Nordic Walking and Roller Skiing In The Moonlight

It is deer season again and most of our favorite trails here in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore are pretty much closed for a couple weeks - even our #1 trail up on Alligator Hill behind town.

My personal Nordic Walking campaign has been cut back due to the fact that I'm testing ski gear - Salomon Cross Country Ski Boots and Swenor Roller Skis. I'm still teaching a bunch of Nordic Walking Classes, but I can never get enough of Nordic Walking. Every night this past week the moon light, even on cloudy evenings, made the visibility pretty decent for a short Nordic Walk and a longer roller ski.

I'm totally hooked on the Swenor Finstep Cap Classic Roller Skis. These super smooth roller skis even come with a slight Nordic camber. These roller skis are light years ahead of classis roller skis made of aluminum.

The Swenor Skate Elite Roller Skis come with a similar Nordic Camber and FASTER wheels to really get up to speed if you feel the need for speed. Total quality.

I've also been testing the following Salomon Cross Country Boots this past week:

Salomon S-LAB SKATE PRO, S-LAB SKIATHLON and S-LAB CLASSIC. WOW. Best boots ever. Even with my weird feet they all skied great right out of the box.

For poles I snagged a pair of SWIX CT1's - can't ever go wrong with a pair of CT1's.

Once we get snow I'm fired up to test the New Salomon S-LAB EQUIPE 10 SKATE SKIS and S-LAB EQUIPE 10 CLASSIC SKIS - they look great and should be fast, especially after all the SWIX base prep that I've done to them.

When teaching Nordic Walking Classes and out doing my own personal ski walking i'm always using my SWIX VIP Nordic Walking Poles - custom made for me over in Norway. They are very similar to my Alu Star classic and skate poles come winter.

My roller skiing poles and Nordic Walking poles have a lot in common. Both are made by SWIX and both are a durable and super strong one-piece design. Cheap/flimsy 2-piece and 3-piece twist-lock and flip-lock collapsible poles. Skiers know and appreciate the fact that their one-piece poles are stronger, lighter and much more durable than cheap/flimsy collapsible poles.

When it comes to Nordic Sports it is always best to go with one-piece non-collapsible poles that are sized correctly. The best straps for Nordic Sports are the fingerless glove type straps patented by the Salomon Ski Company and found on all of my walking poles and cross country ski poles.

My personal pole length:

125cm SWIX Poles for Nordic Walking

150cm SWIX Poles for Classic Cross Country Skiing

160cm SWIX Poles for Skate Cross Country Skiing

One-piece poles will always prove to be superior.

Cross Country Skiing on Saturday, Nov. 6th Followed By Nordic Walking Barefoot On The Sand Dunes Nov. 7th

The first official day of cross country skiing here in Michigan’s Leelanau County was on Saturday, November 6th. The best snow was of course on the local golf course – located high up in the hills and away from Lake Michigan.

It is hard to believe that 24 hours later we were Ski Walking (Nordic Walking) barefoot high up on the Sleeping Bear Dunes at Devils Hole. Barefoot and in tee shirts.

We use our favorite SWIX one-piece poles for both skiing and Nordic walking. Our SWIX classic poles are longer than our SWIX Nordic walking poles. Both are equipped with comfortable fingerless glove type straps - patented by the Salomon Ski Company. Armpit length poles are ideal for classic cross country skiing. The ideal length for Nordic Walking Poles is when standing tall, strapped into the comfortable fingerless glove type straps and the poles are perpendicular to the ground your elbow should be at about 90 degrees and forearm parallel to the ground.

One-piece poles are ideal for both cross country skiing and Nordic walking. I’ve been coaching skiers for over 25 years and it is a simple fact of physics that one-piece poles that are sized correctly are safer, lighter and much more durable than cheap/flimsy 2-piece and 3-piece twist-lock and flip-lock collapsible poles that tend to rattle, vibrate, gradually collapse or collapse/fail altogether.

My oldest daughter is a professional wilderness guide and she reports that the number equipment failure in the wilderness is collapsible poles.

At http://www.skiwalking.com/ and the American Nordic Walking System we offer 16 different lengths of quality one-piece SWIX and EXEL Nordic Walking Poles. We offer all customers a Perfect Length Guarantee, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and a LifeTime Breakage Guarantee.

Nordic Walking and Cross Country skiing are the best!