 Poster: A snowHead
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Here in the South Tyrol we have had freeze thaw conditions this week and either hardpack or grippy snow both of which are quite painful to ski on with my arthritic knee.
Today was a beautiful day so I tried a walk up the mountain in snowshoes and was able to do just over 2 hours up with a friend have lunch and two hours down with only
slight discomfort to the knee on the steeper parts of the downward section . (aprox 500m altitude difference)
I think without the snowshoes I would have had much more pain .
Cross country skiing is also much kinder to the knee and something I started doing about four weeks ago.
So just wanted to share this with anyone else that has knee problems and is looking for an alternative to skiing.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks.
I enjoy cross country, but I do fall over lots, and the risk of that fall doing damage to my recovering knee does worry me.
I've considered snow shoeing, but never done it.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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janeed : Snowshoeing is much easier than cross country . The wide footprint of the snowshoe spreads the weight and makes walking much easier with a dodgy knee . When you snowshoe also take poles and use them in the same way as cross country ski poles i.e. left foot forward right pole forward to counter balance.
Cross country is harder than snowshoeing but puts less stress on the knee than Alpine Skiing .
Why are you falling over in cross country ?
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Why are you falling over in cross country ?
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Because it can be difficult to manage anything other than a very gentle descent on narrow skis with soft boots with free heels?
That's my excuse, anyway. 
If you've watched the Nordic skiing at the Olympics you'll have seen that even the best in the world fall over sometimes.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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It's definitely not easy on the narrow skis to start with ! We had a great time in the Dolomite's on the long Blue runs but were a bit shocked when we went to a more local track with steeper descents.
The snowplough technique we learnt in the Dolomites came in very handy for a few steep bits ,but felt strange, and when we got to the steepest drop my wife employed the special technique of taking her skis off and walking down . I copied the technique too not wanting to damage my knee . That's my excuse !
(much easier to do with cross country skis than with normal skis).
Less chance of falling over on snowshoes ! 
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| pam w wrote: |
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Why are you falling over in cross country ?
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Because it can be difficult to manage anything other than a very gentle descent on narrow skis with soft boots with free heels?
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this above
And because I'm not very good at it 
The first time I tried was on a frozen lake, and I was thinking it was pretty easy. They I went onto a proper blue trail, and realised how wrong I was.
I did take a lesson a couple of years ago, and was starting to get to grips with using a snowplough, and half snow plough on descents, but I find lifting my ski in and out ot a track very tricky. I've never had great balance, worse now after ligament injury, and the skinny skis definitely expose that weakness.
At least there is generally no problem with taking cross-country skis off and walking a bit. I have done may times.
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Thanks for the tips. I have possibly been told these, but always useful to recap.
I actually have a balance board too and it's really useful. I also worked with a trainer on a Bosu. That was tricky.
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shorter and faster strides
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Hmm. I aim to stride slower and glide longer, getting the weight right onto that gliding ski. "shorter and faster" works well for gentle uphill gradients though (the sort where you can stay in the tracks). "Petits pas toniques" our instructor called them - almost jogging. Yes janeed, getting in and out of the tracks can be tricky, and something we spent quite a bit of time on when I had lessons. You do have to shift your weight left to get the right ski out (obvious, when you think about it) but then you have to transfer the weight decisively, so you're right over the "lifted out" ski. It's not easy. With the half snow-plough, too, you need to get the weight onto that "ploughing" ski, or you don't stop - no use hesitating and keeping too much weight on the ski still in the track.
The more advanced class was doing a lot of work with just one ski on, but we didn't get that far!
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