Sliding, gliding and soaring

I feel genuinely sorry for the folks who cocoon in front of the fireplace or television at the first sign of cold weather. I'm sure you know some poor souls who head south to a beach somewhere. Sad, isn’t it?

Winter is something to escape to, not escape from!

I’ve been trying to get my fill of winter. That isn’t ever going to happen, but it’s a worthy goal, and one I’d highly recommend.

Despite eating like a glutton, I’ve managed to drop a few pounds and ramp up my aerobic capacity a notch. I’m smiling all the time, and at night I sleep without waking. All good stuff. Plus, I’m going to be ready for bicycling and hiking this spring!

There’s nothing quite like snow to help you break the noisy confines of the everyday world. Find a place where you can hear your own heartbeat and play tag with the wind. With snow on the ground, you can slide and glide instead of plod. You can, if you are of a mind, even soar.

In this column, I'll tell you about a few options. 

Slide: Go exploring

Marilyn and I were out yesterday with two friends, Tom and Sharon Callahan and their golden retriever, Finnegan, near their home in Sunapee, New Hampshire. We were exploring a network of trails on conservation land.

Some of the trails had been packed by snowmobiles and other skiers and snowshoers. Others were untouched powder. On a beautiful, sunny, warm Sunday afternoon, we saw four snowmobiles, four snowshoers, and two other skiers. Otherwise, we had the quiet, snowy world to ourselves.

None of us are elegant skiers. I think everyone fell down at least once -- no damage done and lots of laughs.

We weren't in any hurry, either. Easing along on our skis gave us a chance to catch up on each other’s lives. When it came time to break new trail, Tom and I took turns, playing knights in shining Gore-Tex for our Ladies Fair.

It was just the kind of low-key, perfect winter afternoon that’s a gift to anyone who gets out and enjoys it.

Going exploring requires nothing more than a pair of cross-country skis and a sense of adventure. Any town or state forest, local park, golf course, or frozen lake is fair game.

Until we purchased new Alpina backcountry skis and boots last week, Marilyn and I were on gear from the mid 1980s. Tom and Sharon’s gear is at least that old. Since Tom and I are the same size, I let him try my new backcountry skis and boots. He came back with a big smile on his face, commenting “A new day has dawned!” I think he’s shopping for new skis this week.

Glide: Take a skate-ski lesson

A couple of weeks ago, at The Balsam’s Wilderness Resort, I took a group skate-skiing clinic from their exceptional Nordic pro, Jonathon Dodge.

In two tough hours, he took two other students and me from complete novice status to being able to comfortably move on the skate skis.

Skate (or diagonal) cross-country skiing has a whole different feeling than classic (or “stride”) skiing. As the name implies, you literally skate over the snow on relatively short skis. Boots have more lateral stiffness.

Almost every Nordic ski area that’s groomed for skate skiing will have a qualified instructor who can introduce you to the mysteries of skate skis.

Before the lesson, I’d been able to kinda-sorta make progress with skate skis. I can't say I've mastered anything with the lesson. But at least I know that skate skis have four different cadences (think of them as “gears”) that let you move at different speeds. I can now go uphill and on flat terrain, often with some degree of grace and ease. Downhill on the very short, very narrow skate skis still remains a challenge.

The rewards for being able to skate ski is the chance to cover more distance with less effort than you ever thought possible. Instead of plodding along, you can glide fast over the landscape and get a great workout at the same time.

Fly: Cleared for takeoff

Anyone of a certain age can probably remember ABC’s Wide World Of Sports television series. The opening credits featured horrifying footage of a ski jumper crashing. This was accompanied the narrator intoning the words “and the agony of defeat.”

It made anyone with a lick of common sense vow that they’d never, ever, under any circumstances, go near a ski jump.

In recent weeks, I’ve been at two venues that will happily teach you how to safely go off a jump on your own gear. They'll even let you try the humongous skis used by competitive ski jumpers.

The Olympic Regional Development Authority offers ski jumping lessons at its sports complex near Lake Placid, New York.

The other place to learn to ski jump is tiny Storrs Hill, a municipal ski area in Lebanon, N.H. run by volunteers from the Lebanon Outing Club.

Because it’s run entirely by volunteers, you may or may not be able to get an answer to a phone call or email. Your best bet is to show up some evening, make contact and go from there.

I haven’t gotten the courage to try it...yet. But climbing back up the hill is a great workout, and I’ve always wanted to learn how to fly. Who ever said anything about common sense?