Ever skated on skis? It's a blast. Yesterday was Saturday in SLC, home of hundreds of thousands of snow starved lift riding skiers. (there was all that powder little more than a week ago, but they are spoiled, like me.). Rather than contend with these hordes for chopped up sun baked crud, on lift served slopes, i went XC skiing at White Pine Touring in Park City. I decided to skate since it is great fun on sun baked trails. So fast, so fun, riding a knife edge between stability and crashing. The trails are on a golf course and I soon discovered that the ungroomed untracked fairways between the groomed tracks were much better. Frozen overnight and now with an inch of sun baked corn on top they were fast and perfect. I am not a good skater, technique OK but aerobic capacity terrible. I can go a few hundred yards before collapsing on my poles panting. I did it over and over with a big grin on my face. Oh, BTW the trail pass is free if you're over 70.
Back in the lodge I learned that today was a skate clinic with top instructors and high end demo equipment, all for $15. So back I went for a repeat with instruction helping me to identify some limiting faults. I worked on them for a while after the lesson, then went back to the lodge to discover free lunch, burgers and dogs hot off the grill. It was locals day. I am a 6 week local.
