Hey gang, I was thinking this morning about Saturday's "ski of shame" dragging my kite back to the screw after the bad bowtie and am wondering if there is a non-newbie way to gracefully trudge home.

Obviously, dragging lines and a knotted up foil over a smooth lake is not the worst thing in the world for the kite but I don't imagine I could do the same in a stubbly field. Could I / should I have popped my skis off, lashed the killers to them and tried to stuff them into the snow so I could walk over to my kite and sort out the mess OR at the very least bunch it up under my arm and carry it back to the skis instead of dragging it flip flopping around? Truly I could care less what other people think in terms of me being a beginner or not but more importantly it occurs to me I was putting the kite and my lines in jeopardy.

You are right on track. Hook your kite up to your skis. Walk to the kite running along one brake line in case things go crazy. Put snow on the kite. Walk back and roll up your lines. Try to fold up the kite for the walk of shame !
If you are lucky when you get to the kite it won't be too messed up. You can straighten it out, set it up again and fly home ! If you don't trust your skis to hold the kite down put snow on the trailing edge once it is straightened out !

I've started carrying a small webbing strap in my pocket to put around the kite; that way its easy to carry.

I get a brake line and let the kite flag, drop the bar in the snow and go hand over hand up the brake line to the kite... fold the kite up, roll it tight and put the strap around it. Go back to the bar and roll the lines up.

Packing the kite first and then rolling the lines up ensures that the kite can never get away while you've got the lines half rolled up. (easy way to loose a finger IMO)

Calgary is a strange place for winds...The chinook wind can go from a pleasant breeze to 50 mph in a matter of a few minutes and there's nothing to indicate that it’s happening. It was like that on Saturday. Just minutes before we got blown out, I was talking with Kelly and was worried that it was getting too light and that I might have to walk back to my car for lack of wind. Five minutes latter its raging :wow:

Dean