I rented some alpine cross country skis from Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder. I had been wanting to ski some mellow trails outside of the groomed perfection of a nordic center, so when I found out about Eileen’s trip to Brainard Lake area, I signed up!
Unfortunately, not long into my ski, it was determined the wax was all wrong. It was way to sticky. So, Eileen helped me scrape off about a quarter inch of goo which was left on the ski from the last umpteen renters. We were surprised there was that much old wax on there, but later I found out that Neptune’s Staff don’t scrape the skis down on a regular basis. I doubt these had been touched the entire season…
In any event, when Eileen finally did get it all off, we applied some new wax. It worked much better, but I was still gripping a lot more then everybody else. Oh well, at least I got a workout!
We stopped momentarily at the CMC Hut by Brainard Lake. I was skiing so slow because of the wax issue, so I thought about just hanging out while everybody else wandered up to Mitchell Lake. In the end, it worked out for me to go with the group – I agreed to turn around if I was going too slow which was the right compromise given the situation. Whoop-whoop!
Mitchell Lake was beautiful and the ski back downhill was super fun. I couldn’t wait to come back with my own skis and the right wax. It would be even more enjoyable (was that possible?). Thanks to Eileen for a superb day of skiing and for being so supportive of a noobie!
Tags: CMC, Cross Country Skiing, Eileen Monyok