Ski Dazzle!

This past weekend I attended Ski Dazzle, a nice ski and snowboard show here in Seattle. The event brings together representatives from many ski areas in the northwest region in addition to retail shops. There are lots of contests for free skiing packages and some decent discounts on both lift tickets and gear. Being relatively new to skiing in the pacific northwest, I was excited to see everything that was offered.

There is so much quality skiing in the cascades and rockies in the northwest that it was very hard to keep track of all the areas that were present. Of course visiting all the booths resulted in lots of stickers and trail maps, and I entered every contest in hopes that just maybe I'll be able to ski somewhere pretty awesome for free. I was also on the lookout for new gear, as the skis I have are at least six years old and showing some age. I was particularly looking for skis that worked on powder but still had some grip on groomed runs (so basically an all-mountain ski), as my skis were only useful on hard packed surfaces, making it difficult to ski in powder (like last season). In the end I walked away with a new pair of 170cm Rossignol Smash 7s with bindings, ski poles, goggles, gloves, and a jacket, all of which I wanted to replace gear that I had had since early high school or earlier.

New skis and poles (left) with the old gear (right) (Click to Enlarge)

With the new gear, particularly the wider skis, this skiing season in the northwest should be much better than last season.