Ski Season is upon us

Me. Arapahoe Basin opens today also. But alas, I ski Winter Park in CO with occassional sojourns to Steamboat.

Always wanted to never have. Someday.

Jealous as all get out!

Can't wait to ride.

Was just thinking about tuning up the board today...

Used to ski casually way back when;  VT,  Quebec,  Hunter Mtn.

Snowboarded Mt. Hood just once,  actually I think it was the one near Bend.

So a couple years ago I stepped into some boots and rental boards and had Fun at Boreal Ridge.  First time since '96 or '97 ??

Did not fall down much,  but I didn't go very fast.  It's NOT 'like riding a bike'.  As an old fart,  I don't have the leg muscles in the right condition.  Would take me a few weeks to re-attain my amateur - midgrade skills of  the 1980's,  if I got on the hill every day.

Really don't foresee driving out to the Poconos or any 'nearby' eastern spots to ski on ice this year.

I am, I am! 

I've been snowshoeing annually for several years and skis that I bought in 2004 are in the basement. 

It's my goal this year to ski more. Have started ski conditioning workouts, going to a couple of ski gear events in Portland in Oct and Nov. 

Thinking of trading my skis... they are great skis, but felt like they were 10cm too long last time I skied. 

LLOLLO,

You might find that as you get on the hill more often,  you'll prefer longer skis.  I think you'll probably 'grow into' them.  So if they are nice boards, keep them around a while and get the "10 cm shorter" boards at Goodwill or Salvation Attic. 

I see nice skis with decent Geze bindings for 10-15 bucks every time I visit Junque Shoppes.

I'm exited but mammoth is now own by aspen/ksl.  Same fuckers that own squaw, heard horrror stories from squaw how they wouldn't open lifts mid week, literally saving powder for the custies on weekends

we will see.  On the other hand the mom n pop hill in big bear, snow valley, is installing its first high speed chair and it's a 6 pack. 

the big ski companies are evil, but looking forward in spite of that

> literally saving powder for the custies on weekends<

waaah. move.

meanwhile people are loosing everything...

Patiently waiting on the snow to hit Mt. Driskell on this geography. Christmas is just around  the corner.

You might find that as you get on the hill more often,  you'll prefer longer skis.  I think you'll probably 'grow into' them.  So if they are nice boards, keep them around a while and get the "10 cm shorter" boards at Goodwill or Salvation Attic. 

I see nice skis with decent Geze bindings for 10-15 bucks every time I visit Junque Shoppes.

Not true anymore with the change of ski geometry. The skis for the past 10 years are much wider in the waste than the ski of old. The means there is just as much, if not more ski base on snow than there was in the past. To be able to move a current long ski, you need to be in the upper 5 percent of skier on the planet. 

As the idea that Geze bindings are worth anything anymore; they aren't. Geze has been out of business for at least a decade and there isn't one shop that would even set release settings on them anymore. The Geze toe piece also had a nasty habit of exploding both on the slope and off. A friend of mine still has a piece of Geze metal embedded in his workshop from that time his skis were just hanging out up against the wall and exploded. 

If you are serious about skis, go to a recommended shop, take the time to talk, perhaps hit a demo day or two and especially, get a well fitted pair of boots. 

I had no idea about the obsolete,  exploding Geze bindings.  Then again I don't get on the snow very often.  I have noticed that skis are fatter these days.  The boards I rented in Tahoe or Truckee were similar to what obsolete technology I'm familiar with though.  The nephew had a modern hi-tech pair that were very wide.

Upon looking up 'Geze Bindings' I found the following on some Yahoo chat board:

"...I have a collection of old and older skis that my dad and I have owned and used over the years, all lined up along one wall of my entryway. Among these are a pair of K2 612 skis with Geze 942 bindings that I purchased at a ski show in LA in the early 80s. I loved those skies when they were new and they have been all over the US, Asia, South America and Europe. 

Just the other morning my girlfriend found a bunch of odd pieces and parts of something alien to her that she found scattered across the living room floor. She brought them to me and I looked at them. At first I thought that they were auto brake parts: a spring and a hollow threaded bolt with a light metal bracket attached. There were also two white plastic pieces of shrapnel. After a bit of examination I felt that the spring seemed a bit too heavy for brakes, but the plastic shrapnel confused me. I also thought to myself that these springs are powerful enough to be used in... uh... ski bindings! So I searched down my row of skis, looking at each binding, top and bottom, until I came to my K2 612s and noticed that the front of one of the Geze 942 bindings was gone! I could look right inside of it and see that it was empty except for a single metal post that once held all those pieces in place. I asked my girlfriend if she had accidentally hit the ski while cleaning or maybe knocked it over. She said, “No.” 

I later learned from my daughter, who was visiting and had spent the night on my couch, that while sleeping she had been awakened in the middle of the night by what she described as the sound of a gunshot. 

It suddenly all came together. A piece of the binding that held all of that torqued up tension in place for almost thirty-five years finally said “F-it” and let go. No warning signs. The other binding looks perfectly good. I’m just glad it happened in my living room and not out on the slopes. I’m also fortunate that no one was having a close look at my vintage ski collection at the time too. Maybe I should issue safety glasses to my visitors..."

Shops won’t even tune the old bindings anymore.

Hahaha sweet melt, turtle.