how do you ski?

what kind of equipment do you have?


Seems that skate-skiing is pretty much the norm now, but I'm still in the old days of classical skiing.

I mostly ski on groomed trails, but will go off trail occasionally if the mood strikes me. One of my canoe/kayak/ski buddies just dropped 400 bucks on a new pair of special skis that are supposed to be great for off-trail skiing.

I broke one of my skis in a nasty wipeout last year going down a huge hill with no groomed trail, and now I bought new skis, but can't find where I put my bindings and I need them before I can ski this year. :(

This is my 40th consecutive year of traditional skiing. I have a pair of Fischer crown waxless skis that I use in the back yard and for spring skiing in tough conditions and a pair of Fischer SCS waxables that I use on groomed trails. Started out on wood skis, of course, and switched to plastic in the early 80's.
I did learn to skate ski several years ago when we had an awful winter with little snow and lots of freezing rain. Too slippery to classic ski but I was able to skate ski on an old pair of skis that had almost no camber left and a pair of longer poles that I picked up at a ski swap.

I skate and classic. When conditions favor skating (temps closing on 30 or above, low snow in the woods) I skate. When it favors classic (cold temps, deep snow, ungroomed trails) I classic. My preference is for narrow "hand-tracked" and packed classic trails with lots of up and down.

I'm just getting back into the sport after an eight year hiatus. I used to primarily skate and I have never owned a nice pair of skies. Well, I did once, but lost interest when we had those lean snow years in the first part of this century.

So for reentry to the sport this year, I picked up a set of Solomon Snowscape 7 waxless. They are VERY slow, but also very low maintenance. :) I find myself always wanting to break out of the classical tracks and skate, but they really have little glide for skating.

I may need to pick up a pair skate skis. I really prefer to skate because it just seems like it's much more efficient.

I have never been trained in Nordic skiing, but I'm sure I could greatly benefit from a lesson or two.

Any of you folks ever tried Ski jouring? Looks kind of interesting to me.

Got my first set of XC skis in 1968, and have skied ever since. I never learned how to skate, even with lessons from Pat Lanin, the great ski coach at Hopkins for years, and from my daughter, who was second in the region in about '89. I love traditional (won't call it diagonal stride because it seems to defy English logic), and I will use waxless when the conditions are close to 32 and above--I hate clister. I occasionally go off-trail, but usually ski the local state parks, my favorites being Maria near Monticello and Wild River north of Stillwater.

I bought atomics a few winters ago replacing my two decade old waxeless skis I call the canoes. classic ski only. no desire to skate ski.

I also like mountain biking in the snow with the dog early mornings, before anyone else is on the parkway. I usually only see one or two other people-- I can cover a lot of miles and it is fun. It isn't skiing, but I like it a lot.

Classic all the way.
Bought a pair of very skinny Peltonens to go fast with on groomed snow a few years back. But I mostly like to use my trusty old Bonna's that I've had for many years.

just got back from my first ski outing.

had to quit a bit early cause a family decided to stomp all over the groomed ski trails, so I had to leave before I said something not nice to them.

Just enough snow to begin breaking trail on my Favorite Trail System . A good work out but slow skiing.

It takes a lot of snow to cushion the rock.

JLK- I had a friend that always skiied on Bonna's back in the day. I was a Madshus guy with wood skis. Always liked the way wood skis held wax- much better than the fake bottoms IMO.
Banksania- nice shot! How much snow is there in Ely? Did you get much over Christmas?

Banks, what's the name of that trail system?

Gutmon- we were pretty much missed by the big storm, there is enough snow for the well prepared trails (Hidden Valley, Trezona) that are mechanically groomed. Pretty rocky for the more rustic trails- we have close to a foot on the ground, another six to eight inches would be good.

Gbusk- They're called "The North Arm Trails"- located off the north arm of Burntside lake 15 miles from Ely on the Echo Trail and then down near the end of the North Arm Road. The trails are generally narrow with some nice hills, curves and lake crossings- they are "hand" tracked (the shaded area of the map is the BWCAW), though this year camp DuNord bought a snow machine and grooming sled to track the trails outside of the b-dub (they haven't tried grooming yet).

I'm a bit obsessive about these trails and ski them every chance I get.

My husband and I skied Fort Snelling-- it was about as good as it could be. Not icy like the golf courses are around here, and nicely groomed with adequate base. Fast for being flat-- a nice work out on a sunny afternoon. We went around Pike Island and saw wild turkeys and deer, and two other skiers.

I think I'm gonna be up in Duluth next week, is there enough snow up there to warrant a trip to Ely?

Ely has enough snow for good skiing on the groomed trails-Hidden Valley & Trezona-. North Arm Trails pretty rocky yet- not good for the skis. Lakes are good for classic. Area around Duluth is gifted with snow and great trails. . Korkki Nordic is beautiful- narrow, groomed classic track through the woods with the option of a major hill

Also- check out Magney Snively when in Duluth. Right behind Sprit Mountain. Challenging 14k loop overlooking Duluth Harbor. Turn at the Holiday station by Spirit Mountain and follow signs to Spirit Mountain. Parking is right across the street from the SM entrance as I recall. Lester Park used to have nice lit trails for night skiing.