Tag Archives: Skiing

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Technology- Good, Bad, or it Depends?

IMGP1925IMGP0205 I am reading a real interesting autobiography called,” The Outsider” by Jimmy Connors. Now, Connors was a contemporary of mine and I loved to watch him play in the 70s against Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. Classic matches and lots of vitriol between Connors and Mac but Borg was the consumate quiet competitor who left the game before his time.He amassed 5 straight Wimbledon titles among other victories. But I really loved to see Connors at the end of a victory, facing the crowd, hunched down, both fists pumped at his sides, and screaming ” Yeah!!!” to the adoring fans. He was a real competitor and honed his game around the fabled Wilson T-2000 racquet. From personal experience, this was a very stiff racquet and it was very hard to control the ball. But Connors used the racquet in his hey day to perfection. It was his weapon of choice and his game was formed around the performance of this particular make from Wilson. As Connors aged, he had to move on to newer technology because Wilson was headed in the direction of all the other racquet makers. That being oversize and composite materials. This led to the statement by Connors in his book which reads: ” A word about technological advances in tennis:I think the racquets players use today make a lot of them look and play better than they actually are. Add to that all the other advantages available now,like the high tech machines to build strength and fitness, scientifically tested diets to increase stamina, slow grass, fast clay, trainers allowed on the court when the players have an itch, permission to disappear to the locker room for a comfort break as many times as they want-man they have everything they need.” Is Connors correct that technology has made better players out of current competitors who perhaps are less than world class in talent? What do you think?

Lets bring it down to us mortals shall we? I have always embraced new technology. When the first Prince oversized racquet came out, I bought it and loved it. I played better, until all the other guys bought new oversized racquets and then we all were on a level playing field. I moved on to other pursuits. When the first shaped skis came out, I embraced that technology and still do to this day. I noticed that improvement right away wth a shorter, more high performance ski that allowed me to turn easier and be less fatigued during a day of hard skiing. There is no doubt that shaped skis make intermediate skiers out of beginners, advanced skiers out of intermediates, and experts out of advanced skiers. These advancing technologies I still embrace and the equipment has definitely made me a better skier. Most people share the same sentiment on the slopes.

When the oversized 29er wheels came out on a mountain bike, I jumped on that technology. The frames were lighter, the wheels rolled better and the oversize allowed me to ride up and over some things that I would never have attempted with a smaller 26 inch wheel. Tubeless rims are lighter and without a tube in the tire, the weight is reduced even further allowing better rolling performance than standard wheels. Again, technology improved my riding. Another good improvement for the 58 year old kid which allows me to “stay in the game.” Am I cheating? I don’t think so. I had a conversation with the 3 time Tour De France champion Greg LeMond about his use of the aero bars in the 87 Tour which he won by 8 seconds. His arch rival Laurent Fignon chose not to use the bars and lost in the final time trial to LeMond who was an innovator in cycling equipment. Lemond stated that Fignon had the opportunity to use the same equipment but chose not to use it. He lost. By 8 seconds. Did LeMond cheat? What do you think?

Golf courses are becoming more tame because of the over sized heads on drivers and the hollowed out irons which allow greater club head speed to send the ball greater distances. The only way, any more, for a quality course to tame the pros in an event like the U.S.Open is to speed up the greens and grow the rough. But for most tournaments, the winner is well below par due to his or talent, for sure, but the technological advantage of the new clubs and golf balls is key. Are they cheating? How far do you take technological advantages until they ruin the game? It is a great debate. But one thing is for sure, for the common weekend warrior, the tech advantage in better turns on the ski slopes and less fatigue is welcomed by most skiers. Over sized racquets on the tennis courts allow longer rallies thus making the weekend tennis match more fun. The average hacker can maybe shoot some better scores allowing him to enjoy the game of golf instead of getting mad and taking it out on his clubs as he hurls them into the closest lake and goes home in defeat.

I think there is some debate as to how far technological advantages can be taken in a game played by professionals. Most often you really cannot go back as in the case of the buoyant swim suits that were allowed in the Olympics 6 years ago but not allowed in the most recent Olympics. Will those records never be broken by not allowing the speed suits to be used again? The sporting world’s governing bodies need to really sort this out because technology is not going away. But it must be a level playing field expecially when it comes to records and money in sport. But again, for us mortals, bring it on. Check out the picture above of my buddy Hutch with our shaped cheater skis- yea baby, I love them. And how about Heff and I with our 29ers in West Virginia on the roots, rocks, and mud? Sure is a lot easier than the old bikes we used to ride. So, weekend warrior, get the best stuff. When you are a 58 year old kid like me, you take every advantage you can. Thanks for reading.

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The Saturday Morning Group

photophotophoto One of the more interesting habits of active people is the yearning to get together on a weekly basis to do something that we all are passionate about. Whether you have your regularly scheduled foursome on the golf course, your doubles outings in tennis, or your fishing or shooting events, there is a need to have comraderie with your friends on a weekly basis. It takes a lot of work to schedule these outings with games, practices, family or work issues, but if you have the will to do it, you can find a way to schedule your fun with your friends. Take my groups above. My Saturday morning ski group is a prime example of guys who love to ski and get together. Some of these guys I have skied with for over 40 years and others come and go. But the core group can’t wait to get together and the E-Mails start flying around Wednesdays to make sure everyone is coming and to see who is out of town on a great ski trip. The other group above is my Saturday morning Mountain Bike group which also varies in participants but JR Ellis, Pete Hilton, Don Cunningham, and me are the core members who welcome everyone to join us. We lost Ralph Phillips to a move to North Carolina, but he is with us in spirit and we will ride with him in the near future. We get visitors from out of town, guys that come on occasion, and guys whom we meet on the trails who want to join a group of jokers who have fun and tell each other how good we were. Great times on Saturday mornings.

One good thing about scheduling the weekly Saturday outings is the accountability factor. Now each of these groups have participants who are real enthusiasts and can easily ski or ride by themselves. I, for one, like to ski by myself and ride by myself. But I know the value of participating with a group for more than just the comraderie while partipating in a mutually loved activity. You can learn a lot about your friends by spending time with them and make new friends in the same fashion. The participants in my groups need no motivation to get up and run, ride, or ski. It is part of their fabric and they have participated in these activities for so long that they really don’t need the accountability to make them show up. However, if you are a new person to a sport or you have been out of the sport for a while, you might benefit from joining a group that enjoys what you do or are interested in doing, and will hold you accountable if you don’t show. The group will bust you if you fail to make the outing and sometimes this is what a person needs to jump start their activity. Running groups are great for this and cycling groups promote this type of acountability as well. As Jack McArdle has said before, our North Park is the only place you have to apologize for running 5 miles. But if you are willing to schedule yourself and be accountable to a group, you will become better at the sport because you will benefit from the experience of some of those who are in that particular group. I have skied for over 50 years and I still learn something every year and a lot of it comes from skiing with my Saturday morning guys. We talk skiing, eat skiing, breathe, skiing and you can learn a lot just by listening and participating. Same thing with my riding group. We talk equipment, what works, what does not work, fitness, diet, new trails, and everything associated with the great activity of mountain biking. Young guys like to join us mostly because they like to hear the stories about the old days and in some instances, some of us old warhorses can still hang with the younger set which they find appealing. I believe it gives them some motivtion in that a lot of us are as old or older than their dads and are out skiing at warp speed, or riding with a high level of fitness over some demanding trails.

Whether you want to take up golf, tennis, skiing, cycling or running,or whatever, there are clubs and groups of individuals who participate on a regular basis that would be happy to take you under their wing and show you the ropes just like someone did for them. We do it all the time with our ski group and also with our mountain bike group. You can develop some amazing friends over the years if you choose to have a Saturday morning group. Our friend Craig Morris from the ski group could not be more of a loyal friend. My mother always said that to have a friend is to be a friend. You have to make an effort and Craig has done that for our group for a long, long time. We have been friends for over 40 years. Craig makes the effort and is one of the core guys in the ski group. He makes an effort to travel and ski with the guys and values his friendships. He would be an example of my mother’s axiom. The same can be said for my riding group. So………..lesson here is to take up an activity or join others who participate in an activity and try to have a Saturday morning group. They will make you laugh, hold you accountable on many fronts, and be there for you when you need them the most. They get to know you and the activity only solidifies what is important……friendship, and comraderie. Thanks for reading.

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Maximum Vertical Drop!!!

photo I am constantly amazed what technology has available for everyday schlubbs like me. I just purchased an I-Phone 5. I know – so what Pat? Hundred’s of thousands of people have the 5. But you must understand that for me- this is a big deal. I am having fun learning how to use it and the advantages of the I-Phone are revealed to my feeble mind every day. Take the App called Alpine Replay. My snowboarding friend Daryl Hasley( a technical guru and excellent snowboarder) set me up with this App to log information on my western ski trip. Once you log in, the App knows what area you are skiing, how many runs you took, what distance you covered, how fast your sustained speed was, what your highest speed was and the all important -vertical drop. For those of you not familiar with the term, vertical drop is a measurement of vertical distance covered by a skier. If the mountain has a maximum height of 7,000 feet, for example, and the base where the chair lift is at 5500 feet, the run that you skied to get to that chair had a vertical drop of 1500 vertical feet. Skiers measure their days by runs and vertical drop covered. When you Heli-Ski, the company guarantees so many feet of vertical drop to the client, or the company reimburses the skier for vertical drop not achieved. Conversely, if the skiers are doing well and the weather is good, they may go over their guarantee in which case the client must pay extra for the additional vertical drop. It is a measurement that is bragging rights to most skiers and the Alpine Replay App can tell you the statistics at the end of the day/week.

The cool thing about this App is that you can also measure yourself against others who are using it. Alpine Replay has users all over the world. I showed this to our group of guys this week and the challenge was on to beat the weekly record for vertical drop. I have blogged about our group in previous posts but suffice to say that we had our usual lineup of old guys who can ski. Eric Durfee is our fearless leader and annual host who lives in Tahoe. Mark Hutchinson and Proctor Reid are two of Eric’s buddies who grew up together in Vermont. Hutch was a former race coach at Stowe and Proctor raced for Dartmouth. Rounding out the group this year was another friend of Eric’s from college -Bart Smith who lives in Seattle and raced with Eric at Cornell. An extremely strong skier, Bart is a great guy and had a similar App called Ski Tracks spinnning on his I-Phone. These guys all ski hard every day and for a bunch of 58 year old guys, they are in tremendous shape and love to ski long and hard. The App was a perfect incentive to go “bell to bell.”

We skied several areas where the chalenging terrain made it difficult to log excessive vertical drop. However, on the day that we decided to crush the record for the week, we skied Northstar at Tahoe which has long flowing trails that are groomed to perfection allowing high speed turns and runs accompanied by fast high speed chairlifts. This is the perfect scenario for racking up maximum vertical drop. As we monitored our progress, we knew that we had to beat 47,000 vertical drop for the day which was the standing record by a guy from Mt. Snow,Vermont followed by another guy from Copper Mountain, Colorado. We had seen each of these guys records for the last couple of days and decided it would be fun to break their complacency by crushing their record. We hammered run after run right on each others heels down the smooth and flowing trails. As we entered the chair lift lines, we didn’t waste any time getting on the chair, exiting at the top and launching ourselves back down fast trails like Railsplitter, Challenge,and Washoe. We had to be careful of other guests at the resort who were moseying around the trails. The downhill skier has the right of way and we bore that in mind always as we rocketed past them on our quest for speed and distance. At about 3:45 I was just about out of battery and I didn’t want to lose the statistics so I uploaded the results, hit “OK” and my statistics( our statistics) came up in first place with 57,835 vertical feet logged. We took 35 runs to do it and we had the satisfaction to know that we crushed the guys from Vermont and Colorado even though we only know their name as Tom and Dan. But somewhere out there in cyber land, we were sure that they were crying in their beer when their effort for the day had been eclipsed by a bunch of has beens. But we loved it as we quaffed our end of the day pilseners at the base lodge bar.

The next day, we had another opportunity at Mt. Rose,Nevada. Same scenario- smooth groomed trails and really fast chairlifts. Actually Rose has the fastest chairs in Tahoe according to Eric and without much effort, the merry band of geriatric GS turners racked up 50,000 vertical feet. Had we not had a leisurely lunch, we may have broken the record again but we ended up second to the guy from Vermont by 1000 vertical feet. He probably felt good to be on top again not to realize that with just a little effort by the old guys, he would be crying in his beer again.

The App was a lot of fun on this trip and it gave some guys from our group some incentive long after the starting gates and slalom and GS courses have become distant memories. We still like to ski hard and fast and every year we vow to stay in shape so we can come back the next year and the next year and the year after that. ” Do not go gently into that good night…….Rage, Rage against the dying of the light.” Thanks for reading.

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Tahoe- Heaven on Earth

photophoto When I die, I hope God sends me to Lake Tahoe. I am sure that somehow this magical place is on God’s radar screen as a part of Heaven reserved for faithful servants/skiers like me. At least I hope so. In all seriousness, every time I have the good fortune of coming here, I see beauty beyond comparison. The lake itself is the most beautiful color of blue which photography cannot adequetely capture, and it is surrounded by the most majestic mountains which are home to spectacular hiking, mountain biking and skiing.

I am out here with my group of guys whom I have skied with for a long time. Our good friends the Durfees are such gracious hosts to this band of ruffians who invade their home every year on the annual guys “ski till you die” trip. I got a little warm up this year by sking Mt. Rose and Homewood before the other guys got here. Rose has a memorable view of Reno on one side and Lake Tahoe on the other side and not only is it visually stunnning but it is also a great ski area which most people don’t recognize. I had the good fortune to ski Homewood yesterday which is my 108th different ski area in my resume. I have this running contest with my friend Mike Smith to see who can ski the most ski areas in their lifetime. Mike is still ahead of me by 19 areas but I am slowly catching him. Homewood is right on the lake and has perhaps the most brilliant and visually stimulating views of the mountains and the water. When you ski to the middle of the mountain, you look ahead and it seems like you could ski right into the lake. The area has an old school feel to it and the only drawback is slow chair lifts. But they are slated for a high speed chair next season according to the locals. I stopped at a neat little place called ” The Dam Cafe” in Tahoe City on the way to Homewood. Their organic coffee and pastries were amazing and I stopped there after skiing to get a veggie sandwich that was as big as my head. The girls who work there are real free spirits true to the California lifestyle and if you want to be entertained by a waitstaff who are funny and relaxed in the California way, don’t miss “The Dam Cafe.”

Today the posse traveled to Squaw Valley -Home of the 1960 Winter Olympics and also home to some of the most famous ski racers and free skiers of all time. Olympians like Tamara McKinney, Darron Rahlves, and Julia Mancuso call Olympic Valley home and they are very proud of the tradition that surrounds this amazing mountain. The geography here is amazing in that the ski area is surrounded by massive cliffs and rock formations in this geologically active area. In big snow years, there is so much to ski and the really good skiers use the rock formations to launch some big air in their daily skiing repetoire. Some of the best skiers in the world call Squaw their home. Our group skied all over that mountain today and tonight we are feeling the effects of skiing 27,000 vertical feet and 20 runs of demanding steeps and soft snow conditions in brilliant sunshine. I rented a black Chevy Suburban and when we travel to the different areas, I wear my dark Raybans. We look just like the Secret Service in this massive vehicle but it has a lot of room for all the gear and we can really stretch out. A little tough on gas but a great travel vehicle.

Like any guys trip, the old stories come out on the chairlifts, at lunch and dinner. Mark Hutchison and Proctor Reid are native Vermonters and have a lot of great ski stories and they run into people out here who know them or know their frineds back in Vermont. The ski community is actually small and it is amazing who you bump into all the way out here. Lastly, we had the good fortune to see the US National Ski Championships at Squaw today and the final event was the women’s slalom. These women are amazing athletes and my buddies who were former ski racers remarked how conditioning, equipment and training has elevated the sport to where it is today. Mikaela Shifferin was racing today. She is the current World Cup Slalom Champion and she just turned 18!!!

I have several more days here and then it will be time to return to the real world. Thanks to our friends the Durfees, we all have the great fortune to come out to visit this paradise. If you have never been to Lake Tahoe, please put that on your bucket list too. It is visually breathtaking. The saying around here is that people come for the winter but stay for the summers. It is beautiful here all year long. Don’t miss it and thanks for reading.

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US. Ski Team- Hard Work and Dedication

us%20ski%20team.finals2013 Taking a time out here for a quick shout out to our US Ski Team. Another fabulous season with Ted Ligety adding another World Cup Giant Slalom Title to his resume and establishing himself as the undisputed King of the discipline. Lindsey Vonn, even though out with a horrific knee injury, won yet another World Cup Downhill Title even though she didn’t finish the season. Lindsey had successful knee surgery and vows to be back better than ever for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. But the revelation of the season was 18 year old Mikaela Shiffrin from Vail, Colorado. She is pictured above with Ted Ligety and the rest of their hard working coaches and Ski Team staff. Mikaela was 17 when she won her first World Cup Slalom event and when she just turned 18, she wrapped up the World Cup Overall Slalom Title. An amazing feat for someone so young and against such stiff World Cup competition.

What does it take to ski and win at this level? Hard work and dedication. I have had the wonderful experience of skiing with some of the US Ski Team members in my past. As I mentioned in my heli- skiing post, I had the good fortune to ski with some old school members Max Marolt and Dave Gorsuch. Even though these guys were older, they were in fantastic shape and their technique was world class. Their stories were great and they came from the generation where not many people outside the ski world had any clue of their accomplishments. Moving forward, I had the great experience of taking a race clinic with Dianne Roffe who was a World Champion and Olympic medalist. The interesting thing about Dianne was that she taught in a ski instructors clinic. Nowadays, the PSIA ski instructors organization is embracing race technique taught by the US Ski Coaches Association. The connection now is that the instructors organization is recognizing that ski instructor technique is not always fast in a race course. However, after viewing a lot of footage of slow motion racing, PSIA is coming to the understanding that World Cup Ski Techique is really founded on good technique taught at an early age. To glide well on skis is something that a racer either has or does not have. It is a feel thing that really cannot be taught. But other than that, good technique coupled with a good feel for the skis can win races. That is what Dianne taught that day and it was an interesting lesson to me whose experience was limited to ski instruction.

Fast forward to another race clinic at Killington,Vermont with Christin Cooper the TV analyist, former US Ski Team Member and Olympic silver medalist in slalom. Coop was fun. She had a great sense of humor and was still dedicated to the sport by working with instructors and masters racers. While viewing our initial run, I caught an edge,blew out of both bindings and flew headfirst down the hill sliding on my belly. As I came to a stop at the edge of her ski boots, I looked up and said,” How was that?” She said,” Not what I had in mind but you can try it again.” She was another one who joined good technique with teaching us about line through a race course and how to ski fast.

One final experience was with Phil Mahre, the World Cup Overall Champion and Olympic gold medalist. I had the good fortune of being his host for the day at our home area of Seven Springs. I learned a lot about the Ski Team and his training that day and when I skied behind him, he laid trenches in the snow with perfectly carved precision . There was no skid detected at all and his flawless technique was marked by his amazing strength. Phil was racing on the Pro Tour at the time which was where retired World Cup racers finished their careers. The only reason Phil was racing and doing these clincs was out of gratitude to his life long racing sponsor K-2 Skis. He and his brother Steve trained hard and set their own courses every day even though they were technically retired from the US Ski Team. Training was in their bones and they did it out of respect for a ski company that was faithful to them all through their career. K-2 made a lot of money through their association with the Mahre brothers, but the reverse can also be said. It was , and is to this day, still a good relationship. The common thread in all of this is hard work, dedication , understanding of good ski technique and respect for those who brought you to the dance. In this age of entitlement by athletes, I look at the example of the US Ski Team and their hard work. Look at this picture. you see two champions flanked by a cadre of coaches and staff who have one goal in mind- winning. They and all their predecessors did it in similar fashion without any sense of entitlement. The clock doesn’t lie and you can’t hide behind a team when you are in the starting gate. Very impressive to me for many years and still today when I look at this picture and look at the accomplishments of the team. Please make a donation when you can to the US Ski Team. They work hard and deserve your support. Thanks for reading.

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The Joy of Spring Skiing

IMG00138-20100210-1422 You know, around these parts we have this crazy rodent named Phil who comes out of his hole in February and the prognosticators of Gobbler’s Knob in Punxatawney,Pa. decide with Phil that winter is often on its way out. Then you get a few nice days in March, coupled by the time change and people get looney. They forget about skiing and get their golf clubs out and hack around in the cold and the mud, or they fish in the streams that still have ice on them and tell themselves that it is spring. The hackers look for their plugged balls and often times try to warm themselves with coffee because it is not quite the warm spring day they anticipated. Why do this when you can still ski? So many people give up when there is plenty of snow on the mountain and the warm late winter days soften the snow into very skiable corn snow which can be enjoyed into April and often times later in the season out west.

Most skiers suffer through the brutal winds and icy conditions of winter and when the big payoff comes with spring skiing, their thoughts turn to activities that can be done for the rest of the year. Why rush it? The ski areas try to keep the attraction by reducing rates, having spring carnivals where people dress in costume and have pond skims on skis, and other festivities that celebrate the end of the ski season. From New England to the West, these carnivals keep the season alive but lots of folks don’t attend unless they are diehards like me and my friends. I remember as a kid, going to Holiday Valley in Western New York for a spring skiing weekend where lift tickets were discounted if you wore pajamas and robes. Of course all of us kids couldn’t wait to wear the stuff and we were welcomed by a pancake breakfast at the top of the mountain as part of the festivities with fresh, local maple syrup as the main attraction of the breakfast. I remember green beer flowing on St. Patrick’s Day at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid a few years back where the weather was in the 60’s, the snow was perfect and the on-mountain fun was outrageous. Years ago when Coors Light was in an experimental stage and the brewery was looking for some feedback on a new light beer, the silver cans were first given to all the spring skiers on the deck at Mid-Vail. I remember filling out the survey on what I thought of the light beer in the silver can. Amazing how a product that started as a spring skiing give a way, became a staple of American lifestyle. Guys wearing t-shirts and shorts, girls wearing bikini tops and windpants, crazy hats, bands rocking on the decks, all around good times mark the spring skiing period which should not be missed at this time of year.

Personally, I like all the festivities but what I most enjoy about spring skiing is the opportunity to ski some pretty cool stuff with soft corn conditions out west. As you can see from the picture above, we like to climb to some interesting runs in places like Kirkwood in Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain in California. If you are willing to get a little sweat on,sling your skis over your shoulders, and climb in sunny conditions, you can hang your skis out over some chutes, ravines, and other challenging places with excellent soft conditions that make it easier to ski at spring time rather than the hard, icy conditions the rest of the year. You still have to pay attention and make sure that you make that first turn, but this is what you pay your money for if you make your way to the west for spring skiing. After a number of runs and a number of climbs, that beer at the end of the day sure tastes good and we all entertain each other with stories of the great runs experienced that day. As we get older, the stories get better, the runs become steeper, but like the fisherman who tells of the big one that got away, it all feels good to partake and to tell the tale.

As my friends at home here are getting their bikes ready, I will be heading west soon for some great end of the season adventures with the Eric Durfee posse whom I have posted about previously. These diehards( with yours truly) gather in the spring to end the season together with some great skiing and even greater comraderie. It has become a tradition and I will be posting some live action from the group in the coming weeks. This blog, as you know, talks about the adventures of a 58 year old kid and I am happy to report that the adventures will continue “live” with the end of the season spring skiing. Thanks for reading and stay tuned. When I return, the new season of posts begin with more spring and summer based memories and adventures. Just like Jimmie Durante………….”I got a million of them…..ha,cha,cha,cha,chaaaaaaaa.”

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The Good Old Days

Franklin Park-20130307-00105 Through the help of the intergalactic world of communication, I was wishing my sister Molly a happy birthday in New Jersey and talking to my friend Melissa Updegraff who lives in Switzerland now, about the good old days at our home ski area of Seven Springs. The Laurel Mountains of Western Pa gave us all a lot of joy growing up and I dragged this old picture that you see here( hopefully it shows well) out of the archives to show you how we used to “do it all at Seven Springs.” My dad went into the poor house outfitting me in that snappy ski sweater and stretch pants with the racing stripe. Santa Claus came through with some nice Innsbruck wooden skis, cable bindings, and leather tie boots. Yes young ones, tie boots- where you had to tie both the inner boot and the outer boot snugly. If you look closely you will also notice the Arlberg strap which was the original safety strap that wrapped several times around your boot almost inviting a spiral fracture to occur. You will notice the fellow next to me had an older strap that just dragged on the ground and hopefully the poor sap did’t ski over it and crash.

It is amazing how equipment in all sports have changed. You can see that in golf clubs, tennis racquets, bicycles, and a myriad of other sporting equipment choices that are available to the public today. Ski equipment has radically changed from the good old days. We have shaped skis which are tuned by machine, made of the highest quality composites, and boots that have custom inner liners and orthodic sole inserts. A far cry from what we had to ski back in the mid sixties when this picture was taken. Those wooden skis had screw in edges that were placed in sections on the bottom and edges of the skis. There was little to no sidecut to help you turn if you put the ski on edge and the bindings were cable type that wrapped around your boot with little or no release setting. Our old neighbor Bob Rose, our hero who drove us every weekend to the mountains, elevated the ante when he became an expert at Cubco bindings. Now Mr. Rose mounted all of his kids skis with the infernal Cubcos. He simply drilled the holes in the skis in his basement and mounted the metal plate on the front of the boot. If the front spring was too tight or too rusted from a summer in the garage, you were surely a candidate to blow out your knees. Big Bob swore by those binders and ironcally there was an Angel that was a prominent part of Cubco advertising to make you believe that they were safe especially in the capable hands of Big Bob who mounted them and hoped for the best with the settings. ” Ah lets see now Annie- you probably weigh about x so we will crank these springs about three turns or so and hope they release when called upon.” These old skis with the cable bindings or the Cubcos were used with this Arlberg “safety” strap. Another misnomer in that when the binding released, the ski remained attached by the strap and was like a helicopter whirling out of control during the fall. If you didn’t get whacked in the head by the whirling ski, you were a fortunate soul. Hard to believe how we even skied on that old stuff with no grooming, icy conditions, and no snowmaking at the time. But we couldn’t get enough of it and Big Bob herded us all together at the end of the day or night and threw all of us in the big old station wagon for the trip back to the cabin. Cubco Bob- what a guy. He could have been the rep for those bindings. He probably knew more than the manufacturer.

Bear with us, non-skiers following the blog, as we march through memory lane on equipment. As we grew, Howard Head invented the first metal ski -The Head Standard. If you got a pair of those, you were defintely cool and those were followed by the Head 360 which I later received with Look Nevada bindings. As composites and aluminum came into the picture, we were captivated by Fisher Presidents or the Alu with Marker Rotomat(explodamat) bindings. But if you were totally cool, you admired Jean Claude Killy and Guy Perrilat, the famous French racers, and got a pair of Rossignol Stratos or a pair of Dynamic VR-17s. Ok my fellow compatriots- remember those? Got your memory stirring didn’t I? I will never forget racing in our little race at Seven Springs called the Standard Race. I had my Stratos and thought I would be faster if I dove accross the finish line at the end instead of just tucking through the finish. After I completely wiped out the timing wand, and blew out of both bindings, the people came running out of the lodge questioning what the hell I was doing? I explained my teen age theory and they all laughed as we tried to re-assemble the timing device. But I was defintely the cats meow with those Stratos.

Time marches on and many skis have crossed our paths in the mean time. But I will tell you that I was never so happy or as proud as when I received those first pair of wooden skis. As I have said in an earlier post, I was genuinely enthused and passionate about skiing and still am to this day. My folks were responsible for initiating me to the sport much to their credit as they scraped and scrapped to get the money to give me those treasured items. I will always be grateful to them for getting me started in this lifetime sport. I passed it on to the next generation with my son Jack. I had him out there at 2+1/2 but he turned into a basketball player. Some day though, when the ball days are finished, I am sure he will return to carry the torch. Or at least I hope so? Thanks for reading.

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Vehmontahhs( Vermonters)

IMG00332-20110324-2105 Many,many times I have put all of my gear in my vehicle and headed up I-79, accross I-90 in New York, cut the corner at Amsterdam and spit myself out at Ballston Spa, New York, hopped on I-87( the Adirondack Northway), headed east on Rt 149 and into Rt 4 until I crossed the border into Vermont. For those of you who have not been there or those of you who have and appreciate it, Vermont it one of the most beautiful states in the Union. The Green Mountains with all their seasonal glory are a wonder to behold and the little iconic towns like Woodstock, Bethel, Randolph, Stowe, East Burke and a host of others are something out of a Christmas card. The steepled churches, the gazebos in the town squares, the beautiful homes with the steep pitched metal roofs to ward off the heavy snow, and the candles in the windows make you feel like you are driving or walking back in time compared to the hussle and bussle of cities much larger. Vermont has a warmth and a charm that is hard to describe unless you take the time ( and take your time) driving or walking through the towns or hiking the hundreds of miles of trails in the Green Mountains. The skiing is great and can be a challenge because of the weather, but that is what makes Vermont what it is. The challenge earns that hot toddy or Long Trail Ale at the end of the day.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about Vermont besides the mountains, towns and dairy farms, are the people themselves. They are a hard working, Ethan Allen like, ready for anything lot, and tend to be your best friend only when they get to know you. Kind of like a dog who sniffs you and snarls a little bit until they know you are their friend and then they will do anything for you. Take these three curmudgeons in the hot tub above. These three Vehmontahhs are my friends who I ski with each year and have about as much business in a hot tub as Atilla the Hun would be at high tea. These guys are hard core skiers and the guy in the middle is the owner of the hot tub out in Nevada. He has enjoyed the laid back lifestyle of the west but still took a 2 month motorcycle trip to the Arctic Ocean this summer. The consumate outdoorsman, he honed his skills back in Vermont.

True Vermonters don’t drive Land Rovers with” I Love Vermont” stickers on the bumper. They tend to drive old F-150s or perhaps an old Impala with concrete blocks or cement bags in the trunk with big honker snow tires. Weather means nothing to these guys as evidenced by the re-build they did after the recent hurricane last year. They silently rebuilt their homes and roads without all the hoopala from the media. This is what they do. They eat nails for breakfast and tend to be the masters of the understatement. “Yea- it is a little bit scratchy on the trails today.” Translated that means you can see last years dandylions under the black ice that you are skiing. “Well we got a little dusting overnight.” That means a foot of new snow. The first time I went skiing with Eric Durfee( the guy in the middle up above), we went to Mad River Glen which is a tyrant of a hill with no snowmaking, single chair and blankets, and conditions that can generate sparks coming from your skis as you make your way down the glades or icy sometimes rocky trails. The temperature was 15 below and the guy at the ticket booth was selling single ride tickets. Eric came to the booth and said,” Two day tickets please.” To which his fellow Vermonter replied,” Did you hear what I said, we are selling single ride tickets because of the cold.” Eric said,” Yeah- I heard you, two day tickets please.” Fast forward to about 2:00 PM, my wips wah fwozen and I couldn’t get any wohdds out of my wips. My feet were numb, the hands were numb, and I finally requested that we go in. The guy who eats nails for breakfast said, don’t stay in too long, you will sweat. I would have given my right toe for some sweat at that point.

Vermonters don’t tend to be recreational types. In fact there is a movement in the state to encourage Vermonters to ski more. Most of the skiers are tourists like myself and want to be like the locals. But we are a dead give away to any true Vermonter but not as bad as New Yorkers who think they are locals because they rent a ski house for the winter and step all over your skis. When they say,” What are you lookin at?”,it tends to give them away but all the same, they enjoy the slopes as much as anyone. I just give them some room.

My buddy Hutch on the right in the picture, is a native and loves to ski. His enthusiasm is brought to light in his comments to this blog and if anyone enjoys his home state and slopes and trails -it is Hutch. We skied together earlier this year at Killington which he lovingly calls “The Beast”. The snow guns were blasting, the trails were icy and only about half the mountain was open. But Hutch was excited to ski and so was I and we had a ball. We will see each other in a few weeks as the group gathers again at the Durfees out in Nevada. The guy on the left, Proctor Reid, was an ex-Dartmouth ski racer and still can turn them today like he did 40 years ago. Vermonters are an interesting breed. Once they get to know you,again,they are your friend for life.

Before I close, if you want to get a taste of Vermont, try these three web sites. Vermont maple syrup is the best in the world and don’t let the Somerset County folks in Pa. tell you any different. If you log on to http://www.maplesyrupvermont.com, the Couytures will set you up with some fine and tasty maple products. If you log on to http://www.SimonPearce.com, you can order some of the most beautiful hand blown glasswhere anywhere in the counntry. If you are in Vermont, the Quechee Mills are the home to Simon Pearce restaurant and factory. Don’t miss it. Finally, if you want to have some Vermont in your living room, look up http://www.woodyjacksonart.com . Woody Jackson is the artist that made Ben and Jerry’s famous artwork on their ice cream pints and quarts. Cool stuff and worth the look. Go visit Vermont, ski and hike there, ride your road or mountain bike there, but most of all, get to know a Vehmontahh. They are great people who know how to live, work hard and play hard. Thanks for reading.

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Sibling Skiing

Ellicottville-20130208-00087Ellicottville-20130208-00087 I had the good fortune a couple of weeks ago to ski arguably the finest private ski club in the country. Holimont, in Western New York, has a great feel to it. The slopes and trails are impeccably groomed, and the addition of a new high speed quad lift this season has been a plus. The lodge is beautiful and equipped with a wonderful ski shop and dining area. Being in close proximity to Lake Erie, they get a lot of snow which I lovingly call Lake Erie Fluff. During the week they open the resort to hairbags like me and the public is treated to a wonderful skiing experience that most people never get. Check out Holimont- http://www.holimont.com They are expanding and offering real estate options at the present time.

While skiing at Holimont, I connected with Ted and Darcy Branch who are members, and Porter Scott. Darcy and my friend Porter Scott, who is a regular skiing friend of mine, are wonderful skiers and Ted is a Dartmouth grad and a Granite State native- no slouch in his own right to say the least. I rounded out the foursome and we had a blast skiing in about 6-8 inches of new LEF( Lake Erie Fluff.) Porter and Darcy are brother and sister and come from a wonderful skiing family. Mrs. Scott, the matriarch of the family, still skis and makes beautiful turns. The thing that was impressive that day besides the glorious conditions and the fitness and the skill level of the skiers, was the obvious closeness between Porter and his sister Darcy. They have a wonderful relationship and it was really cool to see how well they ski and how they really enjoy each others company. Porter gets up to Ellicottville regularly to ski with his sister and Ted.

While daydreaming on the way home, I thought of the nice times that I had skiing with my sister when she was a student at Carnegie Mellon. We used to take advantage of her sping breaks and go skiing. One year, we went with my friend Mike Smith who I have mentioned in this blog in the past. I took them to Alta and Snowbird, Utah where my sister got her first taste of big mountain skiing. I had her on the high traverse to High Rustler, the iconic run at Alta, and she had her first experience of a little slide. She was a little wigged out but she eventually learned to ski out of the slough and made beautiful turns. We then went to Snowbird where Mike caught an edge and yard saled it down the Cirque all the way to the floor of the canyon. I stoicly looked at Molly and told her……” You’re next.” She was a little un-nerved again but came through with beautuful turns. Pretty good experience for the future Miss Molly of Romper Room fame. If only they had seen her in the Magic Mirror that day.

Another outing came when I decided to take Molly to New England for a road trip. Now a road trip with me consists of gas/food/and pee stops all at once. That took some “getting used to” on Molly’s part but she complied. We made it to Killington,Vermont in a raging ice storm and her rain suit that I bought her at the Army Navy store only held out for so long before it was hopelessly frozen and ripped. We skied on frozen baby heads all day long and finally when she had enough, I told her we could drive just up the road for some better conditions at my old haunt- Sugarloaf, Me. Six hours later, we pulled into Sugarloaf only to find frozen slabs everywhere on the Narrow Gauge Trail. Molly only held on for two hours and said she couldn’t believe she skied for two hours on that crap. I remarked that I couldn’t believe we only skied for two hours. However, undaunted,I took her to one of my old haunts-” The Bag” and introduced her to Fiddlehead soup. Now Fiddleheads are a tender fern shaped like the neck of a fiddle and are the first shoots to break through the snowpack in the spring. The soup was delicious, Molly liked The Bag and we headed back to Vermont only to find that Stowe,Vermont was closed. Exhausted, we made our way back to Killington and skied for a while longer before heading out eventually back to Pa.

Although this trip was a near disaster, good did come out of it because my sister was a captive audience in the car for many hours. It is amazing the conversations that you can have when you spend that much time behind the wheel with a compliant passenger. For me, the time together is something I will never forget and I will always cherish. Molly lives in New Jersey now with her husband and four wonderful kids. They are all growing up and are making their way to and through college and Molly is starting to get some free time. Although she has a demanding job, I am trying hard to get her out of retirement and to hit the slopes with me again. She is threatening to do so and I will stay on her case until she does. Life is too short and it deals you some tough blows sometimes. But it can never take away the great memories of times spent together as a family and as brother and sister. If you haven’t taken the time to get together with a sibling for a while, do something fun together and make it special. Porter and Darcy do and I am hoping that I can renew some old times with Molly. Thanks for reading.

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Old School Heli

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IMG_7755-L If you take a heli ski trip today, you are treated to a posh experience with beautiful lodges, gourmet cuisine, and pampering that is consistent with the high price of the trip today. But that was not always the case back in the days when I went heli skiing. Although the guiding was always first rate, the experience was a bit on the spartan side. I had several one day experiences with Wasatch Powder Birds in Snowbird,Utah as well as a day at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But perhaps the best experience I had was when I went with Canadian Mountain Holidays for a week in Golden, British Columbia. I went with a group of rowdies from my home area in Pennsylvania and as we made our way to Calgary, we were transported the next day to Golden by bus. Golden is the home to several heli operations as well as cat skiing operations. Once we were there, we were transferred by helicopter to the Bobbie Burns Range in central BC. The location was 650 square miles from anything and once you are there, you are there.

Along with our group was an accomplished group from Vail, Colorado that included two ex- US Ski Team guys, Max Marolt and Dave Gorsuch. Marolt was a strong skier whose brother Bill was an ex- US Ski Team coach. Gorsuch owned arguably the most elegant ski shop in Vail and was an extremely accomplished skier. The rest of their group included a bunch of Euros who all could ski very well and were a lot of fun. The other group was an obnoxiuous pile of New Yorkers who were great skiers in the bar but soon revealed their weak conditioning and skill as the week went on only to be royally abused by our Austrian friend, Rolf Sigmund who was in our contingent.

CMH as well as the other operators take safety very seriously as they trained us on the proper use of the SKADIS which are trancievers that are used to transmit or receive a signal in the event of an avalanche. We all had to find buried SKADIS before we could go out on the first day. The helicopter flies all day and as it makes its way to each group who are guided by certified AMGA Swiss guides, the key is to be ready when it arrives at the bottom of your run. If there is a straggler, the copter passes you by to the next group, much to the chargin of the other members of the group who are trying to maximize valuable vertical feet of skiing. The modus operandi is don’t be the straggler if you want any friends on the heli trip. Several funny things happened up there. Our young guide took a wrong turn and brought us to a cliff area by mistake. The only way down was to either traverse a long way around or do what I did. I grabbed a low hanging tree branch and rode it down over the cliff until it cracked. At which point I tumbled all the way down the ravine until I reached the bottom. My young guide was apologizing profusely and was amazed at my impatience with my branch ride. I explained to him that I was a mill hunkie from Pittsburgh and didn’t know any better which was lost on him but the rest of my group found it highly amusing.

Our accomodations at the time contrasted boldly with what is available today. We had a sleeping trailer, a dining trailer, a helicopter pad and a log sauna. That was it. Also, today you have the advantage of the modern equipment which make skiing powder effortless but back in the day, you had to ski with whatever you had. In my case it was a pair of Atomic GS skis that worked great on high speed groomed runs but dove like a submarine in deep powder. You had to be careful of your fore and aft balance and I had my share of egg beaters on that trip. You have to ski a lot of wind blown crap until you get to the good stuff that you see in the magazines but all in all it is worth the effort.

At the end of the day, the sauna was a welcome venue for a lot of folks considering the physical activity. I am not a sauna, massage or steam room guy but one day I decided to see what all the hoopala was all about. As I donned one of my famous wool hats that looked like an upside down flower pot, my boxer shorts, a towel and my Bean boots, I clomped over to the popular log house. When I entered, I was aghast to find the Vail group in there totally naked and enjoying the sauna. I tried to excuse myself but they all laughed and said to come on in. As they explained the European traditions of the sauna, my eyes bore holes in the floor boards as I started to perspire heavily in my Bean boots. I tried to be as Nordic as I could following in the footsteps of those who over- ran us poor slobs in Ireland, but my roots came to the forefront as I excused myself and ran back out into the snow after remarking,” Gee- it sure is hot in here.” They all laughed again and said,” See you at dinner Pat.”

The really cool thing is riding shot gun in the heli. In my day, the pilots were all ex Vietnam guys and had a bit of cowboy in them although they had strict protocol dictated by CMH. The one pilot told me that he had a group of USAirways pilots egging him on and he showed me two vertical rock spires in the distance. He said he turned the Bell Jet Ranger on its side and flew between the spires sideways. The USAiways pilots were silent from that moment on. If you get a chance, check out the CMH website- http://www.canadianmountainholidays.com If nothing else, it is a cool website to visit. It will give you the flavor of probably the pentultimate experience in skiing today. Thanks for reading.