Going off trail

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In article ,
Christos Dimitrakakis wrote:
Hello, I have to admit that I am extremely confused as to what type of ski
I would need to buy. The basic question is what type of ski I should buy
for wandering around the snow with my skis.

I had been introduced to skiing via the alpine downhill skiing route, with
the standard relatively wide fixed-binding, plastic boot, metal-edged
skis. I skied around 10 times before deciding that I really hated
spending 90% of my time on freezing lifts and the rest 10% on extremely
steep downhill tracks. I guess those are called 'Alpine' skis.

Then I discovered cross-country skiing (the standard olympic type) and
I've had a lot of fun with it, mostly with skate-type skis. I love the
movement, the soft boots, the light skis, but it seems pretty much
impossible to go downhill on anything more than the gentlest slopes. I
think those are called 'XC' and 'Skate' skis, or occasionally 'Nordic'
skis.

The ski you want doesn't exist. There isn't a ski out there that
doesn't require some skill and effort to turn. You can turn on XC
skate skis, but it requires practice. Learning some basic turning
skills on your current skate skis will open up a lot of terrain.

Find a gentle groomed slope and practice turning. No matter what
ski you end up with, you'll be very stuck in your terrain choices
unless you learn to turn beyond a snowplow or skate turn. Neither
of those turns work very well in most ungroomed snow conditions.

If you don't currently own skis, I'd guess you want something
like a Classic XC ski in either waxless or waxable version,
depending on whether you want to learn to use kick wax or
not. Most of these skis are much harder to turn than typical
skate skis. I'd get some combi boots to go with that as they
offer more support than a skate boot.

As you've no doubt learned from the replies, picking gear for
making your own tracks is about what compromises you are willing
to accept. There is a wide range of gear and opinions and it
all depends on what you want to do. Here's a web page that
discusses the various options and choices for skis that are
called "Backcountry Skis" at least in the USA.

http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/Dirt...r/bc-skis.html

If you just want to get out in the woods, take a serious look at
snowshoes.

_ Booker C. Bense

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