Ski Bum
February 11, 2007
point and shoot
It is finally, truly ski season. There are a few ski photos in my portfolio. Archived posts about my time working and skiing at Alta, Utah and Sugarloaf, Maine are also illustrated with a few pictures.
To give you an idea of how much I love to ski, please take a close look at my feet in the photo below. This is what happens when you have flat, messed up feet to begin with — and then you ski professionally for over 200 days/10 months per year (including coaching at the Mt. Hood summer ski camps.) They start to grow bone spurs and look funny.
Six bone spurs removals, bunion surgery, three foot bone breaks, plus a five-part ankle break that still has some metal inside. The snow kind of feels good!
My flat footprints set in ice. I am now wearing size 17 4E, up two or three sizes from my twenties. My shoe size is slowly enlarging because my feet continue to “spread” out. Luckily, I can shop online at Oddball and New Balance Tampa or get custom-made Russells. I also use orthoses and a full length carbon fiber insert from The Foot Performance Center (who are also excellent ski boot fitters.)
I am not a natural athlete and skiing is the only sport that I’ve ever been competitive at. Frankly, I was obsessed with it… unhealthily so, one might conclude. My feet are somewhat hammered — I also busted up my ankles, ACL, and pelvis in a rock climbing accident in 1982 (I was lucky, really) — but I still push myself when I go out.
After the fall: Lennox Hill Knee Brace, 213 Rossignols, Vuarnets — cruising at Banff, mid-1980s. Photo by my Dad.
As I get older and gain weight from my mysterious Rheumatoid arthritis-like disease (plus regular arthritis, Prednisone, and sloth) I am still able to ski at a fairly high level — at least for the first couple of hours, until my body complains. This is due to the new ski technologies — the little 165cm Fischers that I use for slalom carve so much easier than the 203cm Rossi FPs and 204cm K2 710s that I used “back in the day.” The funny thing is that my old slalom ski length — 203cm — is what I now use for Super-G and Downhill (I don’t race in the Masters Series but I would love to start again.)
(I know, I know… “Take better care of yourself.” Just this week we are getting an Endless Pool installed in the basement. Martha’s knees are so shot that swimming may be the only good exercise for her. Our three-year old Olivia will hopefully become a bit of a fish herself and I’m planning to swim everyday too.)
I’d like to get a contemporary photo of myself doing a really deep carve on an icy day. But even more so, I’d love to do some serious travel and ski photography, especially with the handheld 4x5 camera.