By: Kate

About the Author:

increase page ranking

Quite often, people ask me about the difference between downhill and cross-country skiing or between alpine skiing and nordic skiing. This always seems strange to me. Growing up in Vermont as the son of a ski instructor and ski coach, I thought humans were born with the ability to tell pleasure from pain, sweet from sour, and of course, alpine from nordic. But then I moved to California, where this knowledge seems less common. Yesterday someone asked me again, so now I’m writing it down.

The difference between downhill skiing and cross-country skiing is pretty simple. Cross-country involves propelling yourself across rolling terrain under your own power. Downhill skiing, by contrast, involves somehow getting to the top of a big hill and then turning around and skiing, well, downhill.

Cross-country skiing is done on light, skinny skis attached to light, flexible boots. There are two major forms of cross-country skiing. Classic cross-country is sort of like running, though with a longer, shuffling stride. Cross-country skate skiing is, not surprisingly, more like ice skating, where the skier pushes from side to side.

Downhill skiing usually involves much wider skis and much heavier, stiffer boots. In the larger majority of cases, it involves taking a ski lift up, and then sliding back down. Some of us, though, climb up under our own power using “climbing skins”, a material with a one-way plush that you can stick on your skis for the climb up and remove for the descent.

There are also two major forms of downhill skiing: alpine and telemark, also known as “nordic downhill”. It used to be that there were huge differences in the equipment and telemark gear resembled heavy-duty cross-country gear. Now it’s more similar to alpine equipment, except that the boots bend at the toe and the bindings allow the heel to move.

Which brings us to the difference between alpine skiing and nordic skiing.

Nordic skiing is a technique where the toe is firmly fixed to the ski, but the heel is free to move. There are basically four forms of nordic skiing: telemark, classic cross-country, cross-country skate skiing and nordic jumping, where skiers jump for distance rather than doing tricks. There are no telemark events in the Olympics, but the other nordic events are represented. In addition, biathalon combines cross-country skiing with marksmanship and is an Olympic event.

Alpine skiing by contrast uses a binding that fixes both the toe and the heel to the ski (though it releases in event of a fall or other strong force). There’s really just one form of alpine skiing, but there’s a lot of variation, including several Olympic events. For the Vancouver Games in 2010, those events are slalom, giant slalom, super G, and downhill for racing, as well as moguls, aerials and ski cross for freestyle (though actually, ski cross is a race; are you confused yet?). Most forms of alpine skiing are considered downhill skiing, but alpine touring (also known as AT or Randon

http://www.wissa2008.org/372 http://www.wissa2008.org/372#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:04:07 +0000 admin http://www.wissa2008.org/372

By: skiierboy

About the Author:

Marketing Strategy

By: Rosie

About the Author:

marketing excellence

By: builtindetroit

About the Author:

business and marketing

By: John B

About the Author:

marketing strategy business

By: marcyfiorica

About the Author:

business marketing plan

I just took up downhill skiing last year although I have been cross-country skiing since I was in my 20s. My reluctance to try downhill stemmed from several reasons, not the least of which was cost. Equipment and lift tickets can get very expensive. New boots can run into $700 or $800 and skis anywhere from $500 to $1000 (I know they can get much more expensive but this is just what I see as the midrange in shops and ski magazine reviews, etc.)

Lift tickets run $50 to over $70 per day at the major resorts. Too rich for my blood! Last year my wife and I spent $330 skiing not including gasoline and that was 7 times for me and 8 for my wife. That includes rentals for me each time plus two lessons for me. We’ve gone twice so far this year and spent about $380 on equipment and $0 on lift tickets. Here’s what we did.

1. Someone turned us on to Warren Miller films last year. Warren Miller has been making one ski film a year for the last 50 years! We paid $22 each for the movie. With that you get coupons for 4 or 5 free lift tickets to resorts in your part of the country plus a free subscription to a ski magazine and a discount coupon to a local ski shop. I’m sure the giveaways vary depending on your venue. One free lift ticket pays for the movie 2 or 3 times over. Can’t beat it. Plus the movies are great.

2. This year we attended the Ski and Snowboard Expo here in Albany, NY. For the $6 admission we got one free lift ticket and 2 “buy one get one free” coupons. There are other chances to win lift tickets and prizes like skis too. Plus there are good deals to be had on new and used equipment and clothing. Check out similar events in your part of the country.

3. I bought my own equipment this year. I got a used pair of skis for $129 and new boots for $189. I got mine from a regular ski and bike shop but I saw skis on Craig’s List for $40! Make sure you get parabolic (curved) skis and not the old straight sided kind. There is also a chain here called Play It Again Sports that sells used stuff. My wife got her skis there last year for $149.

4. There are always some small, family oriented local hills that have cheaper lift tickets, especially later in the season. Last year’s spring season was awesome here in the east. We found $20 lift tickets in March. A nephew worked at a great resort in Vermont last year and we got $10 tickets on employee appreciation day. Sadly, he does not work there this year.

We used our 2 for 1s at a place that had $30 tickets in March, so, $30 for the two of us for the day.

I could go on and on but the bottom line is, if you really want to ski (and you live in an area that gets snow )search around and you can find a way to do it.

The Ski Bum’s Guide (www.skibumsguide.com) is free and it’s a fun read with some usable ideas (but watch out, some ideas, as the authors readily admit, are borderline or outright illegal or may get you banned from the resort).

So I hope I have helped with some good ideas.

Carve it up!

By: Gary Halbedel

About the Author:

Marketing Strategies

By: mariadetts

About the Author:

marketing excellence

By: Dirty

About the Author:

Business Marketing