Gliding on Snow

If snow-shoeing is walking on snow, cross-country skiing is gliding on it. If you’re skilled, it’s more like a kick-then-glide. (If you’re really skilled, you also use a skating style. I mostly glide.)

Nowadays, it’s considered the best cardiovascular exercise because it works the entire body. In the past, it was considered a form of transportation.

For me, it’s another way to gets into the clean outdoors. It’s another reason I come to the far-north in winter.

It’s not surprising that I love it since its roots are Nordic and so are mine. The word “ski” is based on an old Norse word meaning “stick of wood.” Sami (native) hunters from Lapland, where my grandparents were born, used them for transportation. Early explorers used them to reach the South Pole. They’ve been used in warfare, too; Finnish ski troops successfully halted a Soviet Union invasion in 1939-40, and U.S. troops of the 10th Mountain Division were deployed to the mountains of Italy later in WWII.

My first pair, around 1970, were thick wooden sticks with one band of leather over the foot. My current skies are much easier to use, since my toes are attached. I ski on groomed trails when I can find them but will go out into anything if I must. The point is to get out and get moving.

Jeff and I did just that recently, grateful that about 84% of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is forested so there are lots of good woodland trails. Find out more about the history of gliding on skis here, and photos and captions below.