Ski Tips | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Ski Tips

The insider's perspective on Nordic skiing in Central Oregon

Editor's note: Downhill skiing gets a lot of attention, but just as fun and often more athletic is Nordic skiing—a sport with varying disciplines, and plenty of venues in Central Oregon with which to try it out. For our Winter Rec issue, the folks at XC Oregon, a local Nordic ski team and community, shared these tips for locals looking to learn more about the sport.

Ski Tips
XC OregonSki Race Team

On weekends and holidays, Meissner Sno-Park parking lot is often beyond capacity by mid-day (but the trails have plenty of room!). What to do?

• Use Swampy Sno-Park instead which often takes longer to fill (Though it does help to be an intermediate-level skier). 

• Go early. Before 8:30am you usually will have fewer problems with parking. 

• Go in the late afternoon. After 3pm the parking lot clears out, plus mountain traffic is coming the other way!

Bonus tip — Early and late ski times are always best for skiing the road to Tumalo Falls as well.

 

XC Skiing with your dog can be great fun, but there are requirements for every dog owner to follow.

• Dogs are not allowed at any time on groomed trails at Meissner/Swampy Sno-Parks and Mt. Bachelor Nordic.

• On U.S. Forest Service routes where dogs are allowed, it is the responsibility of pet owners to know the leash or harness requirements and avoid conflicts with other trail users. Example: From Dutchman Sno-Park all dogs must be in working harness/leash on all trails.

• When skiing on snowmobile roads, the safety of your pet, yourself and snow machine riders depends on keeping close control of your dog 100% of the time.

Fun fact — The local DogPAC club grooms a wonderful series of short loops out of east Wanoga Sno-Park specifically for skiing with dogs!

 Being friendly to other Nordies

• Most groomed XC ski trails are two-way with road rules (ski to the right). Further, two-way passing etiquette on XC ski trails is the opposite of mountain bike single tracks. Uphill skiers should give right-of-way to a downhill skier whenever possible. 

 • Two-way passing gets tricky when only one classic track is available and/or there's just a narrow skate lane for both directions. In these situations, all skiers need to keep eyes open for others and share the route as fairly and logically as you can. 

• When stopping/resting out on busy trails, move to the outside of the trail to give other skiers the right-of-way. Always try and avoid stopping on downhills or blind turns. 

• When we have very warm days and hard freezes at night, it is critical that skiers stay off groomed XC ski trails once evening grooming starts. Your ski marks in the yet-to-freeze snow will harden overnight exactly like shoe prints in wet concrete. 

• If you are using earbuds while skiing, for safety's sake keep volume low enough that you can easily hear other skiers. 

 

Good Nordic community members

• Grooming at Meissner Sno-Park 100% depends on donations from all users with the ability-to-pay. A donation box is at the trailhead and you can also donate anytime online at meissnernordic.org

• Where paid trail passes are required for commercial groomed trails (Mt Bachelor, HooDoo, Mt Hood Meadows, etc), sneaking onto XC ski trails or skiing outside operational hours without a paid pass for the day is never OK. 

• If you are using snowshoes, please travel outside the groomed ski surface or (better for fun and safety) use designated snowshoe trails. 

 

Find more XC ski etiquette tips:
meissnernordic.org/trail-etiquette/
xcski.org/skier-responsibility-code/

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