Cross country skiing has a complex and formerly unenviable reputation. Many North Americans, including ski media, used to visualize it as acceptable only when there was no downhill alternative. Couch potatoes and many alpine skiers took know-nothing or condescending attitudes, and XC often was viewed as technically simple to the point of boredom, granola-and-wool dowdy, and primarily practiced by young masochists.

Dr. Bob Arnot, former NBC News Chief Medical Correspondent and himself in the mid-70s, writes that “Aerobically, XC is the finest recreation you’ll ever find. It builds muscles and lowers body fat – a single hour of moderately-pace skiing burns 800 calories…”

Here’s a true story about XC stereotyping, from my conversation in the 1980s with a Colorado alpine resort manager. He told me they wouldn’t allow cross country skiers to take up valuable parking spaces because “He’s a guy who heads into the woods on Friday and comes out Sunday without having changed either his $5 bill or his underwear.”

Times have changed. Today, aficionados recognize the sports’ cardiovascular benefits, and also love it for the grace, variety, conviviality, and the taste of clear air, pure light, sighing wind. Today, it’s more than mere recreation, it’s exhilaration.

XC can be enjoyed from the moment you attach boots to boards, but it takes time to become an accomplished skier. As to the familiar “It looks like so much work!” misunderstanding, running a marathon is physically demanding too – but like jogging, XC is something you can do at your own pace.

As to the lycra-wearing-loner-male-athlete-with-a-frozen-mustache stereotype, it was sorta-kinda apt decades ago, mostly before machine-groomed trails..

Fewer Mishaps

Another XC attraction is very low injury frequency, and even then, the damage is almost always minor. Hypothermia and frostbite are possible but infrequent. Yes, you can get hurt, or lost, or chilled, but if you’re at a XC ski area properly clothed (no sweat-inducing parkas!), it’s very unlikely – and as with downhill, there will be people around to help.

Over the past 50+ years, I’ve skied thousands of kilometers -including silly things such as skiing backcountry solo – and twisted an ankle once, and I was back out on the trails within days.

Finally…

Cross country ski areas come in all shapes, sizes, settings, and qualities. Generally, they offer instruction and often also accommodations and dining. They may be community parklands, alpine ski area affiliates, guest ranches, golf courses, centuries-old inns, even real estate developments, with activity options, too.

It’s quite all right to take an afternoon or a full day to enjoy other forms of recreation such as relaxing with feet up, reading a good novel, glass of wine in hand, glancing occasionally at falling snow.  Give a thought to museums, antiquing, night life, toy factories, bookstores, snowshoeing, ice skating, ice fishing, sporting clays, disk golf, enjoying local accents, country stores, arts and crafts, hot tubs, even horseback riding and dogsledding. OK, snowmobiling too.

Fellow XC ski writer Roger Lohr says,” I prefer to go Nordic skiing on the weekend or when it is colder because groomed Nordic ski trails are very skiable, there are no crowds as fewer people go XC skiing and the skiers are spread out along miles of trails, it’s easier to keep warm… (muscle utilization warms the body), and Nordic area trail passes are significantly less costly compared to the weekend/holiday rates at alpine ski areas.”

There are elegant and vast operations along with  small and intimate, moms-and-pops, in mountains, valleys, meadows, forest. Some destinations are intriguing only for a couple of days, with not be much to do but ski. However, many lodges, ranches, and resorts can be immensely fulfilling for a week or more. Thes merit annual visits, combining beautiful settings with dependable snow and fabulous food. The folk who run them often do it for love as much as for money, and their affection for the land and way of life imprints every aspect of the business.

In choosing your destination, there’s so much variety that it’s worth defining vacation priorities. Is cross country skiing the primary objective, or part of a mix with downhilling? Is magnificent setting the overriding interest? Wildlife? Lodging and dining quality? A quiet or a lively ambiance? Do views of the Continental Divide justify altitude acclimation time? (Adjusting to elevation isn’t an issue in most regions, but above perhaps 6,000’, it’s sensible to take it very easy for at least a day.)

There are more than 100 alpine resorts in the USA and Canada with major Nordic affiliates, lodging, dining, and other services on the premises for multi-day visitors – think Sugar Bowl (Royal Gorge), CA; Silver Star, BC; Crystal Mountain and Boyne Mountain, MI; Mont-Sainte-Anne, QC; Bretton Woods and Waterville Valley, NH. Or, go wild and take in a Nordic-with-no-downhill destination. Whether your goal is beauty, entertainment, romance, history, family time, fellow souls, or endless exercise, there is an ideal cross country ski vacation.

P.S. XC trail distances are measured in kilometers (1 km. = .6 miles). You’ll notice that saying “I’ve skied 10 kms. this afternoon!” marvelously improves the appetite and frequently justifies a second dessert. It’s all part of the fun!