For a few years now I have been contemplating trying cross country skiing. Just before Christmas there were a few sets of equipment listed for sale on Iqaluit's facebook swap and sell that piqued my interest again. I wasn't able to get anything on facebook so I hit the internet and, for just over $400 plus $25 shipping, I ordered myself the necessary items from Mountain Equipment Co-Op:
Shortly after placing the order (at about 7am on a Sunday morning I was so excited!) I realised that the boots were unisex, therefore I had ordered the wrong size. MEC is based in Vancouver so their phone line wasn't open until noon. The guy I spoke with was super helpful and said he would make sure I got the right boots. On Tuesday we came home from work to a voicemail saying that instead of being shipped to the main store for the bindings to be mounted to the skis, everything but the boots and been mailed to me. The message went on to say that if I could get the bindings mounted by a qualified ski technician here in Iqaluit, then MEC would refund me that cost. After I finally stopped laughing I called back to explain that wasn't an option. MEC already had a better solution, they were already in the process of mounting bindings on another pair of skis and would send those to me too. After everything had arrived they would send me the paperwork to mail back the unmounted skis and bindings free of charge.
Over the course of two weeks I received the three packages, in the reverse order that they were mailed! By 6:10 on Friday night I had everything I needed to hit the snow. This morning I drove the dogs out to the third car park in Sylvia Grinnell park and clipped in. Blaine joined us on skidoo and acted as coach, cheerleader and photographer. I am a boarder not a skier so it took a bit of getting used to but I had fun and Johnny Cash certainly appreciated running at a slower pace than the skidoo. I went back and forth a couple of times along the skidoo trail next to the road which is a nice flat, groomed trail perfect to get my balance and figure out the rhythm. It more than met my expectations in terms of the exertion required so I am confident that after 6 weeks of cross country skiing and I will be more than fit enough for our two week snowboarding pilgrimage to Tahoe.
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