Discussion: Tombstone Pass

wow, cool trip Jason! Any pictures to come?

Amazing sunrise going on here and a classic weekend for racing. Won the sprint yesterday at the Uni and the next 2 days look like awesome terrain. Enjoy your turkey tonight!

Awesome dude! Keep kicking it and race hard for the rest of the weekend.

I'll post a pic or two once i get some photos off Maria. I had tons of layers yesterday and today is my first Chinook! Fleece to shorts, how novel! Oh and no sighting of the Valley of the Gargoyles;)

Some nice powder pics for you Pither;)

Ouch, that really hurts. It's soooo hot here today. Enough summer already!!

Yeah its strange here but i'm surprised by your weather there! But I'm excited. I'm on the hunt for xc skis so i can learn this winter:)

That'll be sooooo much fun. We're hoping to spend a week XC skiing in Canmore in late Feb / early March. Maybe we'll see you then!

Keep me informed for sure and hopefully we'll meet up:)

Were you going to try to go skate or classic or both this first year Jason? I'll see what sort of used stuff I can come up with.

Classic this first year. Basics first i figure. Know anything about the xc shop the Nordsman here in Calgary? Seem to have been the business for a long while. Planning to check them out this weekend.

Remember Nev's rule of buying gear: put your money into the boots, if possible used skiis the first year. Put money into long underwear too.
Don't know the Nordsman there, you might need facial hair to get service there. Good luck.

Perhaps I'll paste a red beard on and act all Nev'ish when I go in;)

Been on the hunt for used skis but no go so far, hence the trip out to Canmore on the weekend - just all previous years skis on sale around calgary but still even tough to find the right fit with the current selection based on the weight test thing with the paper. Not wanting to drop a load of cash if don't have to. I know that Calgary has a used ski show...i've been to ones in Ontario but generally have low selections on xc and geared more towards downhill - different around here?

>>>>Remember Nev's rule of buying gear: put your money into the boots, if possible used skiis the first year. Put money into long underwear too.

That's a good rule. I bought good boots and have been very happy even though I suck at skiiing.

Nevin, I think he plans to ski outside of work so putting money in his underwear might just make it feel like another day at 'the office'. Take a day off jason and put your money in your wallet for once.

And then there's Bash's rule of buying gear... don't just buy stuff because it's cheap, because you usually get what you pay for. Used XC skis may not be in the best shape (camber, scratches, cracks) and you may not be able to tell. If you're trying to learn the proper technique as a newbie, you want a ski that responds the way it is supposed to. But yes, invest in good boots above all.

The other thing to think about is what kind of classic skiing you plan to do. If you'll be on track-set trails all the time, you can buy narrower skis. If you'll sometimes be heading out onto trails where you need to make your own tracks in soft snow, then you won't want super-skinny skis. The sad truth is that once you get into it, you'll want more than one pair of classic skis. And then there's skate skis... But it's *always* cheaper to XC ski than to buy downhill lift tickets, so you can take some solace in that.