Cross-Country Skiing

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Each branch of the sport has its own gear: Racing employs fragile, very lightweight, and highly demanding skis . . . slightly sturdier "boards" are used for recreational skiing on prepared tracks ... the general all-purpose light touring runner is fine for tracks and limited bushwhacking ... and the heavier, wide, metal-edged touring skis are the choice for mountaineering. (However, most folks find that light touring skis are best for all but the very advanced or specialized skier.)

WAXING ELOQUENT

The next decision you'll have to make is whether to purchase waxable or waxless skis. In order to ski on the level ground (not to mention going uphill!) the boards under your feet will need to be able to get a grip on a substance that's usually pretty slippery . . . snow. There are two common ways of achieving such traction: by waxing the bottom of the skis, and by purchasing special boards that have their "snow-grabbers" built in.

The cross-country ski is designed to have camber... in the form of an arch built into the center of the ski that flattens out and touches the snow when weight is put on it, but lifts slightly off the snow when the weight is removed. The "kicker" zone of a waxable ski's base (the foot-and-a-half to three-foot area beneath the boot where the camber is greatest) is coated with a waxy substance. In the kick portion of the stride, when the ski is weighed down, the wax interacts with the snow crystals and grips them. During the glide portion, when the ski is unweighted, the camber lifts the wax off of the snow and no gripping takes place.

Wax is a very effective gripper ... except that snow varies in its temperature and crystalline structure, and each variant requires a different wax! Some folks love the challenge of matching up snow conditions with the proper wax ... while others loathe the hassle. If you guess right, you'll be able to kick like a mule and glide like the wind ... but guess wrong and you'll either have no traction at all or end up with a pound or two of snow gripping the soles of your skis like grim death! Which is why some folks don't bother with wax and swear by their...

WAXLESS WONDERS

Waxless skis use built-in grabbers to get a grip on the snow ... such as strips of mohair, "fish-scale" or diamond-shaped projections embossed on the ski's sole, steplike indentations, or—and this is a relatively new development—segments of mica embedded in the plastic skiing surface. However different they may sound, though, all of the above methods have one thing in common: They're unidirectional. That is, the grippers are set up so that they grab when force is applied in one direction (the kick) and slide when force is applied in the other direction (the glide). Waxless skis will allow you to travel over just about any kind of snow without special preparation, but they are—of necessity—compromises: You simply can't use such boards and expect to glide as easily (or as quickly ) as you could with properly waxed skis. In short, waxing offers the level of performance that non-waxable boards always claim to be approaching ... but waxless skis are much easier to use. Rent both types, make sure that you try doing some waxing yourself, and then make your decision.

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