Waiting for the white
November 7, 2012Saturday, November 3. Here I am on the computer, surfing the web for a new pair of ski boots for my son Nick. Darn kids, why do their feet have to keep growing for nearly eighteen years straight?
I finally find the boots I’m looking for at a shop in Utah. Last year’s model - one hundred dollars off. Nice.
As I click on the “free shipping” option I realize that this might be the first time I’ve slept indoors on a Saturday night in months! After the last ski season abruptly ended a full month early last March, I’ve been in a sleeping bag nearly every weekend since! Sure, hiking and camping have been great, but man, I am chomping at the bit to hit the hill again!
It happens every year about this time. The days start getting colder. Snow squalls come and go. New gear arrives in shops. Ski magazines come in the mail and the latest ski videos are released. More and more campfire conversation includes ski stories. There is a definite vibe in the air.
It’s coming. I can feel it!
Actually, the hype started much earlier. The first issue of Powder Magazine arrived in early August. Yes, right there during the most sweltering time of the year I opened my mailbox to find a glossy magazine cover featuring someone up to their neck in snow! The magazine is big and fat, holding reviews of all the newest gear. And Powder’s amazing writing and photography just oozes with soul - it truly does capture the heart of skiing.
That night I put the boys to bed early so I could read it slowly, page by page, soaking up every word and photo. Twice. It’s almost cruel to get the first issue that early, but it is pretty refreshing to think of skiing during the dog days of summer!
Of course, issue number four should be coming any day now and Powder only publishes six issues per year. The Powder season is halfway over and I still won’t be skiing until probably Thanksgiving at the earliest! Arrgh!!!
Oh well, I can always dive into my collection of ski films. Even though new ski movies are released every year, I prefer, with a few exceptions, older, classic ski films. It just seems like the filmmaking was better back in the late 80s/early 90s when Greg Stump was in his heyday - making movies with Glen Plake, Scot Schmidt and Mike Hattrup.
Instead of just being sick footage of people jumping cliffs, doing tricks and nearly drowning in deep powder (although there was plenty of that, too) Stump’s films actually told a story. They had a beginning, a middle and an end.
Other films in my collection are excellent as well, I have several ancient films from the 40s through the 70s which are terrific in preserving the sport’s history. Even a few recent documentaries such as Steep, The Edge of Never, and Swift, Silent Deep get the fire stoked for the season.
But nothing beats Stump. I think that’s probably because his movies were made during the era when I started skiing. The clothes, the gear, the music - it all reminds me of how I felt when skiing was a new, crazy experience. Back when I thought little Trollhaugen, Wis was as big as the Alps! The time when my mind was opened to something that would change my life forever.
So there I am, wearing all my ski gear, reading Powder while a ski movie plays on the TV. Then, inevitably, I get gear crazy.
Gear lust is something that happens in all adventure sports. One must always have the newest skis, the lightest pack, the brightest headlamp, that kayak which is shaped to surf waves and spin cartwheels faster than you can say, “DUDE!!!!” When you are young and single maybe you can afford some of that stuff. But if you find yourself with youngsters to outfit, suddenly you find that your own gear is fifteen years old and patched together with duct tape!
Don’t get me wrong, it is fun to get your kids into great gear, too! The only problem is that at best, the gear lasts maybe two years! Thank goodness, I’ve found adjustable inline skates and backpacks. Bikes usually last a while, and with a nearly four year gap between boys, my kiddie gear gets two lives. But it does get expensive.
Which brings me back to last weekend - inside - on the computer. The Minnesota deer hunting season had just begun and most of the Superior Hiking Trail was closed. I debated going to Wisconsin to hike and camp but then it occurred to me that I really needed to get Nick some new boots and with the ski season starting in a few weeks, maybe I should save the gas money. ‘Might come in handy for lift tickets later this winter. In fact, maybe I’d even pick up some overtime - four hours a day on both my days off wouldn’t be too bad…
Thus, I slept INDOORS on Saturday. ‘Actually slept on something soft! No roots, no rocks … Heck, not being confined to my mummy bag, I was even able to stretch-out! I could get used to this!
Yeah, right - just bring on the snow!
Posted by Zach Johns. Posted In : skiing
Zach Johns is an alpine skier, backpacker, paddler and all-around nature lover who lives on Minnesota‘s Iron Range. Originally from Osceola, Wis., Johns attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth so he could ski every day and be close to the trails of his beloved North Shore. There, he earned a degree in Communication and was editor of the student newspaper. However, the real education he gained at UMD was in honing his outdoor skills. He took courses in subjects such as backpacking, winter camping, rock climbing and canoe tripping. By the time he graduated, that was all he wanted to do. In January of 1997, he moved to the Range where he met a group of die-hard skiers dedicated to making turns at Giants Ridge every single day of the winter (when they weren’t out skiing the big mountains of the west.) Throughout the late nineties he built a very impressive ski resume, taking several trips to Utah, Montana, Wyoming, California, British Columbia and Alaska. During the off-season, he took to the hiking trails. In 1997, he hiked the entire Superior Hiking Trail during the single season (what had been completed until that time) and in following years, took trips to Yosemite, Glacier and the Grand Canyon. He also made two attempts to climb King’s Peak, the highest mountain in Utah, but failed to summit both times. In 1999, he attempted the infamous 43-mile Kekekabic Trail through the heart of the BWCA and limped out after only ten miles with a hernia. He did finally complete the Kek in 2005, during one of the hottest weeks on record. Besides hiking, he also continued dabbling with paddling, making several canoe trips to the BWCA and became an enthusiastic (yet very novice) whitewater kayaker. He is now a father of two sons, Nick and Jackson, who accompany their father on nearly all his adventures. Both were skiing fairly soon after they could stand and from 2006-2011, the three hiked in every state park in Minnesota, 195 miles of hiking in 65 parks. Since becoming a dad, Johns has suddenly realized that you can’t just be out there skiing, hiking, paddling, etc. without also working to protect the very things you love. With that in mind, he founded an adventure club at work to get co-workers outside who might not otherwise be inspired to go. The club has gone on hiking, paddling, winter camping and cycling trips and annually go on a trash pick-up hike to celebrate Earth Day. He believes that once you get people out into beautiful wild places, the more likely they will be to protect them. He has also done a lot of volunteer work for the Superior Hiking Trail Association including adopting a backcountry campsite which he and the boys maintain twice a year. It is of extreme importance, he believes, to introduce children to the outdoors early. Not only is it good for them, but they will be the ones protecting these places once we are gone. Future plans? There are a few local goals to check-off including hiking the Border Route Trail in the BWCA and Isle Royale. Mostly, it’s just to take the boys hiking and camping in more of our national parks, skiing the big western mountains, and more of their usual seasonal cycle: Giants Ridge in the winter, Superior’s North Shore in the spring, South Shore in the summer and back to the North Shore in the fall.
