Cross Country Skiing

[DebW]

My backcountry skis are a tad wide for the tracks. But regardless of that, I think the distance between the 2 tracks is too wide. It's just uncomfortable to have to keep my feet that far apart. It's not a natural stride. And I've done many many all-day backcountry ski tours.

I'll probably be at Windblow this Saturday unless it's going to raining all day.

[Kathi]

Skied my new women's specific skis today. Wow, what a difference over my unisex skis. My balance was better, gliding, climbing and snowplowing so much easier. I skied an advanced beginner trail backwards and went down a pretty steep hill without problems. I felt very secure and confident on these skis.

The width of the tracks don't bother me, probably because I'm used to the width of 78-96 mm alpine skis. At first the narrowness of the skis and lack of support from the boots was much more disconcerting to me.

We don't have the freezing and thawing here that you have in the east so groomed trails here are soft, not icy and the tracks don't get very wide.

My nordic center has a designated place for learning. Tracks and a groomed area on flat terrain, very nice for beginners. Also, a good place to practice gliding witout poles.

After years of alpine skiing I'm excited to discover a new way to enjoy snow.

[Bron]

I'm glad to hear that some of you are self-taught skiers...which is probably the route we will end up taking. It's nice to know that it IS possible to learn this on our own...as I doubt my hubby would be up for taking formal lessons.

I'm self-taught too, although now I'm racing I've taken some coaching which has made an enormous amount of difference.

I've always thought striding was more technical - it's just that you can shuffle along from Point A to Point B with really poor technique. An awful lot of people really don't have any kick at all, and just shuffle. Which is fine, by the way, as long as it is fun!

My thoughts too - somehow getting decent skating technique has been so much more difficult than sorting out my classic ski-ing.

[beccaB]

This is really good timing. My husband wants us to cross country ski, but he wants to buy the equipment from craigs list sellers, and I'm nervous about doing that. I imagine with technology changes we might have a hard time matching up the bindings with the shoes we have to get new. I just won't wear other people's stuff on my feet!
The trails we have access to are un-groomed and hilly, but I see a lot of ski tracks out there when I'm snowshoeing.

[Ja Da Dee]

My husband and I started classic skiing last year, and are having a load of fun! We were able to purchase a package deal from REI at a really reasonable price. you also may want to look into closeout because the winter is coming to an end. Personally, I skipped craigslist because I don't know enough about the equipment to purchase used.

[Cataboo]

You could go in the trails other people blaze and wouldn't have to worry too much about ski type - but it you're going to be trail breaking, back country type skis help a lot.

If you're doing steep downhills or so... you probably want a backcountry binding or something a bit more robust, but otherwise normal bindings aren't too bad.

I've just been collecting pieces over the years when I've found them on sale cheap, and finally got around to mounting the skis thsi winter... And while I did have nnn bc, nnn, and sns bc bindings & boots to go with most, which are all the newer styles... I went ahead and just put the old style 3 pin bindings on the skis because of the reviews I was reading of many that had switched to the new styles of bindings and then just went back to the old 3 pins. Mostly it was because I don't really expect to be in tracks (I just go to the closest mountain to me) and I do want a solid connection if I downhill something steep with them. I can add a cable to my bindings to hold my skis to it. If I ever see longer narrower skis cheap, I'll mount some of the new style bindings to them and those can be my groomed trail skis. But we rarely have winters this snowy around here, so it maybe a few years before I get to really use these skis again.

So I don't think getting the skis used on craigslist makes a huge difference or not with response to binding styles.. just depends on what you want the skis for...

REI does have some salomon cross country ski boots at a good price now.. but it might be limited sizes.

[roadie gal]

I think the type of skis you get makes a big difference in how well you'll do out there. If you're going to be mostly at a groomed area then get skinny skis that will fit in the tracks. There's more to track skis than just the width, though. Do you want waxless or waxable? Are the conditions where you are mostly soft or icy? Depending on that you'd want a softer or stiffer ski.

If you're going to be out in the backcountry are you going to be cruising through easier terrain or going up and down the steeper hills? If you're going to be cruising than a medium width, medium stiffness, waxless ski is fine. If you're going to be pushing it more, step up to a metal edge for more control when you're traversing or turning. If you're going to challenge the steeps, you want a wide ski with a metal edge and probably skins for ascending. You'll want beefy boots and bindings for those skis, too. The conditions: powder vs ice, will also determine how stiff a ski you want.

IMHO it's better, when you're starting out to spend some time in a store with knowledgeable sales people so you end up with the best gear for what you want to do. It may end up costing a bit more than Craigslist, but you'll be happier in the long run.

[Kathi]

BeccaB, Unlike alpine boots that work with any bindings your boots must match with you binding. If your boots are NNN then your bindings must be NNN. A NNN Back country boot will not work with NNN bindings meant for classic skis. Salomon SNS boots will not work with NNN bindings. Also some skis have tracks that are already mounted to the skis and only certain bindings will fit on them. I didn't study skate ski boots and bindings.

Then you have to find a boot that fits well!

Unless you know what boots and bindings work together it's better to buy from a store such as REI or the numerous online nordic stores.

The boots that fit me well required an NNN binding. I bought my original skis flat (no binding) so I had options with my boots meaning whatever boots I bought the binding were matched to them. My new skis came with the binding and I made sure they were NNN so I could use my old boots.

I hope this makes sense, it was all very confusing to me and I spent a lot of time searching on the internet trying to sort all of this out.

You could buy you boots from a retailer, my boots have the type of binding marked on the bottom and then get your skis from Craiglist. Be sure to do research on the skis and bindings and make sure the skis are appropriate for you weight and intended use.

Also, find out how many times used skis have been used. With use all skis lose their camber, or flex. My downhill skis with 200 days of skiing don't ski the same as a new ski of the same model. I don't know how much use a nordic ski will take but I'm sure they have some type of life span.