RealSkiers

Today’s Revelation is a fairly long one, as it consists of correspondence between myself and a few Realskiers adherents about the Revelation I posted last month on the rarely mentioned phobia called Fear of High Lifts, or FOHL. The letters are fairly lengthy as they are rich in contextual detail, so please bear with me as I relate their sundry sagas of fear on high lifts.

Today's podcast addresses the still highly relevant issue of what happened to ski injuries when the Alpine boot standard was first adopted, in 1978, through 2000, when it achieved total compatibility with all Alpine bindings. Now that we’ve once again muddied these waters, the mid-shaft tibia fracture is back, an injury that we had reduced from a potential high-water mark of 60,000 tibia fractures a year to 2,000, a 97% reduction in a serious injury, saving American skiers an estimated $600 million a year in medical costs and at least that much in non-medical costs, not to mention the agonies of breaking one’s leg.

Today’s Revelation and companion podcast have been culled from the timeless pages of Snowbird Secrets, Chapter 7, to be precise, titled On Taking What the Mountain Gives You Or The Many Shades of Perfect. I’m sure some of my Dear Listeners are already tingling with anticipation for the winter ahead, although at this time - October - we don’t know what that winter will look like. We have to be prepared, mentally and spiritually, for a winter that falls short of our expectations. We have to learn, or perhaps re-learn would be more appropriate, to make the best of what the mountain gives us.

So, I present for your listening pleasure, On Taking What the Mountain Gives You, Or The Many Shades of Perfect, Chapter 7 of Snowbird Secrets, which I would be remiss not to remind you, makes an excellent holiday gift for skiing friends and family members.

Bootfitting is the quintessential skill of the specialty ski shop, and the one thing the Internet can't copy, which is why the shops that do it right are likely to survive. Herein, I describe what "doing it right" consists of.

While the business of skiing is doing better than ever, there are five factors in play that cast a long shadow over skiing's future in America.

Skiers have so many choices today, it's hard to know where to begin when hunting for a new ski. In this podcast, I explain what the big picture looks like, then narrow down the new ski buyer's search to a single genre where he or she is most likely to find his or her next ski.

This podcast of today’s Revelation concerns a topic that ought to be of interest to all consumers: Price. How much, exactly, should you expect to pay for your next pair of skis? While the vast majority of the Alpine adult ski market runs from $399 to $1200, the actual price spread in any given category is far less, as I shall soon illuminate.

While this podcast is brief, its message is both pithy and important. Just give me 5 minutes of your time, and I’ll explain the ins and outs of the U.S. ski price matrix.

Larry Prosor not only bore witness to the birth of a new kind of skiing, he helped define it and shape it with his work. In this podcast, he reveals the backstory behind some of his most iconic photos and the legendary athletes they portrayed. The period he captured feels like a golden age today, more beautiful, more emotional, more connected to our lives than the present.

Today's podcast is a rendition of this week's Revelation on Realskiers.com, likewise titled Fear of Flying. The subject is a rarely mentioned yet most likely widespread phobia: Fear of High Lifts, or FOHL. This podcast merits sharing, for FOTL is a menace that lives in the shadows. Let there be light.

Every brand has a history, and either owns or has a relationship with a factory or factories where its skis are made. The more you know about a brand’s traditional strengths and weaknesses, and more importantly, where, how and by whom their skis are created, the better equipped you are to make a sound buying decision.