Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to
skate on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail
breaking something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

On Nov 20, 5:55*pm, gr wrote:
Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to
skate on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail
breaking something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr

not on "skating skis" (i.e short and narrow) for sure. Skating
requires glide. I am not sure what kind of glide you can get through
9" of snow. Breaking trail after a fresh snowfall is "classic" style
skiing, but there is not much glide there either

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

runcyclexcski wrote:
On Nov 20, 5:55 pm, wrote:
Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to
skate on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail
breaking something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr

not on "skating skis" (i.e short and narrow) for sure. Skating
requires glide. I am not sure what kind of glide you can get through
9" of snow. Breaking trail after a fresh snowfall is "classic" style
skiing, but there is not much glide there either

Indeed.
:-)

Breaking trail like that, i.e. when sinking 15-20 cm down, reducesyour
forward speed to something like 4 km/h, at least when skiing marathon
distances with a pack.

Trying to skate would just be a very fast way to faceplant.

(There is one possible exception though: With no pack, very solid base
and up to 15 cm of extremely soft/fresh powder, you can indeed do some
skating, but it is a lot more efficient to ski classic style.)

Terje

--
- Terje.Mathisen at tmsw.no
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:55:51 -0500, gr
wrote:

Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to
skate on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail
breaking something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr

No. You can't skate in those conditions, especially with skate skis;
I've tried it. There's a snowmobile trail I can sometimes skate on, and since
it's their trail, I get off of it when they come by.


Ben

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

absolutely yes, done it nearly every year on our local golf course out my
door.

400 yard long fairway. first pass 4 minutes slooooooow. second pass, 3:45,
third pass, 3:30, until i've packed it myself enough to skate on it fairly
well. self grooming!!!

Jkal.


"gr" wrote in message
b.com...
Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to skate
on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail breaking
something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

On 11/21/2011 5:41 PM, outsideinmi wrote:
absolutely yes, done it nearly every year on our local golf course out my
door.

400 yard long fairway. first pass 4 minutes slooooooow. second pass, 3:45,
third pass, 3:30, until i've packed it myself enough to skate on it fairly
well. self grooming!!!

Jkal.


wrote in message
b.com...
Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to skate
on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail breaking
something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr



Thanks to all for the responses! Sounds like yes for die-hards, but
mostly no.

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

On Nov 21, 5:41*pm, "outsideinmi"
wrote:
absolutely yes, done it nearly every year on our local golf course out my
door.

400 yard long fairway. *first pass 4 minutes slooooooow. *second pass, 3:45,
third pass, 3:30, until i've packed it myself enough to skate on it fairly
well. *self grooming!!!



There is a lore story that a top Russian nordic skier groomed his own
skating trails by dragging a truck tire behind him. In my garrison
town they used to send in a platoon skiing three abreast to groom -
the result was skate-able to an extent (this is where kids in my town
learned skating in the mid 80s).

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

On Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:23:21 -0500, gr
wrote:

On 11/21/2011 5:41 PM, outsideinmi wrote:
absolutely yes, done it nearly every year on our local golf course out my
door.

400 yard long fairway. first pass 4 minutes slooooooow. second pass, 3:45,
third pass, 3:30, until i've packed it myself enough to skate on it fairly
well. self grooming!!!

Jkal.


wrote in message
b.com...
Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to skate
on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail breaking
something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr



Thanks to all for the responses! Sounds like yes for die-hards, but
mostly no.

You would have to disqualify that "yes" because you specifically asked about
skating on virgin 9" snow and he said he has to make several passes to pack it
enough to skate on it, so the answer to your question is a unanimous no.

Ben

Does skating absolutely require groomed trails?
 

"gr" wrote in message
b.com...
Aside from the obvious nice heavy top crust snow, is it possible to skate
on snow which is say, 9 inches deep and untraveled? Or is trail breaking
something you can't do at all wit skate skis?
gr

I think the first Birkie I did was something like that. Oof Da!!