I’m an easy-going guy. Not much truly gets to me, but over the years two things about cross country skiing have crawled under my skin—perceptions and television.

Pet Peeve Number One: The perception that cross country skiers are cheap.

A local merchant likes to tell the following joke: "Did you hear about the cross country skier who came to town with a twenty dollar bill and a clean pair of underwear, and never changed either one?" (Rim shot, please).

This may, in fact, have been an accurate image—at one time. After all, one of the early claims about cross country was that it was an inexpensive sport. Think back to the early equipment: My entire first package of gear—skis, boots, bindings, and poles—cost about $100. And, of course, you could ski right out your door—anywhere, for free.

Much has changed over the past 30 or so years. Yet the image of the "cheap cross country skier" persists. "Those skiers never spend any money. They just come to town and then go right home" are common place comments along with, "They cram ten people into a motel room and brown bag it for lunch."

However, Nordic skiers do spend money. A high-end skating package costs as much as notoriously expensive downhill ski gear, and enthusiastic skiers will travel far to chase snow and good trails leaving their money at local hotels, restaurants, bars and ski shops. A day ski pass at a top Nordic center can set you back $20 or more.

Data to refute the "cheap" syndrome isn’t abundant. What demographic information exists reveals that Nordic skiers are generally upscale, well-educated professionals. One study conducted by the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation in 2000 showed that nearly 40% of the race participants had annual household incomes of $80,000 or more and spent from $220 to $2,100 during the event.

Although a little ski industry research supports this notion, we at Cross Country Skier will be doing our part to try to better understand who our readers and skiers in general are. In our February issue, we will present the first Cross Country Skier magazine Reader’s Survey in over ten years. We hope you will participate. The information we accumulate will not only help us better understand what our readers like and dislike about the magazine, but how they view our sport. To encourage you to return your survey, we will conduct random drawings from all respondents and give away dozens of great prizes, from wax kits to several pairs of skis.

Nonetheless, what is lacking is a comprehensive economic impact study of the sport—a tidy bundle of numbers that can conveniently be held up and used to put the perception that cross country skiers are cheap to rest, once and for all.

Pet Peeve Number Two: Television and Cross Country Skiing

As someone who is passionate about Nordic skiing, naturally I would like to see the sport receive as widespread visibility and acceptance as possible. Admittedly cross country skiing is a niche activity with national participation percentages in the low single digits. Certainly better television coverage could help stimulate greater interest in the sport and help people understand that we are not "Lycra wrapped freaks of nature."

You can count on one hand, however, the number of times cross country skiing has been seen on national television in the past ten years:

1. For the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehamer, Norway, the men’s 4 x 10 relay was a stunning departure in Olympic coverage—almost an hour on one Nordic event—which up to that point had been pretty dismal. And what an event it was, with Norwegian hero Bjorn Daehlie losing at the wire.

2. In the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, the stage had been set for a dramatic rematch in the 4 x 10. Another exciting event, this time Norway got it right taking the gold in the final sprint.

3. In the mid- to late-90s, a Snickers candy bar commercial featured former U.S. Ski Team standout Ben Husaby skiing across a snowy landscape. He slowed up, munched a Snickers and strode off in fast-forward. Now this was definitely different, but we haven’t seen anything like it since.

4. The 2002 Winter Olympics in Soldier Hollow, Utah, produced the best coverage of Nordic skiing at the Winter Olympics ever. NBC, MSNBC and CNBC broke the mold with their extensive coverage of cross country, biathlon and Nordic combined. We can only hope for a repeat performance in 2006 and that the home court advantage was not the sole motivating factor for this great coverage.

5. Top performances by U.S. skiers in the 2003 World Cup caught the attention of CBS who aired relatively lengthy, entertaining reports on the excitement surrounding Kris Freeman’s and Johnny Spillane’s historic performances. The major networks are to be applauded for their efforts in these specific instances. Unfortunately, these moments featuring high caliber Nordic racing have been preciously few.

From Duluth, Minnesota—the nearest major media market to where I live—we frequently see cross country skiing on local television with high school meets and some of the major Nordic events regularly appearing on the small screen. Even one of the local weather guys, Sven Sungard (yes, that’s his real name) reported the area’s first major snowfall from the local Nordic center, taking a run down a small hill on camera.

Here’s the other rub: With the exception of the Snickers commercial, all of the coverage is of competitive events. Admittedly cross country is a difficult sport to film, requiring multiple camera locations and access to remote trail locations. But wouldn’t it be great to see an occasional piece on the fun, beauty and exhilaration of touring the backcountry or one of the great Nordic centers across the country?

In the early 1980s, I watched a program on Boston’s public television WGBH, in which two skiers gracefully and effortlessly strode across the countryside in a Canadian provincial park. With very little narrative and a background soundtrack of soothing new age music, the outstanding program was re-broadcast several times during the winter. In fact, because I learned a great deal about how to ski from this program, it would be great to unearth a copy.

And finally there’s the Outdoor Life Network-OLN. Although OLN promised to be one of the bright spots for Nordic skiing, the network hasn’t succeeded. For a couple of years, OLN regularly featured World Cup skiing events, one of the reasons I bought into a Direct TV dish system—to watch some cross country skiing in the winter and the Tour de France in the summer. Talk about your bait and switch!

Last year OLN featured no World Cup cross country, and released conflicting information as to the future of any cross country on the network. Then, in a big surprise, World Cup biathlon events showed up later in the season. Thoroughly entertaining, these weekly broadcasts demonstrated why biathlon is one of the most popular television sports in Europe, Germany in particular.

However, this year OLN has not planned to broadcast any Nordic events, or any biathlon. What a disappointment—especially when there are actually two World Cup biathlon events being held in the United States. Plus, they canceled Sports Zone, a cycling talk/highlights show presented with humor and intellect, one of the few shows I took the time to watch. These developments dismay me. Television is loaded with garbage, so to lose a couple glimmering lights in an otherwise dull television landscape is sad. Yes, as I’ve said before, cross country skiing is a niche sport, but is bull riding really all that popular so as to warrant hour upon hour of OLN airtime? Has the NASCAR-bubba, Busch Light-swilling, professional bull riding-mentality of this country risen to such a level that truly deserving events and activities are relegated to quadrennial Olympic reports? The airtime evidence is so overwhelming that I can only conclude that it apparently has. Time to throw away remote, wax the skis and head outdoors.