Fat Skis

It sometimes seems that controversy arises when the human spirit is engaged in the sublime, and for a powder skier, nothing is as sublime as pointing your skis down an un-tracked fall line and leaving behind a trail of cold smoke.

In the beginning, powder skiing seemed to be the domain of demented fanatics who shot down the hill at the risk of bodily injury. There ranks were small and their powder caches were secret. They looked upon the rest of the skiers as the un-initiated, the un-invited. or the just plain un-wanted.

The pinheads on skinny cross-country skis spent too much time floundering in their self-made craters to cause any controversy with the resident powderhounds. Even the snowboarders didn't create much of a stir, once it was obvious that sitting on your rear-end and just hanging out was a big part of the sport.

But Whoa!! Here comes some timid solitary soul on a pair of super-wide boards, cruising the slope apparently unaware that he is on hallowed ground and all of a sudden, you have controversy.

The powder fundamentalists sneer at the fat-ski crowd for avoiding a long apprenticeship of self-abuse and pain. The new-ski devotees simply slap on a pair of the shorter and wider skis and float their turns through the ski-eating crud, leaving it pretty much toothless. In fact, even some of the old powder prophets themselves have converted, arguing that power steering is easier on their high mileage knees.

Who knows? In the future, maybe only the truly masochistic types will stay with skis that sometimes can only be turned by grunting. But sooner or later you can bet there will be a new controversy, just as soon as the hydro-foil ski hits the market.



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