first day on skis
in 8 years… I took a haitus to snowboarding, starting 8 years ago. When my Dad and I got into back country skiing, the snowboard started to make less and less sense. So finally, this year I broke down and bought skis. Today was my first full day on them (not counting the backcountry trip the day after Thanksgiving).
This time I remembered to lock my boots in the forward position. Recalling that one must “charge the fall line” really made a difference – by the end of the day, I was charging down the double blacks like they were a cake walk, ripping up the ice, and even getting air borne a few times.
Ice used to scare the shit out of me on a snowboard – one edge between me and certain pain. On skis, no problem. Looks like it is just like riding a bike.
Bryan, my sister’s boyfriend, and I have a back country trip in the works for Wednesday – Friday, to the same place Dad and I went back country skiing after Thanksgiving. I’m excited to get some decent use out of my skis and skins. I may need to purchase some crampons before heading up there – I do remember some very dicey sections of climbing that necessitated kicking steps – something that was destroying the toe welts on my boots. I’d much rather have 1/2″ steel teeth do the work for me.
More trip reports to come: Tuesday: skiing again, Wednesday-Friday: backcountry winter camping.
Tweet
