Ski Season 2018 Has Arrived!

[Laszlo]

I used to ski a lot, raced while growing up, and still consider myself an expert skier. When my son was born, everything stopped. Last year while up in British Columbia for the holidays I took my son skiing and he got the bug immediately. But we were both stuck with rentals. And I personally cannot stand rentals but considering this was trial balloon stuff it has led down the right path.

This year we went skiing again up in BC and we had so much fun I decided it was time to get new equipment. I’ve always preferred giant slalom and slalom. My son seems to like slalom as well. Anyway my new skis arrived today. My son’s come in next week. These are GS and I also have another 2 pairs of SLs coming in next week for both my son and I. His will be Juniors though.

I also got a new pair of Lange World Cup RP ZAs delivered last week... my old ones look like a mouse got into the liner and ripped the crap out of it. The Lange boots will need to be boot fitted next week. But they’re gorgeous and will be perfect on these skis. I’m so happy to be back into something that I truly love!

Any other skiers out there please contribute to this year’s ski thread.

[MaxSchiller]

That’s awesome! I absolutely love skiing (I used to ski moguls competitively)! Remember to take wristshots


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[brandrea]

I love skiing. I think as Canadians it's in our DNA, like hockey

Here's me and my best friends daughter.

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[Laszlo]

I broke a rib doing moguls in Utah. A run called Widow Maker.

Great pic! Canadian skiing is the best!

Here’s my son over the Christmas holiday in BC, he was wiped out.

[swils8610]

Just got back into skiing myself 2 years ago. Tore my ACL in 1996 and was done. Figured if was going to live in the North East might as well have something to do all winter. Got my wife and daughter to ski also. Man has the equipment changed! I used to ski K2 190’s. Now skis are shorter and wider. Much easier to turn. Bindings used to be bought separate of the skis and drilled and mounted now many are integrated. Boot technology also. Heat them up in the oven and mold them to your feet. And lastly people wear helmets now! Lol. Much safer of course but in the 90’s no one wore helmets. I ski Volkl RTM 85’s with Salomon boots.


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[superdog]

Love the passion you have for this.

Have fun!!!

[Laszlo]

Originally Posted by swils8610

Just got back into skiing myself 2 years ago. Tore my ACL in 1996 and was done. Figured if was going to live in the North East might as well have something to do all winter. Got my wife and daughter to ski also. Man has the equipment changed! I used to ski K2 190’s. Now skis are shorter and wider. Much easier to turn. Bindings used to be bought separate of the skis and drilled and mounted now many are integrated. Boot technology also. Heat them up in the oven and mold them to your feet. And lastly people wear helmets now! Lol. Much safer of course but in the 90’s no one wore helmets. I ski Volkl RTM 85’s with Salomon boots.


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Very cool. You're so right about how much the equipment has changed. I kept driving these poor people crazy at this ski shop in Ontario --- I'm like what do you mean the bindings don't need to be mounted? Race plates?? Any boot size?? LOL... I looked up a lot of my old equipment from the 80s and 90s and skis were like rails back then. I thought I was all bad-ass for having skis with a slight waist. Now they're shaped like weapons and there are 4 different types of skis. The rentals I had were like skiing on two pieces of bacon. They were so wide. I LOVE the Volkl RTM 85s... I was so close to getting those. My Rossignols are 176cm (exact same height as myself), and the SLs coming in next week are 155s... My son's will be 131cms. Those should be a blast and got a great deal on them! Happy skiing!

[Laszlo]

Originally Posted by superdog

Love the passion you have for this.

Have fun!!!

Thanks, Seth!

[Wesley Crusher]

That looks like a blast! I’d love to give skiing or snowboarding a shot one of these days. Ive only seen snow once or twice in my life.

[Laszlo]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

That looks like a blast! I’d love to give skiing or snowboarding a shot one of these days. Ive only seen snow once or twice in my life.

Seeing the snow from the beach in LA - I remember seeing the snow on the mountains while hanging out in Playa Del Rey beach in January! Coolest thing ever.

You should try it, Wes. I think you'd love it.

[joeychitwood]

I'm the director of the ski patrol at a Minnesota ski resort. I ski 50-60 days a season. Currently using Volkl RTM 75 159 cm skis with Marker Motion bindings and K2 Pinnacle 110 boots.





I love everything about the ski culture. The people on my patrol are fun loving, athletic and enjoy helping others. I'm the guy in the center.





My patrol partner and I ready for a day of cold air, hard snow and fun.

[Laszlo]

Originally Posted by joeychitwood

I'm the director of the ski patrol at a Minnesota ski resort. I ski 50-60 days a season. Currently using Volkl RTM 75 159 cm skis with Marker Motion bindings and K2 Pinnacle 110 boots.





I love everything about the ski culture. The people on my patrol are fun loving, athletic and enjoy helping others. I'm the guy in the center.





My patrol partner and I ready for a day of cold air, hard snow and fun.

Thanks for sharing, Joey. I would love to do that. You’re very lucky.

[RichM]

Ah, I remember the good old days when we were season pass holders at Killington. That was a different wife and a different life.

Enjoy yourself

[joeychitwood]

Originally Posted by Laszlo

Thanks for sharing, Joey. I would love to do that. You’re very lucky.

Thanks, Laszlo. I'm having the best time of my life. 50 new friends from age 16-72. A healthy, fun job.

[swils8610]

I was thankful for the ski patrol when I tore my ACL. The pain was crazy. Was spring skiing and my ski caught a rock and that was it. After I lay there for awhile I tried to stand up. No shot! Right back down. The ski patrol loaded me into a toboggan, strapped me in and got me off the mountain. Amazing crew. Thanks for the job you guys do!


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[joeychitwood]

The day shift a week ago. I am fourth from the left, and Mrs. Chitwood is third from the left.





We've had some fairly brutal cold lately. Air temps down to -32 degrees F and wind chills down to -50.

[68camaro]

Grew up on skis, even went to college just north of White Face MT in NY to ski as much as possible, one semester I had skiing as gym, on Friday we worked races in morning then skied rest of day plus got free pass for another day.

Been living in South for 25 years and can't remember last time I skied. However, dropped my son off at NC ski resort last night for ski weekend with roomies before they headed back to college for spring semester. He called me up this morning to ask how to keep his tips from crossing..LOL

[Hound Dog]

Started skiing 8 years ago at age 48 when my daughter was 9. She and I both loved it, so now I’m 56 and she’s 17. Just got back from a week of skiing with her at Jackson hole and it was fantastic (no new snow, but what they had was in pretty good shape). It’s become something we do together as friends - I’m wiped out at the end of the day and she could keep going, but it’s great. Highly recommended family vacation -everyone goes out and does what they can do, come back, shower, drink a beer, eat a pizza, sleep, and do it again the next day! So many older folks skiing - I plan to keep it up for a long while. I won’t ever be as good as many of you guys, but it’s fun nonetheless.


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[Hound Dog]

And, I had my new Explorer 1 on the whole week!


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[joeychitwood]

Originally Posted by Hound Dog

Highly recommended family vacation -everyone goes out and does what they can do, come back, shower, drink a beer, eat a pizza, sleep, and do it again the next day! So many older folks skiing - I plan to keep it up for a long while.

A great description of a family ski vacation. Jackson Hole had 12 feet of snow in December! Kudos to you for skiing there. JH is regularly ranked as the most difficult ski resort in North America.

One of my best patrollers is 72 years old. He's a war veteran and has flown 38 different military and civilian aircraft. He walks slowly with a shuffle, but I swear he could ski a toboggan down the side of a skyscraper and maintain perfect control. I love seeing the number of older people enjoying the sport along side children, kids and younger adults.

[Hound Dog]

As fate would have it, I learned to ski at Jackson (at age 48), Which in retrospect, was not a good place to learn. That said, we perfected our side slips early.


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[Gaijin]

Originally Posted by joeychitwood

A great description of a family ski vacation. Jackson Hole had 12 feet of snow in December! Kudos to you for skiing there. JH is regularly ranked as the most difficult ski resort in North America.

One of my best patrollers is 72 years old. He's a war veteran and has flown 38 different military and civilian aircraft. He walks slowly with a shuffle, but I swear he could ski a toboggan down the side of a skyscraper and maintain perfect control. I love seeing the number of older people enjoying the sport along side children, kids and younger adults.

That is a great story Doc. Good for you and your team. Respect.


I grew up in Colorado and was a Salomon certified ski mechanic in high school working at a ski shop in the winters after school. Just about skied everywhere in Colorado. Brekenridge was my favorite. I always looked up to with awe the ski patrol.

[ckaynyc]

You are a lot like me!

I grew up skiing as a kid. Jumped onto a snowboard at 12 and never looked back. Until last winter when I took my then fiancée skiing. We rented some equipment for the day and she had gotten the bug.

I ended up buying her an Elan package which have paid for themselves already in rental costs. I needed a Do it All ski and went with K2 Shreditors with a 92mm waist.

[bobernet]

Not enough snow here in UT! Yesterday was a rainy slushy day on the mountains. Everyone wet and miserable. :-(

[joeychitwood]

Originally Posted by joeychitwood

One of my best patrollers is 72 years old. He's a war veteran and has flown 38 different military and civilian aircraft. He walks slowly with a shuffle, but I swear he could ski a toboggan down the side of a skyscraper and maintain perfect control.

This is Fred at lift evacuation training this fall. He also has a house in Dillon, Colorado and skis the mountains all winter too.





I love gear. Motorcycle, ski, computer, camera, any kind of gear. These are the boots I use currently. I love the power strap on a buckle. It's easy to get it really snug. Compared to this photo, they are pretty beat up now, but they are so comfortable that the other day, I walked out of the patrol building to drive home still wearing them. I forgot I hadn't changed into regular boots/

[Laszlo]

Originally Posted by joeychitwood

This is Fred at lift evacuation training this fall. He also has a house in Dillon, Colorado and skis the mountains all winter too.





I love gear. Motorcycle, ski, computer, camera, any kind of gear. These are the boots I use currently. I love the power strap on a buckle. It's easy to get it really snug. Compared to this photo, they are pretty beat up now, but they are so comfortable that the other day, I walked out of the patrol building to drive home still wearing them. I forgot I hadn't changed into regular boots/

I wouldn't mess with that guy! Awesome that he's still on the slopes, he looks great.

Those are very nice boots. I was thinking of going all AT but decided to stick with what I know best. The WC race boots I bought are very nice (they are 2016, got them at an incredible price), but like wearing vice grips. The liner is starting to pack and I'm doing living room packing right now. They're much better as each day passes. So if I decide to keep them, I'm only going to get light fitting, calves mostly. As back up though I also have on order a pair of Lange RS 110s which do not have lace up liners and wider last. When they arrive I'll compare both before deciding on which one has to go. At my age (early 40s), I don't want to take a chance on injuring myself because I think I'm still in my 20s/30s... but will also use race boots, as technical skiing GS, and carving on the front side is what I'm most passionate about. Lots of respect for those who go off-piste though.

Anyway, there has been a lack of rain/snow here in the bay area and mountains and just a few weeks ago that crazy high pressure that lasted for over 6-weeks (6-weeks of zero humidity/rain and nothing but wind every single day)... but now it's back to raining every few days and the snow is starting to build up. Of course man-made works great too but I think temps have been too high or at least not ideal. Fingers crosses this keeps up. Otherwise it might be another trip up north or south to Mammoth (which is great right now.)

[joeychitwood]

Laszlo, I have very flat feet, and ski boots have always been torture devices for me. But one of my patrollers tunes skis and fits boots. Over a course of three sessions, he heat molded the pressure points and used a Dremel tool to fine tune the fit. My K2s are incredibly comfortable now. I also am a big fan of Intuition liners.

[joeychitwood]

Random photos. Me riding up with a little member of the developmental ski racing team. The kid had no fear whatsoever.





This was the end of my season last January. Clavicle broken into four pieces and seven broken ribs sustained in a fall and tomahawk down an icy slope.






Rolex content. Blue Tudor Sub 79090

[cruise_bone]

I just got back from a week in Big Sky, MT!
Loads of fun but that Mountain kicked my a$$!

[joeychitwood]

Originally Posted by cruise_bone

I just got back from a week in Big Sky, MT!
Loads of fun but that Mountain kicked my a$$!

They've received a decent amount of snow this year, unlike a lot of the mountain west. I love Big Sky.

As a kid, my dad's bank financed part of Big Sky development. I would ride with him from Billings when he would go on inspections. I met Chet Huntley, the anchorman/developer and recall thinking that it looked like an insanely big project. Huntley was a visionary thinker.