Why is Cross Country the Greatest Way to Ski?
Why would anyone like to do or watch XC skiing? What is it all about really? Where1s
the attraction?
What1s the appeal of skiing in general? I submit with Coach Anikin that it1s all about
GLIDE. And to appease the alpinists, I1ll add that it1s also about turning. But mainly
glide.
Nothing in this essay is against alpine skiing per se. It1s great fun. It has its facts and
limits and so does XC. Let1s see how they compare.
XC skiing has 5 types of glide, plus plenty of turning. It has glide downhill, uphill, and
thru the fields on the flats. It has skate glide, classic diagonal kick glide and puffy
touring glide off the beaten path. It has the graceful and versatile telemark turn
technique…in ADDITION to the alpine techniques! More types of glide and more
turns, too, than alpine! (Altho some XC turns aren1t as potent as their alpine relatives,
usually due to lack of metal edged skis and straightjacket boots.)
XC is actually a lot like alpine except the trails are narrower. Alpine skiing also uses
the trail paradigm, but it1s much more symbolic; the trails might usually be better
called freeway interchanges, and they only go one direction, down. XC trails go
absolutely everywhere, up down across and all around.
Where you XC ski is more natural, more like the real area you1re in, you see much
more, it1s much less artificial than an alpine resort. A big XC trail system will expose
you to far more actual local cultural features than a condensed man-made alpine
area.
XC is more historic and cultural. Alpine skiing in lift-served resorts is a consumer
product like any other amusement park. With much more attendant pollution, risk and
expense involved. XC skiing comes from the roots which have built any country on
earth. One is superficial, the other is cultural. What are these roots? Again, TRAILS.
Trails become roads. Roads are trails. Trails connect places. Trails cover terrain. This
is what geography and local culture are built on. You get a sense of participation and
exploration while XC skiing. Scandanavian countries have XC trails connecting their
towns like our nothern towns have snowmobile trails. (In fact, most snowmobile trails
make decent XC trails most of the time.)
The sensation of speed is greater in XC due to both narrowness of trail and lightness
of equipment and thinness of XC clothing. With XC equipment and boots you have a
sense of freedom due to its lightweight flexibility. Big XC downhills go 40mph,
matching alpine SuperG speeds, but with more exposure1.
With XC skiing, you1re always on1. There1s no downtime on a chairlift and no sensation
that what you1re doing is being overly supported by ungainly and actually unnecessary
technology. XC skiers do everyting alpinists do, but without the lifts or limits. The
billions of dollars which can be clearly seen at an alpine resort spent to help you only
slide downhill can start to seem strange indeed to the observant.
XC trails are more like roller-coasters. They go up and down steeply and twist all
around. It1s really fun to experience the feeling of compression at the bottom of hills,
twists and dips, right before you go shooting uphill with lots of momentum. Alpine
skiing has few dramatic vertical changes. Shifts of pitch create the thrill that expert
alpinists search for, but they never have to deal with the extreme and diverse shifts
that XC1ers deal with!
Now, XC has lots of speed and several different types of speed, also. This has to do
with the need to smoothly manage momentum. A skier might be going uphill at 30
mph when coming out of a fast downhill, but to go smoothly over the top, he must
flow every drop of big speed out of his momentum. This is easy enough to do when
skilled. But this is also what gives XC its extra dose of grace, fluidity and dynamism.
In alpine skiing, your is simply to turn without scrubbing too much downhill speed.
That1s it. In XC, connecting all the dots to keep the speed rolling with a minimum of
effort is at the root of its smooth and flowing dynamic style. It1s also what makes
good skiers look so much nicer, better and effortless than others. It also creates the
depth of skill needed and the need for endless learning to find and keep your own
personal style.
In XC ski racing, there are often many skiers racing head to head at the same time,
not side by side, but going for the same line!, duking it out and forming packs as in
bike racing, going for breakaways, too. There1s a lot of room for team, group and
individual strategies. What a mix! Also the differences in skills are more apparent and
there1s more room for improvement, either in terms of more overall skill or in terms
of immediate results. Successful strategy often pays off big. Results are hardly ever
determined by start order. But a big public secret of alpine is that results are MOSTLY
determined by start order, which is determined by previous heats. Every skier wrecks
a course that much more. Alpinists are greedy for first tracks1 in both casual skiing
and in races. This is not a worry in XC. The skier at the end of the day usually has as
good of skiing as the one who starts.
XC events are diverse, both within an event and among the variety of events to
choose from. Skill needs are more diverse, too, in a way. You get to glide uphill
about half the time! (Fortunately, the uphill experience is at least as nice as the
downhill. –But that would only be natural.) Then you have the flats thru the fields
and meadows. In alpine skiing, there isn1t much fun in any fields. Alpine slalom and
mogul skiers go about 15 mph. XC skiers on the flats go 20mph. So typical speeds are
on par. But XC skiing is much more than that. XC is a 4-feature activity. Alpine is
mainly about ski handling. XC is about skiing uphill, downhill, on the flats, and it1s
about ski handling, too–with plenty of curves and turns thrown in. All these XC
events1 are done on the same skis. As for variety of duration, in XC skiing you can
easily go out for a weekend without crossing your old path once. Or you can enter
races that range from sprints to ultramarathons. Lastly, you can do flat events or
steeply hilly ones and everything between. All with world class quality levels if you
like. Variety!
XC gives you at least four ways to ski on a typical day. You can skate, or classic
stride—with its straight forward and back motion—or tour off the beaten path with
motions more similar to snowshoeing, or do linked downhill ski turns, usually with the
telemark turning technique.
XC skiing can be done almost anywhere. It can be done at most alpine resorts, but
unlike an alpine resort, it can be done anywhere there is snow. No need for
man-made imitation mountains. There are literally a million places in the US where
people can do high quality XC skiing. World class XC skiing can usually be had much
closer to home. Many areas only possess tiny alpine resorts while offering world class
XC skiing terrain. It1s an easy sport to provide for, optimal in many geographies. This
helps it to be PART OF more culture and geography.
XC skiing fits in with a healthy, muscular lifestyle and physique. Not too skinny, not
too huge, not too fat: just right. And it has no typical1 injury likelihoods, few knee
problems or stress fractures or broken limb risk. The lightness of the equipment
allows for low-stress crashes. The need for skill keeps people more aware of their
limits.
The joyous glide of alpine skiing is broken up, with most of your time spent sitting
and dangling. XC skiing allows one to experience nonstop glide even while going up
fairly steep hills, in addition to everywhere else. This creates nonstop glide
satisfaction that entices one to keep doing it and to keep improving. Here is the
motivation to get the health benefit of XC, as well as the insight to see that hitting
the trails is a good return on your effort!
—
Jeff Potter jp@glpbooks.BADMAIL.com delete ‘.BADMAIL’ to reply
***”Out Your Backdoor”: Friendly Magazine of DIY Adventure and Culture
