Big Day outings instead of racing? (Or as prelude)

One of the things that bugged me about racing was being forced into a
date and even into a length of outing. It seems to happen very often
-- especially in our shaky snow state of lower Michigan that the race
day has bad conditions -- but a few days before or after are great for
skiing. (And, sure, lots of skiers head back out for more skiing after
a race, which is cool, but still...)

I was pondering whether big/long social group ski days on a certain
trail system might be more convenient and just as interesting or
challenging as a race, depending on how you set it up. For each such
event you could have a Rain Date so that your group could keep a date
open a couple weekends later, say. Yeah, there's a race or two every
weekend anyway, so maybe it's a moot point if one weekend gets nuked
weatherwise (thaw or bad conditions). Still, the different races would
be in different trail systems, so there's that.

Then there's the racing concept itself. I wonder if maybe it's best
for those who are already putting in plenty of Big Fun Days on snow.

I suppose I just have never made the transition so well to being a
downstater: to get some structure it's easy to hop into weekend racing
mode while not getting much Big skiing otherwise. I think this turns
into a Big Lack.

On a Big Ski Day with your pals you can start at dawn and bring a pack
with food and dry clothes then ski an adventurous trail system all day
until dark and go places where you've never been and see cool things
(coyotes, wolves, martins, moose, elk, etc.) and have great picnic
stops and log up Personal Record mileage days all at basically no cost
and at no risk of "failure." Everyone's a winner. There's no "not
being at your peak" jive. The wax is always perfect.

Personally it seems like folks need most of their skiing to be like
that. Then maybe when they're dialed in and on top of their game they
plan to drop in a race.

Or maybe some of us should just go a bit mellower in most of our races
until we're fit enough to go 110%...and to prep our skis with 110%
attention to detail.

I know that a lot of Up North people like to do Big Days with their
pals. But I wonder how many downstate types get in enough of them? I
know that I sure don't and that I sure have a great time when I do!
(Also, I know that I'm easily tempted into racing and then I go harder
than I'm ready for and am not inclined to keep on skiing and having
fun after the race.)

Just some ponderings... --JP

jeff potter wrote:
On a Big Ski Day with your pals you can start at dawn and bring a pack
with food and dry clothes then ski an adventurous trail system all day
until dark and go places where you've never been and see cool things
(coyotes, wolves, martins, moose, elk, etc.) and have great picnic
stops and log up Personal Record mileage days all at basically no cost
and at no risk of "failure." Everyone's a winner. There's no "not
being at your peak" jive. The wax is always perfect.

Jeff, you really need to move to Norway:

The above is perfect description of how most Norwegian families ski
together with their kids. :-)

The concept is also similar to what my father and a bunch of friends
developed during the first half of the sixties: They would meet up every
Sunday or Saturday, fill up one or more cars and go to one of the nearby
mountain/touring areas to ski all day, usually taking turns breaking
trail to places they hadn't visited before.

In 1967 they started a new tradition, making the first weekend in March
a very long weekend (Friday morning to Monday evening) where they skied
180 km from the north to the south end of Telemark.

I joined them for the first time in 1975, we kept this up until 1994
when several of the original skiers had retired, but they all still took
part in the 8-day trek across the mountains from Morgedal in Telemark to
Lillehammer, arriving the day before the Olympics started.

This was definitely my best ski trip ever. :-)

(Even though we had about 1.5m of fresh powder snow to break trail in,
temperatures from -27C in the morning to a balmy -13C in the early
afternoon before it dropped again, and my Fischer skate skis were
somewhat skinny for the prevailing conditions. :-)

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

On Jan 28, 10:22*am, Terje Mathisen "terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"
wrote:
jeff potter wrote:
On a Big Ski Day with your pals you can start at dawn and bring a pack
with food and dry clothes then ski an adventurous trail system all day
until dark and go places where you've never been and see cool things
(coyotes, wolves, martins, moose, elk, etc.) and have great picnic
stops and log up Personal Record mileage days all at basically no cost
and at no risk of "failure." Everyone's a winner. There's no "not
being at your peak" jive. The wax is always perfect.

Jeff, you really need to move to Norway:

Yeah, I know. The sad thing is that Michigan is AS GOOD as Norway for
skiing and outdoor things. Yet our culture, even i skiing, seems kinda
mixed up, and is so often ignorant.

Like how we have so many now saying they don't like winter coz they
don't like the cold. Well, activity turns cold to warm. Simple! I hate
cold, too -- it's intolerable -- for anyone! So move around and,
presto, WARM!

I don't recall the cold-whining around town or on TV a couple decades
ago. I wonder if there was a change -- I wonder if transience has
something to do with it.

There's a "get out there!" profile in the local paper about a young
top triathlete woman. What does she love to do in winter? Run and
downhill ski. There's a picture of her in her thick, heavy outfit with
thick, heavy skis over her shoulder -- the closest decent downhill
skiing is 200 miles away. The rest are icy bumps -- cute, but offer
fun that's like bowling culture or hockey rinks. And they're pricey!
$30 for a couple hours on a hump. How is that sensible for a young
person or anyone in hard times? Yet all around us is WORLD CLASS xc
trails and terrain...for free! That young lady could be boosting her
triathlon results bigtime by changing her boards from dumb to smart.
Then there's the folks who say they prefer ski-skating without having
given classic a try -- so around this region there's one groomed skate
area a half hour from the city center -- while there are a dozen great
places for classic in all directions. Whew!

The above is perfect description of how most Norwegian families ski
together with their kids. :-)

Makes sense!

The concept is also similar to what my father and a bunch of friends
developed during the first half of the sixties: They would meet up every
Sunday or Saturday, fill up one or more cars and go to one of the nearby
mountain/touring areas to ski all day, usually taking turns breaking
trail to places they hadn't visited before.

In 1967 they started a new tradition, making the first weekend in March
a very long weekend (Friday morning to Monday evening) where they skied
180 km from the north to the south end of Telemark.

I joined them for the first time in 1975, we kept this up until 1994
when several of the original skiers had retired, but they all still took
part in the 8-day trek across the mountains from Morgedal in Telemark to
Lillehammer, arriving the day before the Olympics started.

Wow, what a grand finale!

Now THAT would've been a great sports venue to be spending a week in!
I heard that the tent city in those woods was just astounding. And I
don't think you needed to be an xc buff to appreciate it. I think it
spelled "good neighborly fun" all over.

This was definitely my best ski trip ever. :-)

(Even though we had about 1.5m of fresh powder snow to break trail in,
temperatures from -27C in the morning to a balmy -13C in the early
afternoon before it dropped again, and my Fischer skate skis were
somewhat skinny for the prevailing conditions. :-)

So much for needing the exact right stuff to have fun! : )

Thanks for the stories! --JP