Happy New Year from all the hard working folks at the DSJ WHQ. Hope 2012 was good to you and everyone is enjoying a great holiday season. And speaking of another year in going down in the books, we dug this little gem of ski chronology from a past issue of Ski Magazine.  It has several fun items of interest… 

1932:  The “Bear Trap” binding was invented and had a cable that could be fixed or unfixed for freeheel skiing making it both the first alpine and alpine-touring (A/T) binding.  Unfortunately it was non-releasable and responsible for many a nasty knee injury.

1974 With their turned up tails, the Olin Mark IVs became the first twin tips.  They also became one of the best selling skis of all time.  Paired with some with Solly 555s, Nordica banana boots, multi-colored I-Ski sunglasses, and a bandana around the knee, and you really had it going on.

1993:  You don’t tend to see that many Volant skis on the hill, but this lesser known company has been around for a long time and is responsible for initiating many of the modern ground breaking designs well before their time. The appearance of the Volant Chub with a hefty 90mm of width under foot brought us the first “midfat” ski. 

2002They then introduced a specialty deep powder ski called the Spatula with the revolutionary design concepts of reverse camber (rocker) and convex sidecut.

So, year end cleaning had us sifting through the mounds of ski related data that continuously streamed into the DSJ media offices over the past year. We managed to pluck a few relevant items from the heap we thought might be of interest…

DSJ Mini Rant:   Before becoming a stand-alone event, aerials was originally one of three events in freestyle competitions when they came into existence back in the early 70’s.  Combined with moguls and ballet, a skier had to have very well rounded skills.  Today, as a part of mogul competitions, aerials in combination with bump skills still requires a very high level of overall expertise.  But now the stand alone aerials event has morphed away from the heart of the sport to the point where a Chinese trampoline champion can quickly be taught to point some very short skis down a ramp and instantly become a world class “aerialist”.

DSJ Factoid:   As the season’s snowfall start to build, remember that storms that deposit light, cold snow on top of a denser layer create the best powder conditions.  Storms that dump thick, heavy snow on a fluffy bottom layer elevate avalanche danger.

DSJ Trivia:  What three states have the most ski areas in the U.S?  (SKI 12/12)

New York (52)

Michigan (43)

Wisconsin (32)

A DSJ Rider’s Glossary:   Steaze” – Term frequently heard while riding on the lift with baggy pantsed adolescents on snowboards or skis with hideous graphics and turned up tips on the back.  Park Rat vernacular for a combination of “style” and “ease”. 

A DSJ Cool Tip:   If you’re stuck in the snow, use your floor mats to help by wedging them in front or behind the tires.

We hope 2013 provides us all with snow aplenty and the time off to ski it. Looking forward to getting out there soon and making turns with some of you fellow Junkies. The CEO and his wife have to seriously get into shape for the corporate junket to Jackson Hole in January – yikes!  

Stay connected to the DSJ rider network by joining us on meetup.com/DESERTSNOWJUNKIES

and “like” us on facebook.com/#!/DesertSnowJunkies.

fritzski out