Skiing in Iowa?

Greetings from middle america, home of the smallest ski areas that I have ever seen. The resorts here in Minnesota make my childhood resort of Crotched Mtn, New Hampshire look positively gigantic. Hyland Park is so small that the ski jump towers above summit, actually as big as the entire ant hill. The entire length of the hill also doubles as the landing of the ski jump. However, the passion of skiers from small areas like this one or ones like I grew up on cannot be matched by any ski resort giant. People joyfully ski with garbage bags through rain, sleet and hail with mammoth grins down those puny slopes. And it sure is amazing how many great skiers and olympians come from these grassroot areas - something about learning how to ski the ice rink type snow and the massive dedication required to keep oneself entertained?

Flying into Minneapolis greeted me with some 55 degree air, but not quite cold enough to keep the snowmaking firing at Buck Hill. Trees were in summer bloom, but conditions felt much more like winter than sunny Colorado. Granted, it has still been freezing at night in CB, so we are able to ski some nice big lines easily since the approach roads are melted out, but mid-day temps are soaring to 75 and the snow is melting faster than a straight line in Alaska.

We drove past the famous Buck Hill on our way to Osage, Iowa, home of Fox River Socks. The factory is very impressive - you can't imagine how much work goes into making a great pair of socks! So many people working so hard, so many machines knitting away! And how fun to now see my designs being knitted in the thousands in front of my very eyes. I'm here to design socks along with my friend Jenni Dow, who is also Fox River's PR wiz. We make a good team, along with the production team of Dan and Phil, balancing the needs of hard core athletes with everyday walkers, runners and gym rats. We worked hard to create fun colors, technical knitting styles and interesting patterns for a new line of socks that will be made from Ingeo Yarn, spun from corn fibers instead of petrochemical products - it is so soft and you can't tell the difference in performance! We are also redesigning the Organic wool line, which i am very excited about. Fox River has a strong history of working to be green, going way back to when the manager of the public utility, Wes Birsal, started helping them with energy costs and sustainable practices way back in the 1970's. Fox River was able to expand production and add 100,000 square feet and reduce the cost of its socks! Osage, Wes and Fox River made national news throughout the 80's for its energy efficiency work, saving 1.2 million dollars in energy costs from leaving the area per year. It was this tiny community that began my inspiration to start ORE, the Office for Resource Efficiency non-profit here in Crested Butte. We are even bringing Wes Birdsal here to CB this fall to talk to our electric company and local governments for inspiration. Fox River is committed to continuing that legacy with these new sock innovations. We also hope that FR will join One Percent for the Planet, to give back to the planet and promote more sustainability.

We stayed at the most quintisential Iowa B+B, the BlueBell - my room contained a bed with a canopy of fake pink flowers and Xmas lights, along with 12 pillows, 3 Xmas trees with big bows decorated to match along side, and 22 bunny rabbits in baskets surrounding me. The most popular sport in the area appears to be tractor lawn mower riding, I discovered while out for my afternoon run. I don't think they see too many folks outside exercising in these parts. "Town" is pretty quiet, with as many combines and tractors as cars and local hot spots consisting of the bridal store, VFW, quilting store, and hardware/feed store. And, get ready for this one, cell phones don't even work here. I can phone home from the back of an elephant in Sri Lanka, but not Osage and St. Ansgar, Iowa. I openly love it when I can escape technology for a bit!

Snow in the Butte

Jet lag has subsided, and i'm ready to write again. There is still tons of snow in Crested Butte, which is quite a shocker after the green summer-like conditions in Europe. I was not quite ready to be immersed in full winter again! Last Wednesday it was full down coat weather all day long. Snow line is about 1000 feet above town right now, but there are still snow banks around my neighborhood. It has been freezing hard at night, although less this week than last, so the skiing has been pretty good up high. It has gotten significantly warmer in the past few days, and was able to ride my mountain bike yesterday, although only a few short trails are open. Temps were about 65, and you could literally watch the trees bud from brown to a irridescent green in just one day. The riding at Hartman's Rocks in Gunnison is much more summer like, and the riding is super different - slickrock, sand and cactus.

I've been working on the computer a ton, organizing adventures for next season. I'm excited about a trip to Pakistan in the works - retracing an expedition by Fanny Bullock Workman from 1899. The area seems to be chock full of unskied peaks. I'm also hoping to tackle the Bernese Oberland Traverse in which i will research documentation of Global Warming and its impact on the ski industry.

My newly formed Himalayan Girls Ski Club is making some progress - i have obtained six pairs of Sweet Thang girls skis from Head, with boots and Binding for Dicky Dolma and the girls in India. They should ship this week. Next in line is getting some poles, hats, goggles, glasses, gloves and clothing. Please contact me if you are interested in helping. I have also contacted some folks in Pakistan to begin the same type of project.

I'm off to Iowa on Sunday to design ski socks for Fox River. We are working with a new yarn made out of corn fiber, an organic line, a kids line, and fun designs for women's ski and snowboard.

Head/Tyrolia Women's Team

It is quite a shocker to leave New Delhi and arrive in Frankfurt Germany. Diametrically opposed opposites, I would say, one a seething mass of chaos and the other, precise, engineered and organized. I am here as a US member of the Head/Tyrolia Women’s Team which is made up of 11 women, one each from each major country around the world that Head does business in. We are now really meshing in our personalities – strengths and weaknesses, and really starting to work as an efficient team. At first it seemed impossible – such different women, with really different backgrounds in skiing and also life, and also the huge cultural differences. What we have found is that we are really very alike in our tastes, whether from Japan, Canada, Norway or Germany. When we do have some minor disagreements, it is usually because of our backgrounds in skiing – a recreational skier vs. a ski instructor vs a freerider, so we now let that segment of the group have the predominant say if that is their main target group – so the freeriders in the group have a major say on the freeride skis, and the instructors have the major say on the high end carving ski, etc. It is really thanks to Stefan Vollbach, at Head Austria, who had the vision to put together such a fantastic team, and also he has let us have full power when it comes to design, which is so unusual in this male dominated industry. Gabi keeps us all organized and also plans all the super fun side trips - including hiking to the top of a mountain after a long days work to mouth watering food with a classic Austrian view!
Our task is full throttle – choosing construction of the physical properties and performance of the skis and which skis to include in the line to meet the needs of different types of women skiers, naming products, testing new prototypes, and choose and also designing the graphics. We meet twice a year, usually in Austria. In November, we started the graphic design and product testing for 2007-8, and in this meeting we got to see the variations of the skis we designed in the fall. Lots of times they do not look at all the same on paper, computer, or in person, so we try to have as many options made up into complete skis for the spring meeting as possible. Choosing the top sheet style also has a huge effect.
We then also have to design matching the boots and bindings, which can be really difficult, as they have to match more than one ski, but we don’t want the skis to look alike at all. The Tyrolia department is based in Vienna, so Robert and Heidi fly in with samples parts and or us to look at and evaluate and protos of the ideas we discussed in the fall. We also discuss market trends, and how to make bindings more fun, which unfortunately, I can’t divulge what we came up with, but it will rock the market.
The Head boot guys, headed by Alberto, are based in Italy, of course. We are introducing for 2006-7 the first women’s lasted alpine boot ever made, the Dream Thang. Hard to believe this is possible that for all these years we have skied on a men’s last, and only with women’s specific liners in the last few years. They fly in with sample boot we talked about in the fall, and work on which boot will be appropriate for each type of skier that we designed each ski for. We want each type of skier to be represented – beginners to women that never thought they would ski a women’s product, and we want the looks to match that kind of person who would want that product – does she want to stand out or blend in? sophisticated or radical? Trend bucking or trend setting? Etc. We worked hard this meeting on color matching with the skis, the women’s icon, some revolutionary treatments to match the bindings, and also the development of a new women’s Edge line and another top end women’s boot. The boots are going to really rock the market this fall and they look fit and feel like nothing the world has ever seen.
We squeezed in a day of ski testing at Solden, Austria, on the glacier. Spring/Summer is really here in the Alps – everything is florescent green (well, especially it looks so after dusty India!) and all the tulips and daffodils are in bloom down in the valleys. Up high, the snow was quite good, with some powder up high and slush conditions down low. We don’t have much time to play around or explore, as we are all business with Axel running the testing. We have the new skis with a white top sheet and only numbers on them, and test cards to evaluate each ski, with only one 2,500 foot run per ski. It is lots of work, but quite fun, especially once you have done it a bit and can really start to be able to guess at what is inside each ski and then can discuss it with the people who developed and put the skis together in the ski factory.
Ah, the ski factory, I forgot to mention the coolest part. The factory is where we hold our meetings, in Kennelbach, Austria, and so rad (sorry to be so cliché, but is really is). I now know why skis are so expensive! Each step is hand done mostly, with a few machines for grinding or pressing, but that it it. Each wood part of the core is hand fed into a matching to mill it, each base color is hand taped to the other, and every ski is layered by hand, then pressed and heated, two at a time. Every single little piece has a person or three associated with it – from each little tip protector, to trimming the sidewalls, to selecting which ski looks best with its mate.
In the fall we are hoping to meet in Vienna and tour the boot and binding factories in addition to the design and testing work. I am looking forward to seeing these processes, how it all works, and it also gives us insight into how to design more effectively.
I’m in Frankfurt now, on my way to Denver to hopefully visit my sister, if not too tired, and her two new twins, and then home in the morning to Gunnison then CB. It is a four flight wonder, so I’m sure to be worked once again. I’ll be home for a little bit, then off to Osage Iowa, to design ski socks for my sponsor, Fox River.

Discovering Ceylon

Each visit to Asia makes my heart grow even fonder – I am now downright in love with Sri Lanka. I have left the east coast and have travelled inland to the city of Kandy. The drive meandered through rice paddies, stately palm trees, jolly green giant Mara trees, and prehistoric Banyon trees drop their roots from the sky. The lush jungle is reminiscent of Hawaii meets Bali. Elephants meander through the plains like dogs prowl the streets of Crested Butte. Giant granite buttresses protrude from the florescent green landscape and made us yearn to hop out and do some climbing. Eventually we left the plains and climbed steeply into the mountains.

Again we had a driver who aspires to be Mario Andretti, hurtling yet another Toyota mini van with more miles than one would ever wish to see on a vehicle, along the tiny mountain bike paths they affectionately call “roads”. It actually gives me a new outlook on India, making it appear quite organized and modern, which is quite a frightening thought. One could write a book on how blinkers are used in each country around the world – in Sri Lanka the passenger blinker of the vehicle in front of you indicates that it is clear to pass ahead on blind corners. Vehicles use the driver side blinker to indicate danger or to let people know that the road is too narrow to fit your car ahead. Most roads in rural areas will only accommodate one car, which make for some exciting driving especially on the steep mountain switch backs.
Women are now everywhere, out in the streets and markets, as we have left the Muslim areas of the East. I had forgotten how much I missed their presence, vitality, color and smiles. Often times when I see hundreds of them together, there is a sweatshop nearby, and I cringe at the thought of America’s obsession with inexpensive clothing. An average good wage in this country is about 150 rupees a day, or about $1.50 US. I had the awful feeling that most women make far less.

Religion is quite interesting here, although predominately a Buddhist country, most folks practice quite a mix of several religions at once. I spent long hours talking with Sabrina Dharma Rubesinghe, a 76 year old woman running her son’s home as a guest house. Baptized Christian, she abides by Buddha’s words, knows the bible by heart and is now reading the Koran. She is finding the Muslim religion and teachings more thorough and detailed than other religions, bringing her closer to god and nirvana. Most people I have met here have similar stories.

My investigation into the essence of this country has driven me to find out more about its major economic crops – gemstones, tea, and spices. First stop was a gem factory, where workers mine and then grind stones into gems. For some reason I had always thought that stones were carefully fractured like arrowheads into gems, but the process involves intricate grinding one facet at a time. The transformation is a slow process with fractional turning every few seconds, changing grinding wheels every few minutes from course to fine, finishing with a copper polish grind. Any one wishing to get engaged should come here – you can watch your stone being mined, ground, and then pick your setting and pick it up the next day. Red saphires (rubys), blue and white sapphires, all colours of topaz, aquamarine, moonstones, and emeralds are significant exports. Precious stones are 8.5 density or harder, while semi precious are 6-8.5.

Next stop was a spice plantation. I could have written a book on what I learned, but here are some highlights: tumeric is a root that stimulates collagen growth, good health and kills bacteria; hibiscus promotes healthy lungs, aids digestion, good sleeping, and less snoring; the exquisite vanilla orchid must be hand pollinated, is full of natural cyanide which is removed by steaming; cinnamon is made from four layers of bark and is helpful for osteoporosis, arthritis, and a natural antioxidant; chocolate fixes dark moods and minds, also had cyanide in the small seed which is removed, the fruit is graded by color – pink is the highest, brown second, and black the lowest quality. The shape of the fruit pod is thought to be the inspiration for the coke bottle. The pepper plant is a winding jack in the beanstalk type vine, often growing up other trees for many meters. The green pepper fruit ripens to red, is black when dried in the sun, and white with its skin removed. Ginger root stimulates the immune system while coriander and ginger make a great antibiotic tonic, vocal chord stimulator and increases hormones for barren women. Nutmeg fruit, when broken open, had a lady bug like seed. The red part of the skin produces mace, while the actual seed is ground into nutmeg.

I also stopped to investigate bananas – there are six types here. Lemon, sugar, colukutu, emblem, amamalu, and my favourite, the red banana which is so rich that it almost tastes like banana ice cream.

My main mission was to explore some of the ancient cities. Sigiriya is known as the 8th wonder of the world, built in the 5th century AD. Built onto one of the huge granite protrusions - its work rivals Egypt, Mexico and Peru for intricacy and mathematics. One can climb up to the top and explore the ancient swimming pools and thrones – where the king would sit and watch his harem of 500 women! Dambulla is a series of football field sized caves filled with Buddhist carvings, paintings, and statues dating back to 100BC. There is a 80meter long reclining Buddha, whose foot was the size of a small house. I made just a miniscule dent in all the ancient works to see, but was most impressed, and can’t wait to come back with my archaeologist mother.

Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, is also famous for its tea plantations, (think English Breakfast) so I visited a factory to learn more. It takes 5 kilos of fresh leaves to make one kilo of tea in 24 hours, and this operation processes 10,000 kilos a day. Camilaya Sinenses is the plant, and the leaves are hand picked and then dryed, crushed 3 times, oxidized, and then fired at 100C for 21 minutes. Static electricity separates the stalks from the leaves, which are then used for fertilizer. Tea is then graded as the following: Orange Pekoe and Flower Pekow – light flavour to be served without milk or sugar; Broken Orange Pekoe – med flavour to be served with sugar; BOPF, or Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings – strong flavour to be used with sugar and milk. Silver Tips, or White tea, is not crushed, since only new unfurled leaves are hand picked and not fired. Green Tea is the same as black tea, but not fermented.

Ok, this story is getting long, so I’ll wrap up. I finished by doing the corny elephant thang. I couldn’t resist getting some photos for my nieces and nephews! I rolled up my pants at the elephant clinic and washed Mala the elephant in the river. She even sprayed me with her trunk to help out. Did you know that elephants are really hairy? Course black stuff that is quite long. The mahout, or handler, would stand by to help out and give commands while I went for a short ride with only a blank on top and no rope. I then fed her some papaya as a thank you. My way to the airport from there would take me on a picturesque train journey to the classic Sri Lankan bus with over 100 people. Now I’m in Frankfurt Germany, on my way to Austria to test and design women skis for Head!