Back on skis, 2009 edition
I was a cross-dresser. By that, I don’t mean that I was wearing women’s clothing; instead, I had skis rather than a snowboard attached to my feet.
Last season I went out for a day on skis, after going three years without having been on skis. It was awkward enough that I decided to spent at least one or two days a season on skis, just so I wouldn’t forget.
Due to some problems with my snowboard bindings, I spent my first day on the hill this season was on my old Volkl carving skis.
Why did I do it? Because a few days before I had spent $36 on some new straps for my ski poles.
Most poles have a strap built in, and you stick your hand through the strap to keep the poles from flying away from you. Leki has a system in which the strap is permanently attached to the glove. Stick the yellow piece of plastic attached to the strap (see photo above) into a slot at the top of the ski pole, and you’ve got a secure strap-pole connection. Need to put your poles down? Push a button on the top of the pole to disconnect the strap.
It’s a pretty nifty system, but if you lose your gloves, you’re out of luck, forced to use other poles or skiing without a strap–which could mean that if you somehow lose control of your pole, you may find yourself 100 feet down the hill from your pole.
I figured it was time to get my ski gear back to full functionality, so I bought the straps. And that meant, of course, that I had to try them out.
So for the first time since February 2005, I went to a hill with proper skis and ski poles. Having the right poles certainly made skiing easier than using my hand-me-down cross-country poles of the wrong length. And I started my turns much better than I had in December.
Having your head always pointing down the fall line is an advantage that skiing has over snowboarding, though the whole package (skis and especially boots) felt rather heavy under my feet.
Next up: Taking both board and skis to a ski area on the same day and running the NASTAR course with each setup. If I recall correctly, snowboarders get a 10 second handicap on NASTAR, which was, after all, started by skiers for skiers. It will be interesting to see how my own times actually compare to each other.