X-Country Skiing 2012

[tallsteve]

Now that we finally have some snow, I’ve been able to get out and enjoy some x-country skiing. During the week I hit up Little Mill Campground (AF Canyon and groomed by the USFS) in the evening after work. Little Mill is just a gentle 1 mile uphill slope, turn around, then back the same way. I typically do 2-3 laps (4-6 miles) at a fairly quick pace (for me anyway!) These workouts are all about aerobic and strength training. After throwing in some speed intervals this is a crazy good workout. Its light when I start, but I have the Petzl headlamp on for the last couple of miles. When I first started doing this, I would get a little spooked after dark, because I would be all alone. Now, it’s no big deal.
Saturday’s I do something more adventurous. The last 2 weekends, I’ve ski’d up the Alpine Loop road, above the road-closed gate. The road gets packed down by snowmobiles so there’s a good track to follow. Two weekends ago I went up the Sundance side, last Saturday up the AF side. Both about the same 4 mile distance up to the summit. A much steeper ascent/descent. Since I’ve never really done any type of skiing before, I am cautious and slow on the descent! Anyway, I have a blast and it’s made winter bearable!

[Sandstone Addiction]

Spent many years alpine skiing, but only tried x-country once as a youth...might have to give it a try again--looks very enjoyable.

Thanks for the report.

[Sombeech]

Cool, I'm hoping to get out on Presidents Day up at the Environmental Center in North Fork

[Sun Dance]

What the heck is the environmental center?

[Sombeech]

http://envctr.weber.k12.ut.us/

[tallsteve]

KanyonKris and I decided to ski something different Saturday, so we headed up to Park City to try out the Round Valley trails network. http://mountaintrails.org/trails/winter. There are about 25K of groomed, rolling x-country ski trails in this network. We ended up skiing around 17K. We wanted to do more, but the wind really started howling. So much so, that neither of us wanted to stop and take any photos. Anyway, a really good track and not a ton of people. I would really like to try it out right after a snow storm and freshly groomed.