinking of some XC skiing in the beautiful Engadine this winter - I am imagining XC has less ecological impact than alpine.

Haven't gotten around to it. Now a gal from work who "spotted" me jogging at lunchtime asked me to join her on a women's xc "run". This is a week before the popular Engadine Marathon XC race. She doesn't care if we are last.

Haven't touched any xc skis since I was 10 or so.
It's 17 km mostly downhill.

This will be fun. I will get sore.

[Bron]

WOOT!

I was thinking of some XC skiing in the beautiful Engadine this winter - I am imagining XC has less ecological impact than alpine.

Haven't gotten around to it. Now a gal from work who "spotted" me jogging at lunchtime asked me to join her on a women's xc "run". This is a week before the popular Engadine Marathon XC race. She doesn't care if we are last.

Haven't touched any xc skis since I was 10 or so.
It's 17 km mostly downhill.

This will be fun. I will get sore.

Wow, how far are you from the Engadine? Now I am jealous!

Is this the Engadiner Frauenlauf? It looks great - I had a look at the website because a friend was doing it. My wish list for next season includes the Engadine ski marathon.

I think xc is much more environmentally friendly - when the snow melts you can't see that a track was ever there, unlike downhill ski pistes which usually look a bit sad in summer.

Well good luck anyway, I'm sure it will be a great race.

Bron

[alpinerabbit]

Zurich to Samedan is about 2.5 hours. No need to be jealous - you could be there in 5 from Munich. Why not try the Engadine Radmarathon this year, we will be there for the 2nd time doing the 100 km!

I have secured rental skis, my mate will do the hotel and off we go !

[pyxichick]

Bron,

Have you gotten any snow yet?

We've had a miserable winter for skiing. It was spring-like until about mid-Jan. and then it finally snowed enough to ski, and promptly went below zero for about three weeks. My race last weekend had a start temp. of -8F. Now it's finally warm enough to get outside, but the forecast is for rain next week!

I have the Birkie next sat. and it will be interesting to see how I do with the sporadic training I've had this year! I'm actually looking forward to spring, so I can put this season behind me.

Hope you've had a chance to get out in the snow!

kate

[Bron]

Alpinerabbit, thanks for the radmarathon tip, I´ve just had a look at the course and it´s very tempting. I hope you enjoy your ski race.

The snow here has been terrible this winter. It seems as though we have gone straight from Autumn into Spring. We had three day of snow here in Munich and managed two after-work sessions, then it all melted.
We did the König-Ludwig-Lauf two and a half weeks ago and the course had to be shortened and run as two loops of a 20km course instead of the usual 50km. I don´t know how many people had to be out shovelling snow to even get 20km prepared, everything around the course was either green or brown! On the plus side, it was very fast as we were skiing on ice (my bruises have jsut about faded).
I´ve seen a lot more of the gym than I intended to this winter.

Pyxichick, good luck with the Birkie. We´ll be doing the Finlandia Hiihto on Saturday and the Vasaloppet a week later. I hope it all goes well.

Bron