Thursday, Kristen's dad took us up to Sugarloaf, along with Kristen's sister Erica and her dad's girlfriend Pam. They're all downhill skiers, and I'm not. I can barely call myself an XC skier. Anywho, they spent the day going up and down the mountain, and I did my XC skiing thing all by my lonesome. Some decent scenery, but as usual when skiing, I was too distracted simply trying to stay upright or moving forward to notice it too much. I climbed up a lift line to the base lodge where we ate some lunch and warmed up. Everyone was having a blast. After lunch, Kristen skiied back down the lift line (her on normal alpine skis of course) and she worked on teaching me how to slowdown and turn. She said I got the snowplow down pretty well, but turning is still hard for me. I could turn to the left ok, but not the right. That was a whole lot better than my former descending method though... go straight until I lose control and inevitably crash. By the way, it's a pain in the ass to get back up when XC skiing. First of all, my poles have straps that wrap around the hand and are velcroed shut. Great when skiing, but it kinda renders your hands useless when you're trying to get up. I usually crash with my feet/skis at all sorts of weird angles. Getting your feet back under you is tricky, because only the toe of the ski boot is attached, so when you try to move them around, the skis tend to swing all over the place, usually making things worse. But, I always manage to get up again... But yeah, I skiied a bunch more after lunch. Only crashed a few times, and managed to stay upright on a long sorta fast descent. I tried the snowplow and turning stuff some other times too, but it turns out it's a lot harder to do when you're fenced in by trees on either side and the trail is bumpy. Anywho, I wore myself out and feel like I made some progress in my technique. I think I give up on skating until I get some skate skis (not that I'm planning on that soon). Whenever I try to skate, it doesn't seem to work quite right. I blame it on my skis being too wide (the width is great for ungroomed stuff though). So yeah, I have no idea how far I skiied, but I was skiing for about 4 hours total, so if I was going walking pace, that's maybe 15 miles or so.
Kristen and everyone else had a really good time doing the DH stuff too. Kristen wants to teach me how to do it some day, and says we have to live somewhere within an hour of skiing next. Sounds good to me! If I were going again while we're here, I think I'd rent a snowboard and take my chances with that, since I sorta know how to do that. I like XC skiing and all, but I very much appreciate the assistance of gravity (or intelligent falling). I also couldn't help thinking how cool it would be to have a
snowbike out on XC ski trails, since there something like 105km or XC trails up there to explore...
Managed to take a couple pictures too, so here's some scenery.
The 'loaf from the parking lot at lunch...
View from the Nordic Lodge...
View more to the west, those are the Crockers, the AT goes right over them, then up the west face of Sugarloaf...
4 comments:
cool, sounds like a good day. there's always the fool proof snowshoes too. I think bikes are good in less than 4 inches of snow and then I'd just practice skiing. I found some kickin XC skees at good will, but there seems not to be enough room on the boat for 6 foot skies and me.
oh well.
merry christmas. going to see the family today and I'll put in a good word for you. we are house sitting and taking care of some golden retreivers. They keep waking us up in the night to show us some great half eaten toy they just pulled from who knows where.
cute dogs, but they keep taking the good spots on the couch.
Take care
teal
Hey Teal,
I've got another pair of skis/bindings/boots if you want them. They're Jarvinen (go finland) and rather long, waxless, pretty worn on the bottom. Mom and dad got them at a garage sale when they were still living here. I managed to get the tail of one stuck vertically in the snow one of the first times I took them out and cracked the end off. However, the base was unharmed and I manged to glue them back together and they work fine. I used those for a year or so before I got my current skis. The bindings are Rotefella NNN, and the boots are Trak I think. It all works pretty well unless it's too icy, then they suck. Speaking of that, do you know how to do the skating stuff? I can never seem to get it for very long. I always seem to lose grip when I'm trying to push. Maybe I'm not leaning the ski enough? I don't know...
You can have those if you want, or I can at least send you the boots, since those tend to be cha-ching. they're size 13.
Let me know...
you've got to have skate skiis to skate. if there is no metaL shaped edge, like you were talking about, then there is no way. in good snow you can go through the motions and do alright, but not up hills or anything.
its really weird when you look at the people do it their skiis actually cross over one another most of the time. it looks like your stepping on your heels all the time, but your just gliding over the tops.
Yeah, I'd been wondering if my skis were part of the problem. The ones I have are sorta backcountry XC skis. They're fischer explorers. They're rather short (185) and pretty wide, and they do have metal edges. I've noticed that skate skis tend to be a lot skinnier and longer, and probably stiffer. I can do it every now and then if the snow is just right, but that's not often. I have got the classic technique down pretty well, except for the downhill and turning stuff. It'll be a while before i get to try again though... oh well.
Oh yeah, and doggies are fun...
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