Cold Sport

Downhill skiing is one of the most popular winter sports in the country. Every year, almost seven million Americans hit the ski slopes. This dwarfs by a factor of three other winter sports such as cross country skiing and ice hockey. Only the ever increasing in popularity sport of snowboarding comes close with a little over six million snowboarders in the country.

Skiing is a great all around exercise. It’s excellent for strengthening the upper leg muscles such as the thigh as well as the lower calf. A season of skiing will strengthen the shoulders and back and will help to trim your stomach. Skiing is also excellent aerobically. Experts estimate that an adult skiing with moderate effort, will burn anywhere from 300 to 500 calories an hour.

But in addition to its exercise benefits, Alpine skiing is also an exhilarating sport. Nothing quite compares to it. Olympic caliber skiers can top 80 miles per hour. But for a novice, even skiing at 5 miles per hours is a thrill.

So what are the dressing basics for alpine skiing? There are six essentials that every beginner should start with:

UV Rated Goggles or sunglasses – No, these are not just for style, although stylish sunglasses are always cool. You need sunglasses or goggles with a good UV protection rating. UV light can do real damage to the eyes ranging from simple sunblindness to major cataract problems. The best UV rated sunglasses are 100% UV protective and most are relatively inexpensive.

Hat – You can lose up to 80% of your body heat through your head. Most heat, as we know by now, escapes through the head. A good ski hat will keep you warm, even in the coldest of temperatures. Some of the nicer hats will even have ear protection.

Sunscreen – Skiing is a fun sport and you can easily spend an entire day on the slopes and in the sun without realizing it. Sunscreen serves the same purpose on a ski slope as it does on a beach. On an especially bright and sunny day, you can get a sunburn in as little as 20 minutes. A good sunscreen will protect you from the sun’s UV radiation and from sunburn.

Gloves or mittens – to keep hands warm. If you want the best, you can pay well over $100 for a good pair of ski gloves. You’ll want gloves that breathe well, are flexible, with some water proofing, and that are warm. Mittens are generally warmer than gloves, but gloves are more stylish and will do fine in most cases. Pick whichever you are more comfortable with.

Jacket and pants – to keep warm and protect you from hypothermia. The main feature you want in a ski jacket and pants is that they are water proof. This usually means that you want ones with a good polytetrafluoro-ethylene or PTFE membrane. PTFE is often laminated to nylon and polyester materials giving them excellent water protection but still allowing them to breathe. Of course, you will want jackets and pants that are warm and stylish also.

These are the minimalist clothing basics that every skier should have in order to have the best experience possible on the mountains.

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A cross-country skier in full flight can use up almost 1000 calories per hour. In terms of the effort required, the skills levels and the duration of some competitive races, there is little to compare with an international cross-country skiing event, and when combined with rifle shooting, as in the sport of biathlon, the demands become even more complex. But the sport does not have to be undertaken at such demanding levels. For people young and old, skiing through the snowy countryside at a relaxed pace provides beneficial levels of exercise, whilst at the same time introducing the participants to the spectacular scenery of the great outdoors.

The history of cross-country skiing is a long one, even having been recorded as a method of transport in prehistoric times. In Scandinavian countries they have documented use of the transport method as far back as the early 13th Century when it was used to track and hunt animals.

For the armed services, cross-country skiing is a fundamental part of basic training for any group that may have to operate in snow-covered terrain. As well as being a basic transport and survival technique it provides the environment for teamwork and physical exercise too. The sport is used so often in the disciplines of the armed services in so many countries, that the top athletes often hail from those groups. Another reason is that the training needs to be of such duration and usually in specific locations, that only the armed services have access to the facilities required to train and compete at the highest level.

Location is an important consideration for cross-country skiing, but the perceived requirement for picturesque, mountainous and wooded areas covered in fresh snow may be slightly misleading. Obviously in an ideal world anyone would choose to ski in locations that provide those kinds of conditions, but if they are not available, people can still ski. Unlike downhill skiing, cross-country skiing does not require any gradients, removing the need for it to be based in mountainous or hilly areas, nor does it need any infrastructure like lift systems, which again open up many more areas. For geographies without the benefit of regular snow, a variety of skiing called roller skiing is also an option. Here participants used skis fitted with wheels and are able to travel across grass and tarmac surfaces. Popular venues in the UK are around rowing lakes and in city parks where the terrain is often completely level and traffic free. As we will see later, indoor cross-country skiing is now also becoming a possibility.

Alongside marathon running, some of the world’s biggest mass-participation sports events are cross-country skiing races. In Norway, the annual Birkebeinerrennet, a popular 54 kilometer race, nearly always attracts a full field of 12,000 participants. The race has been held for the past sixty years and the rules require athletes to carry a back pack weighing 3.5 kg, simulating the weight of the small child who was heir to the Norwegian throne and had to be rescued in similar manner back in the 13th Century. The speed of the competitors has slowly increased over the years as technique and equipment has improved and in 2008 the winner completed the course in less than two and half hours. In Switzerland the 42km Engadin Ski Marathon also attracts 12,000 athletes, and Sweden’s equivalent race, the 90km Vasaloppet, held in the north west of the country during the first week of March, manages to attract a field of 15,000 skiers.

A new form of cross-country skiing is gaining in popularity with those less physically able. Skijoring is a derivative where the skier is assisted in forward motion by being pulled along behind a snowmobile or even by a small team of dogs.

Cross country skiing is even moving indoors now, with the development of technology that allows snow to be generated and maintained at temperatures low enough for it not to melt. In the UK, several snow centres have been built over recent years and, although they are primarily designed for downhill activities such as indoor skiing or indoor snowboarding, they can also be used as training venues for certain aspects of cross-country skiing. At The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead, one of the slopes is dedicated to cross-country ski training at certain times, when skiers can use the facilities to fine tune their climbing and descending technique.

Primarily in Finland, but also in Sweden and Germany, facilities called ski tunnels have also been built. In a similar way, these tunnels allow cross-country skiing on snow to be enjoyed all year round. In Germany, the DKB Skisporthalle in Oberdorf provides a track loop of almost 2 kilometers in length. In Torsby, Sweden the ski tunnel is 1.3 kilometers in length and claims to be the longest in the world. The world’s first ski tunnel was built at the Vuokatti Sports Institute, Finland in 1998.

With increased access to facilities and suitable locations, cross-country skiing may be set to increase in popularity as more people become aware of this enjoyable sport and its health benefits.

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Some years ago my wife, Irma, and I decided we were going to take up cross country skiing. Some of our friends were doing it so we thought, why not us. Not being the guy who takes advice readily, I went out and purchased cheap wooden skis, bindings and boots. You would think that having read many hundreds of advice articles on purchasing outdoor equipment I would have learned something over the years. Not exactly. I find it easier to give advice rather than to learn from others.

Let’s start with the skis.

There are basically two materials of which skis are made. Wood or fiberglass. There are also two types of skis. Wax and non wax. Some people refer to non wax as fish-scale skis.

Not all wooden skis are poor quality. Some of the best wooden ski makers in the world are in Norway. They are nice and wide and are great for breaking trail. These skis must be waxed thus another problem comes into play.

Fiberglass skis come in waxable and non waxable. Waxable fiberglass skis are used by racers who need speed and grip control for every temperature gradient. The wax is applied to the bottom of the ski and is used to push against the snow and is not used to glide. Almost every recreational skier today uses fiberglass skis with fish-scale bottoms.

Now back to our cheap wooden skis. Irma and I were trying to teach ourselves to ski. We think it is the best method of learning x-country-skiing.

We were attempting to cross a creek. A narrow wooden plank had been placed there for that purpose but was too narrow for the skis. Irma crossed over and I threw one of her skis over and it broke completely in two pieces.

Next trip, the bail holding the ski-boot to the ski flipped out and disappeared into two feet of snow never to be seen again. We were coming to the conclusion that the cheap road was the wrong road. I then purchased a pair of those top quality Norwegian wooden skis. They worked beautifully. Well, that is, until I did it again. What is that expression, “the older we get, the dumber we get.”

This time I tried to break out a large chunk of snow with the back of my ski. We needed something to stuff in a hole in our shelter to shut out the wind. Then we could boil some water for tea during a cross country ski trip. My good wooden ski snapped off an inch behind my boot binding. Not very smart.

Finally we purchased fiberglass skis with fish-scales and good bindings. We then set out to learn to ski properly. We taught ourselves.

Because we didn’t have the luxury of groomed trails we had a problem making a 180 degree turn. We would come to a dead end area with a fence barring the way. Keeping our balance while turning one long ski at a time was tough to do. The proper way to turn while at a dead stop was to balance on the left ski while lifting the right ski and laying it down in the opposite direction and maintaining your balance, bringing the left ski around to parallel with the right.

We soon found some groomed trails to practice our skills. Place your skis in the tracks and push off. It’s only a matter of keeping your balance. That will come with time. Where the going gets tough is when you encounter a hill. Going up you must herring bone. You place your ski out from your body at an angle and bring the other ski out at the opposite angle and do this maneuver repeatedly until you reach the top.

The toughest challenge to master is descending a steep hill with a turn at the bottom. Track setters generally leave an area from the middle of the hill to the bottom without a track. This allows you to step around the turn in little steps. Almost like ice skating or roller blading. Try to keep the majority of your weight on the inside ski.

Learning x-country-skiing is great aerobic exercise for your heart and will keep you in a wonderful frame of mind as you roam the country-side.

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Every four years, athletes from across the globe compete in the famous event winter Olympics. This event features a multitude of different winter sporting activities and attracts millions of sports fan the world over. The Sporting activities are held on ice or snow and involve games such as alpine skiing, cross- country skiing, ice hockey and curling as well as a host of other activities. Since 1924 ice hockey, cross-country skiing, figure skating, ski jumping, speed skating and Nordic combined have been competed at ever Olympics event.

With time, games such as Luge, freestyle skiing and short track speed skating have been added and have earned a remarkable place on the Olympics program. It is important to note that there are other activities such as speed skiing, skijoring and bandy that have not been officially incorporated in the Olympic games. Summer Olympics has more countries participating than its winter counterpart. In 1924, France held the first Olympics in winter in Chamonix. Before this first event, figure skating and ice hockey were popular summer Olympics events.

In 1940, the winter games were interrupted by World War II but later resumed in 1948. It was not until 1992 when the winter Olympics split from the summer games. The first event on a new schedule was in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. The winter games have undergone great changes over time. The games’ profile has been enhanced by the rise of communication technologies. The advancement in technology has seen to the creation of income streams making winter games a newfound source of income for many.

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