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Martin Thornquist
but what do you call xc skiing on groomed tracks in the
backcountry?

Track skiing. Modern groomed tracks are a far cry from natural
conditions. Modern tiny XC racing gear excels on these, but,
depending on the snow conditions, going off the track with
such gear is hopeless.

My main point was in the part you snipped, that there is a continuum
from perfectly groomed tracks which I wouldn't call "backcountry" via
several categories down to marked routes only done once in a while
with snowmobile to maintain marking and pack the snow somewhat. What
do you call backcountry and what not?

Perhaps a bit like the difference between road cycling and
mountain biking. Except bigger.

This is pretty similar, there's a wide selection of paved roads, good
gravel roads, not so good gravel roads, good paths, smaller paths.
I've biked on all of them (well, dragged the bike along the smallest
paths), and I'm not sure where you would draw the lines. Some people
use cyclocross (beefed-up road racers) for path biking these days...

Speaking of cycling, a prepared XC-skiing track (skating style) is
great for cycling. In summer too, btw.

Around here they can be great for a while (in summer), and then
suddenly you're in the middle of a swamp with mud up to the knees. :-)


Martin
--
"An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader."
-Paul Graham, On Lisp