Cross country skiing is where it's at right now. We were able to outfit the whole family with new gear, but finding a day warm enough to test it out was testing our patience. Today, we watched the thermometer outside of our kitchen window show that it was warming up. -15C. Yay! Still not warm, but we were getting sick of waiting so out the door we went.
It's so nice to have this open space right behind our house. If we got cold, we're only a 2 minute walk from the warmth of our home, and hot chocolate!
I had wondered about the performance of the XC-ski attachment for our Chariot X-Country (which BTW is an amazing stroller/bike trailer - one of the best "child accessories" we've ever bought and worth every penny) and I stumbled across a local (Alberta at least) blogger who uses one. Oddly enough I found her blog via twitter, and while I was in Fernie. Natalie posted about skiing in Fernie while we had just arrived there on our last trip. Small world. She highly recommended the ski attachment and said it worked very well. Her only complaint is that you can't ever find them for sale used. Good enough of a review for me! We picked one at Bow Cycle last week.My first thoughts of the ski attachment...Excellent addition to the chariot. The skis are very simple to install, built very well (like the rest of the Chariot) and with just my 2 year old in it, it pulls amazingly well. Like really well. I had my six year old in it with my daughter for about 15 minutes, and while it's not as easy, it's certainly doable for several hours. I am amazed at how well this works!
The boys were petering-out, so they took turns riding with their sister. The brilliant design of the Chariot makes attaching their skis to the back when not being used a snap. Chariot products are so smart, and just work so well in real world conditions.
The additional skis leave an interesting trail for other skiers to scratch their heads over. The great thing is it doesn't affect the ski trials for others.
Out here on the prairies, we like to head for any trees we can find. Feels more "wildernessy" that way:)
Last time we were out in Fernie, my little girl ended up getting a mild case of frost-nip. Not quite frost bite, but enough to scare Steph and I and make us feel like terrible parents. We took extra precautions this time. It was noticeably warmer inside the Chariot (we had the covers all closed up) and when the boys were in there, they said it was nice and warm. So much so that our little girly fell asleep!
We're going to head out a few more times before our next trip to Fernie. The boys need a bit more practice at getting up by themselves, but they are doing incredibly well. This is such a fun family activity and it's so nice to have something we can all do to get out of the house in the winter.Our yard is starting to look like a ski-lodge
Go outside and have some fun!
2 comments:
Sweeet! (And thanks for the mention!)
When it gets colder, we actually pile the blankets inside the Chariot to keep things toasty. You can also toss a hot water bottle (or Nalgene) wrapped in a blanket in the foot part...
Oooh, I second the awesomeness of the ski attachment on the Chariot (although we picked up ours second-hand via the Banff/Canmore Kijiji, where they come up semi-regularly, same with the Calgary Kijiji - some people just don't end up using them apparently). We've just started getting out using ours with our nearly 5 month old, and it's fantastic fun (like here).
Agree with the hot-water bottle (or nalgene) recommendation. An old sleeping bag can also come in handy for padding out the space and creating a nice warm nest.
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