Fish scales are at their best in loose snow and slush but are slightly less effective in their glide. Also, in hard-frozen crusty snow a slight--and extremely obnoxious--buzzing sound is created. If, however, you are one of those who have avoided central heating all these years as "unnatural," then you will also reject these recent attempts to make life easier and insist on waxing your skis.
A veritable art, the correct choice of wax depends on two factors: one, the history of the snow (has it melted and refrozen?), and two, the water content of the snow.
Briefly, the colder the snow, and the more recent the last snowfall, the more "tooth" the crystals have and the harder the wax you should use. In contrast, older snow and higher temperatures demand a softer wax.
The hard waxes generally come in small foil cans while the soft waxes, or "klister" in Swedish, come in tubes, like toothpaste. (The hardness of a wax is determined by the proportion of wax to resin, and the klister is almost entirely resin.)
The waxing chart above is a demonstration of how snow conditions and temperature combine to determine the optimum wax.
While you may be anxious to begin skiing and want to rush out and outfit yourself with Norway's finest, the temptation to buy immediately should be fought.
Most winter sports stores in Boston and Cambridge will rent a complete set of boots, skis, and poles for roughly nine dollars (shop around, the price does vary). And best of all, the cost of rentals can be used towards the purchase of equipment when you decide what you want.
Where to go
Now that you have rented or purchased "ce qu'il faut," where do you go to cross-country ski? The answer is anywhere and everywhere there is an inch and a half of snow.
Front yards, unplowed streets, golf courses, Central Park, and The Yard are merely a few suggestions. During the brief time that snow remained on the ground this fall, scores of enthusiasts raced up and down the banks of the Charles.
For day and weekend trips, the Division of Forests and Parks of Massachusetts will provide a list of maps of cross-country trails in more than twenty state and MDC parks. For information, write to:
Dept. of Environmental
Management
100 Cambridge St.
Boston, MA 02202
Nearby Lincoln also has an extensive cross-country trail system and maps are available at the town hall.
If you haven't been able to talk your roommates into joining you out on the tundra and would like company, both the Sierra Club and the Appalachian Mountain Club run cross-country trips of varying degrees of difficulty.
If you explain that you are a beginner, they will in turn be honest in describing the level of competence desired for a particular trip.
Wherever you go, however you go, the important thing is to enjoy yourself at a sport that doesn't require ten-dollar lift tickets, two hour rides in search of "skiable snow," or equipment that would bankrupt the U.S. Treasury.