Last year I posted some snowmobiling secrets that are usually withheld from xc skiers.  So here are a couple more mysteries that are brought to light ...

Why do some snowmobilers have LEDs lit up on their helmets?

The LED is the power indicator for heated face shields.  For extreme cold weather some snowmobilers use face shields that plug into the DC power outlet of the snowmobile.  Heating elements inside of a double layer face shield warm the air between the shield layers and this prevents frosting.

How can you tell if snowmobiler is skier-friendly?

The headgear the snowmobiler is wearing might be a clue.  Sno-goers that go fast often wear open faced helmets with goggles.  These types usually refer to xc skiers as "speed bumps".  If there is a mohawk on top of the helmet, like above, you are in grave danger.

Sensible riders more often seem to wear full-face helmets, like the one in the upper left with the LED.  These types will likely stop to chat with skiers.  The helmet in the upper right is one from a strange Alaskan tribe of xc skiing snowmobilers.  Note the decal.  Catch is - there are a lot more mohawk madmen out there than these stride/ride tribe members.

Earlier this winter a guy from Minnesota named Lonnie Dupree tried for the second time to do a mid-winter ascent of Mt.  McKinley.  He ran into some wind and cold, and he turned back.

He probably would have made the summit if he had Lynxie (see above) guiding him.

Lynxie's story, based on clues I've put together, is that he was lost or abandoned last summer.  Ever since then he has lived homeless in our neighborhood.  For four to five months he lived on mice, shrews and whatever he could kill or scavenge.  But most noteworthy is that he lived through the 5 brutal (90-105 mph) windstorms that racked our neighborhood this winter.  He made it through the deepest snowfalls in a decade.  And he made it through three weeks of a deep-freeze, sub-zero January which apparently set the record for the coldest January ever in Anchorage, AK.

And he did this all with just the thin fur on his back.  No expedition down jacket or sleeping bag.  No tent.  No stove to melt snow for water.  This is one tough cat.  If there was a mid-winter race between Lonnie Dupree and this cat to the top of McKinley, my money would be on Lynxie.

After the 5th windstorm I shoveled three to four feet of drifted snow off our back porch.  Come to find out these snow drifts had buried Lynxie alive under our back deck, where he had apparently been living for quite some time, unbeknownst to my wife and me.  When my wife caught him he was very skittish and skinny.  Now he's gaining weight and getting in some well deserved couch surfing.  I never, ever planned on being a cat owner during my life.  Oh well, I'm one now. 
 

The Tour of Anchorage (TOA) turns 25 years old this year.  I skied the first TOA in 1988 and it was an exciting event because it was the first “across-town” ski race in Anchorage.  Since that first TOA there have been quite a lot of course changes.  Here is a ski by memory along the trail of the first Tour of Anchorage that will point out some of the differences between now and 25 years ago ...

P.J. Hill has organized all TOAs from the 2^nd one on.  But the first one was organized by Tom Peacock.  During the 1987-88 ski season Tom was the president of the Nordic Ski Club of Anchorage (I don’t think it was the NSAA then).  AND … Tom was the head groomer.  Yes, the ski club was a much, much smaller organization back then.

Besides being the club president and trail groomer and all-round good guy, Tom also was a regular participant in club ski races.  So Tom the ski racer was excited about linking together brand new trail systems, like the Spencer Loop, the Chester Creek Trail and the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, for a cross-town ski race.

I remember talking to Tom about the course for the first TOA.  I was lobbying him to start at Glen Alps and make it a true cross-town, from the mountains to the sea race.  Tom felt the descent down to Hillside would have been a bit much for most people.  So he opted to start at Service High School, where there was good parking and facilities for racers.

As a side note: A ski race called the Flattop Flyer from Glen Alps to Service High School sprung up shortly after the first TOA.  This race became wildly popular.  The entire mostly-downhill course was groomed with a Piston Bully, and when Bill Spencer organized it there was a jump in the course.  This event was eventually shut down due to liability concerns.  The fact that a few people got hurt in this wild race was a factor in this decision.

Back to the TOA:  The first year of the TOA the race started on the west side of the Service High football field and headed east to the trail system.  This could be done because at the time there was no fence around the Service track and football field.  So there was much more room for a mass start than there is today. 

The race went east from the Service football field and onto the Hillside lighted loop.  Another quick aside: I know you’ll think I’m kidding, but 25 years ago all the lights on the Hillside lighted loop were functional.  It’s true!  Not just 30 to 40 percent of the lights like this year.

The first TOA course dropped down to the Abbot Loop parking lot trailhead because the cutoff above the trailhead was not built yet,  The narrow hill coming up out of the parking log area caused a lot of congestion.

The route was the same through the Besh, Spencer Loop and back to the lighted trail system.  One exception is that the first TOA course went up the first hill on the Spencer Loop instead of bypassing it.

Back on the lighted loop and before getting to the four corners in The Burn area the trail took the hard right onto the trail that leads past Ryan’s Hill Trail and on to the start of what is now called the Tour of Anchorage Trail.  It wasn’t called the TOA trail back then, it was the Old Homestead Road.

Heading down the Homestead Road hill the course came to the corner just before the BLM property boundary and the bridge.  Here you had to ski through a narrow gate made of large metal pipes painted red.  You didn’t want to screw up going through this gate, it was sketchy.

When we got to the right turn that takes you onto the TOA trail we went straight ahead on the Coyote Trail instead.  Why?  Because the TOA Trail had not been built yet.

Taking a now overgrown exit off the Coyote Trail the course went out onto the east side of the BLM landing strip.  Here the course went straight and flat for the whole length of the runway.

At the end of the runway the course continued north, crossed Campbell Creek on the dog mushing bridge (the pedestrian bridge wasn’t built yet) and then followed a dog sled trail a couple of kilometers north until it intersected another dog sled trail coming from Baxter road to the east.  Taking a left on this dog sled trail you went west until a hard 90 degree right turn put you on the current-day TOA trail.

At this point things were much different 25 years ago.  There was no Martin Luther King Boulevard to go under, no bike trails and no curved pedestrian bridge to ski over.  Instead, the TOA trail followed a narrow trail past an electric substation straight to Tudor Road.  There is no trail here now, a connector road between two 4-lane highways runs here instead.  At Tudor Road you had to take your skis off, look for an opening in traffic and run across.

In a recent Anchorage Daily News article P.J. Hill was quoted as saying that traffic marshals helped the skiers across Tudor Road during early TOAs.  That may have been true during P.J.’s tenure, but for the first year skiers were definitely on their own.  Look left, look right, run like hell.  But because there was exponentially less traffic on Tudor 25 years ago it was really no big deal getting across this highway.
 

On the other side of Tudor we skied across undeveloped property over to the utility easement on the east side of APU.  Now there is a paved bike trail on this easement which didn’t exist in ’88.

As I remember, the course for the first TOA did not cover any APU trails.  But something that it did differently is that it went across the Northern Lights pedestrian bridge to Russian Jacks.  At RJ’s it did the bike trail loop around the east of the park and then crossed the golf course fairways from north to south and went back to Northern Lights and across the bridge.  Crossing back over the bridge was touchy because racers were coming the other way on this narrow bridge.

The course along the Chester Creek bike trail and out the brand new Tony Knowles Coastal Trail was not much different than today.  One exception is the section of the Coastal Trail at the north end of the runway.  Bluff erosion caused the Coastal Trail to be re-routed to the south a bit here several years after the first TOA race passed through here.

When the first TOA trail got near Kincaid the course was much different than it is today.  The course followed the Coastal Trail until it was right next to the lowest part of the Lekish Trail.  The Lekish Trail was new, so Tom figured it should be showcased in this new marathon race.

At the turn-off from the Coastal Trail to the Lekish Trail Tom put up a sign.  “Keep smiling!” the sign said.  And a smiley face was next to the letters.  From this point on skiers had to struggle up the brutal climb to the top of the Lekish Loop.  From the top it was a fast, mostly downhill run through the biathlon range, down to the south culvert of the stadium and on to the finish.

This would be the only time the TOA incorporated the Lekish Trail.  A death climb at 48 kms was not popular with a lot of the participants of the first TOA.  I had no idea the race was going to finish going up the Lekish Trail.  I had a big lead coming to the base of the Lekish climb (and would win the first TOA) and when I saw Tom’s smiley face sign I laughed out loud.  I chuckled to myself often during the long climb, thinking: “Holy crap!  There are going to be some tired puppies at the end of this race!”

I remember at the finish you could feel a sense of excitement amongst the racers.  The excitement wasn’t just about people completing the course, with the death climb at the end.  The excitement was about being a part of a fun event that was a first, and a paradigm shift in the local Nordic racing scene … we had just done the first ski race across Anchorage!
 

The harder you exercise, or the colder the temperatures you exercise in, the more accumulated water vapor in your footwear becomes a factor.  Footwear needs to vent out some of this moisture or your feet will become soaked and prone to getting cold or even frostbitten.

But apparently ski boot designers at Salomon aren't concerned with the reality of skiing in the cold.  They show this with their recent modifications to the Salomon Pro Combi boot.

Earlier models of the Salomon Pro Combi had porous material covering much of the boot's front cuff.  This was good.  As heated, moisture-laden air rose out of the boot and around the tongue it reached this material and was able to vent off.  And your feet stayed relatively dry.

Now check out this picture above of a pair of 2010 Pro Combi boots after skiing in sub-zero temps for several hours.   See the ice build-up on the inside of the tongue?  That's because there is no way for moisture in this boot to escape.  And you can see the reason why.  The porous tongue material was replaced with non-breathable white vinyl.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I think this is the last pair of new Salomon boots that I will buy for a long time.  I understand making stuff cheaper, because everyone seems to be doing this.  But usually the cheaper stuff works, it just doesn't last as long.  But in the case of Salomon's new Pro Combi's they are making boots cheaper and boots that don't work as well.

I seems the best option going forward is to shop ebay for older ski boots that work.  It would be best to support local vendors and buy new Salomon boots at their stores.  But why buy new-model boots when they don't work as well as gently-used and better designed older-model boots?
 

The short: This jacket fits great, skis great and even looks great.  But it is not a jacket for skiing at cold temperatures.

The long:  I got one of these jackets from Santa Claus.  I tried it on and it immediately felt great.  Light, well engineered to move with skiing motions, good reflective accents for being seen at night.  And it had real sleeve cuffs.  My all-time favorite ski jacket is the Craft Stretch-back jacket, which of course has been discontinued.  Newer Craft jackets now have these funky cuff-less sleeves that are pathetic.  So it was good to see cuffs again.

I was also impressed to see that nylon mesh lined most of the back and the sleeves.  Nylon mesh is good in that it keeps condensation off of your shirt so you don't get wet as fast as with soft shell or nylon shell jackets.

After getting a few weeks of skiing in this jacket, and in particular after a lot of skiing in sub-zero F. temperatures, I got a better understanding of how this jacket functioned.  Right off I realized an issue with the collar.  Maybe it's a Norwegian thing, but it seems that Norwegian jackets from the 70s Odlo's through time up to this one all have high collars.  High collars can be good because you can zip them up and get good neck protection from the cold.

But the catch with high collars is that when they are open they catch condensation from your breath in cold weather.  Often if it's cold and you are skiing up a valley or a long climb you will open your zipper to ventilate and keep from getting too hot and sweaty.  But when you do this with high collars that flap over onto your shoulders you likely don't realize that the collar is accumulating clumps of frost from your breath.  When you get to the top of the climb you will likely zip up your collar to get ready for the descent.  But when you do this you zip frost-covered fabric onto the hot skin of your neck and you get a big surprise.  And this unwanted surprise may likely make you blurt out a naughty word that starts with the letter "F". 

I like shorter collars better, like the ones on Toko and Craft jackets.  They stay more upright next to your neck and don't accumulate frost much when your jacket zipper is open for ventilation.  Yes, the short collars are not as warm when they are zipped up.  But that is fixed with a neck gaiter/ warmer.

Another issue with this jacket is the cinch cord.  It's too thin and weak, and it barely works.  I think I'll be cutting mine out and putting in a stronger stretch cord.

OK, now we get to the main beef I have about this jacket design.  And that is the front panels of the jacket.  Bottom line: there are no nylon mesh panels on the inside of the front panels when there should be.

If you take a look at the picture above you can see my Swix Star XC jacket after 4 hours of skiing in temperatures in the 10 to 20 below zero range.  On the inside of the front panel you can see a build-up of ice.  This ice builds up because condensation gets between the two layers of nylon fabric that make the front panel, and then it freezes the two pieces of fabric together.  And once the fabric freezes together it is no longer breathable.  So it builds up even more ice.  Not a good design.  Having nylon mesh as the inside layer on the front panels would have fixed this problem.

And maybe I should mention - when ice forms in the front panels of this jacket it feels really, really cold.  The first time this happened to me my chest ached from the ice build-up and the skin on my chest turned bright red.  Using my imagination I would surmise that this jacket is not one that women would want to wear if they are skiing in cold temperatures.

I really like this jacket, but now I know its limitations and won't be wearing it when it's cold.  I'll dig out my old Craft Stretch-back jacket for those days.  It's too bad, just a couple of square feet of nylon mesh fabric on the inside of the front panels and this jacket would be great.
 

Most every year the unheralded foot soldiers of our personal platoon of ski troops lead the charge in the war against summer.  Being the first to battle - these heroes slither through dirt and mud, get wounded by rocks and battered by ice.  They are the few, the proud ... they are our rock skis.

We ask a lot from our rock skis.  So when rock skiing is over is it appropriate to throw our rock skis, that made sacrifices to give us three extra weeks of skiing, into to corner?  Is it right to forget about them until you want to abuse them next fall?  I think not.  Rock skis are family.  And they should be repaired and waxed before retiring them until the next rock ski season.

This year my rock skis had some hard days on the trail.  So before waxing them and storing them, I had to do some delamination repair.  Here's how I do such repair.  If you have to do the same type of repairs, this technique might work for you ...
 

Here's the delamination, behind the heel, that I have to fix.  This is a common rock ski failure point.

Fairly often you see skiers on Anchorage ski trails dealing with cold hands.  Wind-milling their arms.  Shaking their hands.  Suffering.  Usually these skiers cut the suffering and quit their ski early because of their problems with the cold.

Often the reason for skiers having problems with cold hands, freezing faces, etc - is not because of the cold.  It's because they didn't bring the right gear.  They probably have the right gear.  But it was likely left at home because: "It wasn't this cold the last time I skied!"

For skiers to have more fun skiing, and less agony dealing with the cold, it's good to be cognizant of what the temperatures are that you will be skiing in.  And to know the temperature zone's of each piece of gear you own.  That way you won't mismatch gear to the temperature.

Here's an example of temperature zones for gloves:

So, if I'm going to be skiing between Service High School and the Campbell Creek Science Center and I check the Mesonet and I see that it is 10 above at Service and 5 below at Campbell Creek - I know what hand gear to use.  I choose the gloves that fit this temperature range.  I use the same temperature range logic for other gear.  And I'm ready to go.

It might take a while for you to learn what the temperature ranges each piece of gear you own covers.  And you might find that you have some gaps that need to be filled.  Also, be aware that wind chill and dehydration can alter the ranges that gear is comfortable in.  But once you figure it all out - you will spend more time having fun skiing, and less time cussing about what parts of your body are freezing.
 

Tip: A drink belt doubles well as a place to carry heavy gloves.  Just clip them together and drape them over the belt.  If you want to switch into them, put your light gloves in your jacket pocket.  Sometimes you might want to start out in heavy gloves, and then switch to light gloves when your body and hands warm up.

In Anchorage this year winter has been giving us some hints:  Near record early season snowfall.  Sub-zero temps in early November.  100 mph Chinook storms leaving deep wet slush.  These weather hints tell us that having a decent pair of winter boots is a good thing.

As it is near the holiday season and a gift to someone, or to yourself, may be in order, here are some thoughts on boots that my wife and I have used over the years.  These thoughts may help you should you decide to purchase winter boots.  The basic criteria I use in evaluating winter boots are:  1) Are they warm? 2) Can they be used for multiple activities? 3) Are they easy to get on and off?  4) Can you drive your car or truck in them?

Clockwise from upper left:

Neos over boots -  Pros: Good for many activities, easy on easy off, can wear running shoes or xc ski boots in them (though the same pair of Neos might not fit both running shoes and ski boots.  Cons: Only warm if you are moving, soles can puncture on sharp rocks.

Neos insulated over boots -  Pros: Same as non-insulated Neos but warmer.  Cons: Quite a bit heavier than non-insulated Neos.

Muck Boots, Arctic Sport  - Pros: Easy on and off, good support, waterproof.  Cons: Not made for sub-zero cold.  My wife wears these a lot.  She's picky about winter boots, so if she likes these they must be good!

Sorel Glaciers - Pros: Warm, easy on and off, supportive, good traction, you can drive while wearing them.  Cons: Not made as well as they used to be when they were made in Canada.  Overall: A basic, great winter boot.  I used to spend a lot of time running next to a dog sled in these boots.  And I've spent many hours driving snowmobiles in these boots.

Cabelas Trans-Alaska boots -  Pros: Very warm, supportive and comfortable, well made.  Cons: Too bulky for driving most vehicles.  Getting them on and off is a two step process: put on inner boot, then slide foot and inner boot into shell.  These were designed specifically for long distance mushing.  And the fact they are hard to get on and off is good for mushing, as you don't want to step into overflow and have your boot sucked off your foot.  But for normal activities where you might want to quickly get in and out of your boots ... these are kind of a pain.  Which is too bad, because otherwise they are great boots.

Sorel Intrepid Explorers -  Pros: Warm, easy on and off, waterproof, can drive in them (just barely).  Cons: A bit expensive.  These boots were designed for Yukon Quest mushers.  These are my wife's and my go-to boots these days.  My wife thinks they are great, so that says a lot (IMO).

Northern Outfitters boots -  Pros:  Extremely warm.  Cons: Bulky, high centered and not supportive, don't think about driving in these.  These boots are great if you have to be in extreme cold for a long time and are not generating much heat - like ice fishing or manning a race checkpoint.  Mushers and snowmobilers sometimes use these boots.

Bata Bunny Boots -  Pros: Very warm, waterproof, you can drive in them, will make you look like a real Alaskan, .  Cons: Heavy, not very supportive, soles will wear down quickly if you walk on pavement with them.  These boots were designed by the US Army in the 50's.  Their rubber-encapsulated felt design is brilliant (IMO) and has withstood the test of time.  Many Alaskans still use these boots.  You can buy used US made ones, but the new boots are now made overseas.  I carry a pair stashed in my truck for emergencies.
 

The above picture shows two people, Mike and Nancy (and Calley their dog), testing the ice thickness on the Big Susitna River in early November.  They’re checking the ice to see if it is thick enough for safe travel across the river.  Until the ice is safe to cross they are “trapped” in Bush Alaska, because the road to civilization is on the other side of the river.

For some people that live in remote regions of Alaska, two times of the year can amplify their isolation: freeze-up and break-up.  During late fall and early spring the thinly-iced rivers don’t allow for travel by snowmobile or boat.  And thin ice in the fall or rotting snow and ice in the spring won’t allow airplanes to land.  During these times there is no way in, and no way out.  So it’s a measure of being a “real” Alaskan to spend freeze-up or break-up on the side of the river that civilization doesn’t reach.

The challenges and isolation of freeze-up and break-up have been a part of the lives of Alaskans, and northerners around the world, for millennia.  But only recently has the Internet been a factor.

Now people living in the Bush can be connected to the world wide web, but at the same time not be able to travel to a store to buy food.

The above picture illustrates this situation.  These two can’t get across the river and make it to a store.  But after this picture that was taken it was uploaded to the web a few hours later.  Cyber-connected, but not connected to civilization.

Another unique aspect of this Bush/Internet phenomenon is that people like these two become Bush-celebrities of sorts.  Many people that want to travel out to remote areas check Bush dwellers' Facebook and forum postings frequently.  As soon as posts show up that folks from the Bush made it to town - there is a buzz of excitement.   People then start traveling these tested trails to get to their remote cabins, to hunt or ice fish, to visit relatives and friends ... and even to go xc skiing in cool places.  Once word is out that the Bush trails are in - it's game-on for winter travel in Alaska.
 

Ryan's Hill deserves recognition at the Hillside Trail System in Anchorage.  It’s long overdue.

If you ski Hillside trails you will see the Moerlein Hill sign.  And you will see the Richter Hill sign.  These names are of early ski families that helped form the Nordic Ski Club of Anchorage.  The kids in these families were excellent xc ski racers.  I know members of these ski clans and they are all good people.

But when I get together with Anchorage high school ski team alums from the 70’s and 80’s and we are hanging around listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” and reliving the past - a common story comes up.  And invariably it ALWAYS comes up.  It’s a legend that will likely never be topped.

Is the legend of the people that built our trails, or those who presided over our ski clubs, or ski coachess, or state or national champions, or Olympians?  Nope.  This is all good stuff.  But this is usually “here today – gone tomorrow – eventually forgotten” stuff.

No, the legend behind a “Ryan’s Hill” sign is one that is not possible to be forgotten over the generations. 

Because it is a legend of a guy crashing and getting a broken ski stuck in his butt.

Yes indeed, talk to anyone that skied high school in the 70’s and Steve Ryan’s crash on the Service Trails that resulted in his buttocks being impaled by a Norwegian-crafted ski-spear is the common denominator of all skiing stories. 

“Remember so and so?  He went on to the Olympics didn’t he?”

“Uhm, I can’t remember.  Hey!  Do you remember the time Steve Ryan crashed and got a broken ski stuck in his ass?!”

When it comes to skiing feats, nothing trumps heroically taking one for the team like Steve did.

So why does this event reverberate with such clarity in 70’s era ski racers?  Probably it’s due to the fact that many of these skiers experienced high-speed wooden ski blow-ups and know first hand the fear involved in these event.

First there is the sound.  CRACK!  This is a sound we are genetically programmed to fear.  It’s the sound of branches breaking as an angry mother mastodon charges towards our camp enraged that we killed its child for food.  It’s the sound of spears breaking as we battle the Vikings who have come to kill us and steal our women.  It’s the sound of 2^nd grade teacher Mrs. Murphy’s ruler as it hits our head because our penmanship is not up to par.

Then there is the slow motion acknowledgement of what is happening just before the pain starts.  It’s like when our ancestors where thrown from a steed on the battlefield and were falling, seemingly in slow motion, into a sea of spears and swords.  Same thing with breaking a wooden ski at high speed.  As you fall you see in slow motion jagged spears of hickory coming at you, a vicious shrapnel of birch splinters racing towards you and of course – the tip of the non-broken ski fast approaching your lower groin area.

No doubt these primeval engrained fears flashed through Mr. Ryans mind before he skidded to a stop.  There must have been chaos once the reality of the situation set in.  Guys on the Service team must have been screaming: “Coach!  Coach!  Steve’s got a ski stuck in his ass!”  And then shock and grief must have been overwhelming to them as they couldn’t control their emotions and stop laughing.  The girls were likely equally distraught: “Oh my God!  I’m not going to the prom with him!  I don’t want to be heckled about going to the prom with the guy that got a ski stuck in his butt!”

The trauma.  The pain.  The embarrassment.  The knowledge that this epic mishap would live forever in the minds and hearts of Anchorage high school skiers.  A legend that has withstood the test of time.  These are all reasons that Hillside needs a Ryan’s Hill sign, or maybe the Richter Loop Connector should be named the Ryan's Hill Trail (see below).  
 

Update: I got an email that informed me that there used to be a Ryan's Hill sign.  But 25-30 years ago it disappeared.  I confirmed with veteran xc ski racers where Ryan's Hill is (see above pictures).  I went there and checked it out.  The "new" Richter Loop Connector trail cuts right across the top of Ryan's Hill.  Seeing that Ryan's Hill is the most fabled ski hill in Anchorage, why would you name a trail something else if it crosses Ryan's Hill?  I don't get it.  There already is a Richter Trail.  Naming the trail that crosses Ryan's Hill "the Richter Loop Connector" is demeaning and disrespectful to legend and history that the Anchorage Nordic ski community holds sacred.  This trail really should be renamed "The Ryan's Hill Trail".  That would be accurate, appropriate and the historically correct thing to do.
 

If you tell people in the ski industry that cross country skiing has gotten prohibitively expensive, you usually get the standard responses:  "Oh, you can't compare the old days with today."  "The equipment, the technology, has changed for the better ... so sure, it costs more but it's worth it."  "Everything is expensive these days, so cross country skiing is expensive too."

Basically it's the same old hand-waving and blowing of smoke.  No one in the ski industry seems willing to acknowledge or own up to how much the cost of xc skiing has increased.  No one seems to want to accept the fact that the high cost of xc skiing has driven many potential participants away from this sport.  They just want to sell you the latest, greatest and increasingly expensive products.  And not remove their blinders.

It is a valid point that you can't compare today's skis, boots and poles to the gear from the 70's.  Today's equipment is more technologically advanced and better than gear of days gone by.

But not all cross country ski products have undergone radical changes.  Some products have not changed for 50 years.  Take for instance a basic commodity of the xc skiing world - Swix Blue hard wax.  It seems that this wax has not changed much, or at all, since it was created.  I still have tins of Swix Blue hard wax from the 70's and I can't tell any difference between this old kick wax and modern day Swix Blue.

However, I can definitely tell the difference in price.  This chart shows what I mean ...

While going through some old ski catalogs recently (for this web page) I found a mail-order catalog from 1972 that sold Swix Blue hard wax for 50 cents a tin.  The US Bureau of Labor Consumer Price Index calculator estimates that 50 cents in 1972 should be $2.71 today (2011).  But the MSRP for Swix Blue is 2.67 times more than that ... it's $9.95 a tin.

OK - I know that the CPI is not a perfect metric.  And I know that Swix is a foreign company and exchange rates come into play.  But come on ... how can the ski industry say they want to increase the participation in cross country skiing but at the same time almost triple the inflation-adjusted cost of a basic ski product that hasn't changed in decades?

Yes - this is just a comparison of the cost of a tin of basic wax.  But I will venture to say that the upward trend for this simple staple is conservative with regards to the cost increases in other xc ski equipment. 

The Consumer Price Index is an "affordability index", it indicates the affordability level for US consumers.  If the cost of a product far exceeds the CPI adjusted cost over time, the product becomes less affordable to many US consumers.

"Hello!  Earth to ski industry  ... you can't grow the sport of xc skiing if you make it so expensive that fewer and fewer people can afford to be xc skiers."
 

Denali Highway groomed trails	Petersville / Curry Ridge Riders groomed trails	Lower Susitna Drainage Assoc. groomed trails

For those who like to ski the groomed snowmobile trail networks in Alaska – it’s going to be a leaner year. 

The State of Alaska SnowTrac grant program provides a share of snowmobile registration fees to clubs in Alaska to help groom snowmobile trails.  According to the most recent Alaska Snowrider magazine, last year a total of about $330,000 was granted to around 12 clubs.  This year the total will be around $196,000.  So that means trails will likely be groomed only about two-thirds as frequently as in previous years. 

So what does this mean to skiers (or bikers) that like to use groomed snowmobile trails?

1)   With an average of around $20,000 granted per club, and with high fuel costs, there isn’t much money for grooming.  Clubs like the Curry Ridge Riders, the Willow Trail Committee, the Denali Highway Trail Committee, the Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers and others will be tight on money to keep up their amazing trail systems.  So please consider either joining a trails club or two or sending the respective club a check after you use their trails.  A snowmobile registration cost is $5 per year, so we are not talking big donations per user here.

2)   Get out and ski (or snow bike or ski-jor) these trails.  The more user groups that are on these trail systems, the more sway there will be politically to keep the shoestring operations funded that give us these great trails.  Go give these trails a try for yourself because you never know what the future holds and how long these trails will exist.

I’d also like to add: When you go skiing on these trails talk to snowmobilers and trail groomers that you meet.  You will find that there is little difference between snowmobile trail riders and backcountry trail skiers (or bikers).  Each user group is equally passionate about winter trails and living life large in Alaska in the winter.

But be careful.  If you talk to the trails people, or travel their trails, in places like Willow or Petersville or the Caribou Hills or Lake Louise or on the Denali Highway … you will probably start really liking these people and their trails a lot.  And you will then start coming up with lots of excuses as to why you have to leave places like Anchorage and go use their trails.  These SnowTrac trails are addictive!  So beware!

Here are maps of the State of Alaska SnowTrac-funded winter trails in the 2010 grooming pool.
 

If you are a baby boomer or older xc skier and want to take a ski down memory lane, or if you are a younger skier that wants a glimpse at what the sport was like before you you got into the game... then click here.
 

Seems like some Anchorage xc skiers are apprehensive about running into not-yet-in-hibernation bears on Hillside ski trails.  A recent Anchorage Daily News article talks about bear sightings during the last week.  It seems like a solution to help skiers avoid bear confrontations was developed centuries ago - "ski trail bells".  Below is an advertisement from a 1970's ski magazine for such bells. Bears would not be surprised by you when using these bells because they could hear you jingling, and get off the trail. Or maybe bears might consider these skier "dinner bells".  Ya never know ...
 

In the mid 1980's the Kneissl ski company came out with a unique cross country racing ski.  It was called the "Vario" and it had a dial that could adjust the camber of the ski.   The dial would adjust a tension band that was anchored to the inside of the ski on either side of the camber pocket.  Tightening the dial cause the camber to get stiffer, loosening it caused the camber to soften.

This was a great idea in that one pair of skis could literally be "dialed-in" for the weight of the skier or the for waxing camber was needed for the day.  Also, during races the camber could be adjusted.  If your skis were slipping, you could just reach down and dial down the camber a bit.

Unfortunately the downfall of these skis seemed to be their durability.  The sections of the ski where the tension bands were anchored (on either side of the camber pocket) were prone to breaking.  That's too bad.  This technology would have made an economical high school and citizen racing ski.  Skiers wouldn't need multiple pairs of classic skis and ski shops wouldn't have to carry a variety of cambers per ski length.

Perhaps advances in composites and adhesives in the decades since when the Vario came out could be used to overcome the limitations of the past ... and make this good idea come back to life.

Back in the wooden skis days you would see this technique used quite a lot.  Prior to the mid 70's ski racing speeds were slower because the skis were made of wood and often soft cambered, glide wax was not yet in use and the racing tracks were usually soft and bumpy.  Just getting across flat sections of trail could involve brutal classical skiing exertion.  As a result the change-up was used as a "rest stroke" or "gear shifting" technique move.  You would often see skiers throw in change-ups when they went over bumps, got to the bottom of hills and switched to climbing gear or when they were just plain tired.

With the advent of faster fiberglass skis, faster waxes and firmer and faster ski tracks, the change-up went away.  The time taken to do the change-up was not worth the loss in momentum.  Higher ski speeds made it feasible to just hammer all the time. 

When I was in high school in the 70's I remember seeing US Ski Teamer Bob Gray  race.  Besides being a tough and fast skier, he had a distinctive change-up style.  The picture in the above 1978 ad shows his change-up well (click on the picture to make it bigger and readable).  When you saw him do a change-up you would do a double-take and go: "Wow"!  Bob is a nice guy that us kids looked up to back in the day (along with his peers like Mike Gallahger, Charlie Kellogg, Dennis Donahue and others of that era).  We kids still look up to Bob and these guys.
 

A rather obscure form of slowing down on skis is "pole braking".  This method of slowing down involves taking your hands out of your pole straps, holding your poles together to your side or between your legs and weighting them.  This will cause your ski pole tip and basket to drag and slow you down.  Of course - you don't want to put too much weight on your poles or your attempt at "pole braking" might result in "pole breaking".  And as you might be able to imagine, this technique can turn hazardous if you are a male skier using the "between the legs" braking method.

This technique was largely abandoned when ski trails became better groomed.  And when ski poles got lighter, more fragile, more expensive and baskets turned to breakable plastic - skiers decided it was better to learn other skiing techniques to slow down.

Growing up I would snicker and chuckle when I saw people using this technique.  "Ha!  What a turkey!"  But then when I started skiing narrow snowmobile trails, especially steep downhills that were too narrow to snowplow - at night and with a sled pushing you from behind ... I realized that there was a place for this technique.  But of course, I would first check and make sure there was no one around to see me using this "turkey technique"!