Shorter skis may be easier to control, but without so much ski to distribute your weight, you may end up sinking deeper in the snow and going much more slowly and maybe being unable to go up hill without side stepping.

I would try a cross-country ski shop. I knwo there are newer, shorter skis. Maybe they are somewhat wider so they will absorb the weight?

There are a few different types of Nordic skis. I am guessing that you previously used Classical skis, where you ski with parallel skis in a track (or make your own trail). Those are the longest. For sizing classical skis, put your arm straight above your head. The tip of the ski should hit you right at your wrist. These have kick wax in the middle, under your boot to help you grab the snow and push off on each stride. (If you don’t want to deal with waxes, they have skis with fishscales in the kick zone, but they. are. so. slow.)

There are also Skate skis. They are shorter but you use a different technique, similar to rollerblading, your feet making a V. You’ll need a much wider area to move in. There is no kick wax on the skate skis, just a base wax on the whole ski for gliding.

You might also want to look at a back-country/touring ski. They are wider and shorter and meant for deeper snow where no one would have made a trail.

I would definitely go to a ski shop that specializes in cross country skis. They’ll be able to set you up with the right combination. They will make sure you have the right size poles as well. A shorter one for Classical and a longer one for Skate. I can’t remember how that sizing works, but they’ll know.

You picked a great outdoor winter activity and if you reallllly like it, you can get roller skis for summer training!

I was professionally sized for the skis I got. They’re parallel-style, not skate skis, and they are waxable. I don’t mind waxing them, but the length is just ungodly. I’m struck by the fact that as long as they are, they are very narrow. They have to be long, I’m told, so they won’t sink into the snow under my weight – but wouldn’t shorter skis that are a little wider accomplish the same purpose? So long as the surface area is the same, I’d think you wouldn’t sink in any more. Increase the width by 10%, and you wouldn’t mess up the tracks, but decreasing the length by 10% would cut them down quite a bit.

You want long skis in order to facilitate sliding across the snow, because you are mostly going over flat areas. Yes, short skis help going up and down and making turns, but if you are doing that a lot, you’re doing a different kind of skiing. You could go shorter, but you’ll go slower.

Additionally, some ski companies make skis with more flex, so that larger people can have shorter skis. This seems to be more a trait of skate skis rather than classic.

Also, shorter fatter skis are slower and more stable, while thinner skis are faster and harder to turn with. But if going fast isn’t really an issue to you, then by all means go for it.