realskiers

I was actually in MT at the same time as Phil, and I caught two of the best powder days of my life. I unfortunately had to leave and get back, but Phil hit it pretty huge. They were by far the biggest dumps that I have seen in my two seasons of skiing in the Big Sky area. It was Tahoe like in amount but still reasonably light snow. I am headed back this weekend and hoping for more. Phil must be doing some real clean living to have the powder Gods bestow him with such bountiful gifts!!

Now for some commentary that I know most will disagree with. I skied in 2 feet of fresh on Sunday and I skied the whole day on my Lhasa Pows. I was skiing with Harald Harb and Diana. They skied the whole time on IM 78's (78mm under foot vs. my Lhasa's at 112mm underfoot). I spent sunday working on deep flexion in every turn with large amounts of counter/counteracting movements. All of this made skiing powder over bumps in the steeps seem almost easy. The next day was the real shocker. Harald and Diana had me ski on thinner skis, and guarenteed that it woukd be easier than on me 112mm underfoot skis. I said sure, but I told then that they would be wrong. It is a good thing that I didn't bet any money. The Mojo 94's were easier and so were the Watea 84's. I also had a greater abillity to vary turn shapes and I could easily ski the skis at slower speeds which is not the forte of the Lhasa Pows.

Now before I get tarred and feathered the way I would with this post on TGR, let me say that Fat skis do help in Pow, but not as much as improving one's technique!!! I love skis, and I love buying them and many skis that I have bought have helped me become a better skier (slalom carvers definitely did that for me), But at the end of the day it is hard work on technique that has made the biggest difference. I still can't see mysel;f owning one or two pairs of skis, but at the end of the day skis do make much less difference than the quaility of the direction they get from the skier. It's like what a great cyclist said to me as I was buying a bike from his bike shop. I kept asking him about all these wheels and add ons to make the bike lighter, more areodynamic and faster and he paused and asked me "do you know what is the most important feature on any bike?" and I said no what is it? and he responded by saying "the Engine!!

Just my two cents after my excellent powder adventure.