A cross-training alternative to skiing!

Where's the Snow?

Sun, Jan  16, 2005 - By Carole Mueller-Brumbaugh

Need a training session to do when there is not enough snow to ski and it is too icy to rollerski?

The seasoned diehards of GRNST, Ernie Brumbaugh and Old Steve Smigiel, found a solution: Ice blades with skate bindings on them. These have two blades running the 18" length of the skate and whatever skate binding system that you use mounted on top...kind of like rollerskis, but with blades. They are very popular in Europe, especially Holland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and others.

With Crooked Lake right outside Ernie's front door, Old Steve just came over and the guys were off skating the near perfect ice on the lake. The lake perimeter is about 2.5 miles or 4K around, so six times around switching going right and then left, the guys had skated 15 miles or 24 K. Not a bad why to put a smile on two bummed out guys looking for a way to work out!

So next time you want to work out, but there is not enough snow to ski and it is too icy to rollerski, think of Ernie and Old Steve skating around Crooked Lake on their ice blades.

Where can you purchase these ice blades? From two of our favorite Michigan Cup ski shops...the Cross Country Ski Headquarters at www.cross-country-ski.com and the Cross Country Ski Shop at www.xcskishop.com. Either Bob Frye or Dick Fultz sell them and will mount the bindings for you. At this rate, they may be the "ski" to have for training this season.

Try 'em out and put a smile back on your skiing face!