Cross-country Skiing in Alaska

    Looking through the Sierra Club catalog of national and international trips last fall, in my usual "if-only" daydreaming, I read about a cross-country ski trip in Alaska, billed as "in the shadow of Denali." 

    It sounded enchanting: Ski nine miles to the Denali View Chalet, "a true wilderness lodge," the web site says, with "rustic and remote Alaska charm," no road access, forty miles south of Denali. The Sierra Club group—twelve in all—would stay at the lodge for a week, skiing every day on a multitude of trails. The aurora borealis would be visible. There would be snow! The food, I was told, was to rave about, and there was a sauna down by the lake. The day after we returned to Anchorage would be the first day of the Iditarod, so we would be able to see that, too. 

    If only. 

    But why not? 

    I signed up.

    I was excited for months. In early winter I started preparing.

    Because my feet for years have slid around inside my ski boots, I thought I would ski better if I could find better-fitting boots, so I went looking. But there were no boots my size in the whole Rogue Valley and none even at REI nationwide. (It's a supply chain problem.) Finally, though, boots arrived, and I tried on a size 38 (too small) and a size 39 (too big). Okay, fine. I've been skiing with my current boots for years. They'll do.

    The trip information sheet said to check with the trip leader if we wanted to bring our own skis, so I sent her the specs for my skis and asked if I could use them. She said I could. 

    Then I watched an REI seminar on cross-country skiing and found out that the skiing I love is called backcountry skiing. (I had thought I didn't do backcountry because I don't use skins.) Cross-country skiing is skiing in set tracks over groomed trails. That's not the skiing I do.

    Then the trip leader injured her leg and had to quit the trip. The new trip leader told me there was no way I could use my own skis because we would be cross-country, not backcountry, skiing, in tracks. My skis were too wide for the tracks. They would get stuck in the snow. 

    I was dismayed. I don't even like skiing in tracks. I like skiing through the woods, figuring out how to manage obstacles, snowplowing down steep hills. Can you even snowplow in tracks?

    Now I was panicked because I would have to rent cross-country skis, boots, and poles, and my feet are so hard to fit! What would I do if I got to the rental shop in Anchorage and the boots didn't fit? To minimize the possibility, I tried on boots for classic cross-country (not backcountry) skis at a local ski rental shop. Size 38 was definitely too small. Size 39 would do. It would have to do. I would take lots of moleskin.

    I made a reservation at REI in Anchorage to rent cross-country (not backcountry) skis, boots, and poles and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I wouldn't have to sit in the lodge while everyone else went out on the trails, after all. I would be skiing, too. And who knows? Maybe I'll like cross-country skiing.

    My excitement has returned. I'll be in the snow. I'll be skiing, and it'll be a new adventure. I'll see the aurora borealis. I'll eat the good food of the Denali View Chalet. I'll sweat in the sauna by the lake, then roll, steaming, in the snow. I'll ski under the massive peaks of the Alaska Range—Denali, Foraker, Hunter. Oh, doesn't it sound fantastic! I can't wait.