All We Need is Love in the Backcountry

At the end of the day, or the beginning if you prefer to ski powder during the wee hours of the morning, backcountry skiing is about getting up so you can enjoy the down. Although images of "the masses" from the land beyond the lifts would tell another story, the backcountry skiing community is a small one. Too small in fact for the dividing asunder and the "he said she said" that seems to be going on. But the waters have been stirred and are now muddy.

From TelemarkTips.com's recent article comes this rhetoric:

This "Battle of the Titans" is a war for the hearts and minds of a future generation of telemark skiers yet to discover the sport. Viewed as such, it becomes a little less threatening and far more fun to follow along. Indeed, most of us had no idea it had already begun, but as can be seen from the narrative above, the battle has been underway for many months, perhaps even years.

Mike Geraci at Base Camp Communications offers an olive branch on behalf of Scarpa to the Telemark world. Why is an olive branch needed? I think it's a "better now than later" and to draw a line in the sand. Speculation by the masses will only lead to confusion and yes, more speculation.

By now you may be wondering what exactly I'm talking about and who exactly cares. It's the Black Diamond v. Scarpa v. Garmont v. Rotefella v...blah, blah, blah and well, apparently some people care, myself not included.

I love Black Diamond. I use their gloves, the Avalung, the Slide Pack, a ratty beanie, a couple of tee shirts, their Flick-Lock Carbon Fiber poles, their probe pole. I'm a regular BD die hard.

I also love Scarpa boots. The Scarpa Spirit 3 is my new love after having owned and skied the Matrix (light and fast), Denali (original red), Denali XT (smurf blue), and the Denali TT (red again).

But then again as you can tell from the link, I fixed the heel and fixed the problem long ago. How's that for love?

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