Do skis have a soul?

If you ask the French, you'll hear a resounding “yes!” For years, what we, in America, called “core” in a ski, was often called “soul” or “âme” by my countrymen.

Of course, some prosaic folks would call what made a ski cross-section “noyau” which is the closest translation of core, but the real artist, the sensitive and passionate ski builders would always place some “soul” in each ski they crafted. So that ski would have an ash “soul”, this other a laminated one, even sometime (around lunch?) it might turn into sandwich and the less noble ones might be the ubiquitous polyurethane core of the 70s.

Dynastar, which always had a knack of finagling a compelling reason for everything they marketed, had the Omega, that sometimes turned into an acrylic soul to give their skis more levity. Do I forget the ethereal “hollow” soul or channel-core, invented by the Haldemann brothers? Of course not!

This mentioned, it would seem to me that skis with a “soul” never can die. They end up becoming fences, Adirondack style chairs or other pieces of furniture. In spite of that “core” spirituality, I must confess that, to this date, I have yet to see a zombie ski roaming around Park City...