In praise of rock-skis...

Any serious alpine skier should have at least two types of skis in his or her quiver. Normal skis and rock-skis.

With almost no snow this year, rock-skis are the ones that I pulled out most often, and are working wonder for me.

Ignoring snow depths (or lack thereof), honing for shale, sliding over rocks while, I hope, self-sharpening their edges, hitting stones, rubbing against gravel or loose pebbles and reminding me of all of that mineral world that lives below us.

Rocks create sound, just like rock and roll makes music. They also shake tips, delaminate fibers, crack edges, cut deep grooves into the Swiss-made P-tex as if our ski bottoms were vinyl LPs ready to play us some Rocky Mountain blues.

Bless the rock skis, they give us the strength, the audacity and the faith that no matter how thin our snow cover is, they'll always provide this finite interface between our feet and the ground.

They'll always touch our hearts of skiers, and if those aren't made of stone, they'll melt at least some of our bases and sometime bend our edges by the time we get to the bottom.

Never, ever discard your older boards, always give them a second chance by promoting them to the after-life of legitimate “rock-skis!”