Haven’t Tried X-Country Skiing?

There Are Trails Aplenty Locally

By JENNIFER HILL

ONEONTA – Just because it’s snowy out doesn’t mean you have an excuse to sit inside.
“You often don’t have the ability to go running in the winter,” said Will Weinert, Clark Sports Center’s director of Adventure Programs. “Cross-country skiing gets you out and enjoying the winter months, keeps you from being sedentary.”
But unlike downhill skiing, where you need to travel to faraway mountains, you can ski free in your own backyard.
“You can go skiing on most places right around you,” said Heidi Hofbauer Buzzy, Hartwick College athletic trainer.

“Most people in the area just break their own trails. You don’t need a groomed trail to go skiing.”
Buzzy is the daughter of Ingrid and Ed Hofbauer, who owned Alpine Hut, selling skiing equipment on Oneonta’s Main Street for 45 years. He was known locally as “Mr. Alpine.”
And numerous people in the region do just that in the winter – they grab their skis and poles and go. “There’s a history of people going cross-country skiing on their own,” Buzzy said.
In Oneonta, Wilber, Neahwa and Catella parks are popular places to ski a lap or two, but www.OtsegoOutdoors.org has 12 parks specifically sectioned out for winter sports, including Gilbert Lake, Arnold Lake State Forest and Forest of a Dozen Dads, Town of Middlefield.
Or you can stop in and ask Buzzy herself. Following her father’s death in 2012, Heidi and her husband Brett Buzzy assumed ownership of the store, now Alpine Awards & Engraving at 22 Water St. The store still sells cross-country ski equipment too.
A “groomed trail,” as Heidi described it, is one where the snow has been packed down, flattened and smoothed for cross-country skiers, usually with a snowmobile. “If people have slightly wider skis, it’s easier to break a trail,” she said.
If you’re new to cross-country skiing, Weinert recommends trying groomed trails first. Gilbert State Lake Park’s trails usually are, with most skiers using a one-mile loop around the lake. The park draws avid skiers because of its trails and its pristine, snow-blanketed beauty and quiet.
But if you’re determined to set out on your own, there are ways to go about that too. If you are in a group, Buzzy explained, a designated trailbreaker will go first, clearing a path for those in back.
“The person breaking the trail has to be the fittest if you’re in a group,” said Weinert. “You’re pushing through powdery snow and packing it down yourself, which is hard work.”
It’s not only easy to cross-country ski for a short time in Otsego County, it’s really good for you. You burn over 1000 calories in an hour of cross country skiing, so even skiing for 15 or 20 minutes will make you sweat and build up muscles.
Cross-country skiing works you harder than downhill skiing because you don’t use gravity to help you move. “Cross-country skis have skins or grooves on the bottoms,” Weinert explained, “so they only give you one-way traction. It forces you to move only forward, and unlike when you walk, where there’s little resistance, you have to push against that resistance.”
In other words, if you cross-country ski for an hour or even just a half hour, you can drink all the hot chocolate you want to afterward, guilt-free.
Otsego County is basically one big cross-country skiing park, just outside your front and back doors. So don’t stay indoors in winter, get online to FlyerDiaries.com for your equipment and skiing tips. Step into your skis, grab your poles, and go!