Out and About on the Great Glen Trails
| Date: | 01-15-2023 |
| Location: | Pinkham Notch, NH |
| Distance: | 3.6 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 1,005′ |
| Total Time: | 4 hr 42 min |
| Parking: | 20+ cars |
| Difficultly Rating: | Green, Blue, Black, Back Country |
My buddy Mista Jay and I decided to drive up to the snow for some XC Skiing fun at the Great Glen Trails. I’ve heard lots of great trail reports online about the trails here and since most of the state does not have snow right now we decided to give it a shot.
Neither of us have been to this trail network before so it was nice to explore. It was also a ski demo day at this location. Vendors from Rossignol, Atomic, Salmon and Fischer skis were all there letting people try out the latest in XC ski equipment.
Both of us have always wanted to try out some XC skate skis so we went to and borrowed some. I started with the Carbonlite Skate Plus ski from Fischer Skis. From the point I put these skis on I realized they are slick and fast. Very little effort to start moving. As I snowplowed down to the tunnel I was a little nervous. The skis moved fast, and I was a little unstable with them. I tried over and over to get the skate glide going but was unsuccessful. After a number of tries and falls I decided skate skiing is not for me and returned to lodge and trade them in for a pair of classical skis.
The next pair I tried was a classic ski from Fischer Skis called the Twin Skin Pro. These are still thinner than most XC skis I’ve tried but they felt very comfortable. These skis were easy to control and the glide was amazing. I was unsure about having the small “twin skins” on the bottom instead of the fish scales but skins worked pretty good.
On the flats of Great Glen trail these skis moved quickly and effortlessly. I would have liked to take these out longer but you only get about an hour to demo a pair of skis. I really liked these skis but they were a little thinner than what I was used to.
The third pair I demoed was the Fischer Spider 62 Crown Xtralite skis. From the first kick I realized these were my skis. They were comfortable and easy to use. I like the fish scales and the width. I took these out a little longer than I was supposed to because I liked them so much. Great on downhill, uphill, flats and off groomed trails. I think these would be a nice addition to my Fischer S-bounds.
This was my first day out on the skis and after I got back my arms and legs were pretty tired from all the kicking, pushing and falling. So I headed back to the lodge and waited for Jay to get back.
Jay spent most of the day exploring the trails on skate skis. He was able to cover a lot of ground on those skis. In the end we both had a great time and got to explore new trails. We will definably be back to Great Glen Trails again. If you haven’t been there yet I would highly recommend it.
It was also demo day at t One nice thing about holidays
