A downhill skier most of her adult life, Mimi Avins used to consider cross-country skiing inferior. “I thought it was for people who were afraid of heights,” she admits. “Boy, was I wrong. It’s an adventurous workout that requires a high level of fitness.”
Ms. Avins took her first skate-skiing lesson in 2009 at the age of 61. Unlike classic cross-country skiing, in which a skier moves through set tracks in a linear way, skate skiing is done on groomed trails and requires a more dynamic lateral movement, similar to ice skating, where both arms work with each leg in a technique known as double polling.
“The instructor told me I was a natural,” she recalls. “I’ve never been a natural at any sport. I took to it right away.” In 2010, Ms. Avins, a retired newspaper journalist, and her husband, Bill White, moved from Los Angeles to Ketchum, Idaho, lured by the 100-plus miles of cross-country trails in nearby Sun Valley. “It is Nordic heaven,” she says. She skate skis 1,200 miles in a typical season, from mid-November to mid-April.
At 72, she credits workouts with the Vamps, an all-female Nordic program in Sun Valley, with lifting her skills to the next level. “The better your technique, the less hard you work and the faster you go,” she says. “The placement of your poles or how much you flex an ankle can make a difference. I fall once or twice a season, but unlike downhill, you don’t fall very far and I’ve never gotten hurt. ”
Founded by former U.S. Nordic Ski Team member Muffy Ritz, the Vamps’ roughly 130 members meet for weekly sessions organized by interest and ability. “Some Vamps are competitive racers, others just want to be better skiers,” Ms. Avins says. Due to coronavirus precautions, workouts are limited to small groups. For now, club gatherings, such as annual costume parties with the DONS (Dudes on Nordic Skis), are on hold and races are virtual.
