Skiing and hiking and penguins

I have never been on a pair of skis before last weekend. You can rent cross country and skate ski gear here, and my colleague Terri, who has been here three months and really got involved in the community, learned from scratch in a few weeks. While I do not want to spend a few more weeks here, I have least got a flavor of what is like to both kinds of skiing offered.


The two ways of skiing are very different. Cross country skis are long and wide relative to skate skis, with fish scales on the bottom that keep the skis from sliding backwards. You trudge along as if you were walking. You have probably seen this in the Olympics. Skate skis are more like "the worse part of downhill skis," so I am told. You don't have a hill but are expected to go forward. I found this method much more interesting than cross country. You move in a left-right rocking motion from ski to ski, sort of like ice skating. I am no expert, as you can see here, so if you disagree with my description, add a better one to the comments.

So last weekend I rented cross country skis, tried them out for an hour, then on Sunday skied out to Castle Rock. The Castle Rock trail is along a glacier, and is rough snow and very steep. It was a bad introduction to skiing. I did very badly. It was only slightly fun because I got so exhausted, fighting the skis the whole way. I only fell now and then (maybe a dozen times), but I kept the rest of the group from speeding along. I at least doubled the total time they would have taken without me. They were very nice, and waited for me.



But being a glutton for punishment, I rented skate skis this afternoon and tried them out. I skated along the road from Willie Field (one of the the airfields), which is fairly level and moderately groomed. I had much better luck, but I was still very slow and got exhausted quickly. It was nice, though, to get outside and try something new. You can see I am more confident on skate skis. Today's weather cleared up this afternoon, and the wind died down, making skiing very pleasant. Sadly, we are not on the schedule for tomorrow. I still have the skate skis, so I will try skate skiing again.


Otherwise, today I took a hike around Ob Hill (very windy and cold), and on the way back spotted (distantly) penguins out by Hut Point, so dashed over there to view them. I watched them hang out for a while, then jump in the water. Weddell seals litter the ice, like giant floppy slugs. The sea ice is melting near, and large pools are visible. Some whales have been spotted in these pools- just not by me yet!