cross country skiing

telemachus

I realise the majority of this forum would be involved in downhill/snow boarding but I figured someone here might have a clue as i'm completely lost!

Someone I know has rather oddly decided they always wanted to try cross country skiing (a rather different ambition to your average aspiration of Alpine slopes and flash chalets ) and is trying to organise a few days to a week away doing it despite no experience and no idea where to go!

It seems Scandinavia is the area to look at but it's a tricky one to organise, unlike downhill where once you have your fill of hurtling down slopes and flattening yourself you can go back to your accomadations and relax the majority of offers for cross country are multi-day treks from hotel to hotel along a route. I'm just worried that as a group of beginners it might not be the best, especially if people are having trouble with it and are forced to struggle through all day. If anyone has any experience of cross country and any reccomendations at all as to where/how to go about it i'd really apreciate it!

robinph

Couldn't really recommend where to go but you will find that near a lot of resorts there will be at least one cross country trail about. I did spend a day doing it once years ago because the weather was too bad that day to actually go up the mountain. Unfortunately the guys that I was with had done XC skiing a good few times before so knew what they were doing and it was incredibly hard for me to try and keep up with them. There was a good few trails in that area though going through a forest with little huts hidden in there where you could get a good feed and some wine before attempting the return journey.

It is supposedly the fullest workout that it is possible to do though, assuming that you are doing it right. But I guess if you just take it as an easy session then it could probably be a relaxing activity if your not trying to chase your better friends at the same time.

You'd need to have a check on the piste maps before hand though to get an idea of where might be best, but as the Scandinavians seem to be the best at the likes of the cross country and biathlons that part of the world is probably the best direction to head in.

Overflow

Your right Scandanavia is the captial of cross-country skiing, its huge over here, any of the ski resorts here in Norway at least are well equiped with cross country tracks, some of them are extremely long, but its not like hotel to hotel as you mentioned, they are all contained within the resort, saying that there are special excursion cross country holidays you can take with adventure companies that span a couple of days.

For example i went to this resort last year, they have a ton of cross country tracks. Now i didn't do cross country it myself, but the tracks are pretty extensive:

http://www.hovden.com/hovden/fore/vis.asp

This place is about 4 hours from Oslo, but there are a few other bigger resorts closer to Oslo.

mcgratheoin

As Overflow said, Norway is the capital of cross-country skiing.The hotel to hotel treks are definitely not suited to a beginner, but if you just go to any ski resort they'll have trails for cross-country. If you tell a Norwegian you're going skiing for the weekend, they just assume you mean cross-country.

There's no need to go to a resort there though. If you just want to try it once or twice, why not take a long weekend in Oslo? There are probably more options for cross country skiing around Oslo than in any downhill resorts and you won't have the hassle of travelling once you arrive there.

If you take the subway to Tryvann (Line 1) there's a small downhill resort there (about 3 slopes) and the rental shop will rent you cross-country equipment. Just be aware that there aren't any classes that you take - you're just given the skis and set on your way - this is fine on the flat, but down any kind of slope, they are very difficult to control. You can get maps of the forest specifically for the winter - i.e. the trails go straight across the lakes - and you should be able to pick out a few things from this.

telemachus

Thanks alot everyone, that's been incredibly useful, I have to confess my previous knowledge was more or less spandex clad men on the television during the winter olympics taking an occasional break to shoot things! I didn't realise it was so common to have numerous cross country trails attached to downhill resorts, that would make things much easier in terms of equipment rental and tuition etc and the proximity to accommodation means it won't turn into sullen misery halfway through a lengthy trek when people start discovering they aren't as fit as they thought! Oslo also sounds good as opposed to the middle of nowhere so there's something to do to take a break from skiing.

Again thanks alot for the help, I feel like I have a much better idea what i'm looking for now thank god.

mcgratheoin

telemachus wrote: »

spandex clad men on the television during the winter olympics taking an occasional break to shoot things!

that'd be Biathlon....

There's a ski school (here) that will do cross country for you in Oslo. It depends on what you want to do really, but some time in Oslo (provided you can get it at a good price) would give you a good chance to do several different things. It would probably work out a bit dearer than heading to a resort in the Alps but you'd have cross country, some alpine and also skating in the city centre, as well as the usual tourist stuff in a city. If you're not sure about what you want to do, then it may be a good compromise.