Dave & I had a good bit of skiing on Saturday at Stowe. We went up to do some timed runs on the coin-op course and take advantage of a Top-10 weather day. But, looking at the number of cars on the Mountain Road, we parked at Spruce and wound up staying on Big Spruce all morning. Snow was terrific, no lift lines, not too many people on the hill and good snow.
It gave me a good chance to test some (yet again) equipment tweaking. First was to see how I liked moving my bindings back forward a little bit. I’ve always skied with my bindings back about 1 cm, and that’s where they’ve been for most of this season (after starting at center and moving back 5 mm then back to 1 cm.) But, I wanted to move them forward a little to let me adjust my up/down hip position. Now, 5 mm doesn’t sound like a lot, but it does make a difference. So, after about 5 runs, I was comfortable with the new binding position (back 5 mm from center).
Not satisfied, I really wanted to spend more time exploring the whole cuff alignment issue. Regular readers will recall a few weeks ago when I tilted the cuffs outward and scared the bejesus out of myself in the Ski Bum race. But, I still wasn’t happy because I was feeling like I had to use too much knee angulation and it was conflicting with the hip angulation I wanted. So, I figured I’d give it another go.
Into the lodge, out with the hex wrench, a couple of different bushings later and back onto the lift. My first turns (and indeed all the subsequent ones) felt so much more powerful. I was really able to achieve the hip angulation I was seeking. After 4 runs, I was comfortable with finding the knee position needed for riding a flat but not squirrely ski. We’ll see at this week’s Bum race.
What all this confirms is how impactful small adjustments can make, and with the Dodge Ski Boot, how important cuff alignment is. The other thing is the importance of trying a change and re-trying it to find what works and what doesn’t.
Take care and stay dry.
Bill