Skiing

Anybody knows a company or shoemaker who could make me fully rigid cross-country boots with a totally unusual profile?

Unlike downhill ski boots, XC boots are flexible: they're designed to let you push off with your toes. The problem is, I don't have any.

So without doing anything, the front of my boots isn't supported at all: I have trouble controlling my skis, the boots fold and bite on my tender bits at each step and eventually collapse completely in short order, ruining a new pair of boots in a matter of miles.

Currently, my solution is the shortest boots I could find that fit me with stiffening steel bars bolted under the soles:

They work okay for classic XC skiing and they're usable for a bit of skating, but they're not ideal:

• I have to use Rottefella bindings that grab the boots with two thin "hooks" instead of a full-width attachment so they can straddle the bars under my shoes. They work fine when they're new but they quickly develop play. I hate the design of Rottefella bindings but I have to use them with my modified boots.

• When skating, even with the stiffening bars, the boots are simply too floppy and I have difficulty controlling the skis and skiing efficiently.

• The boots are too long, and since I have less force and almost no pushoff, they're very tiring.

For me, the ideal XC boot would be a fully-rigid downhill-style boot with a NNN binding, very short and very wide at the front (think size 11 boots in width, size 7 in length and squared off at the front).

I could conceivably modify DH boots to adapt NNN attachments, but they wouldn't fit me right if they were regular profile boots anyway.

So I'm looking for a ski boot maker who could take acrylic resin prints of my feet (I have those) and build custom-fitting boots around them, either fully rigid custom XC boots or custom DH boot that I could modify myself for XC. Like carbon fiber boots or something. Money is not too much of an object: the kids have been out of the house for quite some time 🙂

Anybody knows someone who might be able to help me?

From the article, “Kari Medig captures skiing like nobody else”.

You may remember me from last year posting about my first day skiing, well no worries, I'm here to stay.

So far I've skied 9 days this season. 5 days at Perfect North 4 days at Caberfea

At the end of last season I bought brand new boots and some used skis, they've been great. They've almost paid for themselves in saved rental savings alone.

I've made some serious gains this season in skills. I can now carve on purpose and hockey stop.

Went to Michigan New Years week, the only week without snow, and skied in some real awful conditions. Didnt ski Saturday or Sunday because it was raining, went Monday for some real Mashed Potato snow, tuesday got cold and it firmed up, wednesday was Dust on crust, which turned into a surprise 7" overnight into excellent conditions for Thursday, because with the humidity, Wednesday night was finally cold enough for making snow. But like always, a bunch of days in a row skiing is always a big level up.

I've now hit all intermediate terrain at Perfect North, and I hit Canyon at Caberfea. I'm hoping to do a trip to West Virginia in February and do my first real Mountains. I'm still working on my angulation, and getting my body downhill. Pole plants really help with it, but the steeper the terrain the harder it is to make myself do it lol.

I think I'll spend the rest of this season building my confidence, and maybe tackle some Black Diamonds when I get more comfortable with the steeper terrain.

My Vantage 75c's are starting to chatter on me, at higher speeds. Will likely take it in for a tune soon and see if that solves the issue or if I need new skis. Im looking at the Maverick 86c or 88Ti. I'm hoping to cut weight this off season, but right now I'm 5' 11" and 260 pounds. Waiting until the ski swap next fall may be the correct option.

Anyways, thanks for reading my rant about this season. What have been up to this season?

For those unfamiliar, if you are going up hill on skis and you are making switchbacks up the hill, when you want to turn around you need to do a very awkward turn that humbles everyone.

The big mountains had bad avalanche forecasts so we picked a route in the foothills and had a great tour. The snow was a little thin at spots but mostly it was bouncy and un-tracked. After some lunch we did the middle section again. 1400m total ascent.

I'm going to Caberfea Peaks in Michigan, December 27th to January 3rd.

My local hill of Perfect North probably won't be open before then, the forecast looks awful.

So, i got myself some kind of early bird magicpass deal for next winter. Seemed like a great bang-for-your-buck unless ofcourse 2024-2025 winter is when climate shit really goes all the way down the drain in the alps and there are 0 snowdays, never know.

Anyhow, I also discovered OpenSkiMap.org recently, and I really like it. Very fast view on ski-areas and elevations, and somewhat how reachable they are, and I especially like that you can view what kind of lifts to expect and most of all i like that you can quickly see how long they will take to use (nice to know for t-bars, willing to put in the effort once in a while, but not for 20 mins non-stop on a 500m climb ;)). It even made me try to add that information for a lot of lifts in OSM where it is lacking.

But, unfortunately, I feel that openskimap is lacking a few options.

1. Public transport-integration. I would very much appreciate it if it could have a "railway / busstop" toggle or something. So a bit of an openskimap.org meets öpnvkarte.de cross-over. Does anything like that exist (please don't suggest me to do it myself in QGIS, the learning curve is really just too steep i'm afraid)

Basically just the option to, when you select a ski-area, show the nearest busstop and trainstation would be pretty cool imo.

2. Weather & snow-cover integration I know there is also OpenMeteo so at least the expected weather is theoretically available in open source. Is there also such a (opensource) thing for actual snow cover, like the information every skilift-operater typically puts on their website: mountain 100cm "fresh snow", valley 10cm "horrible mush". Does this exist?

Hello internet strangers.

I wish to discuss what we did this season. Everywhere is on if snow conditions allow and the temp outside is 75°F with rain in the forcast for 2 days this week, I don't think this weekend is happening for me.

My very first and second outing I've posted about already. But someone corrected me about carving and I've since learned just how hard carving is and it was not just parallel skiing like I thought it was. (This might be the first time I've Dunning-Kruegared myself that hard)

I did make it to Caberfea for Presidents Day weekend and stayed at the Lost Pines Lodge, which is a very cool and very rustic motel just 3 miles from the ski hill. It's the kind of place you have to call via phone to reserve. They had a very happening bar for snowmobilers. I went with my friend who taught me skiing.

The first day there was tons of fresh powder and I had a great time. I ended up doing funnel cake and starky several times. We skiied for like 8hrs that day. They were also the longest runs I had done so far.

Towards the end of the day I fell several times on my last run due to flat light. That was the first time I had encountered that. It was not fun at all. It didn't help that my glasses kept fogging inside my visor. Does anyone have any tips for that?

The next day we took the day easy and ended up heading over around 4 pm for their late day prices and some night skiing. After the sun set the snow got very icy and fast but it was a great time. I ended up just rushing down funnel cake and got to some pretty intense speeds (at least it felt that way to me) trying to get used to higher speeds. I got tired after about 4 hours and got drunk on some cider. It was great.

I never worked up the nerve to do upper canyon, which would have opened up a lot of terrain for me. I'll get it next time. Also I love the layout of Caberfea, it felt really cool knowing I couldn't accidentally get on trails that I wasn't ready for or accidentally take a lift I couldn't ski down from. Of the two ski areas I've been, it's my favorite.

My final trip I ended up taking my kid back to Perfect North, they did some group lessons, we never made it onto any ski lifts but I did ski the bunny hill backwards, which was fun. I think they'll be ready for ski lifts first trip next year.

I'm hoping be good enough to hit Mt. Bohemia within the next five years, but we'll see.

What did you all do?

What was your favorite ski area you went to?

What's your 5 year skiing goal? .

[Image description: a ski run on a snowy mountain, other runs are visible on an opposing mountain face, and the weather is bright and sunny with a few wispy clouds.]

What are people's favourite skiing snacks?

What is the best balance of carbs, fat, and protein?

Any advice for staying hydrated without having to urinate too frequently?

I went with a different friend to go skiing again. I've worked my way up into more blue runs and I'm feeling fairly confident in my progress.

I've now consumed almost all of the training videos that appear to be worth watching on YouTube. SKNG had some really useful tips that might have been helpful my first trip, and I found them informative to what I should be doing now.

The snow conditions were much better this trip. In the mean time I had thrifted a North Face Coat, Snow Bibs, and gloves for $50 and they kept me almost too warm on that 20°F(-6°C) day.

I'm actually going to head up to Caberfea Presidents Day weekend (lift tickets are $30 with hotel room!!! Truely insane) I'll try to get photos and videos then. For 2 more days of skiing this year, and I'm hoping to get one last day of skiing in sometime in March. But we'll see, it's been consistently 40 plus degrees this last week and appears that will continue atleast another 14 days.

A friend of mine invited me to go skiing, and I decided to go. It was very fun and I may have a new obsession. I'm probably going to go atleast 2 more times this year and just rent.

Hopefully, Ill be able to save enough to get my own gear and a season pass at a independent place nearish to me.

I was doing the shorter blue runs by the end of the day, because my friend was pretty good teacher, but what are some good resources to learning skiing techniques, and what's the best way to get discount gear?

Sort of surreal skiing in august but fun nevertheless

In a recent development, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has revealed a series of compelling renderings that depict the envisioned transformation of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

[Image description: photo taken from chairlift of a mountain face still mostly covered in snow. One trail has been groomed smooth, the rest of the snow is discolored to degrees and moguled.]

This year I have been mainly skiing on my Nórdica Soul Riders and the Doberman Spitfires.

Any of our southern brothers and sisters wanting to share how their season is going?

Prepping show for summer storage. Can't wait for next season!