The Nords

Today was my first cross country skiing class. I'm one of those unfortunate Utahn's who hates winter. I don't like being cold, I don't like slipping on every set of stairs, and I don't like driving in the snow and ice. So to make this winter more enjoyable, I signed up for a winter sport class. And I love it!

The class is actually all skiing and snowboarding, but we are divided into specified groups. The snowboarding and downhill skiing groups are huge, and my little nordic skiing group is 7 people. I have a feeling we are going to be really close knit by the end of the semester.

This class is every Wednesday from noon to 5 PM. We all ride the bus up to Sundance Resort together, then once we are there the Nords (that's what they call the cross country skiing group) take a Suburban farther up the mountain to the Nordic Center. It's basically just a yurt full of equipment and warmth. After getting fitted into our boots, poles, and skis we began learning basic technique. There are two types of technique so the semester will be divided into two segments to learn each one independently. I was surprised by how much cardio skiing requires and how quickly we all became tired. I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There is nothing like the fresh mountain air on a perfect sunny day. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, it hasn't snowed very much this year so the mountain snow is pretty icy and slick, which made going uphill way more difficult that it should have been (Supposedly. I don't really know the difference yet.) On the way back to campus the snowboarders were saying  the snow was so bad and even the good boarders were having a really hard time. I hope it snows soon. My plan is working. I have never hoped that it would snow here. Ever. 

I took this picture while I waiting for the others to catch up. ;)

See, wasn't it a gorgeous day up there!?

I now have dreams of Clayton learning to nordic ski too so that we can go on awesome backpacking ski trips in Yosemite. 

Also, I thought that this video of a race was really cool. This is not what I look like yet, nor does it resemble the terrain that I'm learning to ski on, but it is one of the styles we will be learning.