It's a K2 kind of day

Saturday, February 9, 2012

If one skis long enough, one ends up with a garage full of gear. I've done a decent job of keeping it semi-current. For example, I donated the RD Coyotes a few years back. All 198 cm of their skinny stiffness. Old school gear and I'm not going back there.

I still have two pairs of K2s and a pair of full-metal-jacket Volant Machetes. It's been a long time since I took the Machetes out. I'm not sure I ever will again...but I think about it now and then. I've also got a pair of K2 Apache X's that I took out last year. I didn't enjoy them that much. But, my go-to hard pack skis are still my K2 Apache Recons. They're 119-89-112. Narrow by today's standards for an all mountain ski, but about par for people that ski in the east.

Conditions have been, well, meh. There's plenty of snow, but it keeps coming at times when I can't enjoy it (see last week's post). So, we're into full on hard pack conditions unless it gets warm. Which it didn't today. But I was prepared. I pulled the K2s out of the quiver and threw the Rossi's on board just in case. It was 28 degrees when we arrived today; it was much warmer yesterday. It wasn't much of a mystery what conditions were going to be like.

I also threw the maintenance kit in today since I figured the K2's (and I) would benefit from sharpening around the edges. Good call. There's a small possibility that I've learned something after 45 years of skiing. Like not to wake up at the crack of dawn to ski hard pack.

We arrived promptly at noon today and our timing was perfect. At least for today.

Race day...again. We have high school league here--which I wish we would have had when I was in high school. I coulda had a letter!




















Not that I cared about high school sports...then or now.

They added some new features in the park this week. Dylan taps the spool.

Dylan goes full Japan on the lower jump.

Not stellar conditions today, but good times were had by all. We'll think about continuing the party in the morning if it gets a little sunnier.

What I really want right now (well, more like later next week) is for a new system to track over so we can get some more killer powder days. I'll keep dreaming...