Climbing Skis

Last winter on our trip to the Adirondacks, Abigail noticed (while she was trudging along in her snowshoes) people skiing in – up and down the hills.

“Dad”, she asked, “how do you ski in up and down the trails?”

“With skins”, I told her.

Like everything cool to a kid, “I wanna do that!”

So what are ski skins? Here’s a quick lesson.

So I started thinking – planning – scheming even.

I found these introductory XC skis for the girls – both on ebay and at REI.

They allow for any winter boot and are about the size of their snowshoes, so the learning curve and setup should be easy. Being that they’re skis, this would give them quick/fun ways to go down the hills. The next problem is of course going up the hills.

XC skis (these included) have scales on the bottom to help with some ascension, but they’re only so effective. To easily climb they need full length skins.

Back to ebay.

Sure enough I found a cheap used pair for full length skis. There’s was plenty to make them into two pairs for the girls. Bought an installation kit for the second pair and we’re off to the races.

If they work, great! The girls could have a lot of fun and they could quickly adapt to bigger more technical back country skis. If they don’t work or don’t like them, no harm done. The majority of the project was used and cheap. Worth the experimentation effort.

– b

ps. if they don’t work or regardless, I think I’m still buying light/effective sleds I can carry into the backwoods for the girls to zoom down the hills.