On Feb 29, 9:40 am, (Melinda Shore) wrote:
In article ,
Jeff Potter (of OutYourBackdoor.com) wrote:

The ignored market might be worth further consideration. This is the
SINGLETRACK scene of XC. It can still be high performance and high
satisfaction (like all good singletrack). This is less-groomed skiing.
Probably mostly classic done in a touring style. One snowmobile could
groom if need be. This would be the lowest cost form of XC possible.

Well, no - the lowest-cost form of XC is a person, a pair of
skis, and a bunch of land.

Yeah. I meant organized or optimized. Skiing off a trail is fun but
not such high performance. Skiing on most any kind of trail can be
darn high performance. A little packing goes a long ways.

Around here we've got a huge
amount of public land, paid for through taxes rather than
use fees. There are, however, occasional contentions around
multi-use issues, with some skiers frankly having
expectations of pristine conditions in state forests, which
is deeply, deeply uncool.

Ouch. Expecting grooming for free? Well, it probably IS a good use of
tax money! : )

So, I think to the extent that a
$1/day single-track resort might have any appeal beyond
public land, it might be guarantees that there won't be
people doing other activities on the trails.

I used to be somewhat fussy about other users but no more. Oddly the
change for me occurred when I got good at classic rollerskiing---when
I no longer needed a track for optimal striding. To keep a growth
model I'd think we'd want to be as open about the trails as possible.
But hippo tracks in the ski tracks are lame. Walkers are OK, shoers
OK...runners get a little severe...bikers are really bad when the snow
is soft or slushy---then freezes! Maybe any other use gets tiresome
when there's slush-and-freeze.

BTW, I finally tried that Start grip tape last night and
really, really liked it. About 5F and a little humid, and
it just worked. No muss, no fuss, no stopping to tune up
the wax. Just skiing.

Someday I'll apply the batch that I have. But I just keep on putting
on the wax of the day and having great skiing so I haven't been able
to make myself do anything different. My hand just keeps reaching for
"easy best." Someday I'll do the tape...