I grew up in the deep snow belt of central New York state in the 60's, in a city that gets over 100" of snow. The ground was covered with deep snow every Thanksgiving to Easter. And I loved it. I started competing at running in 8th grade and loved it too. But in 1976 I was watching the Olympics when Jim McKay reported on Bill Koch winning a silver medal in cross country skiing. A few days later I convinced my mom to give me the money to rent a pair of xc skis from a nearby EMS.