Cross-Country Skiing: A Primer   The gear? Not so important. Where you’re going, good enough is good enough: the old three-pin waxless beaters somebody’s thrown into a dumpster full of rats and moldy cheese on East 20th Street on a steamy morning in July — they’re good enough, the cheap Czech boots, closeout-sale poles, the free mitts some kid left behind — it’s all just stuff, it doesn’t matter. Technique? No sweat — you’ll figure it out. The only failure’s not to try, and trying (it turns out) is cool, trying becomes the skill that can’t be taught and skill becomes an unconsidered feel for the push, the stride and the glide, and no one else can tell you what is or isn’t real when you’re reading the trail, reading the snow.     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont March 2011