Since we've been going over video every evening I've been reminded that skiing is a high energy sport. Watching clips from classic skiing today I can't believe that I was out there skiing for two hours this morning. (At least those two hours weren't all uphill so it wasn't the same uphill-intensity the whole time.) Seriously though, can you imagine a tougher sport to do. Every stride is a serious jump and every pole plant is a crunch and arm swing. I'm trying to think... there's rowing, that uses almost all of the muscles and is aerobic, but you're sitting down so you don't have the weight-bearing aspect or the balance aspect (and I do row so I know you DO have to balance, but it's not the same as balancing on one foot). There's rock climbing, that uses all your muscles too but it's missing the high speed aerobic and anaerobic portion. Cycling's pretty aerobic but again not weight bearing and you don't use your upper body. Then there's swimming but swimming isn't weight bearing or balancing either. Also, cycling and rowing lack the technique complexity that skiing has. So, unless you can think of a sport that engages more muscles and taxes the lungs so much I'm going to conclude that skiing enables you to work harder than any other sport.

Boxing? Gymnastics? Basketball? Tennis? I don't know, my exposure to other sports isn't very broad. I just know that I was super impressed today watching video of my fellow USST athletes ski.