The extremely cold weather has been on a roll lately… our area became the coldest place on Earth in early February. I’m hopeful that the cold snap will end soon… as my series of winter activities posts is coming to an end (for now). 😉 After talking about my amusing experience with snowboarding, skating, winter hiking, and downhill skiing, let’s move on to cross-country skiing.
Growing up in a country that only has rainy and dry season – both of which are hot compared to the freezing
weather in Canada – I have very little concept of winter activities, especially cross-country skiing. For all I know, it’s skiing all over the country… literally! 😐 😬
One weekend, Jellybean and I drove to Lost Creek Resort at Prince Albert National Park for me to have a first hand experience on cross-country skiing on groomed trails. To put it simply, imagine a train going along a set of railway tracks… it’s similar to that idea. Cross-country skiing on groomed trails is like skiing on a “railway” track.
I found it restricting at first because it’s not free-flowing like downhill skiing is, you have to stay within the constraints of the track to ski smoothly. It’s important to have enough momentum to make it up the hill and not slide back down. Otherwise, you have to walk funny going up the slope… either walking sideways or “skating” with the skis in a V-shape (similar to reversed pizza move in downhill skiing). It’s just tiny a hill though so there’s no need for a conveyor that would take you up the hill like in downhill skiing.
So far, I still prefer downhill skiing over snowboarding or cross-country skiing. Hmmmm…. What winter activity should I try next? 😊