Just got back from Ski Center. Purchased Hotronics as an early (!) Christmas present for my girlfriend. She has serious cold issues that keep her from enjoying herself, so this should be a huge improvement.

I also dropped off my skis and bindings for mounting and calibration!

All I need now are some poles (we sold our old ones at a ski swap, expecting we'd find some to buy, and didn't...).

Planning to ski at HV in November, if the weather cooperates, which means that the first day on snow SHOULD be less than 3 weeks away!


aaron

Go pole-less! You will never ski with them again!

Believe there is a swap at Pro-Fit this Sunday, might be a chance to pick up good used poles.

I know there's one at Alpine, and then the "Ski Expo" (hardy har har), so I'll probably drop in at those... Pro-Fit is like 2 minutes from my house, so if there's one there, I'll check that, too.

Oldensign - I don't know if I need the poles for the downhill part of skiing as much as the flat and uphill parts... I can only skate for so long!

aaron

It's a FESTival of swapuppapups this weekend.

Ski Haus Glen Burnie Sat.
Ski Expo Fri-Sun
Ski Chalet Chantilly Sat-Sun
Pro-Fit Sun
Alpine Sat-Sun


Ski Chalet Arlington is NEXT weekend and That's All Folks.

I've tried a few times and it seems every time I end up saying that I will never ski without them again...

Yeh if the snow is nice i'd rather skate than pole.

I need to teech you guyz the alpine V2

The what?
The Colonel

Whenever I read descriptions of cross country skate technique I get totally confused. I can just imagine myself trying to do it between glances at the instructions and being reduced to a quivering mass of protoplasm tied in knots on the ground. To actually see these techniques demonstrated is a revelation. It is in fact easy and rhythmic. (Not easy aerobically but easy in the motions executed.) Why the descriptions have to be so complicated I don't know.

I think part of the problem is that the writer is trying to be technically complete and technically correct while at the same time creating context for readers from scratch.


Most XC stuff is just modified walking gaits.

Ever seen a full-on, technically correct description of walking, written for someone who doesn't have the visual context?


We do need better motion language; we shouldn't have to teach milling wheat into flour every time we want to make spaghetti.

Anyhow, the point of my above posts was only to show the possibility of double pole plants during a skate, particularly when weight needs to go forward (against alpine boot stiffyness).

The "alpine V2" is just a little mongrel stroke I found that works for me for really long skates (squish down on power, push into a whole body extension on top the new ski).

I didn't find it by instruction; I found it by playing with the double pole plant idea and the idea of extending the upper body along the new stance ski.

I fully expect at least some readers on here are athletic enough and body-aware enough to experiment and find stuff like it on their own.

I like skating and would like to become decent at nordic skating. The trouble is that I like making turns more so I spend a lot more time skinning than I do skating.

Too funny