The numbers aren’t in yet, but the signs are there. Cross-country skiing is undergoing another revolution. Maybe the Winter Olympics are just the thing to kick this movement into high gear. After all, Norway is the Nordic skiing capital of the world.
Whether or not it happens, the wheels are in motion. This most monotonous of winter sports received its first jolt in the mid-1980s when the skating style of skiing burst onto the scene.
Utilizing a speedskating-style motion instead of the traditional one-foot-in-front-of-the-other method, skating allowed the skier to push off faster and created more maneuverability, if less speed. Manufacturers rushed skating skis and poles onto the market, and to a good response. Most avid skiers now count a pair of skating skis in their collection.
Now, if they don’t already have them, they’re looking at the newest sensation to hit the sport-short skis.
It’s an idea so simple you wonder why no one thought of it sooner-reduced-length skis that allow beginners a greater sense of balance and confidence. The first models, by Austrian manufacturer Fischer, hit the stores last year.
Now a half-dozen ski-makers sell designs for $150-175, which is moderate by skiing standards.
“The industry overall was very skeptical of (reduced-length skis) until people started skiing them; that’s when the true believers came in,” says Dan Gretzinger, manager of Janus ski shop in Appleton, Wis., a cross-country hotspot where many Chicagoans head when there’s no snow in Illinois.
“When Fischer came out with them it caused the market to explode. Now everyone has to have them,” he says. “It’s a ski that performs, it’s got some kick to it and it goes fast, which is the main reasons you’re doing the sport.
“You wonder why nobody thought of it sooner, because the cross-country industry has been stagnant the last few years,” says Gretzinger. “The average guy wasn’t going out to do it because it was too difficult a sport.”
Cross-country skiing takes just about every muscle group, upper and lower body, and taxes them with the task of plowing through snow and gripping icy trails with the feet. Balance tests the body’s reserves and cardiovascular strength is at a premium even on minuscule hills. It comes as no surprise that cross-country skiers number only around 3.5 million in the U.S. But the Chicago area has a large number of cross-country ski enthusiasts, many of whom are waiting for the verdict before investing in another pair of skis.
Are short skis worth their money? Measuring in at around 5.7 feet (150 centimeters), they are up to 30 percent shorter than traditionally unwieldy skis that cause many beginners to do a rather uncomfortable banana split-type motion upon donning them for the first time.
Diane Caswell, a certified ski instructor from Bannockburn, says that beginners like them. “When we first tried the demo model (more than a year ago) it was fun and manageable and it glided fairly well,” says Caswell. “It made skiing a game more than a profession. You don’t get the speed or glide, it’ll never come to quite that level, but they’re a well-built ski for a fraction of the price of longer skis.”
Even experienced skiers may find a place for the shorty, though. Caswell and her husband like them for skating.
“These skis are great for hilly terrain and trails, because they are so short. There’s been more than one time a skater has gotten his ski tip caught by a bush and it’s captured his hand. You’re always shooting off the trail, but these will come in handy,” Caswell says.
But short skis will never overtake the trails, just as snowboards will never make downhill skis obsolete.
“Back 15-20 years ago, a manufacturer came out with a no-wax ski and it was going to revolutionize the market and push out wax skis,” says Mike Conrad, cross-country ski director for the Cook County Forest Preserve. “It turned out to be just another one on the market. People are still buying wax skis.”
What does it all mean?
“It’s changing the sport,” says Caswell. Skiing was getting boring, she agrees, “until the skating revolution, when people found they could go fast and wear colorful Lycra instead of wool knickers.”
