Kampen for Norskværelse

Det var et morsomt og ofte pinlig show den der "Kampen for Tilværelse" på NRK.

Men som innvandrere har vi utfordringer for å være vår selvest selv. Det er lett å tabbe sosialt. Det er lettere å bli nedprioritert på jobb og nedbemmanet når først øksen faller. Man kan føle at man bare ikke eier de sosiale antenner man skulle ha for å funke i Norge. Det kan være rett og slett vanskelig å være meg!

Ofte vi tar litt feil her vel. Flytting til Norge er oftest i forbindelse med enten kjærlighet, dersom man har funnet seg norsk partner, eller som flyktning når hele opplevelse er både underlig og stort sett betryggende. Kanskje det er faktisk mindre fortvilende å være flyktning og kommer inn sakte men ganske sikkert inn på det norske samfunn? Kanskje man har mer tid å studere norske vaner og komme inn på sosiale krets gjennom super liberale SV støttekontakter?

I alle fall er det vanskelig for mange av vi som ikke er skandinavisk å sette oss inn her. Sotra jente, 32, skilt, søkes kjærlighet med roughnecks fra Aberdeen. De vare ikke lenge på Sotra. Ingen pub-kultur. Raseri anfall pga norske køvaner.Adjø kjære blondine alenemor igjen skal du være. Mange saker nettopp sånn, at ellers resurssterke og super sosiale folk fra mange land kommmer hit og bommer med en gang ellers nekter å godta at livet kan være Så Kjææædelig før det store laurdags kveld begynner. På arbeidsplass er du nesten alltid en gjestarbeider dersom kone di ikke er datter til eieren. I nedgangstid som nå, er det mange som sitter hjemme uten jobb nå, og de skal kanskje være de aller siste å få jobb igjen når oppturen kommer i gang.

Men vi ofte flytter hit på det største av alle livets skiftepunkter og det er når barna skal bli en del av bildet vårt. Då medbringe vi en helt feil rekke av forventninger om at livet skal liksom fortsette å være gøy, sosial og spennende. Babyen skal fort bli stort nok å bli tatt av besteforeldre mens vi ut og party eller på fjelltur i Morroco. Vi skal etablere nye venner gjennom jobb og familie som vi kan ta en halv litre eller seks med av en Torsdag lønningspils kveld.Virkeligheten er annerledes. Ikke bare at livet vårt er skiftet, men forventninger av oss er annerledes. Etter et par måneder har mamma et større rett å bli ut på byen med jentene enn du har hatt noensinne. Besteforeldre forventer å få besøk ofte men ikke forvente  å få ofte ansvar for barnebarn - nei de har trening, søskentreff og sydentur i siktet. Sosiallivet nedskaleres i en stor pang. Verre blir det når andre eller tredje barn kommer. Hvis man bestemme seg for nummer 3 har man kanskje blitt en del av babykultur i Norge og vant til at sosiallivet dreier seg om familier og noen veldig få nær venner (som er hennes forresten). Tur til hjemmelandet blir sjeldnere etter at Gran Canaria blir krav fra kjerringa for å få tilskudd med sol om vinteren. Man blir til en drosjesjåfør for barnas aktiviteter etter skolen, som de ofte gir opp etter noen år allikevel for å finne på noe som er lengre å kjøre til.  Blautekake serveres for konfirmasjoner på rekk og radd og så er du ut av barnasvingen og da skjær skilsmisser fleste i disse dagene fordi det var så lite igjen. Med 'anglosaxon' bakkgrunn er det oftest norske kvinner som bestemme at nå er det lite romantikk igjen, etter at du har vært trenet opp for å bli en perfekt pappa som matcher alle kravene, så er du brukt opp. Uromantisk. Kjedlig. Litt småtjukk. Ikke rik nok. Mangler forståelse for hvem damen egentlig er inni seg.

Utenlandsk damemennesker som føder halv norske barn her kanskje har det lettere. Eller kanskje ei. Jeg har hørt utenlandsk damer snakk om hvor ofte mannen er på jobb eller topptur med gutter i Jotunheimen.  Unge nordmenn har kanskje lurte seg en ikke likestilling dame som kan være hjemme med barna og så kose seg uten de kravstore forventninger til at man er så mye hjemme og utføre så mye av husarbeidet.
Løsningen for mannemennesker er å oppføre seg som en miniriking fra vestkant. Leie inn hushjelp og barnavakt og jobbe litt overtid for å betale for det. Då har du tid å være romantisk og smatidig er du en den gode lille pappa når det gjelder arbeidsplassen og fremføring i bedriften. Setter større krav til besteforeldre - litt som utpressing av helgevakt for barna eller ser de ikke dem igjen.

Bo på rett sted. Hvis du har en storby yrke då må du virkelig bo i en av de, og velg den som er nærmest besteforeldre eller bo nærmere Gardemoen enn Olso S å si det sånn. Sosiallivet i Norge foregår mye i krets. Noen er så enkelt som pubquiz som er kanskje lett å bryte seg inn på, andre er sånn først lag Bærum håndball og Idrettslag 1992 old-boys og 'don't even go there'. Jobben kan ha en god sosialside og det kan være viktig å være med for å binde man inn. Men det er lurt å snakke engelsk i slike omstendigheter og unngå å være senter for oppmerksomhet. Kanskje stille opp litt seint etter alkohol har løsnet humoret og tungene litt.

Husk at det er veldig likt egentlig å flytte til en mindre sosiale landsdel eller by, eller sånn suburb-uten-pub i hjemmelandet ditt. Der finne man ofte at ting går i krets og at det er vanskelig å få fotfeste.  Men ikke prøv så hardt i det hele tatt! Du trenger et skohorn - enn kompis som kan bringe deg inni kretsen og være der for deg. Bruk først og fremst kretsen du har rundt deg fra før, venner og familier for å skohorne deg selv videre. Idrettslag kan være litt vanskelig. Hvis du er kjempe flink så er du en utenlandsk besserwisser. Hvis du er litt dårlig, så er du en ivrig dust som skulle ha blitt kompetent i sporten som barn - pøh! Veldig lite i Norge har voksen nybegynnere klasse- joda hvis du er dame eller flyktning kan det være slikt. Men håndball for 32 år mannlige nybegynnere finnes desidert ikke. Skitur er nasjonal sport og 'mosjonist' hobby, og i det skal du være dust min venn. Men morsomt blir det for slekt og venner gjengen å le av deg og snakk om hvor dårlig du var første gang på ski....og gidder de ikke invitere deg til langtur til hytte på ski.

Etterski er ikke noe for langrenn, kjapt parkeringsplass prat for å unnskylde sin smørejobb og viruset barna tok med seg hjem fra barnaskole har ødelagt sjansen å nå merke i årets Birkebeiner. Hvis du er flink på slalom du får du se bak teppe på hvordan gode voksende mannfolk oppfører seg på veldig dårlig viss så snart de er sluppet av kone-bånden og er på Hemsedal som guttergjeng. Og et jernteppe er det slikt det er - med forventninger til erdru og ordentlig atferd hjemme og hos familie. Aldri drikke for mye. Blir til stedet for barna og viser at du kan springe ut til soverommet deres raskere enn mamma kan legge sitt halv glass rødvin på bordet. Tåler alt av småprat om hvem og hvem og når og hva. Det er mye å tåle i noen norske familier. En utholdenhets prøve for både ørene og hjernens øvre deler.

Du må ta et valg mener jeg mellom å være den perfekte faren som bøye seg veldig og virkelig prøve å balansere jobb, barna og oppmerksomhet for dame foran egentlig noe som er veldig spennende, avslappende eller gøy  i livet, eller stå fast på at du er ikke norsk. Du vil på byen en gang i uken med guttene. Du skal på golftur to ganger i året. Overtid på jobb føre til mer penger i framtiden. Tør jeg å si det på en eller annen måte:  du forvente at damen utføre mer av barnas oppdragelse og husarbeid enn du...en radikal påstand. Nesten terroristisk. .......men bare våger å si det dersom det er deg som har en vesentlig bedre jobb en kona som kan betale for ja, Gran Canaria, BM'er enn serie til henne.

Meg? Jeg....jeg prøvde noe midt i mellom og har vel bommet nesten fullstendig og det er bare et mirakel at vi er sammen og at jeg ikke har flyttet tilbake. Limet i dette komplisert konstruksjon er selvsagt barna. Vi bor i en liten by og jeg huske veldig godt nå hvorfor jeg flyttet ut fra en landsby når jeg var knapt moden nok. Folk var smålig der og tett som tyver  - som vi sier, vet ikke om det er et ordtak i Norge - de holde seg til seg selv. Store og mindre snobber og omvendt snobber. Morsomt nok både her og i hjemmelandet mitt er det slikt at 'innvandrere' både "innlandske" og utenlandske er snart i mindretall - men de innfødte holde seg fast til noen viktige krets og stillinger i samfunnet og er mistenkelig og ikke veldig imøtekommende. Det er litt lett å bli 'uglesett' uten at du har gjort noe i mot slike folk. De liker sine og er sakte å la nye folk få fotfeste. Man må måle slike i henhold til hjemmelandet ditt - det er viktig- fordi det samme krefter er til stedet. Folk som kanskje reiste litt ut i verden, likte det dårlig og ville tilbake til sine små kretser og lukker seg inn mot det store utenfor landbyens grenser.

Desto større byen er, desto større snobber er og i Norge å være snobb betyr også å være innvandrere skeptisk. Noen er lett å unngå, noen i jobb, tomteierskap eller familien er helt umulig å unngå. Noen er så pass snobbete til å fullstendig undervurdere et 'blandings familie' og kan være ganske slemme og sleipe når det gjelder penger, rettigheter og å være inkluderende. Andre snobber bare har det som et form for forsvars mekanism og det kan brytes ned når du selv er hyggelig, morsomt, imøtekommende og hjelpsom. Verstinger er kanskje de som skjuler at de er snobb og er litt nysjerrig for å få da deg i en liten boks med lapp på  ' mindreverd'.

Men store byer betyr også større muligheter for et bredt sosiale krets. Arbeidsplassen er gjerne litt yngre, ofte større og mest sannsynlig mer dynamisk enn ut på landet. Folk på jobb er mer åpen og venner av venner er litt lettere å komme inn på, og det kan gå mye fortere dersom man finne felles interesser med de to gruppene, at plutselig man har en bra sosiale og sports kalender. Jeg trives best sosialt i mellomstor byer som Kristiansand eller kanskje Tønnsberg, men trivdes bedre i Oslo og Bergen enn jeg gjør nå ut i teitelandsby. Folk er bare veldig uvant og har småkrets vaner her på landsby, men i motsetningen til mitt sosial mistrivsel og slit med jobb og ukependling osv, barna trives veldig. Så er vi tilbake til hvor familien står i det norske livet. Og det er et helt riktig sted for dem å være egentlig!!

Small Town Blues ....Take II....

Some days you just get the feeling that you are not wanted, that you are uninvited to the party, that you don't quite fit in,  that you are all-in-all surplus to the requirements of a small town.

I can't blame Norway for this. I come from a village where if people can squeeze you out by some form of cliqueness, snobbery or plain stand-offishness and social anxiety, they will. Not for them the big town with the pressure to meet new people and make new relations all the time. The mirror image of this in fact, that meeting new people is something to be avoided, that we have more than enough with our family and our cliques. We who saw the big wide world, didn't like the effort we had to make, and scurried back to small town certainties and pettiness.

For years we have seen the slightly mad, eccentricly dressed 60 something woman wander round the shops in town, trying to make conversation. Her only crimes are that one she maybe a little simple, learning difficulties we might go so far to say in a PC manner but more so that she talks a lot. She does so with just about anyone who returns her greeting,  with a slightly heavy tone of expectation that her topics of conversation inspire dialogue and engagement. Some shop assistents are out right rude to her, ignoring her completely as a pest. She used to be maybe associated to a couple of other folk in the town centre, but now we only ever see her alone or with her shy-and-retiring husband who is also a little 'differently able'. I think me and my other half are both starting to feel a little like this woman if truth be told.

Also not that you can always blame small towns either. Living in some residential areas of cities can be equal in terms of social exclusion. Usually then it is economic snobbery and pressure for time. In small towns though, people are on average not so well off here, and often the quite wealthy are down to earth or even definitively egalitarian. Life has a slower pace. Less travel, less overtime, quicker home. Often even on fine spring evenings, well trodden paths and pavements are bereft for other human life. Rather people hide away inside or on their balcony's or out in their wee boats and huddle together as families or small groups of long established friends.

As parents we have a dilema. If we were single people or a forlorn, barren middle aged couple, then there is probably no way in hell we would still be here or have moved in the first place. On the other hand in that free-and-easy capacity we may have come easier in to some social 'krets' ( social circles) by shere prescence of a laid back form. Parenting and dog ownership are often cited as the two best ways to meet new people in towns or villages in particular- we are kind of a large village, small town size in fact often with a village feel until gatherings like 17th of May when you get a feeling for the bulk of people hiding away in those appartment blocks and bungalowed hillsides. However parenting at least carries with it also the risk of social exclusion in many forms.

The first trip wire for parenting as a route to a social life, is letting the wrong person know too much about you and your situations. Gossip and pigeon holing are rife, and it seems very much more important to the small towner than the casually disinterested or slightly snobby 'vestkant' Oslo type. there is an almost tangable lust to exclude, to find reason to not be inviting and thus there is a nasty curiosity which poses as the outreached hand of friendship. Social class, nationality, regionality, all play a role as does personality - are you slow, a bit dull, nice and generally one of those rather tedious types who seem to be able to have a two way, non threatening babble about kids clothes, sleeping times, food, holidays, flu and other ills then you at least stand more of a chance than folk like us.

We like to challenge authority, ask why mediocrity and outright bad service persist, and demand maybe a little more than we are allowed to generally in terms of being sociable. We're a bit intellectual, a bit hyper or intense for sure. We come from from another dimension, another wave length and after 8 years we are having one last fling at trying to meet somewhere half way or even make the effort to tune in once in a while, fully to that slow sinusoidal social signal that permeates the town so insipidly. So we as parents, meeting other parents are our own worst enemy, or rather the reverse, they see us as the enemy.

Secondly with kids in the picture is the old problem of what wavelength the kids are on with each other and who developes as playmates. This goes as far as having to move kindergarten. Usually there is some minor violence involved when a kid gets excluded, or bullying. Sometimes though it is just as above, the other parents get to know enough to satisfy their threshold to socially exclude you from being in the friends set with them based on a by proxy estimation of what people you really are via the type of child and thus uprbinging you give them.

Lastly there is the trap again of established circles and the time people feel they have with the new. This extends to kids because some relationships predated childbirth and kindergarten while others could be solidified there and then because of 'oh good, another small towner with a known, safe, local history we can relate to'.

Incomers all complain about this unless they are the sharp elbowed, pusher inner types who seek out the upper social echelons in business, politics and culture. An exception is sport, where smarty fitty pants from outside the area is a little set to one side and more or less ostricised for being a bit too good and self-good as they call big headed here.

Perhaps we made the "mistake" of not moving small enough? Two of the outlying villages in the council area apparently are much more socially inclusive than home town. People who grew up there also complain about the tightness of the town folk when they began at high school over the fjord. Living in the South here, people from outside often comment that folk 'don't take you in' and that is true but only really if you have no real reason to come in on them in general, people are yes ok a littel reserved like Aberdonians but not up their own arses like Fifer's. Once you make a good friend, then y ou have a better friend really than from your home land or town, because Norwegian generosity to friends is second to none. it is like the arabic brother or sister. Mi casa su casa. It is quite embarressing sometimes, because we have little often to give in return being quite (or just relatively) poor and living in a small house with no cabin or boat in the family fortune.

To us then the town's social exclusion is both a puzzle and seems a sickness, like a slow growing sosiopathic cancer that has always been there, it just persists in a kind on malignancy that stamps out new growth in terms of friends circles. Even an icelandic circle there is here, fell apart because the longer established icelanders belonged to a couple of 'closed circles' and just gave up on the new social circle that was evolving.

However the cure is rather blindingly obvious. You get to play ball with all the other outsiders who weren't picked for the first 11. Then you find out that small towns out on the coast attract not only the home birds back to roost, but also the slightly unhinged, the eccentric and the rather socially inept types - some have married into the area, and after the usual 10 - 18 year period divorce as if obeying the national statistical trend.

We are both however, giving it all one last chance, one last big effort this year before we perhaps just look elsewhere and let job opportunities steal us away to a larger town or city even. This time we can be a litttle more careful, a little less expectant that the rules of engagement for friendship here abide any normal sense of them. And we have a more relaxed attitude, sort of take-it-or-leave it unlike the keeness we had maybe 8 years ago when we moved here. The resolution for both of us will be new, permanent jobs and hard cash, but that is really only an excuse for getting the hell our of a place dogged with social malaise.

1.Mai....ikke relevant som offentlig fridag i Norge lengre?

Et hyggelig 1 Mai tog med Per Kristian, Pål. Torgeir og Knut Henning og min første i Norge. Det er ganske få som stiller opp i toget, men mange som får gleden av å ha en fridag om våren- når det ellers faller på en ukedag. Det er mange som klager om hvor mye skatte og bomavgifter man betaler i Norge, men tydeligvis få som husker at man har det høyeste levestandard i nesten hele verden. Det virker som det er få som også husker at vi har rett til fem ukers ferie, en helsetjenester mange vanlige arbeidere i USA bare drømmer om, fastansettelse etter en rimelig prøveperiode, trygghet på arbeidsplassen og begrenset arbeidstimer.

I disse dagene med fremgang av de borgerlige mye av dette er tatt for gitt, og privatisering og skattekutt er presenterte som et alternative for bedre levevilkår for snitt arbeidere i framtiden. I dag huske vi i alle fall at det var arbeiderbevegelsen som kjempet for rettigheter i tider når man hadde ikke råd til legen for å pleie syke barn, når man hadde ikke offentlig sykehjem for oss når vi blir svak i senere livet, at de ikke var et rimelig tilbud for barnehage og at utdanning for folk fleste avsluttet i alders 14 - 15.

Vi husker, og vi advarer mot den "Grå-Blå" fremmarsj mot lavere lønn og dårligere vilkår for servicearbeidere, mot en skift til "effektiv" velferds profittering med ansatte på  midlertidige kontrakter, innkjøp av private tjenester i stedet for faglig forvaltning i kommunene, mot lavere skatt men høyere utgifter i privatiserte service som jernbanen, fra-skriving av rett til overtid og tillegg. Vi står sammen på arbeiders dag og vi husker de gevinstene som mange nå tar for gitt.

Bedre enn Pakke Lasagne

Nordmenn liker noen ferdig blandet krydder retter veldig godt - taco kit pa fredag , meksikansk gryte med ris i, j'ger gryte og sist i min liste men ikke minst lasagne. I motsetning til slike pulver baserte rett og sauser at vi faar i Storbrittania  er disse ikke saa verst nar det gjelder innhold. Salt og diverse darlige smatt ligger langt ned pa innholdslisten og det er mangle pa baade MSG og Palmeolje i Toro sine produkter i allefall. De heller torke ut i svaere trommler med bruk av billig hydrostroem, og begynne med naturlige ingredienser som tomat i lasagneen.

Pakke lasagne var litt annerledes for meg og jeg ikke likte det forst gang jeg smakte paa det. Det er et barnevennlig rett uten skilling mellom et lag hvit og et lag rodt saus- det er en blandet tomat, melk og ost- saus. Sjapt skulle det vaere og et trygg valg of foreldrer som da kjope seg 30 minutter til lekser eller Zumba. Men saken er at det ikke er sa veldig hurtig a lage egentlig. Man ma steke kjoetdeigen, varme ovnen og bruke kanskje 45 minutter for det kan spises. Likedan da a lage fra buns og bruk en snarvei til deilig heimelaga versjonen.

Inngredienser / 4-5 porsjoner

400g kylling-kjottdeig
kvart av en stor rodlok
2 stang seleri (eller bruk en halv rodlok)
en hel stor gulrot
4 hvitloks bater
1 boks tomat
1 ss tomat puree
4 ts maismel
200ml kremflote
400ml vann
200ml melk (400 kan erstatter den mindre sunn flote)
150g Hvitost evt mozarella
2 ts fersk kvernet sort pepper
1 ts chillipulver
2 ts paprika
2 ts rosmarin
1 ts timian
2 ts sukker
3 ts basilikum (helst ferskt eller bruk pesto)

Bruk en rasp for rodloken, hvitloken, seleristang og gulrot - lag sma hauger av hver paa en tallerken.
Dette gaar kjempefort og utloser mye smak fra rodloken som blir litt moset av raspen. Sla pa en stor gryte halv fylt med vann med salt opp i og matolje (best ekstra virgin oliveolje) og sett paa varmen. Slaa paa ovnen 190*C.

Stek kyllingkjottdeiget i oliveolje litt til og tilsett rodlok og hvitlok. Fortsette a steke til kylling begynne a bli brun, og da tilsetter gulroten og stangselereien og slar ned varmen litt. Stek videre til at gulroten blir mykt. Hel over melet og alt av krydder bortsett for basilikum/pesto, og blandt godt inn. Naa tilsetter tomatene, vannet og pureen og sla opp varmen slikt det koker opp litt. Tilsett kremfloten og fortsette a smakoke et par minutter. Tilsett melken og la det varmes gjennom, slar ned varmen la det smakoker  2 minutter til. ta av varmen - sa Tilsett osten og pestoen /ferksbasil og bland inn over en lav varme slikt osten smelter inn

Na komme snarveien. Vann i storgrytteren er kokendes naa og man da koke to til fire lasgne pastaplater opp i om gange, fiskes ut med tanger. Det tar kun to minutter hver runde. Ta et lag med sausen i bunnen av ovnform og dekk med de forste to eller fire plater som er litt myke. Sa et lag til saus mens to /fire plater kokes opp. Slikt bygge man opp tre eller flere lag.

TIl slutt kan man fortynne ssiste bitt av sausen med mer flote og tilsett litt mer ost, en knip muskanott og litt maismel  2 ts blandet godt i vann slikt toppen i allefall likner og smake som en mer vanlig lasagne.

Stek i ovnen i kun 10 minutter, og hvis det ikke er gyllende og litt brun paa toppen, sett paa grillen slikt det ser deilig ut.

Serverer evt med salat eller raa grunnsaker i lange biter.

Norway Beware! The Neo"liberal" Conservative Future is Bleak for Most

Norway remains a thorn in the side of the Neoliberal fascist movement. It wasn't so very long ago in the 1960s in fact that Norway had one of the poorest economic standards of living in Europe, at a level on a par with Portugal. Oil was then of course a huge fortuity. But it was more the perception that this massive wealth could be shared by society and everyone should be able have a better standard of living throughout society that is the vital difference between democratic Norway and the now post democratic UK and USA.

The post war growth in the economy and average standard of living hit the buffers in the 1970s in many western countries, but the UK and the USA as now fading imperial powers. The cure for these nations was presented by the Neoliberal agenda which has now had over 30 years to run its course and deliver economic growth and a revival in average living conditions. Only it hasn't - economic growth from the 1980s to current day has declined and on average, been far lower than the post war Keynsian period. However growth in value for the very wealthiest has increased as probably never before, even in the medieval times of Kings, Popes and warlords.

Norway was an easy win for both social democracy and oil capital. There was a willing workforce, many of whom were seamen or worked with mechanics on farms and huge oil resources relative to the population. Also there was a large degree of social cohesion in terms of race and a rather class-less society with Christian values. People lived in the 1960s in either small communities where they all met at school, church and sports club or they lived in quite small cities where they organised themselves by unions, associations and chambers of commerce and more closed old-boy gentlemans clubs.

Norway is a G20 country while the USA and UK over shadow the country in terms of net wealth and now China eclipses any single economy in terms of growth and probably net value if there ever was a fire sale for an alien world with enough gold to buy it out. What Neoliberalist propganda has acheived in the UK and USA is the perception that liberal, Keynsian economics are inherently wrong and that wealth is best created and distributed by the individual acting by their own working efforts alone.

The end result over the last 30 years of the rampant application of NeoLiberal (I prefer neoconservative as a term) has been a shift of power away from collective bargaining and away from democratic control or investment in the essentials of life towards ownership by inevitably the rich global elite and their massice enterage of 'white russians' - the well paid career fascists in politics, the judiciary and the police,  the 'independent economic institutes' and the stock markets.

As once democratically empowered voters and unions members we are now 'empowered' existential beings in the post collective society. Those who deserve more, work harder get more. Dog eat dog. The reality is somewhat different from the utopian ideal which promised economic growth and a better standard of living via lower taxes and more efficient, privatised essential services. Freeing up so much flow of money and power for the rich elite should have lead to 'trickle down' which rather instead is the biggest lie ever uttered by a politician. Now in the UK and USA there are increasingly expensive


Social cohesion is something which is a little intangable, but certainly the modern way of life and economy does more to create social outcasts in terms of two main factors - mental health and migration. Poor mental health provision. Metropolisation in Norway is a large economic factor and with the centralisation of oil corporates and the 'beasts of quango beaurocracy' moving to Oslo in particular, so has the City over taken the county as where most people live and work. Cohesion means some nice nationalist things with a small N - cross country skiing, football, and the general obsession with fitness and achievement via completing distance events.

However more people are becoming politically actuive in a NeoLiberal party, the Fremskritts Parti, or ""progress party". They are being drawn in by the promise of lower taxes delivering higher personal wealth for all, and the use of nationalism and outright racism to exploit the unease that many Norwegians feel about the growth of in particular, Muslim immigration. While the centre of politics want to both limit assylum based immigration now, they also want to promote better integration. FrP have taken a move away from this in policy now by extending the period under which applicants for assylum can expect to wait before a decision is made.

The Left across Europe have also agreed that this massive influx of in particular, unskilled young male muslims is unsustainable, and even Merkel has renaged on her dream of filling the gap in the mysterious decline in the German population with middle eastern faces. However xenophobia is an area the soft right and the Left will not enter while the FrP feel they have free form to promote racist ideology based upon  prejudices about Islam, in particular appealing to our western woman, while using skin colour in their posters to raise hackles and exploit fear, with "the rapist was of foreign origin' along with a white girl being persued by a middle eastern youth.

Like Trump in the USA, they have found that hate and suspicion pays in current day politics, as much as greed does. Post war social democracy created it's own monster - a greedy educated white collar and skilled blue collar new economic middle class on the one head of the beast, while on the other a jealous, highly taxed over class who found commod ground with the other head. Along with the new super global corporations and their lobby structures and legal department muscle, a many headed medusa was formed with the Reagen -Thatcher followers as the vocal choir of trans atlantic reform for the rich to become far more powerful than they ever really had been.

There are of course many criticims which can be laid at the door of Liberalist and Socialist ideologies. An ever increasing tax burden on all of society linked to the need to always be paying unionised workers in line with inflation with no real incentives or momentum for gains in productivity. Yet thrity years on the UK languishes in productivity because it has largely deindustrialised. Privatised public services can now exert above inflation price rises on consumers based on either local monopolies, such as rail, or subtifuse in marketing power and water utilities. Also these utilities must have large beauroracies in croporate accounting compliance for the LSE, and as mentioned, large marketing budgets in order to maintain an acceptable churn rate in what is a soft war of attrition.

What lies in store for Norway with the inevitable extention of NeoLiberal economics via a shift to the right with FrP steering much of the current and probably next government?  Better, toll free roads? More money in your pocket from lower taxes? Peace of mind from efficient privatised public services? The release of wealth from where there was once communist style stagnation?

Unlike Norway, the UK and USA are at the bitter end of 30 years of neoliberalism and proto nationalism. Public spending as a proportion of GDP is not low because the countries have lagre defence budgets to maintain their international power, as demonstrated in the 'oil grab' war against the bogey man of Sadam Hussein, with the result being the rise of IS/ISIS/ISIL. Also they have large welfare bills in keeping the lid on social unrest from the growing underclass and as revealed in the last few years, subsidising the 'procariat' with their part time temporary jobs in retail and privatised services. Even the UK chancellor is doing something dramatically social democratic to address this faslehood, by rasiing the mimiunm wage.  Average wages have been slow to grow in the post eighties malaise and have been in relation to inflation stagnant since the financial collapse of 2008. Yet average house prices have gone on now to be more than 12 times average income. There is then no coincidence that the average first time buyer is 37 years old, and rising due to this disconnect.

The UK economy has moved quite quikcly away from being an economy based on investment and return in prodcution as main value creation, with high economic growth relative to the last 20 years low single figures, to a "service" economy where capital invests more in fact in property and essential public utilities.THe economy has moved away from manufacturing to being an owned-to-rent where capital now makes most return on investment from exerting ever more rent rather than 'earned income' from production. Property is an esculator which is linked to three factors - growth in population, growth in wages and metropolisation of jobs. Growth in any one of these areas would be enough to make for an above bank interest ROI, but all three in combination can accumulated to make for double figure ROI per annum, which is just not available via investing in the risky industrial productioin economy, no matter how high tech it is. However this own-to-rent capitalist economy includes not only that rented property you lived in until you were in your mid thirties, but also those high electricity and gas bills, and that expensive commute and that declining privatised service you pay more for less for such as the post office/Royal Mail.

Norway can expect that average wages will decline under neoliberal rule, while take home money may increase by tax cuts, these for the average worker will soon be eaten up by higher costs of housing. Why? Because tax cuts will give the wealthiest the most money back and they will invest in property, as for the reason explained above- it is percieved as the 'safest' ROI and has become so historically.

Norway can also expect that privatised public services whill either cost more, as in the railways or 'own proportion' in health, or deliver less, such as road repairs being less effective. The need to show a large gross margin, eventualk profit and then the accountancy and marketing beaurocracies lead to a concentration of suppliers who reach price parity.

The Right in norway have been promoting a more "flexible " legislature on work contracts. The3y want to move away from permanecny because it has a percieved risk and cost for especially  small businesses, many of whose owner-managers are politically active in the Right. Befo0re the oil price crash, their propaganda used the approach of getting the quite large number of high-school-drop-outs into work by allowing them to work a contract of a whole year without any permancy, instead of today where often employers like McDonald'd franchises dispatch trainees at the 6 month stage to avoid 'on costs' of permancy, such as pension payments.

The new Right in Norway  went fishing for a problem to cure with job insecurity for the majority, when the economy was still growing more than the UK or US in % terms and unemployment was low. Now with rising unemployment they can find an excuse to introduce this and render the Norwegian model redundnatnt thus locking more people into renting and feeding the captial property economy for longer time before they eventually find or negotiate permancy, or if banks in future will be more flexible on loaning to people without secure contracts.

This has been the greatest lie of the Neoliberals for 30 years + - that job insecurity is a flexibility which creates more jobs, wealth and well being. Neoliberal countries also have far higher rates of unemployment and especially "underemployment" than liberal scandinavia and social democrat Germany. To some extent permancy in Norway is merely a perception, but it is also an important part of working culture and probably in fact works to promote moderation in wage demands. Employees are loyal to employers and not job shopping relative to their US compatriots. Consumer confidence is kept high by the perception in the lending supply chain that there is a degree of protection.

Neoliberalism has just failed to make life better for the eaverag worker and indeed made life a lot worse in many ways for some poorer workers. The aervage income  person works in IT/internet, finance admin' or Supply Chain now and is expected to work overtime with no additional salary yet also has no real job security and can be repossessed and out in the street within a few weeks of being fired.  A recent wide reaching financial investigation revealed that over 100 million Americans have no more than 1000 dollars in savings money.

. Now in fact it is its' dieing throws and much like Hitler in the bunker, is demanding more of its followers and exploiting more of its populace in attempt to prove itself right and the natural order of things. Also like Hitler, in an well trodden road to popular scapegoatism,  it has turned to blaming ethnic peoples in society for the ills of the average white western worker, thus the rise of Trump in the USA-.

Unfortunetly there is the unavoidable fact that progress in soceity is inevitably linked to taxation and national investment, be that by kings and churches or by governments and local authorities of today. It has had thirty years to work and has failed the average and most proliferate of workers, while it has marhginalised the old, the infirm and the metnally ill. It has rewarded the top third of society and created many mechanisms of meta-democracy where by the rich can evade taxes and coproatrions can evade environmental and social repsonsibility.

Like Communism and most other extreme idologies which concentrate power in the hands of an unelected few, Neoliberalism will eventually be overthrown. It creates too much inequity in society that eventually enough of the population will feel disinfranchised and rebel against it via the ballot box or by more radical non party political action. However before it does this, it will extend its reach to countries like Norway with the same appeal of lower tax and personal responsibility. They will claim that your hard earned money is being sqaundered on the poor and undeserving who do not work as hard as you. They will appeal to the xenophbia inherent in any mono ethnic population.They will use government to communicate propoganda on the effectiveness of privatising public utilities which will then cost the consumer and tax payer more over time, as we see with the UK railways anad health proviswion. In the end they will fail to deliver anything for the average worker here than the  misery of uncertain employment. Norway, will you take that road?

Oppskrift for Deilige Burgerer for Borgerer....

Grillsesong er i gang. I fjor årets siste grillkull eller gas blir brukt opp i de få fine kveldene når terassene er lune i le av østavinden og overrsvømte i sterk April sol. Et år til med nitrate stappa' pølser og ferdig marinerte svinekjøtt? Neida, jeg kutter ut så mye drita mat som mulig. Det bare tar like mye tid for kullene å brenne og blir glødende for at man kan forberede god mat for hele familien.

Favorittene er ferdigkokt kylling bryster som holdes i kjøleskaper t.o.m 3 dager før de slenges på grillen med litt krydder eller marinade, og vips så snart de er litt brune på begge sider er de klar for en saftig spising opplevelse som ikke vil skuffe. Kongereker på spydde med grønsaker biter også, jeg tiner i lunken vann egentlig som er strengt forbudt i prof'kjøkken men funker bra for meg for alt av sjømat.

Men heimelaga biffburger er noe helt tops for alle i familien og de er veldig lett og sjapp å forberede. Jeg anbefale å lage dem opp rå kvelden før men denne oppskriften funker 99% likedan med dem ferdige 5-10 minutter før grilling. Størrelse av demnog utforming er etter personlig valg - jeg anbefaler dem enten som "quarter pounders" (150g hver cirka) , små "sliders" eller tynneree Mcdo's/BK stil "patties" avhengig av hvilken type halvstekt eller frosne heimelaget rundstykker du har- dvs tilpasset størrelse og ønsker. Ferdige Burger brød er noe hersk i Norge - polarbrød er et godt alternativ for barna som tåler litt søt.

Ingredienser  -

(5-6 personer blir gode og mette!)

2x 400g Karbonadedeig 
En halv rødløk eller vanlig
To båter Hvitløk
Et egg
To dessert skje potetmel

Krydder - la oss være ærlig og ikke matsnobber-bruk:
2 t.s. Aromat Krydder
2 t.s. Kjøtt og Grill Krydder
1 t.s. rosmarin
1 ts timian
1 ts. Fersk kvernet sort pepper

Opsjoner- 2 - 3 ts chilli pepper i stedet for sort
2 dessert skje smokey-bbq-sauce

Rundstykker - halvstekte etter eget valg- salat osv aug'

Helt greit hvis kjøttdeig har varmet opp litt på veien hjem fra butikken eller står ute på kjøkkenbenk i 20 minuter- da blir burgere letter gjennomstekte og smaker bedre. Kalde kjøtt inni er ikke bra.

Sett tørr krydderene i bunnen av en stor bolle. Tilsetter kjøttdeiget.

De nye stjerne-fot-blander stav redskaper er helt tops for å begynne å gni kjøttet ned litt, ellers bruk hendene!

Delvis skrell og så rasp løken med et vanlig rasp slikt det blir nesten en puré. Press hvitøløken og legg til i bollen. Bland inn godt.

Legg oppi melen. Blandt ekstra godt, bruk gjerne hender nå. Så tilsetter egget og fortsetter med grundig blending med hendene.

Nå er det på tiden å sjekke at grillkullene er godt i gang og tennvæske er brent bort ! Jeg bruker en elektrisk dings som likner en svære el'kjæle element. Det funker helt tops særlig med litt vind, for å tenne grillkull. Då blir det uten noe dritt forurensing av ristet fra tennvæske og det ofte går raskere faktisk! Så snart flammene er godt i gang og noe av kullene glør så kan det fjernes - når ilden demper seg og glørne blir litt grå med ask, då er de optimale for grilling.

Sett også runstykker i ovnen nå. Grilling og feks salat laging eller øl drikking går fort fram nå og brødmat skal vi behøve!

For å formere kjøttdeigen til burger velg en kakekutter eller en ovnfast, flat bunnet skål ( "rammekin") som er litt større i diameter enn evt rundstykkene. Lag med plastfilm og driss litt matolje i bunnen, ekstra virg' anbefales. Nå press inn en del av deigen som virker passe stor med en dessert skje eller større serveringskje og press ned og rundt for å formere fine burgerer. Løft ut ved kantene av plast film. Nå kan disse oppbevares på et døgn feks dersom du ville forberede i forkant av en hurtig grilling neste dag. Ellers holde de formen litt bedre.

Med glørne i grillen, ta burgere ut av plasten og legg med olje-siden opp med det første. Stek til godt og brune under, så snu og stekt til de er brune på den nye ned siden og litt saft kommer fra toppen. Då er de gjennomstekt, som jeg mener er beste etter en dose Campylobakter fra en understekt burger i 1995 gav meg mye ettervirkninger. Men om du kverner ferske kjøttdeig sjøl med veldig reneapparat så kan du begynne med dette 'medium rare" osv.

De skal ikke brenne og hvis de blir brune veldig fort, så bør du enten løfter ristet hvis det går annen eller ta dem opp i litt alu'folje. Ta prøv en for å se om de er gjennomstekt og ikke for tørre. Veldig mager kjøttdeig er dårtlig tilegnet burger, men det kan berges i etterkant ved et liten bit smør på toppen av en burger lagt i alu'folje og satt på lav varmen ved grillet.

Rundstykker er feridige , salat biten er klart for tjenesten. Burgerer trenger ikke å hvile , bare serveres etter litt tid for nedkjøling fra ildenes varmen.

Kaldeburger kuttet i to blir godt pålegg i luksusklass hvis det er noe til overs, men då blir du heldig om du får igjen med 4-5 til bords !

Ski Season 2016 - Goals for Next Year

Just reading the results for today's Birkebeiner ski run and fellow Brit Andy Musgrave comes in just behind the leading group to secure a top ten place over the 54 km race.

At the other end of the sport where i am - fun &  firtness - in comparison i managed about 62km all week....all be that in soggy lowland conditions.

My conclusion on this year's season in two parts is that it has been pretty dire, soft conditions. Lacking a foundation layer from early winter is the issue, with big dumps making for soft edges.

In truth i wiuld have been better off dedicating the season to purely skate style, given the broad and harder packed mid lanes - despite classic being the predominant style and of course, the big classic distance races remaining so top, two of three of the local clubs drive the tramlines way too far out on the edges where the machine weight doesn't press enough beyond the towed weight, so the skipoles stab into indeterminate snow.

I prefer classic. It is more varied and i feel more power can be put down. Skating seems both lighter but more challenging on breathing and concentration. Like rising a fixie bike with say a 42-17 lowish ratio- you have to keep it going , side to side, side to side....however i am starting to feel i can use more power from my legs in skating, and my coordinatuion has become much better.

So i would say that given a short winter with 'mild' conditions again, I would stick to skating and avoid frustration with my skintecs. Given early snow and a "blue wax conditions" I would opt to train up for a 40 or even 50 km classic ski run, either one of the official ones or something with friends like the Nordmarka railway trip, or some circular route up on Hardangervidde or in Vinje.

Skating comments and goals 2016 - 2017

1. Concentration practice.

I find the metronomic motion a little irritating especially when my skis seem to fight a natural rhythm by having variable glide. I am getting much more of a feel for this though, as well as applying more power outwards from my driving foot.

2. Sidedness

I have as most skiers do, a right side dominance in terms of driving off, and have developed correspondijngly, better feel foe glide duration on my left.

I am going to fix this by
a) more double dancing, which forces even sided co centration of effort
b) circling practice - as per keith nichol's youtube nano lesson on this
c) no poles with concentration on left side glide to drive from the ball of the foot and extended glide on the right.

3. Warm Up and Breathing

I need to crack how to warm up comfortably on skate skis, and then also on effective breathing under way.

4. Duration

I want to extend the duration time wise by just getting used to keeping on going at a lighter pace for much further, aiming to do 10 km non stop - we have a training route here which is undulating yet not steep on the main section auch that you can always leg skate or parallel double pole, thus never getting a tucked downhill breather in softer conditons. I want to aim to do 30km on skate skis.

5. Speed

Speed means technique, power and interval training.

6. Roller skis- Roller Blades ?
More on this below

Classic 'kick' Skiing Comments and goals

1. Follow through to glide ski weight down

This is the critical thing and I think i have over exaggerated it , actually with the net reault that a relaxed run in diagonal kicking goes much bettr now end of season even on my ancient gravel and slush planks. It should be quite a fluent move with the weigjht not coming down unil infront of the other side's shoe - with a slight swing of the hip forward-  however not to overcook this as I have done recently. The mid ski will touch the snow around boot level time, but weight is not on it until a little further forward.

2. Duration and fitness

Stamina can be worked on. I think my speed is fine and can just grow with my fitness and ability. But stamina needs to be worked on. This means longer runs at the weekend and some medium hard one hour sessions ayt night after job.

First this needs to be time oriented - in combination with number of rounds. Then distance can be a goal in a given time to hold the tempo up.

Both Styles

1. Downhill skills and confidence

I am still bailing out too often and need to learn more yet also just go back to what works for me- a wide, grand slalom stance out of the tramlines.

Christy stops and general agility , being able to plough from varuioius stances to save the day.

2. Dry season training.

I always have november and now decemebr stuck between bike ( salt on roads and icey side roads and forrest tracks) and skis. I got a frozen should building up to elg hoofing early winter so have to look at this. I need to run in the woods and build this
Up pre season while avoiding injury.

Roller blades or skis are a real option to explore now. Baby steps first.

≠========

This year I am beating all the pensioners round the usual courses in classic and catcing them up on skate skis. The next step is to train maybe with better guys to challenge myself, or even get instructon. I feel my fitness is never good enough until about 8 weeks into the season, which means these years, peak at the end without stretching it much further on.  So i need some more intense sessions in Nov December and a reasonable consistent bike training theoiugn the aummer months.

I also need a new traoinijng buddy who is more serioius than either of my current pals

===>
Ready for the new too.

The next thing of course, next year, or maybe even later this year, is getting my fjellski out and buying boots for them. There after? Hytte tur and maybe randonne skis. And back to snowboarding?

Snow Business Closes for The Season

The ironic coincidence is not lost on me that today i took my final training run on waxless, c 1979 jumble-sale skis while the mini birkebeiner today was won with a goodly margin by Skinstad on Salomon skin skis....apt name too!

The weather forecssters got it wrong - today it should have become steadily more cloudy and then colder, but the sun burnt away the light cloud and the wind which came was quite mild and dry. This all happened as i parked up on a roadside pile of snow, hoping i would be able to drive out later as the sun began to beat down!

I decided two rounds at around 13.2 km total would suffice, and opted for skating style on my ancient jumble sale skis. They are Trak  "winner" model with a fish scale pattern which must be a full meter of the ski - but the scales are shallower in the leading 20 cm. The whole effect seems to be as good if not better than modern , shorter "3D" machined angular textured grip zones, and i reckon they glide much better while not losing anything much in adhesion against them.

In any case they glide damn well enough for skating progress without any cursing about noise and jittering. They are about 50mm wide with very little side cut (in swing) and about 205 cm long with quite a soft, long camber. Ok my Madshus Ultrasonic are miles faster, but I am not going to hit gravel on them, especially when grinding down a deep track in the softest snow. The 50mm wide skis float better on the slush, while being less jittery on the ice.

"Awefully variable conditions today" said the guy who often drives the piste machine. He is a pensioner with immense stamina, but today cracked him- he had fastmed himself to a pair of Atomic Skintec's in a narrower verson it looked like than mine. Fairly useless on the icey sections which followed the shaded parts of the forrest road like a hand in glove of course. The route was about 60% hard- like concrete, while the sunnier slopes were more  like the freshly poured consistency of cement.

Skating gave me an really good work out and also i was able to practice my two weak points - timing/weight transfer and breathing. Glide was very variable as was edge adhesion, but I was able to get enough feel of it and also keep to a rhythm, modifying it slightly for good glide strokes or 'braking' type ones. Also going over to double dance and paddling with a change in tempo and style as required.

I practiced a bit without poles and also was conscious to use them a little less so as to feel the effect of the three body movements- extending the bent leg out, pushing up and risong off it and then transfering weight to the new ski. The skis had a lot of 'float' on the softer stuff, but little edge on the ice- it meant exagerrating the edging in paddling up shadowy hills. The slush sucked power out, but it was quite rewarding to get up some of the hills quicker than in diagonal kicking. The ice defeated me some times, while other attempts suceeded in really quick ascents. I tried diagonal a few times in the slush and the skis did a good job!

I elected to go a third round, bringing the tour up to just under 20 klicks. This round sucked me of stregnth but I was determined to keep up skating as much as possible and avoid any breaks or reversion to classic. The snow was melting now, and in some of my deeper cuts on the sunnier slopes it had turned it's own gangrenous grey - crystals dissolving. The icier parts had a glaze of water on top with the mild wind now blowing. After some paddling hills, I went over to baby steps double dance just to keep going as the sweat ran into my eyes.

I drank the rest of my water and felt the delicious cooling of the stronger breeze which filled in as I turned back on myself to complete the last homeward leg. About half way back i lost interest in rhytmic dancing, did 100m diagonal  and decided to take some scenic photos. The route has a 600m mostly uphill start, usually including a fair bit of fiah boning so this is to be avoided on the repeat circuits when it gets icey. My piste machine compatriot had chosen discression as the better part of valour and walked down it. I decided as this was likely the last trainin tour of the season, to ski down it, and took plough and half plough to negotiate the steep hill with bend at the foot, as my own better part of valour.

The run back down to the main road was fast after this and i needed a good anchor plough to brake up in the icey 'kick off' zone at the very end where folk trample about with skis on. Skis off i jogged back to the car. 70km last week, just under 60 this week. A seaon I can put behind me with some degree of satisfaction on both fitness and technique in both styles.

Loppemarkedski Challenge

Kuldegrader overnatt skapet nye forventninger .....kanskje det blir fortsatt kystnær skispor ?

Jada. Det var bare et sted hvor solen hadde spist ned til grus og det var kun spor på en side. Ellers var der en spnn yin og yang dag, is i skygge og nesten slapps der solen nådde godt.

Og skiene....de var jammen bra !

Ta deg denne utfordringen - en tur til Smestad Skoles loppemarked eller et som helst kirke sin, eller fretex og skaff deg et par "gidder ikkje smøre....bryr meg ikkje om de blir rivet i stikker" ski. Kanskje støvler og, men ellers sjekk at bindingen fra 1979 passer dine nåværende.

Hvor er utfordringen vel i å skli rundt på et par treski med billig fiskeskinn plastsåle og myk spenn ?  

Det ligger inn å få deg ut i møkka före uten at man skylder på klister og glider jobben..... Å få det mest ut av gamle ski når man må føler på nytt hvordan teknikken din teller mer en utstyret.

At myk spenn gir trå ski er ikke helt sant for vanlige skigåere. Alt er i forhold til alt annet- topp utøvere nå kan stake sin vei 7 mil og opp en helvetes bakke til slutt i Marcialonga' n. Men de er under 70 kg og trener 8 timer om dagen. "Klister ski" for amatør skirenn utøvere er blitt en must, med hardt spenn som holder klisterlomme ovenfor baken før det må godt trykkes ned. Høyde i festesonen gir best fart er mantraet.

Men det er mye å si for nokså myke ski for en vanlig mosjonist. En god klister eller vox smøring skal være tynt og tåler litt juling. Tåler egentlig hoftene og knærene dine så mye press for å få fraspark over 4, 5,6,7 mil skirenn? Ikke å tale om hundrevis mil trening i løypet av et par store sesonger. Ski som man blir mer sliten å gå på og som påføre mer slitage på ledd er ikke ne bra idee for amatører.

Lengden i smøresonen hjelpe med balansen mellom ski som gir feste og ski som glir bedre. Mykere ski skal ha en kortere festesone og man kan eksperimentere med et par lag på 'toppen av pyramiden' av mykere vox eller klister når föret er fast. En del av festesonen foran og under bindingen skal reise ovenfor bakken selv om på 'myke' ski i utforkjøring altså dette skal bety at "lommen" midt under foten glir når vekt er bært på et ski i diagonalgang.

Jeg mener at en foeholdsvis myk ski kan prestere selv om på harde, klister före dersom man vil gjerne benytte mye diagonalgang og dobbeltak-med-fraspark. Her må man finne ut hvor lang smøresonen kan være og hvilken klister funker og om man skal ha mykere klister midt under foten. Viktig er det at man får en progressive kontakt under fraspark og får føle hvor my tak man har i bakken før man gir maks krefter. Viktig også at 'retur' foten svinger lett fram på en lav vinkel og tar også en progressive påføring av vekt. Vi snakker om brødeler av sekunder her men en hardere ski gir jo bedre glid men man får et brått fraspark. Dermed må man kanskje ha lengste mulig klistersone for å gi feste når skien presses hardt og brått ned. Så tar det også noen millisekunder lengre for vekten på den nye glidende skien å gi et stabilt kontakt med bakken.

For topp utøvere kanksje blir myke ski for mye av en kompromis. Men for amatører som vil gå lengre skirenn mer enn 4 mil og i Norge det betyr alltid vesentlig stigning og varierte snøforhold, er mykere ski noe å vurdere. Særlig når före skal inkludere noe myke strekninger i høyde eller på andre side av fjellet der mest nedbør fremkommer. Med nysnø fallende eller drivende over gamle spor så blir smøringen en større utfordring enn spenn i skiene.

Nå kommer vi tilbake til gamle, smørefrie møkka ski for trening ved slutt av sesongen i slappsete og isete drita-spor. Man finner fort ut at teknikken gir veldig mye med hensyn til hvor mye krefter vi kan legge i frasparket og hvor langt fram den nye skien kan vippes før det glir. Feil fører til grovere straff og fremgang viser seg betydelig.

De bråker som faen på de isete staking strekningene og utforkjøringene. Litt bredere var disse type skiene fra 70 og 80 tallet, slikt de tåler myk underlag med bedre oppdrift enn smale trenings-racings-ski og de har en større overflatelse med mønstre på som kommer i kontakt med bakken. Så kan man også skøyte på mykere underlag som er gøy- mønstre på sålen og gamle skår i skiene hjelpe med bortføring av vannet og bryting av sug.

I år har de to mest gøyale treningsturene blitt på disse teite skiene. Jeg følte avslappet. De hadde nesten alltid nok feste og var stabile og flytende i det myke strekningene. Selveste padling gikk veldig bra på moderate motbakker. Jeg hadde ikke noe angst for dårlig smørings kunnskap eller å treffe stein med mine nye skintec ski. Det plager meg veldig at disse to solrike treningsøkter - enn siste gang snøen nesten forsvunnet , enn nå i det påskesolen smelter den knall raskt- står som de minste frustrerende og mest tilfredsstillende i sensongen. Men det sier mer om både sesongen med sin mangel på fundament i skisporene, og mine egne innstillinger.

On the Wrong Skis ?

I do feel like I have been conned a little and on the wrong skis for five years now.

I got a pair of light tour skis, which are Fischer Power Wax 2009 model I think. I always thought I would get the benefit of the slightly broader ski with side cut, but in fact they were the wrong skis for me!

When I was working in Kristiansand I soon noticed that the type of keen, fitness skier had most often as good skinny skis as the Birkebein condom kledd ski-geeks. Even folk over 50 and pensioners had narrow, straight racing and training skis. Oh yeah at the weekend you see masses of folk with steel edge 50mm wide telemark/mountain skis, planking along, some pretty quickly. But on a cold wednesday night with the sun setting and the headtorches bobbing around in the tracks, I saw 90% skinny skis.

Now I know of course there is a good reason for this - folk like going in the prepped tracks and the same as a racing bike versus a more sedate town bike, the narrower contact area and the lighter, stiffer ski puts more power and traction down....to a point. In new 'kramm' snow, wet and aired, my old blue skis excel and I reckon they are pretty good downhill out of the tramlines because they float better and steer better with leaning and weight alone than a straight-skinny-ski.

With all the icey conditions around Kristiansand in the cold winters of 2012 and 2013, with thawbacks and also a huge amount of traffic, the rock hard tracks have eaten into my plastic edges on the fischers. I did look into getting a pair of Fischer Steel Lights which are a training ski, skinny, with 3/4 length steel edges (now apparently discontinued but still in stock several of the larger outlets no doubt) but they were always a bit of an investment and anyway I was taken with the idea of Atomic Skintec since their launch about 5 years ago.

The fischers I have and their comparable skis from most other manufacturers around the 50 - 48 mm max width, are probably ideal for semi prepared tracks with a lot of new snow and following tracks which have been trodden by other skiers. They are not broad enough for deeper, soft snow while they are perfectly at home in hard worn tram lines at the other extreme, and like clister. I would say that they are though a compromise and that you would be better with a light pair of tour and fell skis like the BC 45 or the Åsnes Nordmarka which have steel edges but a shortish camber. They may have the same dimensions, but the steel edges mean venturing out into hardened spring snow on the virgin mountainsides is very acheivable.

The reverse then is true of getting "skinny " skis- you limit yourself to nicely groomed tramlines and mid lanes. Ask yourself this though- will you ever really do those longer tours out of the tracks or when there is a risk for lots of new snow? If you live near prepared tracks then skinny skis are lighter and faster, and I would say follow your learning curve better than tour skis because you can really pick up the pace on the skis as you improve.

I have seen some big fellows who make me look rather, ahem, petite, out on 212cm racing skis with all the gear and a big wax case in the boot of their car. However if you intend going a lot with a heavier pack or a 'pulk' (pulled sled) then you really want to look at getting a set of mountain touring skis to support your weight and engender better turning and ploughing.

I found in the firmer conditions that my new 41-40-40 training skis were much easier to keep a pace on with and sprint up hills on. They felt stable in double poling too, and I feel I can work on my weak spot, double pole with single kick, better than with heavier, broader skis. In the cycle world equivalent it is not quite the same as going from say a Hybrid / Town bike down to an 18C racer bike, more like a 32C down to a 23 C continental like I used to run on my handbuilt racer- not too much pressure and enough stability that it all works nicely. Soft, wet snow then is the equivalent of mud, so on those days you are going to dig in and slip with skinny skis, or catch edges in the mid lane downhill as I discovered- they dig in and suck down!

I can't say I was mis-sold the tour skis I got a long time ago now -I got the right pair given the description of what I was looking to do with them, my weight and my ability then.  I just did not really think about what I was going to actually do with them, and opted for a compromise.

Skin-Skis .....Take 3....and it's a wrap !

Finally an overnight freeze and I could try the Atomic Skintecs out for camber tension in double poling conditions, and see how much grip there was in icey tracks.

This week has thrown all that would be unusual for Atomic or any other ski-house, at me. First new, wet snow and rising temperatures then a freeze back. Really conditions the skin was not designed for perhaps, but also conditions which are almost impossible to wax correctly on the 'right' skis. In the soft, the snow was too wet for hard wax yet too soft and granular for clisters. In the hard, it was wet enough in places for a 'red' or 'silver' clister while the harder areas needed blue ice clister. For me a good universal clister job today would have lasted only about 15km, and I racked up about 25km without thinking about more than water breaks.

So we have to seperate out a few things here

1. The Mohair skin
2. The camber tension
3. Conditions
4. Technique and weight of skier.

1. The skin ..... And 2,3,4 also....

Any skin's grip varies with the length & width of it, the snow base its on and any treatments such as glider or anti-icing.

Mohair skins in full legnth will climb anything, but being about 30 - 40 cm under the camber sole on all these new class of skis means that there is quite a finite amount of grip relative to 2,3 and 4 !

In other words to get to the performance of the skin alone, you have to subtract the other factors, including your own skill or style , which means you either need a comparable pair of non skinned or you compare to your 'best ever skis and wax job'.

So my personal opinion and summary on using Atomic Skintec is-

1) the skin's limits are new snow over 1 cm in the tracks; very soft, wet snow; glazed, icey tracks. Here you get bad traction.

2) the skin seems to waterlog in warm conditions, and ball up just a little bit in 'zero' conditions.  Sprays or glide Treatments may help. It both looses traction and glide imho when it gets waterloged

3) camber tension - to race or be really satisfied throughout the season, nyou probably want a softer pair and a pair which are quite hard. Atomic SDS gives an edge here.

In the hard conditions i felt the camber was great for double poling, but i had to press pretty hard on anything icey in diagonal to get ashesion. Downhill i could rock back weight onto my heels to get more speed and lose the little skin-noise there was. Hey, i do this with a clister job or in slower conditions on wax skis.

One odd thing which dawned on me after a few days, like a kind of double take, was how far forward on the ski the skin sits- from a mid ( clister ) forward mark back to only around  the ball of the foot I dare say you could clister back to the heel on the bare ski and get some much needed traction on polished - icey uphills !

So my conclusion - it sucks living near the coast if you want to enjoy an easy life of xc skiing !  The correct length and camber skin ski will give any skier less to worry about in well prepared tracks which are firm but not icey. They bust universal clister, but are not as grippy as red or silver clisters and on pure ice, blue clister.

Atomic Skintec- Meddommeres Kjennelsen.....

LPEndelig var det klar himmel og noen minus grader kunne omgjøre skisporene fra grøt aktig drit til noka "robust" före. Litt for hardt egentlig. Men då fikk jeg teste atomic skintec både i altfor blaute og altfor isete føre i det samme uka.

Kjennelsen er .....bra !  208 utgaven med innlagt felle har en god spenn for meg...stivere ski enn disse med karbon SDS motstand skulle skape vanske med feste trolig. Dette var bekymringen- at spennet var ikke nok pga elendig glid jeg erfarte på myke underlag.

Utforkjøring gikk strålende...joda det kunne forekomme litt virring og hissing fra fellen men det var mindre støy enn med et par vanlige ski smørte bra med klister- då samler man ofte iskrystaller på motbakke som bråker og bremser i utforkjøringen.

Staking var jeg fornøyd med aug. Jeg følte ikke at fellen hindret fremgangen i de harde sporene. Bare min egen teknikk som begrenser optimalt 'bevegonist' fremgang.

Diagonal gang var uforutsiktbar. Feste er alltid litt vanskelig i omdannert, hardt pakka sne. En gubbe med Universal på sålene klaget veldig om det. Jeg hadde mye bedre glid enn ham i dag også. På selveste 'halvbratt' som man kan suser opp når dert er blå vox eller lilla, ble umulig å få feste på. Kun ei lite dame med utrolig bra teknikk fikk en beskjeden fremgang på motbakkene, og hun gav seg etter to runder på det 6km løypet.

Jeg hadde sett flere Skintec brukere seint is sesongen i fjor når det var en del 'zombi' sne som ble omdannet mange ganger med temperatur og maskinfresing. De slet veldige i sporene og klaget om feste på midtbanen. Sånn er det ....de har sine begrensinger og dvs kanksje omtrent det samme som universal klister - når man bør gå over til en mykere klister i det blaute,  eller bruk isklister for tak og utholdbarhet.

Konklusionen er - sesongen er noe dritt med snø som var både fyllt med luft og litt for varmt når det kom på nytt. Ellers med skiene å gjøre, løp og kjøp !  Finn en utgave fra en av de mange produsentene, som nå lager disse pels bunna ski, som har riktig spenn for deg og din teknikk. Får målte dem på spennmaskinen i butikken og sjekk at de er veldig nøye med plassering av bindingen.

Dobbel sjekk spennet er ok ved å stå på paret med  støvlene på og få ansatte til å utføre papirark under smøresone prøve- det skal glid fram til foran fellen og lengre bak fellen. Bruk en tusj for å markere hvor fellen ligger under skiene. Ikke betal for skiene før dette er utførte. Hvis mulig få en retur avtale dersom spennet og feste virke feil mhht dine tidligere gode par smøreski.

Husk at en 40cm med pels ikke kurerer alt som er ondt - løse føre , blaute føre og iaete føre vil ikke være noen særlige bra, men det er ofte heller ikke så bra for smøreski - feks nysnø på beinharde spor eller slike 'svampete' og blaute forhold vi erfarte tidiger i uka.

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Ja vel, nå er det gått 8 mil på mine Atomic Pro Skintec 4000 så lenge. For augeblikka leter jeg etter nye oppdrag eller en stilling og dermed har endelig både tid, skiföre og fine nye planker med pels under.

8 mil på noe av de verste påske-aktig-före jeg har opplevde. Blaute, svampete spor som ble til betong noen dager. En mye bedre idee å øve på skøyteskiene mine. Men å gjøre et kupp med disse interessante lange plaste ting med hårete midtsåle førte til så mue prøving og luring om.....

Jeg må skille ut mange faktorer med hoved lure-punkter er da

1. Er felle litt slit , eller föret så dårlig?
2. Er smalere ski mer vanskelig for meg på myk underlag ?
3. Skal jeg bare lære meg å gjøre bedre klister-jobb og skaff gode vanlig ski?

Jada, isete före er dårlig for klister-jobb også - jeg får kun 15 km ut av et bra belag universal eller litt lengre kanskje fra blå. Man fort glemmer at klister smøring ikke alltid gir bakglatt frie tur.

Myk före - det er alltid frustrerende for meg på krammsnø - jeg er tung og graver ned i det. Nysnø ofte kladder på hardvox og nysnø på hardespor med klister er ille.

De beste dagene har antakelig vært mye bedre feste enn mine gamle, halv-bred turski, og glid er bedre i harde spor uten at man ligger merk til lyd særlig - det er en sikkert tegn på at man trenger en stivere skin-ski.

Jeg bør innrømme at forholdene har vært nesten like krevende som mulig for testing av nokre nye ski som helst!  Jeg har holdt fart med og kom meg vekk fra andre mosjonister jeg gjenkjenner i løypene. Jeg har ikke sett at noen andre tar flere enn to runder på treningsløypet våres, som er da cirka 18 -20 km, mens jeg utførte 4 runder på fredag uten å få særlig skader fra glatt spark som jeg ofte får i slike harde spor som det var.

Skintec har sine grenser og et feil matchet par vil straffe eieren med dårlig glid mer enn et smørbarski ville.

Jeg tror største fordelen blir i skiftende føre når dagen blir enten litt varmere eller kvelden senker flere kuldegrader på bakken. Overgang blå vox til lillac og tilbake vel. Kanskje også grønnvox, gamle føre når det er kaldere enn -10 på en stund.

På andre enden av skala er skin ski klart bedre enn rød vox og dekker en del brukaområser over til universal klister når det er fortsatt litt tak i underlaget og det ikke er isete. Vi får veldig mye skiföre med beinhardt underlag her på kystnær løyper på Sørlandet, og det takle klister litt dårlig og uten et uønsket påfyll etter et par mil.

Nysnø er tydeligvis problematisk for skinski når det er flere minus grader- kanskje noe spray eller vox kan hjelpe til med slikt?

Ideelt da for skirenn uten at det forventes nedbør, og særlig da temperaturen vil variere utover dagen eller med stigning på løypet. Så også ideelt for ferie på hytte da man gidder ikke ta av en rødvox jobb når nestedag skal vise en stupende termometer.

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Oppdatering take-two

Nå er det bare bite litt under 10 mil på Atomic Skintec !

Hva kan jeg si ?  Jada, det har vært en litt av en møkke sesong for å få nye ski av noen type som helst.

En kompis hadde hørt om Drivheia rundt og så kjort vi i to timer dit i dag, varmeste dag i Mars siden 2012. Skikkelig påskeföre var det med slapps i sporene men de hadde blitt litt fastere på veien oppover. Han med en parkeringsplass rød-klister jobb, jeg med rengjort felle og glida' skintec.

Min feste på skogsveiene var minst like god som hans, og glid var mye bedre enn hans fischer trening-tur ski på cirka 48mm brede. Ved stigningen ble det våtere og dermed fikk han litt fordel med feste men gliden ble enda bedre på mine ski, uten at de bråkte.

Föret ble mykere og mykere desto høyre vi steg. Då slet jeg med å trekke ned nok på skiene for å få pressa felle i den blaute snøen. Jeg tipper at et ski med mykere spenn (kalde ski} skulle ha presterte litt bedre.

Noe som stemmer med at disse skiene har mye spenn, var at de var ikke verst i "off piste"'n - De fant et behalgelig dypde i snøen og oppførte seg ikke som fjærn(spreng) . vi fyrte opp en nokså enormt bål 50m fra løypene for litt før-påske hygg mens svetta rant ned fra panna mi. 

Utforkjøringen var total tull med lyng og berg pekende ut mange steder, noen 'litt på kanten' snøbro over bekkene og flere omveier. Underlaget var uforutsiktbart - noe var nokså rakst, andre helt tilfeldig strekninger var 'svampete'. Skiene oppførte seg veldig bra og jeg kunne skøyte litt for å manøvre i det graut aktig dritt.

Det er da 4km med skogsvei hjem og det var blaute og kramm og enda verre drita före , med sporene lagt altfor langt ut på kantene ( luksus skøytebane til bekostning av dem som ville trene staking og diagonalgang før Birken). Stavene forsvant dypt ned eller fant bakken mange ganger. Skiene føltes igjen som de hadde altfor mye spenn.

Jeg tipper at Swix eller Madshus 'skin-wax" skulle ha hjulpet til i dag. Kanskje fellen ble "waterlogged" og det harde press jeg måtte utføre var egentlig for å presse ut vannet før fellen kunne fungere. I allefall, jeg tror ikke min kompis hadde det så mye bedre. Han lå bak meg hele 3 km.

Föret var mykere enn ideelt, men vi Sørlendinger har fått mye luftig og litt blaute påfyll snø de siste tre sesongene i februar-mars, på toppen av lite eller ingen tæle og gamle snø-underlag. Det blir fort til veldig harde løyper også når mildere vestlandavær trekkes inn og deretter flere kuldegrader stiller opp.

Jeg skulle gjerne ha en uke til med kystnær påskeföre men det blir bare noen få dager igjen, og enda mer tull med barmark, berg, bekk og grus som gror ut av våre kortlevde skiløyper. Då skulle jeg prøve skin-wax og kanskje litt rilling av glidersonen for å sjå om ski-prep' gir litt bedre prestasjon.

Dårlig føre for fellen er da fra mine erfaringer veldig harde og det motsatt- veldig myk före, mens andre på internettet påstår at de er dårlige på kald nysnø.

Gode före for disse Atomic skintec 4000 2013 modell skulle være :

- faste blå og selveste arktis grønne före
- overgang blå til lillac og lillac til røde hardvox - særlig med usikkerhet om temperaturen eller stigning underveis.
- faste men ikke isete före når man går fra rød vox til universal klister
- når man har et faste underlag men med tining i sporene ovg går over til røde eller sølv klister. Tipper skinvox hjelper her.
- fattig mans zeroski- tipper dette blir bra ved bruk av skin wax.
- alle harde vox gamle förer når man gidder ikke smøre!

Nå, et par ski med felle og en titanium system for variabelt spenn med en skrue eller lever.....det skulle noe !

Atomic Skintec - Noka Bra eller Ikkje ..?

Jada, nå har mi, meterslukkende bevegonist, fått meg et par Atomic Skintec til en latterlig brukt pris under tusen lapp. 208cm men er de lange og stive nok for en man som har så veldige og fine knoggler som meg, 115 kg på 189cm høyde-over-havet?

Jeg har hatt tre tur på disse skiene nå og er mektig imponerte over feste og glid i diagonal gang....samtidig er jeg forelsket i noka som ingenting har med pels på såle å gjøre- de er helt fantastiske i utforkjøring !

Oppsummeringen - skiene er basert på en nesten proffnivå treningsski i utgangspunkt, med karbon sidevegg støtt som gjør at skien er stiv til og med det gir seg i nedtrykket ved frasparking- step-down-system SDS. Vi har hatt myk underlag i løypene siden snøen kom på nytt for en uke siden, og man merker med en gang at dette er ikke enntilgivende myke par ski. Nei man må konsentrere seg for å få riktig tyngde ned i starten av fraspark slikt fellen engasjerer seg godt med underlaget. I nylig preppa snø på fjellet med 2 plus grader i lufta, og i den kramme snøen nærmere hjemme fikk jeg cirka 10% bakkeglatte fraspark men det reduserte vesentlig når jeg bestemte meg å konsentrere meg om fraspark med beina rett under vekta og så å senke ambisjoner for diagonalgang når det blenlitt bratt.

Skiene gav vel best glid under diagonalgang i flat og lett terreng. Men det var helt elendig under staking, og litt vanskelig å få nok trykk ned i bakken for dobbeltak med fraspark - som er mer med meg enn skiene å gjøre antageligvis. Så snart skiene fikk litt fart under dem i utforkjøring ble de veldige tilfredstillende med bare lite grann lyd fra fellen. En imponerende stabilt og kontrollerbart ski som er lett å få kanten inn på snøen, step-turn, ploger og selveste skøyte på med litt fart.

Fellen er ganske langt fram på sålen i disse pro skintec 4000 som er fra 2013-14 sesongen, den første utgaven med spor og lim løsningen som er enklere enn den med magnestiske utskiftbar felle. . På fjellet var det lite gran ising på fellen og de har vært bløt ned i dalene noe som kanskje gir litt dårlig feste samt glid. Fellennsaitter langt fram i festesonen og når ikke bak mot helen som virker litt rart. G-Sport hadde målte disse 208 skiene på maskinen for tonår siden og for min ubeskjedende vekt var det knapt nok spenn for å holde fellen i luft lommen under glidfasen. Men dette ikke helt stemmer ? - det er lite lyd fra dem, og jeg slet med feste !

Nå har de kommet ut med en ny utgave kun i 208 lengde som er stivere, men hvordan skal jeg få nok feste i myk undelag da vel ?  Jeg synes egentlig at feste er litt daårlig pga de nokså blaute spor og at en liten dose et eller annet flørinerte på fellen skulle fikse mye av dette. Jeg tipper at G-Sport hadde rett, fordi jeg fikk helt elendig gang med staking. Stivere ski med noe magiske kjemi i fellen er veien fram.

I dag var det fullt påskeføre ned i dalene. Kramm snø og mange plus grader i luftet. De drittsekene i løypemaskinen hadd som de pleier å gjøre - dessva' - lagt klassiske spor langt ut på kanten av skogsveien, med et skøytebane man kunne lande en 747 på så bredt var det! Stavene forsvant ofte på utsiden og til og med en apor gjorde det samme som om det skulle skulke og la seg i grøfte for å unngå jobben!  Staking da var elendig uansett skitypen. Dobbeltak med fraspark ble my bedre i dag og en del koknsentrasjon i diagonalgang lønte seg med fraværende bakkeglatte spark. Man kunne jogge opp de bratteste motbakkene i stedet for å ta fiskebein som min kamerat med en lang klister jobb måtte nøye seg med for å få fremgang.

Han er en liten og sprekk bestefar som konkurrete for Minnesota delstat langrennslag i sin ungdom. Under 60 kg veier han !  Han har gode Fischer treningsski og hadde noe sølv klister med rødt pålegg lagt på da vi oomnut av bilen. Han fikk elendig feste til tross for jeg tror en 80cm klisterjobb ! Glid var bare litt bedre enn min i utfor' og var likt ved staking men jeg hadde mye bedre glid i diagonalgang.

Lyden er ikke noe å tenke deg om. Kompisen klaget litt om en politibilsiren bak ham men for meg var det veldig lite å si kontra en klister-preppa-ski som fort samle på seg iskrystaller i slike føre og knirrer litt.

Konklusjonen-slipp klister du bevegonist !  kjøp det et par med riktig spenn for deg og dine omstendigheter..... Dvs din vekt og stil i fraspark, og de type føre du får trente mest ut på.  Skiene etter min oppfatning liker dårlig mykunderlag, og jeg har sett noen folk sliter på isete spor med dem. I kald nynø er de også tydeligvis dårlig - jeg fikk erfart dårlig tak i bakken der som snøen hadde dundrert ned i sporene fra furugreinene. "Clister busters" er de helt klart !  Så er det med varierte forhold  og stigende høyde på skirenn eller dags tur, i faste snøforhold med gode spor man kan slippe å tenke på overgang blå til lilla eller å lure om man skal ta klistertuben underarmen klar til bruk.

Hvis jeg hadde brukte over 3000kr på disse skiene, så skulle jeg ha vært litt skuffet kanskje. Dobbeltak staking var elendig. Men jeg har ikke fått provde  dem på fasteføre ennå ! Jeg sparer inn igjen alt med kjøp av klister utover sesongen som betry at skiene har betalt for seg selv før snøen smelter vekk !

Nå kan man velge ski mellom alle de største produsentene for å finne et par med det beste spenn egenskaper for deg. Så med madshus og Salomon kan man velge en 'nysnø' felle som er en blanding mohår og syntetiskensaker. Atomic nå tilbyr de utskiftbare felle kun i toppmodell, Redline, som har en tilsvarende heftig pris.

Jeg tror at i framtiden over 60% av alle treningsski til over 2000 kr /par blir solgt med pels under sålen og at vi skal se utgaver i billigere ski, tur- og fjell- ski, zeroski og "skirenn' racing ski.

First Skis.....Which To Choose if You Live Near Prepared Tracks

When I first intended to come to Norway and learn to XC ski, I had visions of doing mostly back country touring and building up to ski mountaineering. However these have always been on the back burner since time, jobs and a fascination with the sports technique took over. Also my circle of friends and family are only currently interested in the same as me, getting out for a nice blast up and down the tracks.

So if you are living slap bang in the middle of XC land with plenty of prepared tracks, and you are interested in like me, fun & fitness, then what skis should you get and where?

"Any skis will get you there if you don't know where you're going...."

If you have friends and family who sports-ski then that is an added incentive to buy sporty skis. You should buy the best you can afford, after maybe renting or borrowing at a ski school I would also recommend to go to. But there has to be a compromise between being able to learn on the pair while they take you forward up the learning curve.

I would say most of all though spend good money on a pair and go to a good shop. If you live in like Scandinavia (exc. Denmark and Iceland where it aint a sport really), Canada or Colorado then you will quite likely find that the chain shops actually have trained staff and a tension machine to test your weight against the skis you are interested in. If you live outside the main XC ski centres then it is worth going through your local club or finding a specialist sport XC shop elsewhere.

Tension Mounts Around the Camber Talks........

The tension ("spenn" in Norsk) is the most important factor - a deeper, and stiffer camber will be more dificult to learn on, while too little will not support your weight and the kick wax or waxless patterned area will drag on the snow, which is very slow. Lenght generally relates to spenn but not always. A ski for classic should be about 20cm-25 cm longer than your height in order to have both enough spenn and give directional stability in the tracks relative to the leverage your height will give.

Specialists and club members will also advise you on how to wax your skis, but also on what type of spenn and width of ski you should get for the local tracks, snow types, temperatures and terrain. If you live in an area with a short season predominantly of soft, mild snow (snowman snow!) then you may want to get softer ski but it will need enough camber to hold the clister or waxless area off the snow. In an area with a generally cold winter, where snow tends to fall heavily and then lie a long time, then a harder spenn may suit you such that you get nice fast glide while keeping your wax, clister or pattern off the hard, abrasive base.

Predominant Weather and Type of Snow Count a Lot in Choice

The predominant weather conditions also play a part, especially in the type of glide area pattern you get first put on the ski, which the specialist shops or a helpful club member will sort out for you. Cold snow needs a glide zone which is really polished and a hard wax, or removal of the stone ground factory "average" texture with a Kizmun scraper if you want to avoid glider wax. These preparations allow the sole of the ski in the fore and aft glide zones to break the hard ice and snow flake crystals down to the thin layer of water which renders skis slippy. The kick zone wax can be a simple green wax base followed by layers of for example Swix VF 40 blue, which is an excellent -3 to -10'C new and old snow, enduring do it all wax.

If you have an area typified by swings in temperature to above freezing then you want to consider a waxless ski I would say, because clister is messy and easy to get wrong.  Patterned plastic ski bottoms on the cheap, "Ski & Boot" package deals give the design a bad name. My first ever tour on XC skis was on a pair of Fischer RCS Carbon waxless at Geilo, these are an 800 USD pair of skis, and I had excellent glide, ahem a little too good for my skills, while also good enough grip to get going. These skis were often used by keen amateur sports skiers as a pair for variable conditions on longer ski runs, and are a very high end ski! So textured soles does not mean bad skis, it is just that many of the cheaper skis sold to beginners lack the right camber "spenn". Atomic also for example, have a good range of more touring oriented skis with sports characteristics (BC 45 for example) available both with plane waxable and patterned wax free soles.

Furry Soled, New Fangles Skin Skis

Nowadays of course you have the advent of the furry kick soled ski - the skinski as I think they will be known in English rather than waxless per se. Atomic lead the way, and there being no patent pending on the design, all the major manufacturers have cast themselves into this technology. Madhus and Atomic have perhaps the sportiest versions, while Salomon have both a sporty and a broader tour&training variety. These are mid priced skis, often with carbon fibre structures in them, so they are a good investment! The skin can be taken out btw with a warm air pistol, but best done by a pro perhaps.

Skin-skis are really very, very good for those people who want to max their training or go longer tours in the tracks without worrying about what clister to plank on, or about getting their car seats sticky! They do have their limitations though - firstly in cold new snow on a soft base many say they are as good as useless. Now obviously if they are driving machines to make tramlines or there is enough ski goer traffic then the base gets hard enough for traction at any temperature. Too hard though, ice with water on it late season, and they are not as good as a red or silver special clister, but hey, you can often find coming out of the tracks and going on the middle lane or hardened BC snow will give you grip. Camber is really important here with skin skis - too soft and the skin will drag , too hard and you will not get enough contact when you are beginiing to learn especially.

They are also not wax-free really. You should either glide wax them onto a texture as discussed above, or Kizmun scrape them on the glide areas. Also some people recommend liqued glide wax on the skin itself - I tried a bit at the ends and I reckon it actually made adhesion poorer, but then again maybe if I had done the whole skin with it on the mild day yesterday it would have pressed more water off, There are also antiicing products now for skins and if I am not mistaken, a treatment for powder snow which over  comes the new fallen issue,

Skinny Skis for Skinny Tram Lines, Period

Narrow race skis are below 40 mm on the center measurement, with little or no inswing from the ends- ie the edges are nearly or actually parallell for the whole contact area of the ski. Also racing skis tend to be sold a lot harder in spenn than training or tour skis. Anyhows, it is unlikely that anyone will recommend them to you, but as I said Fischer RCS carbon are a full blow racing ski  and I did my first twenty clicks ever on them and lived to tell the tale.

The opposite end of the scale is tour skis and 'fjell' skis aka Telemark traditional Back Country (BC) Skis which are usually over 45 mm on the middle, and this swings in from up to 20% broader on the tips. Side cut or in-swing the names for this, render the ski a higher bouyancy for softer, off piste snow on the tips, while assisting in steering the ski in loose snow down hill when you want to tuck in and use your body weight to steer. However the broader tips and side cut mean that they do tend to follow up the edges of laid tracks and steer a little jittery on any hard 'cordurouy', furthermore and tend not to track well on this middle corrugated area as soon as it firms up - they in effect fight parallel lines and want their freedom! 

My Fischer Power Wax are if I remember right 52-45-50 and my new Atomic skintecs are 41-40-40. The blue Fischer planks also have a 'track and trail' camber rather than a back country and mountain camber - that is to say they are quite stiff, with the camber neing high and in the middle of the ski, a little assymetric with a greater angle at the toe end. My wife has a pair of slightly wider Aasnes Vikafjell, which are great skis only that they are really a light mountain ski with a long camber, steel edges and seem quite stiff in that camber, which makes waxing especially with clister tricky and irritating. She has decided to get into skate skis for training now, but the Vikafjells were great when we were teaching the kids to ski, with all that control with the steel edges for ploughing and the like.

The only advantage of a ski like my Power Wax, or say the Aasnes Nordmarka, is that you get good bouyancy in slightly deeper snow and softer, wetter snow, and that if you carry a pack they take your weight better. That and the off tramline steering. So despite you living in an area with nice prepp'ed tracks, if you get a lot of new snow and long lasting cold, soft conditions and you want to tour a little late season say with a pack on ski goer tracks, then a tour ski with a standard, central camber may be an option.

If however like me you realistiaclly are going to be in the tracks for a quick blast round the floodlight circuit at night or a tour up the tracks to the lakeside sledging hill with the kids come Sunday,  then "sports-training" skis are a better option because of the issues with steering up the side walls of the tramlines, especially with steel edges.  Training skis are lighter and will glide better in the tracks because they compress snow to water better and in wetter conditions will allow the water to press out the sides quicker, if well prepared. Lightness can go to far, as with no feel for the ski to begin with you maybe start to loose tracking in the tramlines and stumble out.

When I lived a winter in Kristiansand and trained two to three nights a week, I noticed that there were hardly anyone on skis like mine. Even portly pensioners had sporty, thin, parrallel skis with dear boots, and I struggled to keep pace with some of them! At the weekend I would notice though that lots of people had quite broad madhus mountain skis and were enjoying classic track kicking. No one bothered really with middle of the road skis because they are no good off piste in deeper snow, and they usually lack steel edges for icey hillsides, while they are a little too narrow for carrying one of those monster backpacks you see the Noggies out with when going cabin -cabin touring,

Feel the Need for Steel ??  
Steel edges? Do I not need the safety margin of metal on the sides?  Well in fact Fischer did a training ski with steel edges, called Steel Lights, which is not on their web site but still in stock at various outlets. Steel edges are useful in hard packed and icey conditions, especially where you have demanding down hill sections with plenty of corners. For soft snow prevailing condistions, on undulating country they are more than useless, because they can cut dogs paws and kids fingers open when those little mishaps occur. Also they add both weight and an extra spring tension to the ski. However when I lived in Kristiansand we had so often either super high traffic packed snow or thaw back and freeze conditions that these would have been a sensible investment, as I have actually wrecked the plastic edges on my blue planks from these two winters I trained there.

A Balancing Act

Thinner skis then are faster, lighter to kick with and stay better in the tramlines, while also tracking well in the cordurouy! However they do track a little too well and you need to be able to 'jump' up to get into plough position to spill speed or stop, while also learning 'step turning' earlier on.

Which brings me nicely to the other alternative and my new testament gospel of learning to skate ski first!  I have blogged on this before of course, but to recap" skate skiing has always been a technique on all types of skis as a way of making progress, especially over slack slopes. However in the late 70s and early 80s it became more wide spread in the XC sport, until Robert Koch infamously beat all the scando's and Canadians on skis with no kick wax by not just skating between tram-lines, round some corners and down hills but skating the whole damn way and winning by a country mile. A schism developed with this form of 'cheating' risking being banished, as it is now from classic runs, but it quickly developed as its own style and became favoured by biathalon skiers because the rifle jars around less than in kick skiing. It grew to be fully accepted, but fully segregated as a technique.

Classic Style is Really Just Parallel Skating !

As I will blog once again, classic style is really parallel skating because you should aim to completey unload the one ski having powered of it and glide on the other. Instead of a side edge push off as in all forms of skating on blades, wheels and plastic, you are pushing down on the sole in order to get traction, and then putting all your weight over to the gliding ski,  allowing the now depowered leg to trail before the cycle repeats from the other leg again.

When it comes to manoervering, it is so much better being able to learn step turning on XC skis as early as possible because plough just kills too much speed when you dont want to loose it for crowning over the next nice forrest undulation. On longer downhills with medium gradients you can tuck down out of the tramlines with a downhill stance and use the edges to steer on long corners or traverses,. However eventually turns become too sharp for this while ploughing round them may kill your speed almost completely, so step turning is the method of choice. Skate skiing is the best means to learn good one ski balance and step turning in particular.

Dont worry though, on both my super narrow Madshus Ultrasonic Skate 195cm skis and my new Atomic Skintec 4000s I can plough very nicely, either in soft of rather hard icey mid lanes because I can get a lot of pressure on the edges of the skis and the skis can be moved into plough easily, Also you can revert to standard, trudging fishbone on skate skis on the steepest hills if the 'offset' aka paddling is hard to master.

Skate skis are an option for you especially of course if you come from ice skating or from roller blading, whcih will also give you year round training possibiliies!  Furthermore, if you have an area which just gets kind of skied down without good parrallel tram lines, or the tramlines get very very icey and abrasive in ther bases, then skate skiing can be a good way to avoid frustration with waxing and clisters because often the mid lane snow or path snow is soft enough to get edges into while the rail lines are like steel!

Skate skiing requires a higher level of concentration and initially, balance than just learning to plod around on classic or mountain skis with grippy zones on their soles. Generally you need to avoid deep soft snow, and ice on them too. However the advantage in balance and manoerving techniques you will gain from doing this style first IMHO is huge, plus that it is much easier to train off season on roller blades or roller skis for skating than the more demanding classic roller ski with ratchet. Skate skiing also lends itself really only to undulating courses in the woods, or longer plateau sections due to the concentraton needed and the lack of variability in my opinion. If you have a long ascent with stretches of fishboning followed by a long descent then quite likely

Summary

If you meet the following criteria >

1. Live near nicely prepared skitrails
2. Want to train aerobically and quite hard
3. maybe have ambitions to race
4. Dont see yourself doing back country touring with a pack

Then get thee a pair of nice skinny, 40mm wide skis for classic, and at least try skate skiing at a school as part of your first lessons. I would say opt for skate skis if you have typical undulating woodland tracks or flate lake runs,  and are experienced on roller blades or ice skating, and maybe drop classic skis altogether!

If however you

1. Have a bit poor balance
2. . often have soft trails only driven by other skiers
3. want to carry a 10kg + backpack often
4. like the idea of BC and mountain tours on firmer snow

Then you want to cut out the middle man and get some broader mountain skis with steel edges

Which ever style you go for, wiegh yourself and use a shop which has a tensioning machine to check camber against your weight - including backpack for touring remember- for all types of skis. Check the makers height to lenght and weight to length or camber charts before you buy. Buy a mid priced set of skis which the shop assistant has taken time to go through your needs and intended uses. Learn also the basics of waxing - a shop should include a first texture, glider waxing with also a sanding of the kick area and a first layer of base binder for free on a mid priced 400-700 USD pair of skis- get it included before you close the deal. Some shops may also offer a Kizmun blade scrape in the glide zone, which for stable conditions will last the seaason with no need for any glider wax.

Shops and clubs often run courses on waxing, and there is a lot on youtube and swix.com these days to learn from. A basic box=package price from swix, SkiGo or Rode will only cost about 30-40 USD and include the three types of hard wax you need, a universal clister, a spatula, a cork., perhaps some sandpaper and perhaps a quick glider in a shoe polish type applicator bottle.

Skate skis need to really have the right texture on them for the prevailing conditions and a hard glider can be used for all conditions on top of the chosen texture to begin with.