Barbara B.'s Adventures: X-Country

A couple of friends have been talking about pursuing cross-country skiing this winter, and as I had loosely been debating it since last winter, believe that I'll get into it too. I went to MEC "just to look". Well, one thing led to another and I now have a full package on hold.

I had really been debating waxable vs. waxless, I'd hear many people say waxless is just so much easier, and, remembering cross-country skiing at the Nordic Centre with school some 17 years ago, those wax rooms still scared me. All these years I pictured these wooden tables on which you'd put your skis and start working. I can't even remember what we learned back then, but I do remember thinking that that is an awful lot of work. And so I asked at the rental counter as to whether they rent both types so that I could try them out. The rentals guy wasn't busy, so he took me into the back - these mysterious back rooms at MEC - and showed me how to wax skis. And in 5 minutes the job was done. That was enough to persuade me to go waxable, so I walked over to the store x-country ski area,

You can't just look and see how much a package might set you back. You try on boots and that determines which bindings you can get (the Rossignol [more common] or Solomon types). So, I tried on a pair of boots to see which ones I'd fall into - something about narrower vs. wider fits apparently - and loooooved the first boots I tried on. They are so, so comfy. So I asked: now which binding, and then which skis, and then which poles. Oh, and what about the wax kit. After having invested that time and being totally excited about winter being more exciting, I told them to put it all on hold until the end of tomorrow. I do this to give myself the 24-hour time frame until reality might set in, but in all honesty, I just want to go back there today and tell them to start mountin.

This is what I picked:

Rossignol X3 FW Boots, Size 40.0
(Light touring)