Cross Country Skiing for the rest of us after Vancouver

THE BEST CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING SNOW IN NEW ENGLAND

If watching the Olympics has made you curious about cross-country skiing, you should know about Prospect Mountain, on the edge of Woodford State Park, just over the border from Massachusetts, on Route 9 in southwestern Vermont. Yes, as you have seen on TV’s Olympic coverage this year, it’s a beautiful sport, and you don’t have to be Jimmy Spillane to enjoy it any more than you have to be Bode Miller to go downhill.

Ten miles north of Bennington, just past Williams College, Prospect (adjacent to Woodford State Forest) is the perfect place to have fun learning to cross country ski. In Nordic skiing you have to work hard climb hills rather than ride up on chairs or gondolas, but when you reach the flats and get into your “classic” glide, you will have a quiet yet invigorating journey into a winter wonderland. Like mountain biking without the bumps, like hiking without the bugs, cross-country skiing is “a good walk unspoiled.”

That’s where my spouse and I headed on Sunday from our house in Litchfield, CT. On the 2 ½ hour drive on Route 7 from the Northwest corner through the length of the Berkshires, we saw no more than a few remaining patches of snow. Even Bennington was mostly bare ground.

But because we’ve skied at Prospect for over 15 years, we knew that their web site wasn’t lying when they said their conditions were “perfect.” As we pulled into the parking lot we saw fresh snow and had a picture perfect view of solid white runs and snow-coated evergreens.

The base elevation of Prospect Mtn. X-C Ski Area is 2250'. The key to Prospect’s success is that this it has natural snow (you can’t make snow on long cross country trails) for at least 14 weeks from December – March, because it lays in a secret “snow pocket.” the first place in the Green Mountains storms hit coming off the Great Lakes. Before the precipitation gets to Killington or Stowe, it always drops some first at Prospect.

We got our lift tickets (a bargain at $20 for adults) and ate a grilled cheese sandwich in the very informal “Lodge Restaurant,” which has the comfy atmosphere of a campus snack bar. Then we started up the short hill leading to the main trails. We brought own equipment, but adults can rent for only $18 a day, much less than downhill. You do need to call ahead to reserve a spot in lessons, either group or private.

Since we hadn’t had a chance to get in shape, Mary Ann and I decide to take the “easy” trails and warm up before going up hills. The condition of the snow was wonderful, packed but not at all icy. There was one set of parallel tracks on the right, groomed for “classic” diagonal stride, with a large area for those (not us) who “skate ski” – what you see in the “freestyle” races at the Olympics. We are permanently intermediate skiers, with no aspirations to be fast or stylish, and we stay with to old-fashioned diagonal stride, but Prospect provides room for all levels, beginners to racers.

A few minutes of gentle up-and-down, and we reached a long flat stretch through the pine trees, and, eventually, the sign for “Beaver Pond Loop.” I was excited about this part of the trails, not only because it was more challenging but because I had read that this was where young Olympian Andy Newell had started his Nordic career at the age of four. He had probably skied faster than I do even then. Bill Koch ran a ski club here the 1976 Olympics, where he was the first American to medal in a Nordic race. There is a lot of inspiration on these trails.

The day we went to Prospect it was warm but not hot, alternating clouds and sun. Such weather is very good for cross country. Too much sunshine and rising temperatures will make the snow mushy, even when machines have carefully “groomed” it. Whistler certainly proved that in the 30K pursuit, if you watched the Olympics that day. Even state-of-the-art technology can’t make wet snow fast.

The grooming machines keep the snow from turning to ice, smoothing the skating surface and cutting tracks about 2-3 inches deep for diagonal stride. That makes it much safer and more pleasant than your local golf course. Nordic skis are thinner and lighter than Alpine, the boots are much more flexible, and the terrain much more forgiving.

If you are coming to cross-country from downhill skiing, you need to learn to trust your speed, because it isn’t overwhelming. You can always snow plow. Your skis won’t have metal edges for fancy turns and the trails are at to narrow for fast turns. You can’t expect to “schuss” to a smart stop.

Experienced downhill skiers may find it easy to skate ski rather than to do “diagonal stride,” since it is a familiar movement. In cross-country, however, you have to learn to keep your center of gravity over the middle of the skis, rather than to try to set your edges, and remember that your boot can move more because the heel isn’t attached to the binding (which helps you glide).

Aside from mushy snow, the other reason a having a day with the temperature hovering around freezing is good for cross-country skiing is that it is hard work, and you overheat very easily. The single most important key to enjoying your ski is DO NOT wear a down jacket. If you dress like an alpine skier you’ll roast within a few minutes.

What you want to wear are layers, a windbreaker, a vest, light gloves, and a hat you can stuff into a pocket. You don’t want your mother’s cotton long underwear, either, you want modern synthetics, with a turtle neck you can unzip. When you get going you’ll feel like you’re riding a bike in early summer. However, you need to put the layers back on while you have a drink or just enjoy the sights. Without zipping up your vest or pulling your shell back on, you will get cold in a minute when you are not moving. Unlike the Olympic racers, you will want to stop once and a while.

No matter how good the conditions at a cross country resort, chances are slim that the trails will be crowded. Many times we’ve been able to stop and be completely alone on the upper mountain at Prospect, surrounded by a landscape as pristine and wild as you would find in California or Colorado. The only thing the High Sierras and the Rocky Mountains have to offer for cross country that Vermont doesn’t is sweeping vistas. While backcountry skiing in Yellowstone Park was an amazing experience we got to do once, we have the same kind of fun at Prospect, and we can have it several weekends a year instead of once every two decades.

Furthermore, for Boomers like us, Prospect is time-travel on snow. As Prospect says on its web site:

Prospect Mountain Ski Area was born in the late 1930's when the first rope tow pulled skiers up the mountain. Operations were interrupted by World War II, but then resumed in the 1960's when two T-bar lifts were installed. The first cross-country ski trails were built in 1980. Now the entire operation is devoted to cross-country skiing in the winter.

If you learned to ski before snowboarding, you will recognize the natural snow, the low key snack bar, inexpensive trail fees and equipment rentals (if not the spandex), and a full mix of generations who actually spend time together, from kids as young as three to Grandparents who remember Jean Claude Killy. What you won’t find is long lines, crowded slopes, loud music, or an après ski bar scene.

Originally logging roads, the cross-country trails on which the Williams College ski team trains are open to the public thanks to a lot of dedicated members of the local community. It is a treasure anyone living in New York or New England can be very grateful for.


IF YOU GO:

Prospect Mountain X-Country Ski Area is in Woodford, VT, on Route 9. By car it’s about 3 hours from Boston or 4 hours from New York City, 2.5 hours from Hartford, CT.

Woodford, Vermont
www.prospectmountain.com
(802) 442 - 2575

Winter is not tourist season, but if you spend time during the day in town, there is a wonderful – and rare – local bookstore on Main Street, and the Bennington Museum (only a mile from the center of Main Street) has priceless Grandma Moses paintings, including some that had been stolen but reappeared in a crate sent anonymously several years later.

There are many local motels and bed-and-breakfast places to stay in Bennington, and it isn’t usually hard to get reservations.

For a luxury weekend, there’s the South Shire Inn in the middle of town. It is a beautiful Art Deco house with marvelous wood panels in the living room and plaster ornamental carvings in the dinning room. We’ve stayed there several times over many different owners, and it has always been one of the best Inns we’ve ever visited. It has big rooms with antiques in the main house (we particularly like The Otto Room) or a modern room with hot tub in the remodeled carriage house.

124 Elm Street
Bennington, VT 05201
(802)447-3839
Fax: (802)442-3547

Also full of charm but a little further out of town, to the northwest, is The Eddington House Inn, which offers a cross-country ski package with Prospect and meals at Kevin’s Pub next door, convenient if you don’t want to go out again after a day of skiing.

21 Main Street
North Bennington Village
Bennington, VT 05257
http://www.eddingtonhouseinn.com/
802-442-1511
800-941-1857

If you have kids or are going with a group of friends, the Kirkside Motorlodge is right on Main Street, and a short drive from Prospect.

250 West Main Street • Bennington, Vermont
802-447-7596 | info@kirksidemotorlodge.com

Our personal favorite for eating dinner is Alldays & Onions, a few blocks from the intersection of Routes 7 and 9, on Main Street. Bennington is full of good restaurant choices, including the family-friendly.

Alldays & Onions
519 Main Street
Bennington, VT 05201
802-447-0043
www.alldaysandonions.

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