It really is a thing of beauty, seeing a nordic skier who knows what they are doing, gliding effortlessly forward on a perfectly groomed trail. For some of us, it might look more like a grotesque marionette dance, at the hands of a puppet master suffering from Tourette's. But you have to start somewhere, and the pursuit of perfection is not such a bad thing to spend your days searching for. I've been skate skiing ever since I moved to Park City, and I am amazed at the explosion in popularity ever since the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, when the world's best nordic athletes took over Midway in hopes of striking gold at Soldier Hollow. I remember a Norwegian cheering section in the bleachers at Soldier Hollow that would have rivaled the Cheeseheads on their best days, although they were clad in Dale wool sweaters, rather than shirtless with green and yellow body paint. Recognizing the importance of nordic skiing as an amenity for our out of town visitors and ski town locals alike, Ski Utah recently did a member outing at Park City's White Pine Touring, and what went down was something like this:
