[Closed] Nordic Skiing in the UK

Yes, the wife and I got some last year from Braemar Mountain Sports as there was loads of snow last year. We're in Aberlour, Speyside so felt confident we'd use them again.

Stockeld Park near Wetherby have a Nordic trail through the woods on artificial snow with boot / ski hire, including a night trail with fairy lights. Keep meaning to go when there is actual snow.

Aye, there was folk out round Loch Morlich on Saturday and on the golf course last night. There's a marked network of tracks heading right down to Glen Feshie.

Yes, on the odd occasion it snows enough! We have Sporten Ranger touring skis from a few Norwegian tours, but given how thin the snow is likely to be I'd suggest trying to find something second hand so you don't mind trashing the bases.

The recommendation used to be to get skis with a fishscale base, rather than use different wax for grip and glide. That was mainly because there was a big difference between wax for below zero conditions and above zero conditions, and in UK it's often round about zero so you end up with the wrong wax. Technology might have changed in the last 40 years.

Fishscales are definitely low end option but probably easiest ones just grab and go when conditions are varied.
These days it is all about skin skis for average enthusiasts - the skis have embedded hairy strips in the bases so you don’t need to play with grip waxes.

I just picked up a pair of these:

https://www.rei.com/product/177942/salomon-escape-64-outpath-cross-country-skis-with-prolink-bindings

I live in Canada and use them (first time out yesterday) for early/late season skiing here and skiing where there are no set tracks.

I would go this direction, the ski is self steering (tracks in a straight line and doesn't need a track to follow) and is a crown ski (fish scale pattern underfoot) this is durable and as said above is your low fuss option. A skin/waxable ski will be faster but way less user friendly for the ungroomed UK.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Living in Cairngorms, Speyside or Aberdeenshire I’d definitely say yes. Last winter I was living on the other side of the mountain, 1,000ft higher than Swavis and at times we had too much snow and ski-mo gear was probably more suited for those conditions. I spoke to some folk on touring skis on the hill behind me - they said it was some of the best conditions they ever encountered in the UK. Also lots of XC ski tracks in the local forest - but again, it got too deep and soft for skinny skis on unprepared tracks at times.

I'd go for some "Nordic touring" skis like the ones jblewi links to above - Possibly Canadian term so not quite sure what it translates to in UK.

Not quite as narrow as true XC skis that are best for groomed trails but not as wide or as heavy as proper Alpine touring skis. I'd second (or third) that fishscale bases are best for mixed conditions or limited use.

Beware that descending is considerably more challenging / terrifying than climbing (at least in my experience)

Nordic Touring relates to recreational ski's in this instance.

The ski's I linked to have a steel edge that makes descending a bit more manageable, something I might look for in the UK.

Yes, if I were buying again I'd spend a bit more and get the Nordic touring skis, the skinny edgeless ones we have are absolutely terrifying on descents. It's good to be scared now and again though right? 🤣

Dont know if this counts, but I had a mate who used to roller ski around the place, on something akin to a ski with roller skate trucks at each end. He was training for the Vassalopet ski race, about 80 miles or so he said, in an area which doesnt really have much snow.

Edit: they are more like inline skates than roller skates, I just had a look.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasaloppet Vasaloppet is 90km and there is plenty of snow on most years. It is run on groomed tracks and is shown live on national tv on most Nordic countries.

There are few types of roller skis, most are made of central part of ski with wheels on each end. One model is called Skike and it is something between inline skate and roller ski but wit air filled tyres. These are mostly used in summer training and they are not fun on slippery roads.
I just came from xc skiing session, no natural snow in Helsinki area at the moment but few short loops are opened with help of snow cannons.

I have track skis, alpine touring, and old tele setups, but as above I'd go for waxless and metal edged rather than track/xc setup for what you describe. Quiet forestry and estate tracks are my go-to. From biking you might already know which ones fill in/hold snow best on different winds, and then it's just recognising what level of cover different surfaces require and you're away. Braemar mountain sports are pretty good for this kind of thing but I believe they're closed due to the storm at the moment.

My old outdoor centre on Loch Tay was founded near to the first ski area in Scotland with a tow. This was through the 1950's to 1970's.

My centre building was built to make use of this for private family.

When first opened as outdoor centre in 1980 they offered Alpine and XC skiing every winter.

In mid 1990's they gave up the alpine skiing, tried some touring sets.

By 2000 one of my predecessors sold the touring ski's.

In 2010 I either binned or gave away 100+ sets of xc boots and ski's, kept a few snow blades.

The reason? Changing snow patterns and lack of cold winters. Climate change perhaps.

This is something I need to own I think - though with limited time and a fat bike, and ski touring kit already there is only so much snow time to be had to play with all the toys.

I've got the groomed stuff from around Loch Morlich and Glen Feshie a 40 min drive away but a couple of locals here enjoy a few days skiing on our lane and on the forest tracks every year. They were skiing on the Nairn golf courses last winter but that was an exceptional year.

Is the very basic bottom of the range fishscale Decathlon stuff just a waste of money? I should probably be looking out for useable 2nd hand stuff.

Having used 1990's kit for all my (limited) xc skiing, like bikes you could say that it just works. I suspect even faster diminishing returns though.

I live about 300 metres from an xc ski trail, but never do any xc skiing.
There is too much other stuff to do in winter with alpine ski touring and fat-biking.
Xc skiing seems a bit daft to me as you can only do it on a prepared trail which means you're stuck doing loops of the same bit of forest.
Different in Scandinavia where they have hundreds of km's of trails.

Fish scales are easiest to rinse mud and dog mines out of...

Different in Scandinavia where they have hundreds of km’s of trails.

per city / town / village.
Training for those sunny spring skiing days in the fjells requires putting in loops at local forests. Compared to riding indoor trainer it is still much more enjoyable to me.