11.3.07

Cross Country Skiing VS Downhill skiing


Did you know that there are 2 different types of skiing? Well there are. There is downhill skiing (Alpine) and cross country skiing (Nordic). Whats the difference? Downhill skiing uses different equipment compared to cross country skiing. I downhill ski. That means that my boots are attached to my skis with a binding. While skiing downhill your feet do not move because of the binding. Your speed is a result of gravity and the type of terrain you are on. Downhill skiing always takes place on steep mountainsides. There are many more mountains to downhill ski at compared to cross country trails.
Cross country skiing is a lot more physically aggressive compared to downhill skiing. Cross country skiing requires boots and bindings just like downhill skiing except the bindings only secure the boot tip so while you are moving, the bindings allow for you to push off on your skis. You have to use a lot of leg muscle while trying to move forward. Cross country skiing takes place on flat trails where you get no speed from steep mountainsides. As a result, cross country skiing is mush slower than downhill.

Sometimes people get confused when I tell them I go skiing because they assume I cross country ski they soon realize I don't when they see my equipment. I decided to write a post to clear up the confusion for people that may not know the difference between each type of skiing.

6.3.07

Problems, Problems, Problems

Wow its been about 3 weeks since I have been skiing. This past weekend I ventured up to WV with some friends. I have to say this trip was pretty exciting. On Friday night we drove up to Plymouth, NH to stay at the lake house. The drive up was great however we ran into a problem once we got to the house. Since it has snowed a lot the past few weeks the driveway at the house was a little messy. There was about 10 inches of snow on the ground with a lot of ice underneath it which made the driveway really tricky but I did not know this until I tried to drive up it. Even better the driveway has a bit of a slant too! So since I have a Jeep I thought I would just plow right through the snow with no problem. Wrong! I slid on the ice and ended up backed into a tree. Slowly I backed down the driveway and have it a few more tries. However with each attempt I slid even more so I just gave up and parked at the bottom of the driveway. It was no fun carrying all the equipment and bags up the icy driveway although everyone got a good laugh because we were falling all over the place. So at about midnight all the luggage was in the house and we finally lit the fire and settled in for the night to get some rest before our big day of skiing.

Saturday was beautiful. The temperature was about 30 degrees and there was no wind which made for great skiing conditions. The only downfall was that it was school vacation week and every family in New England decided to take their kids skiing. At least that's was it seemed like. By about noon we got about 5 runs in which was pretty good considering the mountain was pretty crowded. After lunch we headed back out to enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Or at least that's what we thought. As we rode the chairlift to the top of the mountain the lift suddenly stopped. At first we thought nothing of it because it happens all the time when someone has trouble getting on or off the lift they stop it to help the person. However this time was different. After about 5 minutes we knew something was wrong. Good thing it wasn't cold because it gets mighty windy on the lift because you are basically dangling in mid air. So after 30 minutes of just sitting on the lift and swinging back and forth, we started to move. Thank god! I was beginning to get worried that we were going to be stranded. Come to find out, a child fell off the lift at the unloading station and was hurt. That's what the hold up was. So after that mid afternoon disruption we skied for the rest of the day and left the mountain at about 3:00.

Even though we had a few problems between the icy driveway and dangling chairlift, the skiing was great. However next time I wont go skiing when it is school vacation week. A lot of kids makes it hard to ski without worrying about running them down. The next planned ski trip is on St. Patrick's Day so hopefully there is still snow.