First cross country ski experience ...

Heading out on the 'real' trail for the first time

 For Christmas in 2011, C gave me a pass for a day's cross country skiing at the Canmore Nordic Centre.  The Nordic Centre was developed for the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.  It is still a world class facility, regularly hosting world championship competitions for skiing, biathlons (cross country skiing and rifle shooting) and mountain biking (in the summer of course!)  It is also incredibly popular place for locals year round - biking and trail running in the summer time and cross country skiing in the winter time.  I rang to book a lesson and sounded like a total novice when asked what kind of lesson I was after.  "Ah ... a cross country ski lesson please."  "Classic or skate?" was the reply.  "Ah, I don't know.  Just regular cross country skiing please."  It turns out that 'regular' cross country skiing is called 'classic' and involved a simple walking movement on skis.  On the other hand, the 'skate' technique involves pushing the skis out like you are skating on ice and it looks much harder.   The classic version was actually very easy to pick up as it involves simply placing your skis in a pre-made track and walking with a bit of a glide on the end of each step. 

The beautiful trail.  You can see the two 'lanes' of tracks

The lesson was well worth it for the tidbits of information about correct technique I picked up, particularly in the stopping department.  Stopping (or rather, crashing) has always been my fear in skiing (well, the whole two ski holidays I've been on.)  I have nightmares about the dreaded snow plow.  So, it was great to learn how to stop correctly on cross country skis.  

Making snow

After the lesson (and some much needed time by the fire ... the Australian and the Texan didn't dress warmly enough for the lesson), we headed out onto the trails where, right at the end, I got to put my newly learned stopping skills to the test.  The final 200 metres to the lodge involved a downhill run before flattening out.  Just near the bottom, in 'my' set of tracks stood a small child, motionless.  Panic set in as I gathered speed and hurtled towards him, all memory of how to stop out the window.  Finally, I breathed my way though it (!) and managed to come to a stop, with the front of my skis coming to rest on the end of the child's skis.  That was when I decided to call it a day.  But, I'll be back again because not only was cross country skiing great fun, it was also a mighty good workout and I could barely walk the next day!

The Australian and the Texan!