Skiing on Mt Hood Oregon

The lot at Meadows Nordic Center

After many years of thinking of taking up skiing, I finally decided to go for it this year. I wasn’t sure if I should try Alpine or Nordic, I did ski Alpine a very long time ago and I didn’t do to well. Though it was in southern California and what passes as snow is more like ice, Alpine just seemed to hurt more when I fell. So I decided to try Nordic. Since Nordic is more like running I was sure I would be able to do it better than I thought I could Alpine.

I looked around for equipment and soon found that finding boots in my size would be a challenge. Most Nordic boots only go up to 12 and very few go up to 15, I would need a 14 minimum. So I went on line and found a company that sold boots in my size, but I needed to try a pair on to see if they really fit. So I found a place that sold boots in my size and tried a pair on. I was glad since they fit very poorly. I again looked and found a different manufacture and I was able to try on a pair of those, they fit. So I made up my order online, they had the best price even with shipping.

About a week later the first box arrived, the boots and they did fit perfect. Then the skies and poles, a friend was so kind in giving me some other ski equipment, hat and gloves, I was now ready to go and ski. Nordic is different from Alpine in that it is very aerobic and you almost are running the whole time, so the clothes needs to be loose and more like running clothes. I collected a good set of cold weather running clothes, loaded the skies on a Saturday morning and headed for Mt Hood.