Cross-country skiing [Archive]

rabbit

11-28-06, 05:32 PM

Since the OffCamber community forum has long proven to be a fountain of information on all manner of topics, I present the following scenario:

I have been thinking about trying cross-country skiing. I recently discovered that there are a handful of parks in the Toledo area that are supposed to have pretty good cross-country ski trails. I have been hiking the trails for exercise, but with Ol' Man Winter right around the corner, my thoughts have turned to other methods of manual transportation.

So do any of you cross-country ski? And if so, what are your recommendations for a beginner on everything from equipment to technique to pitfalls, etc. I am a blank slate at this point, so any advice is appreciated.

I'll hang up and listen to your response.

Tifosi24

11-28-06, 05:49 PM

I love to cross-country ski, but the problem is I was cursed by growing up in Des Moines and having relatively poor winters during my time going to school in Minnesota. But, that being said I know a little bit and enjoy skiing any chance I can. My neighbor in the dorms raced competitively during high school, so I will give you some of the advice he gave me.

In terms of X-country skiing, there are two ski types, skate and classic. Skate skis are relatively short (my pair are about five feet tall) while the classic skis are longer. Both skis are adapted to a certain skiing technique, but since you and I aren't competiting competitively it isn't as important. The main advantage I can tell for skate skis is that you can more readily go between the two styles, because it is a little harder to "skate" with classic skis (my dad has those). The only problem I find with skate skis is that I have a little more trouble going down hill in them compared to classics, but it is probably more a factor of me not being the best skiier out there.

There are also boot and binding styles that you will need to consider. I don't race, so I use a simple toe binder, which leaves your heal free to move around. For more advanced skiing the binding looks more like a downhill boot, but I can't tell you how they perform because I have never used them.

Personally, I really have had no trouble with my pair of skate skis. They are nice because they easily fit in my car and they weren't that expensive. I tend to naturally use a classic technique, so when I buy a new pair I will go that route, but since the winters have been terrible the past 10 years I don't normally think of getting a new pair. Kind of long but I hope this helps out a little bit.