‘One problem with skate skiing: It’s hard’
By Christopher Solomon, New York Times
For a long time I just didn’t “get” cross country skiing. Shuffling through the woods while dangling a scratchy wool scarf? Too stuffy, too twee, too boring — a sport better left to old Norwegians and young honeymooners. I’m not ready to stride across a Currier & Ives print, I scoffed.
Then a friend introduced me to skate skiing, “classic” Nordic’s zippy younger brother.
If traditional Nordic skiing is a walk in the woods, then skate skiing — which was born only in the 1970s — is more like trail running. It’s swooping. It’s fast. It’s graceful. It’s even a bit sexy, something its buttoned-up older brother has never been accused of.
No wonder that more runners and cyclists have discovered the discipline as a great winter counterpart. Purchase of skate skis has been on a slow, steady rise in recent years, accounting for 16 percent of cross country skis bought in 2012-13.
There’s just one problem with skate skiing: It’s hard.
Anybody who uses the word twee in an article and thinks nordic skiers wear scratchy woolen scarves doesn’t belong on the tracks anyway. Probably in a library somewhere with his bowtie on too tight instead.