Back from the Desert

New Year's Day - it barely made it above 0 in the great white north. I think the entire country past the Southern Colorado border was snow covered, judging from the flight home yesterday. We had 7 days in Sunny Southern California. Well, 2 1/2 days were in 'sunny' Mammoth Lakes at Mammoth Mountain. Funny how 10 degrees there feels OK and 10 degrees in Minnesota feels COLD. The ski trip was well worth it. I'm in the market for new skis this year and Mammoth Mountaineering rents AT and Tele equipment - boots, skis, skins - it's a great service they offer. So for $40 for 2 days, I figured out that I want to buy some new Atomic skis, not the Karhu's or Black Diamonds I was thinking. It turns out that though I'd like to think that I should ski a straight, stiffer ski, I just love carving. I've had carving skis for 10 years now, since the Elan SCX RP's I got in 1997. I don't know any other way to ski. Atomics have the most sidecut of the current breed of backcountry skis and the Tacora's I demoed were much more fun on hardpack than the BD Kilowatts. All the reviews and forums in the world won't tell you how YOU will feel on a particular ski. Try before you buy. Pictures are on my google photo site:

Today was the lazy post-vacation recover day that Chenney likes. We cleaned, we cooked breakfast. I used the computer (all day) looking deals on skis and calculating if I can afford skis (and ski trips to use them on). I listed items on Ebay (seller ID mturoamer). My new Scarpa Tornado Pro boots should take the place of both my old Garmont AT boots and my Nordica alpine boots. Scarpa has a real winner with that boot.

Back to work on Wednesday - and the start of Broomball! It's ice season here in Minnesota!