So...anyone into nordic skiing?

  1. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Still, my favorite outdoor activity. There are well-groomed double classic track/skating tracks 15 minutes from my house...but no snow here yet. I took my rollerblades across the street into the parking lot this evening.

    I used to do a lot of back-country touring and telemark skiing in Colorado...but the past seven years since cultivating a family, all I do is skate . I grew up ice-skating in Michigan...so I guess it comes naturally..
  2. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    Catmandu2,
    I'm a big-time nordic freak. Raced a little in college, then moved from Michigan to Colorado and raced some more while teaching nordic and telemark skiing and backcountry skiing. Moved back to Michigan and did citizen races for a while. Now I just skate ski recreationally 3-4 days/week. It's in my blood. I'll ski 'til I die someday. I live 10 minutes from the North American Vasa Trail. No snow yet...
  3. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Same here Steve...after all that backcountry skiing, I only skate any more...and I seem to be content! (is it age?, marriage?, or both?..) And like you, it's in my blood...seemingly as much as music, believe it or not.
  4. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    One of my favorite outings on a Saturday is a 25k skate-ski with my Ipod and some upbeat acoustic music. Almost heaven... And yeah, getting married, having kids, and getting older all slowed me down a few knotches, but I still dream of telemarking the steep & deep!
  5. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    I guess, with skating, it allows us to experience the essential: being out in snow with slippery sticks beneath our feet, the silent smooth glide, and the vigorous exercise. And we do have the memories of the backcountry...and the knowledge that it is still there--almost exactly as we left it.

    This is the first year in the past several that we haven't had good skiing by this time. I have two pair of rollerskis, rollerblades, and a bunch of dogs that love to run. I'm going to dry-land it this year...at least for the time being. Perhaps with the right attitude...I can regard it as being back off piste again!
  6. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    Hey catmandu2, what state do you live in now. Idaho?
  7. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Montana. But I ski in Idaho frequently at Lolo Pass...40-minute drive from my house.
  8. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Took my first whack at training this evening...got pooped after 20 minutes. But my shoulders, arms, neck and back all got worked too. Skiing's great
  9. James P
    James P
    I've been slacking and I've still got 16 days on skis this year. Sadly only four of the days have been on tours, the rest being area telemarking on Mt Hood. It's like this every year tho', I'll ski the area until breaking even on my season pass and after that I feel free to ski wherever. The real touring season starts in a month or so with the longer days and deeper snow pack. PNW volcano tours are good into mid-July too.

    Two week from now there's an annual hut trip with some folky/bluegrass jamming friends. This is the tour I went on five years ago and when I heard them playing thought, "Gee, I oughta get something small and light that I could bring up here to play." The rest is history.
  10. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    James,
    I'm an old telemarker here and former nordic racer. It's all recreational now. Heck, any day free-healin' is a good day. Your hut tour sounds dreamy. What kind of mando do you pack? You could almost use a Mix CF mando for double duty as an avalanche shovel!
  11. James P
    James P
    I pack along a well-setup Rover RM35. The first tune or two can be kinda rugged, but by the end of the weekend I love that mando. Five years ago I'd barely touched my guitar in a decade or more, now I've got two more guitars and five mandolins. So it's no exaggeration to say that skiing got me back into music.

    When it comes to avi shovels, I'm in the "steel is real" camp. Not that a Mix wouldn't be great to play!
  12. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Sounds great James!
  13. mandroid
    mandroid
    Satellite photo [on wikipedia] shows it may be time for a Skier
    to complete a Land's End to John O'Groats tour,
    as the British isle is all white with snow..
  14. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    A perfect day of skate skiing here in northern Michigan today - sunny skies, 33 degrees F. I did 20 km with my iPod. Cued up were Andrew Collins, Sam Bush, David Surette, and Paul Halley. Then I got to top off the day seeing Solas in concert! It doesn't get any better than that.
  15. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Yes, Steve-o, that does sound as if it were a peak day!


    I love the winter olympics...even with its scant network nordic coverage. For me, it's a magical event. What an unbelievable effort by Petra Majdic.
  16. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    Catmandu2,
    I'm with you. The Winter Olympics are my Superbowl. I just read about Petra's bronze metal after her painfull fall - a great story. Marit Bjoergen's accomplishments - two golds and a bronze - are truly amazing. I watched her tear up the field in the women's 15 km pursuit.

    I also liked the story posted on the Cafe front page on Lowell Bailey of the US Biathlon team - a mandolin/guitar player who cues up Grisman's EMD during his training. Now there's an Olympic athlete I can relate to! I used to ski biathlon on the citizen's racing circuit. What a great sport! Nothing quite like skiing and shooting guns (all while listening to Grisman)!
    - Steve
  17. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Indeed. About the only thing cooler than skiing with a rifle...would be skiing with a mando slung over your shoulders .

    In the US generally--with its "medal count" obsession--biathalon is probably perceived akin to skifin' (a combination of skiing and knife-fighting). There's not much more annoying than hearing Al Trautwig--who actually has some nordic and bicycle racing knowledge--yammer about Peyton Manning, Chad Ocho-Cinco, and the superbowl during these events. Ugh.

    I'm a nordic nut from Colorado...but I grew up in "hockeytown USA," so I love to see these hockey "dream teams." Summer game dream teams?..meh...not so much

    Go Bode!
  18. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    Agreed, the US media is not ready for biathalon. After all, NBC is the same network that showed ice dancing on prime time, and relegated US vs Canada hockey to its almost forgotten MSNBC affiliate.

    Hockeytown, eh? Me too. Grew up with the game there. Then moved to the UP, Colorado, Idaho, then back to northern Michigan. Go USA!
  19. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Pretty similar trek, are we: I did MI, CO, now MT with a cabin in ID...(but I ain't going back to Mich!)

    I think NBC only interrupted its sledding coverage and committed to switching to the USA-CAN game when it was a sure-thing that USA would win -- with 30 seconds left in the game.

    As Barry Melrose would say, "unbelieval."
  20. catmandu2
    catmandu2
    Congratulations US nordic team!
  21. Steve-o
    Steve-o
    Woo-hoo! Gold and silver in the nordic combined today! That's 4 out of 9 medals in this event and the first ever for USA! Very special.
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