Cross Country Skiing Equipment
A Guide on How to Select Ski Equipment
Track Skiing: Classic
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As you will have read in "What is Cross Country Skiing?" and "Start Cross Country Skiing", classic skiing uses the diagonal stride or gait where the skis stay in parallel tracks which have been cut into the snow by machine. The skier kicks and glides his way forward in these tracks so the skis need to be narrow to fit the grooves in the snow. Racing skis will generally weigh about l kilo, be about 45mm wide and slightly narrower at the tip. Cheaper recreational skis will weigh a bit heavier, be about 50mm wide along their length and may be slightly narrower in the middle. Both racing and recreational skis will have a stiff “camber”. In other words if you put a pair of skis base to base, the tips and tails will touch but the middles will bow out and you will have to press very hard if you want to try and get the centres to touch. This “camber” allows you to stand on the ski so that only the tips and tails ride on the snow. The centre part, where your grip wax goes, will only grip the snow when you kick down onto it. The rest of your stride will be spent gliding on the tips and tails. The correct or ideal length of your ski will depend on your weight. In the past a rule of thumb for the correct length of ski related to your height but of course skis don’t know how tall you are. They do however know how heavy you are. The object is to buy a pair of skis the length of which allows the centres of the skis to just brush the snow when you are stood evenly weighted upon them.
A major consideration when deciding to buy classic skis will be whether to get waxable or no-wax skis. No-wax skis as their name suggests, do not use grip wax but instead have a kind of fishscale pattern moulded into the bases mainly around the under foot part of the ski which grips the snow for forward propulsion. When starting out most people opt for no-wax skis for their simplicity, whereas the more experienced skier will probably plump for waxable skis. Grip waxes are the faster option as they have less resistence when gliding. Waxing is however a science in its own right and the use of the correct and most effective wax will depend on tempterature and humidity. Waxing and talking of waxing is an enormous opportunity to be a geek as the possibilities, combinations and waxing techniques are seemingly endless. Once you've gained a reasonable technique and discovered the joy of zooming along on waxable skis, few will wish to go back to no-wax.
Connecting the boot to the ski is through a binding. Alpine skiers happily have only one international standard for bindings. Track skiers will usually have to choose between at least two. The Rottefella NNN or the Salomon SNS being the most common. Both work on a similar principle " a simple device which locks onto a metal bar running parallel and below the toe of the boot into the binding. Ridges running the length of the binding locate matching grooves on the sole of the boot. Mainland Europe generally seems to prefer the Salomon system whilst Scandinavia and the USA generally seem to prefer the Rottefella system. Each system allows the foot to flex forward but at the same time meeting increasing resistance so that the ski doesn’t just dangle from the toe. You’ll see that classic shoes are low cut, very light and in many ways similar to trainers. Some boot manufacturers make separate women’s fittings.
Track Skiing: Skating
Skating has the potential to be faster than classic. To skate on skis you need a ski lane with no grooves in the snow. Put simply you use the same principles as ice or roller skating except that you have the extra push from your poles. Because you physically drive the skis differently in the two styles, the gear differs. Skate skis are a uniform width of about 45mm. This enables them to track well in a straight line because you don’t have the machine cut groves to guide them. A skate piste will be flat across its width. Skate skis have much less camber and can be skied shorter than classic skis because they don’t have or need a wax pocket. You glide upon the entire length of a skate ski. This for some will be a plus point as you don't need to worry about not only having to separately apply grip wax as you would with a classic ski but you are also free of needing to get the right grip wax for the conditions. As with classic skiing there is a choice of two binding systems from the same manufacturers and they’re very similar to their classic cousins. The most radical skate binding is the Pilot Binding which has an extra sliding cantilever bar under the foot for additional stability and rigidity. Boots made for skating reach higher up the ankle and they have special cuffs in a variety of configurations but they’re all designed to give extra support to the ankles and lower leg when pushing off sideways from the snow.
Track Skiing: Combi
Those recreational or infrequent cross country skiers who may wish to do both classic and skating can opt for the hybrid Combi gear. As the name suggests they combine elements that allow for both sorts of skiing on the same gear. As you’d expect from a compromise, the combi equipment doesn’t perform as well as the best classic or the best skating gear but it may be a worthwhile compromise for those not able to justify two sets of equipment.
Track Skiing: Poles
Historically treated as the Cinderella of cross-country equipment, the importance of using properly fitting ski poles is now widely recognised. After all, one of the things that makes cross country skiing such a whole body experience is the fact that you get much of your propulsion from the upper body and arms through your poles. This and finely tuned balance needed for cross country skiing is the reason that you use more muscles cross country skiing than you do swimming.
Choosing the length, stiffness and weight are all important factors in honing a good technique and just as vital to overall performance as skis, boots and bindings. If you want to ski well, good quality poles are a must.
Gone are the days where the vast majority of poles came in bamboo. Now ski poles are made from a range of materials from aluminium and fibreglass for touring poles, to the most exotic carbon fibre composites known to man for the dedicated or professional ski racer. The stiffer the pole the better - ones that bend will absorb that energy needed for forward movement. The ideal pole should not only have the appropriate stiffness, but should also have the correct swing weight and be almost weightless.
Pole straps too have undergone a revolution. Recreational pole straps may indeed be a length of webbing but venture into the performance category and you will find all manner of weird and wonderful attachments that bind hands to poles. Some are in the form of an attachment that envelopes the hand and clips onto the pole so that you’re physically wedded to your poles. A button has to be pressed for release. All are designed to squeeze ever last gram of arm power from your poles and turn it into forward movement.
Baskets also continue to evolve. Poles for track skiing have seen the introduction of a variety of half-basket designs for prepared trails where traditional baskets would lever the tip out of the track.
When choosing a ski pole, length is dictated by the use it will be put to. The currently accepted starting point is that for Classic skiing, a pole at or around armpit height (85% of your height) would be right, whilst skaters would use a pole that reaches to between the chin and the nose (90% of your height).
Off Track Skiing: Low Level Terrain
If you want to get away from the tracks your skiing priorities will undoubtedly change. Speed is not a significant factor here so your skis will be wider for better floatation in new untracked snow and they will perhaps have metal edges to deal with traversing on hard snow. Having abandoned the tracks and marked ways to choose your own route you’ll need to deal with all types of untracked snow so you’ll probably benefit from equipment that’s a little meatier than the track equipment. You may find that a boot/binding system called BC (Back Country) to be more effective and a better match for this type of skiing.
This BC system is broadly a beefed up track system where the bindings look similar to track equipment but they’re a bit bigger, heavier, more robust and perhaps less likely to break if you decide to tour. You’ll also have better capability to initiate turns because of the extra rigidity provided by a more robust boot/binding combination. The boots too are bigger, heavier and possibly made from leather. They’ll look much more like a hiking boot than their track brothers. The width of your skis will have crept up to around a 70mm or more at the tip with much more sidecut than the track skis thus helping you to turn in favourable snow conditions. Although wider, your skis will have more of a classic camber because you will be using either grip waxes as you would in the tracks or you may have bought a pair of waxless skis that are designed to grip a wide range of different snow conditions. Waxless skis have a moulded pattern in the base where the grip wax would go and which acts something like fish scales enabling you to grip the snow for forward movement. Don’t expect them to grip as well as grip waxes and don’t expect them to glide as well as properly waxed skis. However for the novice or for those conditions where you may expect to encounter a wide temperature range within a short period they do have their place.
Off Track and Touring Skiing:
For skiing away from the tracks and for more serious and longer tours on steeper terrain visit the
Ski Touring pages.
(SSE does not recommend any specific manufacturer of any of the goods referred to in these articles. Most items of equipment are produced by a number of manufacturers although not all may be available in the UK)
Updated July 2011 SJ
