Busted Binding!

Busted bindings or not - we still worked hard and
deserve our hotdog rewards when we arrived
back at the trailhead.

Busted Binding - waaa, our skis are in the shop!

It started as such a great day. Max, Zorro & I were skijoring up French Gulch. A few inches of fresh powder at the lower elevations. We took a less traveled right turn about 1/2 way up the gulch and were exploring steep terrain in 5-8 inches of fun, soft powder. Oh, we were having a blast! Eventually we had to come back, maybe we shouldn't have...

As we came out of the trees and back onto the well-traveled trail, we started our sprint back towards the French Gulch trailhead. It looks like a fast track, I thought, I bet we are going to hit some serious top speeds. Up & down through some gentle slopes and Max & Zorro started to shift into another gear. "Oh boy, good forward! Let's go," I exclaimed. And then "OH NO!" - exposed rocks just ahead and closing fast. Quick, get my skis to the right, get my skis to the right, can't slow down, get to the right .... and ... BANG, my left ski caught a patch of rocks before I could get all the way to the right. Wipeout, flat on the ground - "Oh that hurt," I moaned. I started wiping snow off my body, told Max & Zorro, "my bad, good wait" (they understand "my bad" command as meaning they did nothing wrong, it's not their fault we stopped). Then, wait, my left foot is not still in its ski. Look down, look back - Aaaah! No! My binding busted. No, no, no!

But, it was true, I busted the binding on my left ski. Total equipment failure! What could I do... I gathered up my skis, poles and shattered pieces of binding and told Max & Zorro, "Sorry, no top speeds today. Ok, let's go," and we hiked & jogged the rest of the way back to the trailhead.

The skis are "in the shop" as we speak. Max, Zorro & I are anxiously awaiting report on the damage and estimate on when they will be fixed. Pray for a quick ski repair job...

Vital Stats: 5.3 miles; 100m total time; 60m skiing time (40m break time and jogging back down the trail with busted skis); 18 mph top speed (the skis busted just as we were beginning to accelerate into some real speed); 1250 feet of uphill elevation gain.

Cruising up the lower sections of French Gulch. A nice 2-3 inches of fresh powder.

Taking a break high above French Gulch.
Snow angel Max cooling himself off.

Looking back at our ascent path. We are about to restart and go back down
this path. Steep, narrow and fast huskies - a skijoring musher's biggest challenge!

The return approach to the trailhead. Sad sack human carrying his busted skis!
Please let them be repaired soon!