With the Winter Olympics in Sochi in full swing, I thought the topics of winter sports may be worth revisiting. Что вы делали на выходных, дорогой читатель? (What did you do over the weekend, dear reader?) Let me tell you what I did, and we can note down some winter sports vocabulary.

Я каталась на горных лыжах.

У меня нет своих лыж, поэтому я взяла напрокат лыжи, палки, ботинки и шлем.

Мой муж катается на сноуборде, и он взял напрокат доску и ботинки.

(I went downhill skiing. I don’t own skis, so I rented skis, poles, boots, and a helmet. My husband snowboards, so he rented a snowboard and boots.)

Here are some key words from this little passage:

кататься на лыжах – to go skiing

By default, cross-country skiing is meant. If you want to say downhill, it’s кататься на горных лыжах.

Лыжи is skis. Палки are poles. Ботинки are boots for both skiing and snowboarding (the boots are naturally different, but the word is the same). The singular is ботинок.  I’m sure you can figure сноуборд out; it can also be referred to as доска (board).

Брать напрокат/взять напрокат is to rent (equipment). A synonym is брать/взять в аренду, but that sounds like something you say about larger things like a car or an apartment.

Шлем is a helmet, and a good saying about renting one is бережёного бог бережёт (better safe than sorry).

As you rent the equipment, you may be asked to leave a залог (deposit). These words may also come in handy when you want to talk about skiing/snowboarding:

трасса – trail

склон – slope

спуск – slope/decline

подъёмник – chairlift

лыжня – piste (for cross-country skiing)

Another popular recreational winter sport is катание на коньках (ice-skating). The verb is кататься на коньках. The skates are called коньки, and the ice-rink is called каток. Лёд is ice, and on ice is на льду. Incidentally, Звёзды на льду is also the Russian version of the TV show Stars on Ice. Here is a short clip from it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-61rWyboQ

What about you? Can you describe your winter sport experiences in Russian?