Need an escape from your daily routine? Tired of being stuck inside with cabin fever looming on the horizon?
Have a desire to connect with your family in a group activity?
Cross-country skiing is the perfect answer. All it takes is a pair of skis, boots, poles, some fluffy snow and the desire to become one with nature to make the blues drift away.
The sport can be relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. As you effortlessly glide down a trail, your eyes fill with scenic vistas, and routine problems and concerns simply drift away. With the fresh air caressing your face, and the majestic scenery flowing by, you feel like you’re on a magic carpet ride.
You will be overwhelmed by the beauty of the outdoors when you pause in the middle of a trail with no one else around and listen to the beating of your own heart or watch the snowflakes fall.
You’re on the ground, but at the same time breaking free from its grip. It’s a floating sensation you will not experience any other way. It’s almost like ice skating through the woods on skis.
The sport provides a total body workout without stressing your joints. Because you can make your workout as easy or as intense as you want, anyone can do it. It is an intense way to burn calories, increase endurance and boost cardiovascular fitness, besides improving your balance, coordination and agility.
Cross-country skiing offers up different experiences to each participant: It is a silent stream swirling around boulders piled high with marshmallow puffs of snow, water gurgling under intricately designed ice. It is ripping turns through untracked powder, friends laughing as they glide through gently falling snow. It is going fast, pushing your body to its limit, or sliding slowly, quietly along at a pace of your own choosing—from breathing hard to hardly breathing. From Olympic dreams to fitness dreams, as a stress relief or as an escape from the everyday—cross-country skiing is anything and everything you want it to be.
Tahoe’s winter wonderland offers the area’s best snow, mild temperatures and a variety of cross-country courses mapped out at many local ski resorts, or you can always choose an open field or golf course.
And if these reasons weren’t enough to pursue the sport, cross-country skiing is not only a relaxing mode of exercise, it is also healthy, invigorating and a beautiful way to travel. |
