Customer Reviews

Cross-Country Skiing: Building Skills for Fun and Fitness (Mountaineers Outdoor Expert)

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Steve Hindman's book is an outstanding introduction to Nordic skiing. He starts from scratch, describing the types of skis and bindings, and showing you how to get started for the first time. He then gradually progresses to the more advanced techniques of efficient and enjoyable cross country skiing. I have been Nordic skiing for 26 years without much instruction, and I learned a lot from the book. I highly recommend it.

Aspiring skiers will love Cross-Country Skiing: Building Skills For Fun And Fitness: it joins others in Mountaineers' 'Outdoor Expert' series, providing a long-time PSIA instructor's techniques using step-by-step photos and learning activities to back instruction. Common problems receive sidebars of easily-accessed information, while technique is surveyed for different terrain and snow conditions. Cross-Cross-Country Skiing: Building Skills For Fun And Fitness: isn't just about technique, though: it includes games, health concerns, and tips on selecting skis and clothing. An excellent comprehensive primer on enjoying the snow via skis.

This is an excellent, shall we say "classic" book on XC skiing.

I would recommend it to anyone, either as a learning tool, a motivator, or just a classic text for your library.

The photos are great and you can tell that the text is written by someone who not only knows his stuff but has a passion for it.

The only minor quibble is the section on telemark turning. If your interested in telemark, your probably better off buying one of the two books recommended that concentrate on telemark technique.

Excellent book for intermediate skier like me. I think it would probably also be excellent for a beginner, but I didn't really view it from that vantage point. I suspect it would not be very helpful to an expert.

The first section was pretty useless to me with the exception of the chapter on waxing. The meat was in the first four chapters of the second section. I found the final 3 chapters irrelevant for my purposes but I did skim them and I think they add value to the book. The heading for the blurb on the back cover is:

All the skills you need in one comprehensive guide

I concur. The book is published by The Mountaineer Books. The chapter on Backcountry Skiing reflects a rigorous attitude to avalanche danger.

The photos at the beginning of each chapter and the flavor of much of the text did an excellent job of conveying the joy of cross-country skiing and being in the mountains.

The meat, teaching how to ski, was well done. The instructions had plenty of detail without getting obsessive and the photos, black and white, did an excellent job of illustrating the lesson.

I got this book from the library. This cross-country ski season has ended but I'd like to read this at the start of next season. I just added it to me "buy" list. There are only 71 pages (10 of those with no text) of "meat" (I'm including waxing) but I found them adequate. [I guess it's a rave review if I'm willing to spend my own money.]

Contents:

* Skiing for Fun
o Learning to Ski - - 8 pages
o Basic Skills - 25 pages
o Equipment -21 pages
o Accessories and Clothing -13 pages
o Skiing with Kids -16 pages
o Waxing for Grip and Glide - 11 pages
o Practical Tips - 8 pages
* Skiing for Fun and Fitness
o The Magic of Speed and Grace - 10 pages
o Classic and Skate Skiing Basics - 12 pages
o Classic Skiing - 14 pages
o Skate Skiing - 24 pages
o Racing and Training - 13 pages
o Backcountry Skiing 28 pages
o Parallel and Telemark Turns - 26 pages

The section headings are lame - "basics" and "skiing" would be more appropriate.

PS - I've cross-country skied 20-30 times over 20 years - I've never had lessons. I have wax combination skis designed for classic and skate skiing. I felt it was time I made the effort to improve my skiing with knowledge instead of brute effort.

As in all of this book series, it is very informative and well written. You can't go wrong with the Mountaineer outdoor expert books.

This winter will be my first cross-country adventure. Very different from alpine skiing so I was looking for a good overview. This book covers the entire subject. Introduces, but is not intended to teach details of waxing and detailed techniques. Outstanding introduction. Also convinced me to start with lessons even if an experienced downhill skier.