I'm a beginning XC skiier working on getting to intermediate (I've gone out 8 times so far).
OK, I'm home from work and have gotten my son going on his homework, so I have a little bit of time. Also, I have to split this into two posts 'cause it's too long!
FIRST: remember to give yourself points for just getting out there and skiing, and for coming to this great board to chat and exchange ideas, tips, and so on. There's not as many of us XC types here, but everyone is very friendly and helpful.
SECOND: We will all warn you that skiing in general is a highly addictive activity, LOL! My personal variance is an almost uncontrollable glove fetish; I am always searching for the perfect glove for skiing.
Yesterday I went to [deleted URL] Cabin Creek, a sno-park in Washington to try night-skiing for the first time. We had just gotten a good amount of fresh snow, so we were looking forward to the skiing. Cabin Creek is normally groomed, but it had only been groomed on Wednesday, before the new snowfall.
I wish I had XC trails closer to me than a 2-hour drive. This sounds lovely. That said - track that hasn't been groomed for a few days, that's been chewed up by all kinds of traffic, can be rough going. Even if there's a little bit of new snow, until it's groomed it can be tricky. Also, since you were night-skiing, you got to deal with the remnants of the day's messes.
I found the semi-groomed trail to be really difficult on my skinny skis. I followed in my friends' tracks through the new snow, which created ruts that I couldn't easily push my skis out of to snowplow to slow myself on hills. Worse, there were previous people's ruts that had gotten hard and icy, which my skis wanted to jump into and trip me up. Finally, there were clumps and islands of snow (a few inches higher than the ground-level snow) scattered throughout the trail, which would push me around when my skis bumped into them -- I was unable to just "slice through" them like I had thought I would be able to.!
We were in Utah 3 weeks ago, and I XC skied the first morning to get my legs on and my confidence up. Same situation you encountered. Both the classic tracks and the skate surface were pretty well torn up, given the combined assaults of skiers, snowshoers, very excited dogs, and who knows what else. (My personal nemesis is people without snowshoes who tromp all over the beautiful newly-set tracks...sigh.)
You can't push out of tracks into a snowplow; you run into too much resistance from the side of the track. As abc mentions in the quote below, you need to learn how to get the foot closest to the middle of the trail up and out of the track and placed into a half-plow position on the skate surface. You need to be centered over your skis to do this - you transfer the pressure to the foot you're not going to lift, while staying centered, then quickly lift your other foot up and out of the track. Of course, you have to lift your foot in such a way that you don't get hung up by letting the ski's tail drag in the track. This takes a little bit of practice, but it's an extremely important skill to have.
Hard and icy tracks, whether set by machine or skier, will be fast. There's no way around that. I would stay out of those until you are really confident about being able to half-plow and aren't scared of the speed - but even then, I'd be cautious. Sometimes it's better just to stay away from them.
Clumps and islands - I ran into those all day this past weekend while downhill skiing, but they were slushy from higher temps. No fun at all! I had to increase pressure on the downhill turning ski by an amazing amount. What you are probably running into, however, is new snow that's been pushed around. You need to use more pressure on your front foot in the push-and-glide movement so as to "power" through the stuff. The more you do this, the better you'll get.
I ended up having to start the hills already in snowplow position, even though that was excessively slow in the powder (which seems significantly slower than on hard groomed snow). I was afraid that if I let my skis go straight for a while to build up the speed I wanted, I wouldn't be able to push my skis back out into snowplow again to slow down.
If you're unfamiliar with the terrain, it's a good idea to start in a snowplow, so you can get a feel for not only the terrain but how your skis are reacting to the snow. That said, however, I would strongly recommend that you work on having your skis parallel, then pushing out into a snowplow, and then parallel again (you'll need at least some incline to do this). Lather, rinse, repeat, about sixty gazillion times. This is an essential skill in all kinds of skiing. Once you have this down, XC hills will be much more do-able. (Just so you know, it took me a number of lessons before I got up the guts to do this, but I'm kind of chicken.)
Is this just a lack of strength in my legs, or lack of force, and I really just need to power through those chunks and ruts? Or is there a limitation on what skinny skis can do outside of nicely groomed trails? How do I avoid the old ruts "derailing" me?
Lack of strength - could be. I'm finding with downhill skiing I've really needed to work on my leg strength in terms of bursts of power, whereas in XC it's more sustained energy with occasional power. Cardio, weights, cross-training - they're all beneficial.
As far as what your skis can do, the scale pattern sounds like they are primarily for tracks, but I can't see where they'd not work at all outside of the track. The large scale pattern could be difficult for skating. The old ruts you just have to work around. That's where learning how to be balanced over your skis so well that you can transfer weight and pick up one ski is invaluable - if you look down the trail and see trouble, you can adjust to accomodate/miss that.
Being centered and relaxed enough to do this makes the sport all the more fun - because you know how to handle the quirks either Mother Nature or other users can throw at you.
By "chunks of snow" I mean, the snow was uneven. Not up-and-down wavy that I could just ride over; rather, distinct chunks (like soccer balls, or raised ridges) that were several inches higher than the surrounding snow. I would have had to lift my ski to get over them -- they wouldn't just ride over the change in snow heights by themselves.
Again, unless they were icy, you have a couple of choices - first, powering through them by really committing that forward foot plant with good pressure. Make sure you're over your knee when you do that. Your other choice, particularly if they are icy, is to learn to go around them - again, by being able to pick up a ski and change your direction. If the track is so torn up that there's a big ridge across it, stand up a little more as you go up the little hill then bend your knees more as you go down the other side. This can be tricky, and is one of those things you just have to try to see if you are comfortable with it. I will say I've never run into a ridge all across a trail.
(To Be Continued in next post!)
