Dear Listeners, do I have a treat for you! None other than Michael Patrick Rogan, Coach of the PSIA Alpine Team - that’s Professional Ski Instructors of America - a ski tester for SKI magazine for a quarter of a century or so, SKI’s instruction guru since Stu Campbell held that post up until recently, and one of the most beautiful technical skiers you will ever see. He has been elected to the PSIA Demo Team a record seven times. He knows whereof he speaks.

In this week’s Revelation, posted as a podcast a scant two days ago, I cited two extraordinary cases of skiers who took a huge leap of faith in order to obtain the best bootfit possible with their cantankerous feet. While we’re on the subject of blind faith, I thought it an opportune time to dig deeper into the subject of trust and how it relates to skiing.

I wrote this rumination on trust ten years ago. Not a word of it has aged in the interim. I hope you enjoy my narration of On Trust, Chapter X in Snowbird Secrets, available on Amazon.com or at Snowbird, which is where I go to settle any trust issues I might have.

Getting the right boot begins with finding the best bootfitter you can, then placing one's bottomless trust on that person to guide the process to a successful conclusion. You'll never find the perfect fit unless you take the leap of faith.

One of the most recognized and filmed skiers in the world, Scot Schmidt's pioneering style and remarkable ability inspired generations of adrenaline-sport athletes. Scot is arguably the greatest ski film star of all time and inarguably the most watched skier of the 1980's. In this compelling podcast, Scot describes his thoughts as he faced certain death, and other highlights of his life on skis.

Today’s podcast is helpfully titled, When to Buy in 2022, This Spring or Next Fall? It’s an age-old question, but for 2023, the answer is more nuanced than ever. Allow me to enlighten you as I answer the perennial question of when its wisest to buy, this spring or next fall?

Jimmy Petterson has skied in 75 countries and has chronicled his travels in two remarkable volumes, both titled Skiing Around the World. He has done most of it on a shoestring, having never lost the thrill of skiing a new mountain on a free pass, the ski bum's Holy Grail. It would take weeks to encompass all that's contained in Skiing Around the World; this podcast is a good place to start.

Mainstream publications with strong brand recognition are using their presumed journalistic integrity to pawn off shoddy "Top Skis" and "Top Boots" lists that steer the consumer straight to Amazon and its ilk to buy. This is particularly disturbing when there seems to be little to no integrity in the "best model" lists, such as a recently published "Top 8 Boots" list created by Popular Mechanics. "Sham" is too kind a word.

Today’s podcast is a clarion call to America’s specialty ski shop personnel to take advantage of every opportunity to try out whatever new models you can while the getting is good. While you’re at it, take a moment between runs - lift rides, for example, provide a suitable opportunity - to jot down how each ski fared according to the criteria listed on the Realskiers Test Card app.

Don’t have the Realskiers Test Card app on your Apple or Android phone? Why not? You don’t have to be affiliated with a shop to download it or put it to good use. If you’re an unaffiliated consumer, please enter the letter “c” in lieu of dealer name. If you are ski shop owner, manager, employee or designated gear tester, all the better. Please remember to always include comments with your completed score card and don’t forget to save each entry!

Anyway, there’s a link on the Realskiers.com free, public home page - right next to the Apple and Android app store icons - to a video in which I explain how to download and operate the app.

Bindings are a tricky topic because skiers tend to have strong beliefs about what certain bindings can and cannot do, beliefs that may have only a glancing connection with reality. This despite the fact that bindings are the most knowable piece of gear a skier owns. Despite the dangers inherent in the topic, in this podcast I delve into a new binding from Tyrolia that may help reduce knee injuries in backward twisting falls.

This week’s Revelation is another bulletin from the front lines of the American ski market. It’s more newsy, topical - and brief - than my usual weekly tirade. It’s also a call to action for anyone who has been putting off getting new skis or boots this year.