James Cracknell & Ben Fogle
James Cracknell and Ben Fogle Roller Skiing at Dorney Lake

Roller Skiing

This is cross-country skiing without snow! It is described as an ultimate fitness, low-impact, full-body exercise to suit all ages and abilities. Roller-skis have wheels and skiers do either 'Classic' skiing, with the skis parallel, or 'Skating', where they use skating-like movement. We permit individuals and small groups to use the Dorney Lake grounds for their sport.

Roller skiing is based on cross-country skiing, which, alongside rowing, is one of the toughest strength-endurance sports. Because of its extensive smooth, flat tarmac tracks, Dorney Lake is possibly the best venue in South East England for learning to roller ski. Since 2005 the Rollerski Company's Snowsport England qualified instructors have taught over 300 people to ski at Dorney, and run courses every month.

We enjoyed our rollerski training around Dorney Lake, it was like skiing without the snow - many thanks to all the team for letting us train around the lake.
Ben Fogle

In January 2009, Olympic rower James Cracknell, broadcaster Ben Fogle and doctor Ed Coats took part in a race to the South Pole ...

... like all British-based Polar explorers, the team did a major part of their ski training on roller skis.

Preparation for their expedition took place in the UK and Switzerland, before heading to the Antarctic. The team used Marwe SKATING with ratchet rollerskis for the lesson, then trained on Swenor Fibreglass rollerskis with slow wheels.