Cross Country Skiing

by Amy ~ January 6, 2008

A few years ago we took a trip to Lake Tahoe in California and visited the Royal Gorge Resort, the largest cross country skiing resort in North America. Z grew up on skis and had been cross country skiing several times before but this was the first time I had EVER been on skis….

It was great exercise and the scenery was amazing. Even though I spent most of the day on the ground and every muscle ached the following day, we had a lot of fun and wanted to go cross country skiing again.

We were excited to find that the Seattle area has several downhill skiing resorts and many cross country paths. We recently bought our own cross country skis and had been looking forward to breaking them in!

Yesterday it was rainy and dreary at our house so we decided to drive to the mountains to the cross country trails. We reached the mountains in just over an hour and found several feet of snow. (A bonus of living in Seattle – you’re close enough to enjoy the snow but don’t have to live with it daily!).

The cross country paths are groomed with a machine that makes little “lanes” in the snow. This is ideal for beginners like me, as the lanes keep your legs from going in opposite directions. This works most of the time, but there are still times when my legs just won’t cooperate!!

Yesterday I practiced stopping on hills… Zvonimir said my “swan dive” face plant would have been a great video clip to add to our site. I’m kind of happy he didn’t catch that on camera!! I did pretty well considering yesterday was only my second time on skis. I managed to keep my falls to less than double digits and only ended up with one large bruise! Hopefully at some point I’ll learn to stop without throwing myself on the ground…

View our Cross Country Skiing photos.