Cross-country skiing in/near Munich (Langlaufen)

[Bron 227]

 

Are you 'Classic' a 'Skater' or both?

Both. A lot of the big ski marathons are classic, so I had to learn, I´m still better at skating though. I assume you have bought classic skis; sorry the poles I had in mind will be too short for you, but a pair of poles won´t be too expensive anyway.

 

How about a half-marathon in March?

 

 

I've been out skiing the past few days and noticed my skis (Rossingnol Backcountry 70) were made in Czech Republic. So they are probably available there, just not as popular as touring skis.

Well I´ve never seen them for sale here but you are right, they must be available somewhere. My husband said that actually, unless otherwise signposted you are allowed off trails in most areas, but that the forests here can be quite dense, so you might not find much snow between the trees.

[Jorgan 10]

 

I assume you have bought classic skis

 

Dunno; what's the difference? I just said "give me the fastest skis money can buy" Actually, they are Fischer Cruising skis called 'challenger Crown' although I don't see them on the Internet. This is the closest I have found, but mine are black/orange/white:

 

http://www.fischer-ski.com/en/products_nordic_ski.php?show=detail&id_product=17867

 

I asked for an all-round ski.

[Bron 227]

Those are classic skis and it looks like a good solution for what you want to do - the nordic cruisers are a bit wider than racing skis so you should find them more fun to use when going through the woods, but they will be fine on a groomed track too.

 

The difference between classic and skating skis is how they flex. Additionally classic skis have either a wax zone in the middle section of the base, or a raised texture, often in a "fish-scale" pattern. For classic ski-ing, you keep your skis parallel most of the time and propel yourself forward by pressing the middle of one ski into the snow and gliding foreward on the other ski. When the skier´s weight is taken off the ski, the middle section is lifted off the snow, allowing the ski to glide. The picture on the first post of this thread shows someone ski-ing classic style. As an example of how the fast people do it: Lillehammer 1994

 

Skating uses a motion like roller blading or ice-skating, hence the name, and uses the whole length of one ski to push off while you glide on the other ski. For this reason the ski should flex evenly along its length and has no sticky wax or "fish-scale pattern" but is smooth along the whole base. Biathletes use the skating style. Another example, this time skating.

 

Generally skating skis are shorter than classic, but the poles are longer.

[Bron 227]

For anyone wanting to ski, there are a few places with snow still and lets hope that the next few days bring some more of the white stuff. Seefeld/Leutasch has almost all trails open, Kaltenbrunn-Klais and Monialm are open and we were in Großhartpenning today where, although the snow is no longer white, there were surprisingly few stones or bits of earth poking through.

 

For anyone looking for lessons, we took a coaching sesion with Powderword (link on one of my earlier posts) on Friday and were very happy - Andrea concetrated on the aspects of our technique that we had asked for help with, was generous with her time and even emailed us the video of our ski-ing so that we can laugh at our technique from the comfort of our own comuter.

[Jorgan 10]

No shortage of fresh snow in Erding today (and tomorrow apparently) - I assume München is the same?

[Small Town Boy 6,664]

If anyone's interested in learning how to cross-country ski or in brushing up on their skills, I've arranged a course in English for this Sunday. Cross-country ski course in English.

[Guest]

well I have my eye on it but the Hartpenning loipe near me isnt open yet.

[Bron 227]

The Hartpenning loipe by the sports club is open and has been groomed beautifully. We were there last night, along with half of Munich and the groomer had just finished doing another round.

Dietramszell is also groomed, as is Lenggries (not all tracks).

 

Have fun with your course on the weekend, everyone who is going.

[Guest]

Yep Bron the stretch near me is ready this morning.

[Sunkid 0]

Hi guys,

conditions in the Großhartpenning wasn't optimal today. You can langlauf, but not the complete round. The loipe yesterday at Dietramszell / Schalkofen was still ok before the traffic came. Better conditions in Kreuth and Achensee.

 

Here's a page with selections of the loipe in the region with links on snow conditions and a loipe plan. :)

[Bron 227]

Is that your website? It´s nice to have a summary of places and the contact details.

Do you want to add Lenggries to it? Snow report here and there is a pdf plan of the tracks on that page. For anyone who prefers classic style skiing, the Hinerriß-Eng track is very nice and is only groomed for classic.

 

@STB, how was the lesson?

 

We were in the Erzgebirge where it snowed all day and was rather cold. There are good tracks there too but it´s rather a long way from Munich.

[Small Town Boy 6,664]

The course was good, gave a good introduction to the sport. But it's practice that makes perfect so there's plenty of room for improvement for all of us. I got more info on tacking the slopes, so I now just need to go out and practice it.

 

More snow urgently needed; bits of grass poking up through the Loipe at Lenggries – and that was before the rain arrived.

[Sunkid 0]

@Bron, yes just needing a summary very badly so that I can find places fast when I need them :-) Thx for the lenggries tip, I'll takem em up next.

 

Oh by the way, the domain was changed. Here's the page linkagain. Sorry for the inconvenience :rolleyes:

[chgill 0]

Have just arrived in Munich with my classic and skate skis in tow. These links look helpful, but I am wondering how to get to any of these places -- are they accessible by train? And I can't seem to get the snow reports to work in English. Any tips? If anyone is going out and wants company, please send me a personal message.

[Small Town Boy 6,664]

Virtually all the Bavarian resorts are accessible by train, often with a connecting bus or ski bus. Just type the destination into the DB website. The best place to get information on which trails are open is the relevant town's website. Type the town name along with the word "Loipenbericht" into Google.

[Bron 227]

Lenggries is very easy to get to by train. Take the BOB from Hauptbahnhof, get off in Lenggries and get onto the ski bus (it´s free, or was last time I used it). Get off at the langlauf tracks (if in doubt ask the driver). It´s where I used to ski most before I got my driving license.

 

Klais (beyond Garmisch) has a railway station just by the tracks. There are several direct trains a day from Munich. Details are on the Deutsche Bahn website.

 

Those are the two simplest. Most of the others are also fine with a combination of bus and train.

 

Do you race at all? There are a few groups of people here who train together.

[chgill 0]

Don't race (did many years ago) but I have at times trained with teams, so do let me know the training details. And thanks for these great tips.

[chgill 0]

oh - and what's the "Hartpenning loipe by the sports club"? Some in-town options for before or after work would also be handy.

[Bron 227]

Grosshartpenning is between Holzkirchen and Bad Tolz, so training there before or after work is really only an option if you have a car. It takes about 45 minutes to get out there from the centre of Munich.

They have floodlights on Tuesdays and Thursdays during school terms from 7-9pm. http://www.tsv-hartpenning.de/ski-nordisch/informationen.html.

 

Other places with floodlights are Lenggries (7-10pm) and SC Moosham (6-8pm).

 

Andrea of Powderworld does "training in team" sessions where she names a time and place and skiers are welcome to turn up and train together. There is no formal coaching at these but it is a good way to get to know a few other skiers and doesn't cost anything. There is also a forum on the powderworld website.

Skatingschule Scherrer also has a forum where skiers can contact one another and Peter knows a lot of the people in Munich who race.

 

If you decide that you want to compete again, there are plenty of citizens' races in Germany with the biggest one being the König-Ludwig-Lauf (23 or 55km in both skating and classic techniques) which is held in Oberammergau.

[Bron 227]

Lots of lovely snow means that everything is groomed. For anyone taking advantage of the floodlights in Grosshartpenning, they won't be on next week because of school holidays.

 

For anyone wanting information about langlauf within the city, link is here although you could probably just put your skis and and go through most of the parks.

 

@Jeremy, is the stretch near you groomed?