Tuning so many skis is a huge job!

For the past two days, inspired by the Ford assembly line approach, I have been repairing, tuning and waxing the skis of the entire household. Seven pairs in total, for my son, daughter, wife and I. A great job too; I applied myself to conduct a thorough base repair, edge sharpening and hot wax! Granted, that's too many boards, especially when I must admit that three pairs are mine, not including my AT gear and a monoski that I have yet to use in this 21st century.

Sure, I still can justify having one pair of “rock skis” in the event snow is somewhat tardy, one pair of all-mountain skis to do everything that needs to be done and one pair of powder skis to keep up with Utah's most famous natural resource. In the future and as austerity sinks in, I might have to reduce my “stable” of boards. This would certainly be more politically correct and in line with these trying times, but it should also be said that the last time a bought a new pair of skis was in 2007 and that there is an organized sense of “rotation” in the apparent excess that seems to characterize the large ski rack that adorn my garage.

For instance what has evolved in today's rock skis is the most ancient pair I own, one that was placed in service back in 2004, which will be a decade ago in less than five years. As time goes by, each one of my skis will eventually be demoted to that level including my big, wide powder boards. This said, I don't feel too guilty about my large inventory of “sticks” and can assure you that with almost all of its spots already used up, there's no more room in the rack for new equipment!