Not allowed to snowkite anymore but that doesn't mean I don't use my gear!

After my freak gasoline fight accident last summer I gave up snowkiting to keep my second and final marriage intact. Just because I don't snowkite anymore doesn't mean I don't put my skis to good use! I brought home the hardware yesterday in a race I enter each year in Snowmass, Colorado. Pulled down a "platinum" designation in NASTAR dropping my knee through each turn.

Dang I miss snowkiting but a man's gots to do what a man's gots to do... :karate:


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Quote: Originally posted by skimtwashington

Congrats you pin head! Hey...how come the trophy has a guy doing alpine style and not telemark...c'mon people!

Thanks Tuck! The folks said they couldn't find a trophy with the knee down! I should get out a little hack saw and glue and modify the little guy.

Quote: Originally posted by lunchbox

Congrats! I understand the whole 'keeping the wife happy' thing but if it's something you really want to do, it's a shame to give it up. I just keep thinking, there's got to be a way to keep it safe. ...Or maybe I am just too selfish...I don't think I could ever give up surfing or kiting!

All understandable questions. By "freak gasoline fight accident" I was actually referring to when I almost killed myself last summer kite skating. Those morbidly intrigued can read about it here:

http://www.powerkiteforum.com/viewthread.php?tid=32253

As for buggy safety versus snowkiting safety, I bought and installed one of Jeff's (bigkid's) AQR systems on my buggy to ensure release of the kite from my harness if I start to get plucked out of the buggy. While that doesn't prevent me from wiping out it will keep me from going 30-40 feet in the air like I did unintentionally on skates.

Quote: Originally posted by skimtwashington

...And the obvious question is why is kite buggying safer than snow kiting....? Arbitrary compromise, or actually related to safety? BTW.....You do any backcountry touring/skiing with your Tele gear or just lift serve?

So Tuck (and in case folks wonder why I call him Tuck, it's short for Tuckerman's Ravine which is what you ski on Mt. Washington) I would love to keep snowkiting but couldn't reasonably "guarantee" that I wouldn't get accidentally boosted again but could do that with reasonable assurance with an AQR-equipped buggy so I agreed to give it up (kiteskating too but I thought that was obvious).

As for backcountry touring/skiing/skinning etc. to date I haven't. I live in the absolute perfect place for that of course and many folks around here do that, but for me it is a whole new investment in time that I simply don't have. I actually took up telemark skiing to slow myself down on the slopes. We have an adult severely autistic daughter that I ski with a lot and I was getting bored just swinging alpine turns behind her as she shoots down groomers. She's a good skier, but skis strictly on the tame stuff. That has worked out really well and given me something new to learn and something that I have to train for in the off season.

In another life I'd love to go backcountry and it is totally in my lane, but this go around I'm just not living that life. It's all good.