Now I am independent and developed the know-how to take care of my skis in a much better way than the shops will ever do. PLUS, IT IS VERY EASY! Totally agree! The only thing I let a ski shop do to my skis is a base grind, and that is only because I don't have the machine to do it myself. Out here ...

Rough season here, I had a couple of weeks of single digits to below zero with no snow. Then it seemed like snow storms on Monday, cold all week on my site with no power, then rain on Saturday. There was good snow for a while a couple hours north, but it seemed like every time it was good, I couldn...

Rough season here, I had a couple of weeks of single digits to below zero with no snow. Then it seemed like snow storms on Monday, cold all week on my site with no power, then rain on Saturday. There was good snow for a while a couple hours north, but it seemed like every time it was good, I couldn...

It is kinda like what I've experienced with motorcycles. One of the first things many folks do after buying a crotch rocket is changing the fuel mapping/or jets and adding a louder pipe like it is a race bike. And everywhere will sell that mod. But I road raced for a number of years. Was pretty invo...

You know what's funny, or perhaps even sad, is that over the years I'm learned how to massage the egos of over-confident people. It is like being a sin eater. But in the end I got him to do what I wanted, and I'm very happy with the result. For anyone interested, try out a 0 degree base bevel. You m...

Glad they ticked you off Harris, I've been wondering how you were doing. Hope all is well, how is the skiing in your parts this season? FWIW I really have a hard time with ski shop techs, they are experts after two years and guys like you and me are idiots. I manage a lot of tradesman, however ther...

Recently I bought a pair of used Atomic Vantage X 80 CTI's to convert to a frontside tele ski. They were in good condition, but wherever they had been stored was extreme enough to oxidize the wax on the bases; luckily whoever owned them had post season waxed the bases. Regardless I decided to take t...

Jesus, I thought you died, man. For real- I went looking for obits. When I didn't find any I figured you wanted to stay low and left it at that. No man, I've just been doing so much alpine skiing for the first part of the season that my tele skis needed dusting off. It is really your fault: you tur...

One thing I should also mention is that, and this is just an opinion, a duckbill/cable setup is preferable to NTN in deep powder. This may be more profound here skiing the northern cascades where "great powder" is a bottomless version of the perfect snowball making snow. In fact if you squeeze it in...

Thanks to all so far for your insights. Harris, your "badass" tone of 30+ years of tele experience kindled some of the doubt that lingers in my gut at this stage. I'm conscious of how easily and quickly this 4-year-old late-arrival tele-adventure could be interrupted or ended. You've got 30+ years ...