Cross-Country Skiing
Listed among the original 1924 Winter Games competitions, cross-country skiing is as old as 5000 BC, and got its start, not surprisingly, in snowy Scandinavia. While it may be one of the easier winter sports to learn, it’s also one of the most psychologically demanding to complete, especially when long distances are involved; you can test your mettle on the superb Nordic tracks built for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, and most recently used for the 2005 Cross-Country World Cup. Managed by the Canmore Nordic Centre, the 37 miles of trails here are technically closer to Banff than they are to Calgary, giving you the opportunity to try world-class downhill and cross-country skiing in a single trip. Rates here are exceedingly affordable for what you get, too: just C$7.50/day will give you access to quiet tree-lined trails, 4 miles of night-lit tracks, and competition-worthy pistes, all in a beautiful, forested provincial-park where you may see more elk than fellow skiers.
