Friday, December 14, 2007

The most scared I've ever been...

Imagine a world where everything is spinning, you have perpetual mental cloudiness and you could never ski again.

It's like being drunk except it's never fun.

I took a bit of a hit one week ago on Teton Pass. Simply, it was a knee to the face. Didn't break my cheek bone and I skied out of the line 'okay'.

Without going over the top, I'll keep this quick. Wear a helmet. and most importantly, make good decisions

This doesn't mean skiing like a pussy, it means looking at a line and fully realizing what you are gambeling with and if it really is worth it. You can only throw caution to the wind and say "lets see what happens" so many times before it catches up to you.

The best skiers in the world have been the best by making these decisions with a solid idea of what they can/can't do. Here's the key, there are ways to discover what you can do/can't do without risking too much.

This means lots of snow, later in the year, steeper landings, no rocks etc. Not December 7th sending a 40 footer just cause it's a pole deep into a flatish (by JH standards) landing.

Let this be a lesson to all that read it. And I hope I'll come around to the person I've always been....back again!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Just a picture.



Just a picture, I swear we'll get more creative.

Somehow this doesn't get old though...

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

My creative energy is gone. I have no interesting observations or fun little stories (at least none that would go in this family-rated blog)

I do however have a few pictures

All of these were taken on Teton Pass. The snow was getting better and better until a bit of rain came through and ruined everything. A mean rain crust now resides on top instead of 10" of blower that never materialized from this storm. It could seriously mess up the backcountry. We'll have to see.

The good news is the new Praxis 195's rip. Since they are reverse camber and reverse sidecut the added 10cm doesn't effect the quickness factor as much as it would on a normal ski. In fact, I think these are just as good in trees/tight situations as the 185s except they get up to speed faster. The improved graphics are amazing and damn near works of art. I mention this only because I usually could care less about the way a ski looks and really only worried about the way it skis...


Pat said it best, the cool part about the Praxis is that they are good at pinning it yet still playful and surfy. There are tons of skis that do one or the other...Praxis does both.

www.praxisskis.com

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