I had leather boots that we're all hard so this morning I got a pair of thrift shop Salomon mid level boots and cut notches in them. Glad I did, they felt nice. Never buckled them, wanted a soft feel. Bindings set soft, say 1.5, so I didn't push too hard . Packed powder, some soft spots . Smaller bumps (don't want to bend them). And some ice starting to show here and there.
They were butter smooth. Started out doing my best version of Wedeln. Then whet to a couple of steeper pitches, happily cutting across the firm surface, but easy to come up and over to quickly start a turn. Threaded through bumps like this as well, avoiding the sharp face, more threading through them. Grip on the firm was great, but also felt soft and nimble when the shovels we're used.
But the most fun was on the easier blues, old school carved turns . Somewhere between SL and GS radius, getting the ski nicely on edge and holding a smooth carve. Skiing the outside ski was super easy.
Yeah, everyone wants to go out of bounds in deep powder and jump stuff, but I was having the grandest time skiing in bounds on great trails, slower of course, like my ski heros of the past (Stein, Phil&Steve, Killy...)
Skis also are so elegant. And those Marker bindings, need a caliper to set them up
, but they held me in!
One last thing, all the fuss about sidecut and radius . If the snow is soft, your weight causes the snow to give as the ski flexes into a carving arc. And you do pivot in the transition to the new trajectory. But in steeps with any ski you have to do this. Look at a modern slow motion of a wc slalom run. Unweight and pivot is still part of skiing. And so is pressuring the outside ski. So the way I was skiing 50 year old skis is the way I ski my short slalom skis. Folks that go fast in easier slopes just carving with hip motion look good, but that rarely works in the steeps (you cant turn sharp enough that way and control the speed)! So I love taking out the old skis to think about why they worked so elegantly for the skiers of that era.
