(I would advise against saying the following words aloud as they have the tendency of awaking the undead) "Tatra a mistro bim hazarta. Tatir mono mansizon hazanzovar. Samanta robsa darhis hikar dans de rhodsa. Kandar. Kandar! Kandar!!" I quote from this ancient "Book of the Dead" in reference to my new skis which I skied for the very first time today. These were not necessarily the ideal conditions for these skis, but I was loving them all the same. The reason the skis deserve such ritualistic chanting from the likes of the necronomicon is because if you look at the photo of the skis below, you will see a woman from The Evil Dead struggling to escape the grip of the zombie which holds her by the throat and is attempting to pull her down to hell. Yes, this is the type of image I chose to put on my skis. I designed these skis myself. I am quite proud of them. The lighter color and the black stripes you see covering the skis are simply the wood core of the s
ki and the carbon fiber strips which make the ski such a fine piece of equipment. It is the ski nerd inside of me that loves that and it is the movie nerd in me that loves the Evil Dead reference. After picking up the skis late last night, I didn't have the chance to mount them until early this morning. I pulled a pair of Switchbacks off my Carbon Surfs and mounted up my new Asylums. Jer picked me up at 7 and I was a little late thanks to the mounting. The Powderkeg is only 2 weeks away and we needed to train. We decided to skin across the base of Alta, boot pack up to the Patsy Marley ridge, and do a couple laps over there - while intermittently meeting up with Dan and Ray who went the normal way around.
The skin across Alta wasn't bad, but I am not sure it really accomplished anything. Our bootpack, on the other hand, was certainly eventful. We weren't really sure where to go so we just made educated guesses from our experience in the race last year. The snow allowed for our boots to penetrate rather deeply which made for some difficult booting. We seemed to pick a good line until we r
eached the top. We then were faced with the decision of where to go from there. There was 5-star climbing ahead of us and we were in telemark ski boots. There was really only one move that had to be done, but it was scary nonetheless. We decided that even if we fell we would simply fall on snow, slide down a bit, and lose some ground and time, so we went for it. I went first so I could get a photo or two of Jer (and because Jer is a wimp). It was exciting on its own, but then the wind really began to pick up and the giant skis secured to my pack happened to work just like a couple of sails that wanted to take me for a ride. I was able to stay strong, however, and pushed through it. We made it to the top much later than we had originally expected and we were then behind Dan and Ray. We made our way to the Patsy Marley peak only to see the wind was just hammering it. So we took our skins off, went down the ridge a little, and made some turns through the trees. These were my first turns on my new skis. They are going to be a lot of fun to ski - especially next week once we get some new snow. We met up with Dan and Ray at the bottom of this run and we all skinned up again for a short lap towards the beginning of the ridge. Jer and I hucked the cornice that manages to keep getting bigger. Dan tried to get photos of us doing so, but was unsuccessful since my camera is not the easiest to time. We decided against a third lap due to the undesirable nature of the snow and the amount of exercise we had already achieved. We skied back down to the Goldminer's Daughter with speed in mind so as to recreate the feeling of the Keg. Evidently, Jer is going to go super slow in the race this year since I had to wait for him for some time at the bottom. It was a good day to go out and train for a race (not to mention to test out some new skis). I am happy with my fitness level and I hope I can step it up this year as I do the race division as opposed to the rec in years past. We shall see. Do not forget the words of the necronomicon, "Kandar. Kandar! Kandar!!"
(I would advise against saying the following words aloud as they have the tendency of awaking the undead) "Tatra a mistro bim hazarta. Tatir mono mansizon hazanzovar. Samanta robsa darhis hikar dans de rhodsa. Kandar. Kandar! Kandar!!" I quote from this ancient "Book of the Dead" in reference to my new skis which I skied for the very first time today. These were not necessarily the ideal conditions for these skis, but I was loving them all the same. The reason the skis deserve such ritualistic chanting from the likes of the necronomicon is because if you look at the photo of the skis below, you will see a woman from The Evil Dead struggling to escape the grip of the zombie which holds her by the throat and is attempting to pull her down to hell. Yes, this is the type of image I chose to put on my skis. I designed these skis myself. I am quite proud of them. The lighter color and the black stripes you see covering the skis are simply the wood core of the s
ki and the carbon fiber strips which make the ski such a fine piece of equipment. It is the ski nerd inside of me that loves that and it is the movie nerd in me that loves the Evil Dead reference. After picking up the skis late last night, I didn't have the chance to mount them until early this morning. I pulled a pair of Switchbacks off my Carbon Surfs and mounted up my new Asylums. Jer picked me up at 7 and I was a little late thanks to the mounting. The Powderkeg is only 2 weeks away and we needed to train. We decided to skin across the base of Alta, boot pack up to the Patsy Marley ridge, and do a couple laps over there - while intermittently meeting up with Dan and Ray who went the normal way around. 
The skin across Alta wasn't bad, but I am not sure it really accomplished anything. Our bootpack, on the other hand, was certainly eventful. We weren't really sure where to go so we just made educated guesses from our experience in the race last year. The snow allowed for our boots to penetrate rather deeply which made for some difficult booting. We seemed to pick a good line until we r
eached the top. We then were faced with the decision of where to go from there. There was 5-star climbing ahead of us and we were in telemark ski boots. There was really only one move that had to be done, but it was scary nonetheless. We decided that even if we fell we would simply fall on snow, slide down a bit, and lose some ground and time, so we went for it. I went first so I could get a photo or two of Jer (and because Jer is a wimp). It was exciting on its own, but then the wind really began to pick up and the giant skis secured to my pack happened to work just like a couple of sails that wanted to take me for a ride. I was able to stay strong, however, and pushed through it. We made it to the top much later than we had originally expected and we were then behind Dan and Ray. We made our way to the Patsy Marley peak only to see the wind was just hammering it. So we took our skins off, went down the ridge a little, and made some turns through the trees. These were my first turns on my new skis. They are going to be a lot of fun to ski - especially next week once we get some new snow. We met up with Dan and Ray at the bottom of this run and we all skinned up again for a short lap towards the beginning of the ridge. Jer and I hucked the cornice that manages to keep getting bigger. Dan tried to get photos of us doing so, but was unsuccessful since my camera is not the easiest to time. We decided against a third lap due to the undesirable nature of the snow and the amount of exercise we had already achieved. We skied back down to the Goldminer's Daughter with speed in mind so as to recreate the feeling of the Keg. Evidently, Jer is going to go super slow in the race this year since I had to wait for him for some time at the bottom. It was a good day to go out and train for a race (not to mention to test out some new skis). I am happy with my fitness level and I hope I can step it up this year as I do the race division as opposed to the rec in years past. We shall see. Do not forget the words of the necronomicon, "Kandar. Kandar! Kandar!!"
Even the Necronomicon couldn't bring this blog back from the dead.
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