I Have a Winter Hobby, Once Again

Winter really is a struggle for me.  My therapy is my motorcycles.  I love to ride and I ride a lot.  Western Washington in the winter is not conducive to this.  It's not that you can't ride, you just have to bundle up in so many clothes, either cold weather or rain, that you look like the Michelin man and it just isn't as fun, so I tend not to. 

When I was stationed in California we rode constantly.  I rode to work almost every day, rode when we went out in the evening, rode on the weekends.  Thursday and Friday were spent poring through Thunder Press, figuring out which ride looked the best.  If there was no ride, we went on one of our own.

During the summer I ride.  Last summer I rode to Albuquerque, then, because I was alone, decided to do a straight shot back.  You can ride from Albuquerque to Blaine in two days if you want to Almost 7,000 miles on that trip. 

A couple years ago my then wife, a friend, and I decided to go see Niagara Falls.  Camped the whole way there and the whole way back.  Can't remember how many miles we put on the bikes in fifteen days, but we rode.

Now I find myself sitting around doing nothing.  The weather is either too crappy for riding or I just don't feel like putting on all that gear.  So the other day I finally decided to go skiing again.  Been meaning to for quite some time but something always got in the way.  Usually it was just plain old lethargy.  Dragging myself out of bed on a cold winter morning in the pitch black to drive way up a mountain in the pitch black to be cold just didn't appeal.  Sometimes it was finances.  That is not a cheap sport. 

Last Friday it was just time.  Except my Koflach ski boots don't fit anymore. You heard me, I said Koflach.  Hey, they were great.  They went out of the ski equipment business in 2002 after almost fifty years in the business, but reformed in 2010.  None of the (very young) staff at the various ski stores had ever heard of them. 

But I digress.

I remember this from my last ski trip, Austria, some time ago.  Skied four times on that trip, my toes hurt the whole time.  Probably hurt before that but it really had been a while.  See, I joined the Navy.  Got stationed to Florida (no skiing), Rhode Island in the spring (no skiing), Idaho (went several times 1989), Virginia (no skiing), California (crap skiing unless you really want to drive a long way).  By that time I had been out of it so long I just never got back in.

So the boots don't fit, I have Fischer Airlite Carbon skis (called "straight" skis now) with Tyrolia 260/280D bindings.  What, two different types of bindings?  Yep.  280D rear broke, was swapping bindings to my Airlites from my Flexmasters and couldn't really think of a good reason to swap front and rear when it would be easier to swap rear only.

So there I am, old skis and bindings, mismatched ski clothes, ready to go but no boots.  Well, what's a guy to do?  Go shopping, I say.  Hang the expense, I am ready to go.

They cost how much?

Oh.

I'll have to think about it.

You know what?  I've been telling myself I was going to go skiing again for years now.  I'm not letting a little thing like heinously expensive equipment stop me.  (Sir, if you need to have your bindings moved you will have to buy new skis because none of the shops will work on your 27 year old skis.  Thanks, I think they'll be fine.)

Huh.  Turns out that whoever mounted my bindings originally put the mounting plates as far forward as they would go, so I can't move them backwards to make room for slightly bigger boots.

Drill, screwdriver, here we go.  What the heck, I'm a Harley mechanic, I should be able to work on skis.  So Saturday night I'm re-mounting my ski bindings.  Seems to be OK so off we go.

Sunday morning, Grouse Mountain. (Sir, we have high wind warnings and if they have to shut the Gondola it could take up to seven hours to get back down.  Fine, I don't care, I'm going skiing.)

What a blast!  Only three runs and one chair open by halfway through the morning, but I didn't care.  I was getting used to skiing again and it was great.  I have a new winter hobby!

BTW, the new boots (Salomon Quest 10) are more comfortable than anything I've ever skied in, the 195 Fischer skis are a conversation piece and a blast to ski, the remounted bindings held beautifully, the Barrecrafter poles with the cool racing bend (thanks to a crash years ago) worked as advertised, and the mismatched ski clothing not only fit in but kept me dry and warm the whole time.

Can't wait til next time.