The story of why I need new skis

Thursday I was skiing at Alta and Snowbird as I frequently do. I got there around 9:30 and did a few runs at Alta to warm up. The conditions weren’t great; the new snow from Tuesday night had apparently melted and refroze overnight so it was a bit crusty in the morning. On the Sugarloaf lift, I spotted some areas of untracked powder in the Cecret Saddle area, so headed down there. Despite skiing in Utah for a month now, I’m still not great at powder skiing, and it requires a completely different technique than all other conditions; there just haven’t been many good snow storms while I’ve been here so far. So I headed down Cecret Saddle to work on my technique a little, but powder skiing requires very subtle movements and I wasn’t exactly being subtle. To add to it, the powder was just deep enough to hide the frozen moguls underneath, and at one point I hit one of these moguls and fell weird, apparently landing my ski on one of my poles, since the bottom of the pole was bent at a 45° angle when I got up. I was able to bend it back and continue on my way, deciding to head over to Mineral Basin at Snowbird, on the other side of the ridge, since it had been exposed to the sun longer and would be a little softer.

I did a few runs down Powder Paradise and Lupine Loop and decided to go down Powder Paradise again. I was going down pretty fast at the edge of a groomed area, and must have weakened my bindings going down the powder at Alta because one of my skis caught an edge and decided to go a different direction than the rest of my body. I almost caught myself, but my ski hit an even deeper track and I tumbled down. The fall was pretty much a yard sale, with all my equipment going everywhere, and when I recovered my ski that had caught the edge, I discovered that the heel of my binding had completely ripped out of my ski and the binding had failed to release my boot like it was designed to.

With the binding being irreparable and required to attach your skis to your boots, I had to walk all the way down the mountain to the lift, except for the steep parts where I slid down on my butt. I finally got to the bottom of Mineral Basin at Snowbird, but I was parked at the Wildcat Base of Alta, so I still had to go back to the top of the mountain and get down somehow. I talked to a liftie and rode the lift to the Alta/Snowbird connection where I spoke to a ski patroller who was able to get me a pair of loaner skis and arrange transportation back to my car. So I slowly made my way down on unfamiliar skis with the ski patroller carrying my broken skis down for me until I got to the bottom and met another patroller who gave me a snowmobile ride to the area I was parked at.

I took my skis to the ski shop there at the base and they said my bindings were wrecked and I would have to get new ones to fix the skis. I had been thinking for a while about getting some better skis since the ones I bought when I got to Salt Lake initially were primarily beginner-level skis and were a bit stiff and narrow, so this incident gives me a perfectly legitimate excuse to buy some skis that match my skill level now. With it being near the end of the season, many shops are discounting their equipment, so I should be able to pick up something at a decent price. So my next ski days will be spent renting some demo skis to figure out what I like the best and buy it.

Overall, the day was probably my worst day of skiing, but with the help of the Alta ski patrol, I got a memorable story and a snowmobile ride, so it was still better than staying home.