Nordic Skiing and Knowing your direction on the Ski Trails

I came across a couple of situations where the potential for a danger might have of occurred.

The first event had 2 new skiers, skiing after dark on lit trails, in the city river valley, and the temperature was dropping from +6C to -12C. They had been out night skiing for over an hour and were tired. They did not know where they were. They were frightened and a bit panicky, and the time was now 945pm in the evening. The coyotes were howling close by, and the ladies had seen 5 of them. They were unsure if coyotes attack people. They had come to a junction, and did not know where the trails would take them. They did not want to go even further from the parking lot, but were unsure what direction that was. They called me to describe where they were. The conversation was mixed up because of their panic.

As they were talking with me, thankfully a late skier came by while we were on the phone, and was able to explain to them quickly, which way to go. The ladies called me back shortly thereafter and said everything was fine and they were headed for Tim Horton's for coffee.

Lesson learnt, know where you are when skiing, and carry extra clothes, food, and water.

Second situation had a first time skier out in the bush, skiing with 2 friends. One of the ladies left her friend, to find her boyfriend. There are 4 staging areas several kilometers apart, and their plan was to pick the lady up, from one of those staging areas. She did not know what staging area they had parked at. The clothes she was wearing, were of a bulky cotton nature. Once again the temperature was dropping from -2C to -18C, and it was getting to-wards dark. At that time we stopped and said hello on the trail, and she explained what was happening. We told her the directions to the closest staging area. 

On our way back we decided to swing by the staging area to make sure that the lady was ok. She had made it and was patiently waiting for her friends, she hoped. She did not have her cell phone with her, which may or may not have worked anyway, because of being in a no service phone area, at times. There were 2 cars in the parking lot.

We tried to find firewood but there was none to be found. She did not accept any food or liquid when we offered it to her. We told her to catch ride if she was able, with someone and told her and that we would come back for her in about an hour. We skied quickly back to our car, to another staging area, and drove back to the lady. She and her skis were gone, as she must have caught a ride with one of the 2 cars.

Lesson learnt, know where you are when skiing, and carry extra clothes, food, and water.

                                                        Always exciting skiing for sure.

Nordic Skiing and One Skate Lesson Fragments

Yesterday's class was a good day for learning one skate, though the snow conditions in the skate lane could have been better.
Let us look at some of the exercises that were used.
Inside, a few exercises with a partner catching you, first with eyes open and then closed. With eyes closed, you fell forward on one leg a couple of inches, concentrating on the hips coming past the weighted ankle.
The learning of how to control balance outside on skis, was worked on.
Some of the exercises were:
-free skating, with concentration of landing on the outside toe of ski boot, and then pushing off the inside big toe.
Always think of landing on a flat ski, not an inside edge, with imagery of almost landing on an outside edge, instead.
- Mantra; outside, flat and then an inside edge.
- Mantra; flat ski, flat ski, flex, edge, push over.
-Did a quick review of double poling(DP).
-Did some ghost one skating with no poles.(awesome exercise, if you ever break a pole!)
- There was the tap, tap, DP on each side, with the un-weighted ski either touching the ground when needed, or held off the ground.
- There was also DP the full length of the grid area on one ski, using the tail of the un-weighted ski for balance if needed.
-Some of the key areas that were looked at, were the heel, toe foot recovery.
-Swinging the recovery foot at least under the hips, and then the belly button, and if you could get the swinging rocking motion of the foot recovery under the opposite side hip, so much the better.
-Looked at a nice low ski recovery
-Looked at a naturally bone supported stance, not muscle supported stance on a flat ski, before flexing the leg and pushing over. Naturally bone supported stance, is one of two places that there is the opportunity for fresh blood to be pumped into the legs, with the total leg extension being the other position (i.e. dog lifting his leg to pee)
-In the DP the bent arm position was worked on. Elbows bent in the forward position, like answering a phone, and then the elbows bent and back. Elbows bent are using lats, and elbows straight are using the weaker triceps muscle.
-When the elbows come forward in one skate, your one leg, like single DP in classic, straightens into a bone supported position  At this time your chest comes up, stick it out, and you float(flat ski), bringing your hips ahead of the ankle(flat ski). Imagery like hugging a tree, or being a conductor were suggested.(flat ski)
-Next there is a forward dropping of the body, C of G ahead of ankle, first gravity(flat ski), then stomach crunch(flat ski), leg flex(flat ski) and then finally push over(edged ski).
-Tri-podding was still showing up at times, and for that exercise an over emphasis of wide hands and elbows were introduced.
-Bent wider elbows, both forward, and back, help to get the timing easier in the one skate, with longer poles.