Steve Hindman - Cross-Country Skiing: Building Skills for Fun and Fitness

About the Author

Steve Hindman has taught cross-country skiing since 1980 and was a member of the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) National Nordic Demo Team from 1992 to 2004. He has written instruction and travel articles for various magazines, contributed to ski instruction manuals, and has been the instructional editor at Cross-Country Skier magazine since 2002.

Steve started a cross-country ski rental shop in Glacier, Washington, on the way to Mount Baker in 1981. That led to the creation of a cross-country ski area just up the road and eventually an outdoor retail store in Bellingham, Washington. He ran a backcountry ski guide service and taught touring and telemark skiing as well as sea kayaking through his shop and for other organizations. After liquidating the retail business he spent several summers guiding road bike tours.

Steve teaches throughout the West at various cross-country and telemark ski camps and clinics and remains active within PSIA. When the snow melts, he is forced to ride his road and mountain bikes and paddle his kayaks in and around Bellingham, where he lives with his wife Sue.

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Acknowledgments

I always thought an endless list of acknowledgements to be ridiculous, but that was before I knew how much help I would need and what it takes to write a book.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to my wife, Sue, the principal photographer, for her patience with my pursuit of just the right image. Thanks also to Mary Metz and all the others at The Mountaineers Books who accommodated my work schedule, guided me through inexperience, and tolerated my perfectionist tendencies.

The following folks contributed to the learning process that produced this book. Thanks to them all and to those I missed.

Strummin, Brent Harris, and Alan Millar hooked me on free-heel fun. Kirk Flanders, Ben Thompson, Morrie Trautman, and Dick Zagelow gave me a start in the ski business. My fellow team members over the years on the PSIA National Nordic Demo Team helped develop my skiing and teaching skills. My editors at The Professional Skier gave me the opportunity to write and then the feedback I needed to develop my writing skills. Ron Bergin, publisher of Cross Country Skier magazine, extended that opportunity by asking me to be the instructional editor of the newly relaunched title. He first suggested that I write a book such as this and offered to publish it, and continues to be one of its biggest promoters.

Nordic sages Don Portman and Dickie Hall continue to joyfully share their knowledge of skiing and teaching with me. Todd Eastmans gentle coaching and suggestions have influenced my skiing, teaching, and this text to a large degree, and kept me fit through a year of long hours at the writing desk.

Old friends, new friends, and others I have never met contributed quotes, text, and their time to this project. The following made time to talk to me on the phone or via email: Peter Ashley, Jeffrey Bergeron, Tor Brown, Susan Burak, Sandy Cook, Norm Crerar, Fred Griffin, Dick Hall, Leslie Hall, Michael Jackson, Stephen King, Bert Kleerup, Louisa Morrissey, Bruce Ronning, Mary Jo Tarallo, and Sue Wemyss. Thanks for the thoughts and ideas that you shared.

Chris Frado and Missy Lackey of the Cross Country Ski Areas Association (CCSAA) went out of their way to help, and Chip Chase and his family treated me like an old friend when I visited their Whitegrass Touring Center in West Virginia.

Thanks to the following authors who contributed excerpts from their own writings: J. D. Downing, Mark Harfenist, Scott McGee, Mitch Mode, John Mohan, Don Portman, Gregg Rinkus, Steve Walker, and Sue Wemyss. Chris Frado, Roger Lohr and Jonathan Wiesel are also quoted in the text. Your contributions add wisdom and perspective that I could not provide alone.

Thanks to the many members of the CCSAA and others who submitted photos in response to my requests and those of Chris Frado. Images from the following photographers appear in these pages: Tor Brown, Middleton Evans, Kate Carter, Don Portman, Phillip Savignano, David Smith, Tom Stillo, Don Svela, and Don Weixl. The National Capital Commission of Canada, Fischer Skis, Silver Star Mountain Resort, and xczone.tv have also supplied photographs. Steve Barnett deserves special recognition for access to his archives that chronicle cross-country skiing in North America over four decades. Without the contributions of these photographers, Sue and I would have been unable to illustrate the diversity and beauty of crosscountry skiing.

Thanks to Peter Ashley of Fischer Skis, Mike Hattrup with K2 Telemark, Oliver Steffen of G3, Dane Stephenson of Swix, and Jack Hart with Salomon who provided much of the equipment that appears in the photos and for their support and encouragement over the years.

Teaching Children to Ski, written by Asbjrn Flemmen and Olav Grosvold, and translated by Michael Brady, has been an inspiration and guide for me. Thanks to the authors and translator for such an insightful and timeless text.

A NOTE ABOUT SAFETY

Safety is an important concern in all outdoor activities. No book can alert you to every hazard or anticipate the limitations of every reader. The descriptions of techniques and procedures in this book are intended to provide general information. This is not a complete text on cross-country skiing technique. Nothing substitutes for formal instruction, routine practice, and plenty of experience. When you follow any of the procedures described here, you assume responsibility for your own safety. Use this book as a general guide to further information. Under normal conditions, excursions into the backcountry require attention to traffic, road and trail conditions, weather, terrain, the capabilities of your party, and other factors. Keeping informed on current conditions and exercising common sense are the keys to a safe, enjoyable outing.