The most sacrosanct rule of good writing is: Know your audience, and write for them. I flagrantly violate this rule every time I post about XC skiing because there are no XC ski enthusiasts who regularly read this website (as far as I know). I must pretend that my audience is interested in this arcane, snow-dependent sport, or that my audience draws inspiration from me, a past-her-physical-prime woman who overcame her utter lack of balance and fear of rapid downhill mobility to become a pretty darn good XC skier. Failing at either of those two avenues of appeal, I present to you… sexy pants.
This weekend, we skied at two XC ski centers on opposite ends of the Swank Scale. First, at the lower end of the spectrum, there was the Franconia Village XC ski center, which sums itself up nicely on its website: Most of the trails are single track in width, winding through the woods, over brooks and across meadows. We believe our single track trails create a very intimate feeling with the forest, unlike the larger double track commercial touring centers.
Indeed, Mr. Pinault and I interacted intimately with the forest as we slid on the uneven, semi-groomed trails weaving through it in 10-degree sunshine. We encountered the Bridal Veil Falls trail, and the name seemed terrifically prophetic because my father had gifted our weekend’s lodging partly as a honeymoon for our civil marriage. We quickly discovered the name “Bridal Veil” accurately described how the forest’s growth hung over the trail, covering our heads in frozen pine needles.
No biggie. If anything, the rugged trails highlighted how spoiled I am by the “larger double track commercial touring centers” like Waterville Valley, which is where we headed today. There is something to be said for intimate interaction with the forest, but there is also something to be said for gliding at top-speeds on a flat, even track without tree branches snagging one’s hair. V-room!
Pictured below is the sunset view from the inn in which we stayed… that’s Mount Lafayette on the left, which I climbed way back on my 29th birthday. Pictured on the right is the alpine skiing area on Cannon Mountain – I snapped this picture from a moving car on the highway.
