There are two basic styles of cross-country skiing, Skate and Classic Technique. Both have similar looking equipment to the new skier, but it is important to determine what style of skiing you will be doing before you purchase your skis.
- Classic skiing is the more traditional style of skiing where your skis move back and forth like how you would walk or run. This is the best way for people with poor balance of fitness to start skiing and the best way for young children to get introduced to the sport.
- Skate skiing is done only on groomed trails, and it involves pushing side to side and resembles the sport of ice skating. Skate skiing is slightly faster and at groomed ski facilities can be the easiest form of skiing for beginners with good fitness or an ice skating or cycling background.
Classic Skis
When it comes to classic skis, we break them down into three distinct types of skis: touring, racing/fitness, and backcountry.
- Touring skis are designed to be used mostly on groomed trails but can also be used for some light backcountry skiing or on multiuse trails. Touring skis are a bit more stable and more forgiving for people still learning to ski. They are also generally slower moving. Great for a day in the ski park with the kids, going for an adventure in nature, and getting the feel for the sport of skiing on groomed trails or multiuse areas.
- Racing and fitness skis are narrower and glide faster than touring skis. They are used on groomed trails and often stiffer and allow for more aggressive skiing. A downside of a fitness or racing ski is that the more performance focused they are, the less forgiving they are to ski on. These are the skis you want if you want to go fast or have a great workout on skis and you only ski on groomed trails.
- Backcountry skis are used off the groomed trials and are wider and more stable than touring or fitness style equipment. Often, they are a little shorter to compensate for the extra width and are built to float over deeper snow. Many backcountry skis also have metal edges on the base to allow for better control in icy conditions. You may also notice they have a more hourglass shape to allow for better turning in steep terrain.
The endless debate in cross country skiing has to do with waxable vs. waxless classic skis. First off, waxing classic skis has become remarkably simple so don’t let people tell you otherwise. The days of complex wax selection and application are over thankfully. In fact, you can wax a pair of skis for most conditions in under 3 minutes with just a little bit of practice.
All the distinct types of classic skis come in waxable and waxless options and as ski technology has improved so have the quality of waxless skis. If you are looking for performance and live in an area where you have mostly below 0°C (32° Fahrenheit) then waxable skis are the best option. If you are just starting out on a touring ski, waxless might be your best option. If you meet the following three criteria, then waxless are the best option:
- Have no interest in racing and speed is not important,
- Prefer ease of use over performance,
- Don’t ski in extreme conditions (either terrain or weather)
There have been many advances in the types of waxless skis and the tradeoff between waxless and waxable has been getting less and less and in some specific conditions waxless technologies may perform better than waxable skis.
With backcountry skis you may want to use climbing skins (they stick to the bottom of the ski to provide grip while skiing on the flats and uphill’s and can be removed for the downhills) if you are skiing in more extreme conditions. With waxless you will want to stick to more moderate terrain. Our advice on the best option for backcountry gear is to ask skiers in your local area what they prefer but as the hills and snow get steeper and deeper skins become the preferred option.
Skate Skis
Skate skis are fairly universal, the only difference in the various models tends to be the quality of the ski materials and not so much in the design. The more expensive the skate ski the lighter and more high-performance features it will include however for many skiers the only feature that matters is weight and the rest make only a minor difference.
How to know the right size.
There are a lot of old rules of thumb about ski size and pieces of advice from long time skiers. Ignore all of it because ski technology has changed so much most of it does not apply today. Skis are sized by weight primarily. The skier weight is marked on the ski. The more expensive the ski the more specific the weight stamped on the ski as a basic rule. Once you have a ski that meets your weight based on how it is stamped it is good to use a sizing machine to verify the skis will work in your local snow conditions. (Most reputable ski shops have one) Increasingly the quality control of skis has improved, and the marked weights and snow conditions they work in (if applicable to that specific ski) are accurate. This may not have been the case for all ski companies in the past.
When it comes to length you want a skate ski to be about 10 cm higher than head height (a little bit shorter is ok if you are a new skier and need to go shorter to get the right weight rating) or if you are into a racing performance ski you may want to go 15cm taller than your height but not longer. A classic ski for groomed trails would be about your height plus 20-25cm but this can vary depending on your weight and model of ski. Check the ski manufactures recommendations. Backcountry and touring classic skis tend to run shorter (so do some waxless skis) and again, we suggest you look at the specific ski manufactures and model recommendations for height. The old days of putting your arm up in the air to determine ski length are long gone.
