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Old 01-19-2010, 09:29 PM   #9
fatlazyless
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Waterville Valley cross country has been the second largest size area in NH, behind Jackson XC, for years and years.
It seems like every year there are fewer and fewer cross country skiers out on the WV trails. This past MLK weekend the trails had real nice conditions with almost no skiers on the trails.

It costs about $16/day at WVxc, and the 3 1/2 miles of xc in the no fee zone always get skiers for the obvious reason that it is a good long 2.8 mile hill and is free. If you want to go onto the 70km pay trails, you have that option after trying out the freebie trail. Like....no kidding!

What helped to kill people's interest in xc skiing is probably the skating style of skiing. Skating requires that you be a super-duper olympic athlete to do it, while the tradional nordic style was much easier; it's basically like walking or running. The human anatomy is not designed for skate skiing while it is designed for the nordic style.

The nordic style was very user friendly to a new beginner. You could put on a pair of skis and go, while skate skiing is a lot more difficult and strenuous and for most people not very user friendly.

Like, why do a sport that you do not enjoy? And, that's skate skiing! And, that's why the trails are so empty! (except for the WV freebie trail, because it's free and you park your car right there.) Plus, there's still a number of nordic style skiers who have stuck with traditional nordic.
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Last edited by fatlazyless; 01-20-2010 at 08:38 AM.
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