realskiers

I'm saying, that even for groomer skiing, I'm no longer interested in locking into a rigid corridor and skiing and endless stream of highly focused short turns.  And for me, skiing skis that are better at stretching out the radius, exploring every and any trail edge to edge...and finding every knoll or undulation to perhaps play on and catch just a little air is my goal.  For me (and not because Isaac Newton says it's so) short turns are for moguls and trees...and not even always there either.

Yesterday, I skied on all three skis I owned, and it turned out my Nomad SFT 181's were the best tool to achieve these ends.

Oh, yesterday turned into a very soft-spring snow day at our bump, people on skis between 90-110mm waists were having all the fun.

Admittedly, I spend too much time fretting over some technical stuff and getting a little PO'd when I feel my downhill ski skidding out. As a small eastern "bump-mountain" skier, I share Liam's thoughts about just going out, especially when skiing with friends, and just having some fun. On a good morning, I can get 20 laps in 4 full hours and just can't grind it out every run on the 5 trails I ski. I often think of wider skis as the "not me" skis - the alter ego at work. Cruise faster, look for a little air (and I mean little), feel the wind, smile, investigate anything of interest, ski very relaxed like a noodle, socialize...whateve r. All the technical skills built up don't leave in these periods, and, I believe the skills enable the kid in me to just go play.

Perhaps those who patrol can describe what it's like just going shift after shift, working at something the rest of us consider as playing. It's gotta be mentally fatiguing doing run after run, especially at a small mountain. One way of keeping it fresh is to have different skis (I would think). I have a lot of sympathy for my golf instructor, just standing out all day giving lessons in hot sun.

Not having a storage locker does impede one's ability to make a switch mid-day to a crud type ski, but, there were days this year when I would have loved to have the new Dynastar's to plow through some built up crud as the temp's increase.  Note to self: midweek, put them in the car and make a change as the crust turns to dust.

BTW, this past Thursday, I skied the most crowded trail conditions evahhh! Got there at 8, left at 10. Standing in a lift line, the hill looked like a crowded expressway. One of my skiing thoughts is "make good decisions on the hill" - we left so the body would be in one piece to  ski another day. Come on cold, we need a lot more trials on my bump to be open.