Thursday, February 26, 2009

Ski de Fond - or cross country skiing

Its was a lovely sunny day but i was not in the mood for the piste so i thought why not try ski de fond. Olivier at Twinners sorted me out with the kit efficiently as usual. Nice comfy shoes - superlight skis. He looked a little bemused when i asked him how to do it! his advice was: "lean forward - there are no edges so you can't brake"

I thought I had better find somewhere not too steep so I went up to Les Menuires where there are several blue circuits at plan du lac specifically made for ski de fond. In fact - although i had not been on skis for about 15 years it was quite easy to get the hang of it. Its more aerobic than downhill - so the layers soon came off. You can build up a rythm which was pleasingly meditative - its the same kind of buzz as going for a run. I did 3 circuits (about 11km) which was enough for the first outing - it took about 1h30.

What a buzz - I will do it again! :-)

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