Feelin' groovy

I've tried cross-country skiing before, but always to no great success. As a skier for the past 20 years -- and a boarder for the past 11 -- my challenge is typically the inability to remember that my heels are not attached to my skis. The result: skin that ends up looking like a beat-up piece of fruit, bruised and tender from a long day of falling.

Yesterday, however, I disregarded my painful past with cross-country skiing. It was such a beautiful Alberta day -- it actually broke the zero-degree mark -- and, with the sun blazing in the clear blue sky overhead, it seemed the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time outdoors with my handsome man. With no regard for the pain that may have been awaiting us, Nathan and I decided to rent some skis and head out to K-country for a day on the trails.

Needless to say, it was a shaky start for each of us. There was plenty of falling, and we have some bumps and bruises to show for it, but by the end of our 9.2-kilometre ski -- which took a whopping three hours -- we were in our groove and skiing quite convincingly.

As tired as we were, Nathan and I agreed that cross-country skiing is definitely something we'd like to revisit together. Voici quelques photos: