Not much skiing related has been happening here at TSW-HQ this summer. After ending the season at Cannon during a freak two foot snow storm during the last week of April, I transitioned into skiing hibernation mode. I began rehabbing my left knee which suffered an over use injury during the ski season that I pointedly ignored. The rehab meant that I was sidelined for the spring skiing season. But the rehab has been successful and I am optimistic that I will begin running and hiking again before the start of the next season.

One key component to the rehab process was strengthening my quadricep in my left leg. It turns out that road bike riding is a great way to build muscle strength while causing minimal impact to the injured knee. This weekend I will pass my 1000th mile. I had not done much road biking since college, a dozen years ago. This summer has rekindled my love for pedaling. I am taking biking seriously and doing it for fitness but also enjoying more fully exploring my home… this vast stretch of amazing land from the Lakes Region to the Whites. I have some larger rides planned including a metric century, a Ride Around Winnipesaukee, some notch riding in the whites, and a full century. My fitness is greatly improved compared to last year so I am hoping that translates into the ski season.

New boards for turn earning are ready for mounting. The new earned turn powder rig will be Watea94s mounted with Dynafit Vertical 12s and BD Ascension skins. This will be my first fatter board with an AT binding an it should serve as motivation to earn my powder as both the up and down will ski better with 94mm under each foot.

In other news, frequent readers may have noticed fewer pictures than normal this past season. This was due to my dog destroying my Cannon A630. As a temporary solution, I purchased a used A570 on the cheap but did not enjoy the interface or the quality of the pictures. After having watched closely the digital camera market for the past two years, I finally decided it was time for a major upgrade.

I just purchased a TL-350 which is a brand new camera from… Samsung? It appears that Samsung has gotten serious about cameras and all reviews for their new top end compact P&S lineup including the TL-500 and TL-350 have been full of praise. Look for a lot more photos this winter.

Finally, I am committed to upgrading TSW to the latest v3.0 of WordPress before the season starts. I have held off due to concern for plug-in compatibility. I am unsure of how I will proceed with photos (currently sourced through Gallery software). Suffice to say There may or may not be some practical and/or visual changes before the next season begins.

Hopefully we’ll be making turns again in less than three months. Until then, I will be pedaling hard and trying to find time for badly needed upgrades to the web site. Enjoy the rest of your summer!