My Ski History by anemic

[bgregoire]

Thanks for the comment BG!

No sir, the goal is to avoid burial!

I am a fully capable skier and I can ski anything...on my Alpine & AT gear. And I race Nordic skate & classic as well.

I am not concerned about injury. I will ski within myself as I am learning tele. I have fallen many many many times on my Nordic race gear. I really appreciate having a free heel for the purposes of falling.

I am looking for a "fuse" in my system which prevents me from getting myself into backcountry trouble in avalanche terrain...whilst on vacation. I am looking to turn a blue run (or Backcountry meadow) into a wild adventure. I am looking to join the morning dawn patrol with the locals at whatever resort I am near. I am looking to skin up at dusk and enjoy the alpenglow. If I find the right conditions, I may just fool around on the light gear all day instead of buy and lift ticket and rage about the resort while liftriding (some of which I will do to fulfill social obligations)

Meanwhile, back at home, XCD will probably be the best way for me to have fun in the woods on skis, which I love! Those Eons will be the ticket here. Once we get snow. grrr.

Ok Good! I'd still go Excursion or above on the Stigmas. They seem like quite a nice ski. If I'd have the chance to own a pair, I'd probably pop my switchbacks on them & use my excursions in the backcountry or my syner-g's inbound.

[MikeK]

OH I love the bike analogy. Plus there is no snow so I'm getting into bike mode already.

I consider my bikes to be XCD bikes (I guess a full road bike would be like track XC). One rigid with fast rolling tires, one HT with more aggressive tires.

Neither could I take to Whiteface DH terrain and expect to survive. I'd literally break the bikes (probably tires and rims first). And then probably break myself in the process.

For me, rigid bike has taken over smooth, fast single track and bike path cruising and the HT is more for tech and descending. I can ride any trails with either, but the HT I can carry a little more speed and am less likely to have to put a foot down in techy stuff (mostly due to having a dropper on there).

I started off using Cross tires for my smooth trail/bike path bike but I found that the larger volume, low tread XC racing type tires did me just as well on the little asphalt I rode and a LOT better on the trails. In the bike analogy, for me this is a lot like skiing a ski like the Eon vs. a DC ski. I don't lose a lot of touring speed but I get a lot more (for the terrain I ski) in terms of grip, stability, and dh control.

Neither of my bikes are slack because I like to be able to sit and spin for miles on flats. A lot of our climbs locally are short and punchy, so I stand a lot. But my bikes climb and track pretty decent. Not really very slack for what is available today.

In terms of extremes, neither of my bikes do anything well. They are far slower than a road bike on asphalt. The rims and tires are far too light for real DH terrain. They don't have (any) or enough travel or the latest geo for really high speed DH runs. Both are too heavy to climb like an XC racer.

When I started dinkin' with bikes again, my number one goal was to have fun on as much stuff as I could with one bike. I ended up with two (same frame) due to my wife not liking hers. I played with them all summer and found all the terrain available in my area from bikes paths to MTB parks and set them up so I could have the most fun possible. Just like with XCD skis, my tastes changed and I tried new stuff... but it's always that same battle between descending and touring. Some people are willing to give up a lot to go down hills fast. I've yet to see anyone riding a full out DH bike at our local bike parks, but I bet some do (there are some monster jumps on some of the DHs that I wouldn't launch with my bikes). During cyclocross season I see lots of guys on their cross bike riding the trails though (some better than most people on MTB).

I found my middle ground... I surely don't want to ride steep hills with drops and rocks and roots with a cross race bike. I certainly don't want to lug around (or maintain) a full on DH bike our 50-100' little ups and downs.

Skis are the same way...

[anemic]

Now we're talking.

CX bike on a MTB trail = light XCD ski in the mountains

And so forth!

Also, if I were still out West I would be on an enduro bike. I have been on a XC race bike (hardtail w/shock front end). Soon I will be on a full-suspension XC bike (100mm w/steepish geometry).

[MikeK]

YUP - and it's 'effin just as hard too!

[MikeK]

So wait...

Are drop bars like NNN and flat bars like pins?

Or would that be like flats vs clips

[anemic]

Would Hardwires be a sensible compromise on the Stigma? Penny for your thoughts.


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[lowangle al]

I think the HW would be a good match for that ski unless you plan to do a lot of skinning. That ski may work well with plastic or leather boots and the HW gives the option of removing the heel throws for touring.

My skinny skis may have saved my life last season. After a strong wind event I took the XCDs out not excpecting to find any good snow. I came to a slope I had skied in the past and it looked like skiable carvable crust, but not something for the XCDs. I passed on it not having the right skis. A short time later I saw 3 guys digging a pit at the bottom of that same slope, when they remotely triggered the entire slope, knocking them off there feet and sweeping there gear away. The guys made a report to the avy website and the crown was 3 feet thick and it slid about 100 yards. It could have been bad.

[anemic]

lowangleal, that is a sobering tale. We must continue to be prudent.

Yesterday's TR
I have broken the seal and have tele'd. More accurately I spent a full day attempting to tele. Reminder: I weigh 155#, I'm on a waxable brand new 195 cm Eon, mounted with HD mountaineer 3 pin voile bindings on a leather Merrell boot (which polished up nicely!)

The kids had a high school ski meet yesterday, so I tuned up the new skis and grabbed some purple skins adjusted for 195 and my mohair strips (no tail hook). I honed the edges. This may have given me fits. I'm going to detune the edges, which is what we used to do back in the day (but no longer do on the modern skis).

I flailed and flailed. One of the kids alpine coaches mostly teles when he is not coaching. He was great for "TeleTips" all day - I would ski up to him and tell him my latest struggle and he would point me in the right direction. Still, it never took. I would not say I had one good turn, nor ever felt I displayed any sense of balance and very little progression. Perhaps I had one good turn, but I cannot claim victory nor did I head into the side country for natural conditions as I had planned.

I couldn't sleep the night before, knowing that I was bringing knives to a gunfight (not the right skis & boots for the ski area) but my ski area skis (JUST ARRIVED!) so I ran what I had. Fortunately the snow was relatively soft (which in Michigan means that it was less icy).

I would say describe my turn as a TelePlow. As my new born tele muscles wore out I seemed to regress after having made some progress.

Started the day here: "I'm surely gonna die on a green run!"
Mid-day was: "I cannot imagine doing this at altitude, 5 turns burn my quads like bike intervals."
Later: "How was the tele turn propagated - seems to not even make sense?"
End of day: "Any knee drop I may have had now eludes me." / spent

I went into the day imagining something along the lines of [youtube][/youtube] < that Japanese tele ninja per this video link. Now I realize that this video reveals a level of mastery I may never display!

I wished I had brought my wife's 175 cm Epochs for more sidecut and more stability and less unwieldy long ski tips & tails to deal with. Today's delivery of the Stigmas will be mounted up immediately with voile cables (not hardwires after looking into it, I went with cables for a better match with the leathers).

On the other hand, the ski was nice for striding. It was nice for climbing. It was nice with the mohair strip. I was not able to descend with the mohair due to inconsistent grabbiness. They are wonderfully light. If I were truly touring in terrain which never meant one should be looking to make a tele turn, they could be a Go To ski.

This nasty warmup could make for nice learning snow at the ski areas. I have confirmed that this form of skiing turns green runs into fear inducing wild times more akin to my double black experiences (on alpine or AT gear).

Stay tuned knee droppers! The adventures and misadventures shall continue.

[anemic]

A couple evidentiary items to place into the record


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[MikeK]

Don't be discouraged, it's not as easy as it may look, but it's not impossible either.

I guarantee those skis will turn.

I think maybe you are a little bit overly enthusiastic. I find that XCD, for me, has been a journey. One of ups and downs, literally, and figuratively. You just need to really FEEL the skis.

I sounds crazy but most people here will probably tell you the same. Tour on them. Ski them as much as you can. Get intimate with them. Heading out and expecting to conquer a resort your first day on them is a tall order. First off they aren't great for that. Second off, it's a totally bizarre technique that takes balance and subtle control, none of which I've mastered, but am still a student.

If you can get out and tour them, practice your tele running or just get comfortable descending mild slopes in a tele. I don't think you'll be able to make turns well until you get used to putting yourself in that position and using as an advantage, not just doing it because you are supposed to. For me that was key. I stride into teles all the time. Get used to your balance on flats and going slow, the progress downhill, then start rolling the skis. Don't force them, just let them turn how they want and ride them. It sounds retarded but it works, I promise you. The more you fight them, the more they will hate you and do bad things. It's not hippy dippy bullshit, it's real. The kind of skis just can't respond quickly and neither can your leather boots. Everything has to be slow and smooth, then ride it. If you try to thrash and jerk around you'll lose your balance or your skis will just go every which way and you'll never get control. Gently guide them, then follow them.

Also when I first started turning I just went in one direction or the other and stopped (or fell), I didn't try to link. That came later but it's much more natural than you think, especially if you are good diagonal strider. It's the same. Generally, there are subtle differences but it's what made the tele.