Gliding? I think you mean falling.

Hi all.

So... I have been asking/hinting to my husband about getting some cross country skis. I mean, we live in Nebraska, fairly flat over all with our town having some rolling hills, a couple of nice trails, and a great city park system . No mountains for sure, no good rivers (the Platte and Missouri don't count), no oceans (obviously), and no places to climb. There is just not much in the way of fun outdoor stuff. We create our own. We get to 100+º in the summer and the wind chill can be -25º in the winter. Quite the range. Anywho, he said that it was too much to spend on something I would only be able to do a couple times of year. I sadly agreed. But... last night at one of the high school basketball games, a couple from our church offered to give us their super OLD (circa 1970) sets. Just as luck would have it, we also got 4-6 more inches of snow last night. I picked the skis up today and yeah, they are antiques, but I freakin love them. Tried them out today. Pretty sure I fell about 10 times but I had a great time.

My questions for anyone who knows diddly squat about XC skiing are...

#1. Are the newer boots more comfortable? I felt like I was standing directly on concrete blocks.

#2. Should I feel like my ankle is going to roll out constantly?

#3. How much snow and what kind of snow is best to ski in? I found that when I backtracked over a place that I had already skied I felt way more coordinated.

#4. How have the new skis, boots, and bindings changed?

I am an average downhill skier but this was a totally different ball game and I love it. I have to admit, though, I miss going super fast on those downhills. =0)

Later