Cross Country Chronicles: Snow on Wednesday made for brief ski session

After Monday’s tropical weather, it was great to see the ground covered in snow early Wednesday. The snow has mostly melted now, but for those who had the beginning of the day free, it offered an opportunity to go cross-country skiing.In the end, the snow was just too soft for extended skiing. When I saw grass poking up through my ski tracks along the North Cambridge bike path, I sensed it was time to stop. However, for a brief moment, it felt like winter in New England again.The snow on one patch was good enough to glide on ? a clear, open, flat space that stretched toward a soccer field and, farther away, Russell Field, where the Cambridge Rindge & Latin football team plays.Closer to the fields, the ground inclines upward. It wasn’t that steep an incline, not steep enough to warrant doing the “herring-bone” hill-climbing technique (so-called because your tracks while climbing resemble the bones of a herring ? something I’ll just have to take on faith).The problem was, the more I skied in that direction, the more my skis slipped through the snow and onto the uneven ground beneath. It was too bad. When we got that New Year’s Eve snowfall not so long ago, this same area provided a great space to ski. Now, I was lucky to get 15 minutes, and they were pretty much up.I tried going back to the place I started my skiing session. This meant going down the incline, so I went into the “tuck position” (keeping my poles tucked) and enjoyed the all-too-brief ride. Maybe someday I will find the gumption to try downhill skiing.Unfortunately, the snow where I started was no longer deep enough. The gliding was fun while it lasted, though, and I did feel more comfortable going up and down an incline ? albeit a relatively gentle one. Not far away, I saw what looked like rabbit tracks, but I’m not even sure this incline would qualify as a “bunny slope.”Let’s hope the next time we get snow, it’s not as soft and it stays a little longer. At least, enough for a nice glide.For those parents who would like to take their children skiing in New Hampshire, there is the Snowsports Passport program. This annual program, offered by the statewide organization Ski NH and described in a press release, is available to any fourth- or fifth-grade student ? and they don’t even have to be from New Hampshire. For $30, you get a passport book with lift ticket vouchers for the student; there are also other discounts for family members. In the book are 25 lift tickets and 36 cross country trail passes. Purchases benefit the NH Make-A-Wish Foundation. Ski NH represents 33 alpine and cross country resorts in the Granite State. You can register at SkiNH.com.Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].