Le Franco Phoney

It’s that time of year where snow lovers in the Northern Hemisphere are getting anxious about the upcoming ski season. Speculation has already begun on how good a season it will be, based on the lateness of red berries, the colour of autumn leaves, and which ways the cows prefer to face. Mushrooms, summer temperature, frost, the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, and bird activities are other indicators that I’ve heard of to describe how cold or warm, snowy or dry a winter will be. I’m still confused as to how each works and I vehemently question the accuracy of such methods, but they provide good banter nonetheless.

Anyway, if it’s a bad season or if you just can’t wait any longer, there’s always pine needle skiing. Yep. You ski on pine needles. I first found out about this a few months back when I took this snap by a bank ATM/teller in a town far away from the mountains. Next to this poster was some information about the sport and some contact information, so I had a look at their website (update July 2010: website no longer around) which has (edit: had) a great video, showing just how…errr…easy pine needles are to ski on. The video includes skiers on kickers, trunk slides, trunk tricks, and even a skier going switch mid-ski. The problem is that he then comes to a stop because he’s run out of hill. And then he has to walk back up because there are no ski lifts.

The video also shows footage back in the days of black and white film of people skiing on the pine needles with old wooden skis. Indeed, the poster says: “Ski all seasons. Why not? For 40 years, people from the South Basin have been able to do so.” What strikes me is that if people were doing this forty years ago and it still hasn’t caught on, then maybe there’s a reason.

Me, I think I’ll wait until winter, but if anyone reading this tries it or has already tried it, I’d be very interested in hearing how it was.