Spring is perfect time for skiing adventures, no matter what kind of adventure fuels your dreams and triggers your senses. There is no wrong way to enjoy it. Spring is the time to play, tour and train to your brains out.
Spring offers some of the best skiing of the season. The days are longer, the sun starts to warm your face midday, and the snowpack is often thick far into April and beyond.
Slushy conditions and/or bad tracks? Bonus! Here’s why: Slush makes for excellent technique training. Mastering the difficult stuff helps you improve your overall skills.
Check out our tips on how to get the most from the season, whether you’re headed for the hills and the mountains, your neighborhood trails or your own back yard.
Photo by: Stefano Zatta
Ski out to your favorite spot and set up camp
Digging in the snow is an old hit with kids and grownups. Snow caves and igloos, ski jumps and moguls, snowmen and snow castles are classic constructions, but use your imagination. Just make sure to bring dry mittens and gloves for everyone.
Cook your lunch on an open fire
Food tastes great in the open. And most kids love cooking their food outside. Consider bringing some fire wood and fire starter to build a camp fire that doubles as a lunch kitchen.
Roasting hotdogs is an old classic, and you don’t need to change a winning team. But there are plenty of other options.
Try a grilled cheese sandwich or even a quesadilla: Place shredded cheese and your choice of fillings in a soft tortilla, fold and wrap in aluminum foil. Place on the coals for 3-5 minutes, flipping the foil pack over several times while cooking.
Here is one of our favorites: Try bringing pancake or waffle batter in a thermos or other tightly closed container and make them on the fire. For pancakes, you need a frying pan. For waffles, you’ll need an iron. Old-fashioned, non-electric waffle irons can often be found in secondhand stores or flea markets. Bonus: These irons are great for making grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas as well!
As for dessert, no campfire without “s’mores”! Here is a classic recipe. You’ll need: Graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate squares and a nice campfire.
Directions: Heat the marshmallow on a stick over the open fire until it begins to brown and melt. Then assemble your “sandwich”: break a graham cracker in half, place a chocolate square on one of the cracker halves, add the hot marshmallow and top with the other cracker half.
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Add some ski play
Try your favorite games such as tag, obstacle course, jumping, parallel slalom, trick skiing, dancing…. Your imagination is the only limit. No matter what you choose, playing delivers a great bang for the buck: intensity, improved balance, technique and “ski feel,” along with lots of laughs and good times.
Get out early
Crust skiing is amazing, whether classic or skating. But remember that crust turns to slush only a few hours after the sun comes up. Once the crust is gone, you might be in for a long, heavy haul if you cruised too are far away from your base camp or trail head. So, if crust skiing is on your agenda, you need to get up early and enjoy the crust while it lasts.
Get the right equipment
Worried that your skis won’t work when the conditions change radically from the start of the ski to the end of your spring adventure? There is no need for concern: just pick up a pair of Madshus skin skis. The unique skin and ski construction of these boards delivers both kick and glide on crust and ice as well as slush and slop.
Madshus provides a wide range of skin ski models designed to meet the specific needs of different kinds of skiers and skiing, from top level racing and training to touring and backcountry adventures. All are developed and engineered to meet the overall goal: Simply Skiing.
Check out the full line up of Madshus skin skis, and find the perfect model for your dreams, ambitions and winter adventures
Getting the most from your skin skis: Tips and tricks
Tip: Skin skis are factory-ready to be enjoyed right out of the box. But there are a few tips and tricks that can elevate the experience yet another level. Plus: Different types of skin skis and how skin skis work.