Cross Country Skiing

[mudgirl]

DH has the back country boots, but I still have the softer Rossignol ones, because when I tried the bc ones, my feet just got chopped up... serious blisters, cuts, and bloody feet.

Crankin,
Are the they BCX 2 or 3s? Everyone I know who has these boots hates them. I think they give anyone who wears them blisters, and mine, literally, kept falling apart at the seams, and I had to keep sewing them back up. I suffered with a pair for 3 seasons, and I finally went down to the ski shop earlier this winter and bought a pair of Fischer BCX3s. Oh my gosh, WHAT a difference!!!

Now, I have some friends who have the top-of-the-line Rossi BC boots who are very happy with them, so I think it's just their bottom-of-the-line boots that are like this. But, there are other boots out there for the same price that are much, MUCH better.

[Crankin]

I have no idea what brand of boots chopped my feet up. It was five years ago; DH and I both had a terrible experience. We got new skis at the end of last winter. He was able to find a pair of bc/stiff boots (I think they are either Fischer or Alpina) that are fine and I decided to stay with the softer Rossignol touring boots, as I have a bunion that seems to get annoyed with harder boots, especially when I wear my hiking shoes to go snow shoeing. Since I have touring skis with edges, it's fine.
Though, I am not opposed to buying a second pair of bc skis and boots as others here have done.

[Crankin]

Went to Windblown today, for what looks to be the last time until we get more snow. It's supposed to get up to nearly 60 between Wed. and Friday, so there is going to be significant melting, even with a 30 inch base. Hopefully, it will snow again, after it cools down. Conditions were slick, and a little icy in a few spots, but still, I have been there when it's worse. And they had a dusting last night, so there was powder in the open fields.
Didn't get there until noon, skied until 1:30, had some awesome butternut squash/apple soup in the lodge and went back out until about 3:30. DH had issues climbing after lunch; the ball of his foot and knee were hurting and he couldn't turn his ankle in to herringbone on one steep hill. We figured out he had hurt it snow shoeing yesterday, when the conditions were kind of difficult because of the icy layer on top the deep snow.
While I am looking forward to riding at the end of the week, it better snow more. We have tentative pans to go to Stowe, the first weekend in March and I am hoping to get out to western MA in between. After that, it's cycling season...

[Cataboo]

I got out to White Grass in West VA to cross country ski a couple days this weekend.

I was pleasantly surprised by the snow for this area of the country and had a lot of fun. Lots of climbing and descending. I was fairly pleased with my ski/boot setup. The technician guy told me what a good pair of skis they were when he was waxing them for me. He also told me that REI had mounted the heel plate on my 3 pin bindings upside down and that REI stood for "really expensive injury"

I seem to have the rossignol bcx boots that were being complained about above. I don't find them terribly comfortable, but I spent $20 on them, so I'm not complaining. I haven't gotten any blisters or anything like that, they're just small in the toe box and a narrow boot in general.

[Kubla]

Wow, what nice trails! We have huge inviting fields like that in town here, but they are privately owned.

What is the purpose of the colored banners in the hut? Are they put there to make it more visible from a distance? (As you can probably guess-I don't get out much.)

[Cataboo]

I think they're prayer flags:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_flag

[roadie gal]

Yep, prayer flags.

I waited until it warmed up yesterday and went over to the XC center with my track skis. Perfect. The folks on skaters were struggling because it had gotten so sloppy but I was a happy chickie. My little waxless skis just grabbed onto the slush and up I went.

I was out for an hour and then packed it up for home.