Title: Two Planks And A Passion

Author: Roland Huntford

Year: 2008

For those of you who check my blog frequently, you may have noticed this book on the sidebar for most of the winter under “Currently Reading”. At 390 pages, I would normally finish a book like this in a month or so, but this one took considerably longer. Why did this book take so long? For starters, it is written very dryly and matter-of-factly- picture the teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” writing a book like this. The other reason the book takes a while to read is that nearly every sentence has a lot to say.

I’ll start off with the things I didn’t like about this book. Besides the somewhat droll writing style, my main complaint with the book was what I would call a lack of organization. Something tells me this book never started with a well-developed outline, for one paragraph could easily go through several centuries and multiple continents without any discernible tie between them. The book attempts to follow skiing in a chronological order, but at times it jumps around- a lot. The other thing that bothered me quite a bit about this book was what I felt were the author’s biases towards the following things: nordic over alpine, Europe (especially Scandinavia) over everywhere else, and a fascination with the slight contributions of the English to the skiing world. Scandinavia unquestionably reigns supreme when it comes to the history of skiing, but in my opinion that doesn’t mean that North American contributions like the world’s first charlift in Sun Valley barely merit one sentence.

On the other hand, parts of this book were utterly interesting. Ski shapes from the very beginning (10,000 years ago) have run the gamut, including what most people would consider to be “new” shapes, namely fat (over 100mm in the waist), reverse cambered, and reverse sidecuts. It seems that “what is old is new again”. As a reference work, the amount of information in this book is simply astounding, and it’s hard to imagine another book covering such a vast array of ski facts.

Overall, I’m happy to have this book as part of our library. I am quite sure that this book will come off the shelf frequently to look up a specific fact or two that can’t be found on google. Still, I wish this book had all the same information but had been written by a different, and better, author. Comparing ancient and modern skis and skiing styles could have made for a much more fascinating book. And as a ski mountaineer, I wish the book had had a chapter on the development of that aspect of the sport. But on a final note, I think that knowing the history of skiing only leads one to appreciate it more, and on that level, this book is a must-have for any serious skier.

Some of the earliest skis ever discovered look like a lot of modern skis- reverse sidecut, well over 100mm in the waist, reverse camber, basically the whole deal. Just like the park rat jibbers of today are mostly just rehashing tricks the hotdoggers of the ’70s used to do, it turns out the modern shapes look a lot like some transportation device some hunter used to shoot reindeer back in the day. Weird, huh?

I found some parts of the book to be somewhat aggravating, and contrary to the premise of what a ski bum truly is. For instance, one of the early chapters describes the author venturing out on a deep day at Wolf Creek, a day described as “too deep”. Apparently, no other skiers would even head out into the storm, and the whole scene described seems so out of whack for what a true ski bum does- namely, live for the deep days. At least the author eventually left the lodge to ski powder.

Another interesting chapter involved the author’s move to the plains of SE Colorado. I’m not sure how many self-respecting ski bums move to the plains, but at least the author continues to ski on weekends, packing up the family and driving several hours each way to go skiing.

Still, the author’s deep felt love of the sport comes through. His suffering while away from skiing after a major surgery comes through loud and clear. It’s something I can’t even imagine. His descriptions of resenting summer and going into a state of “estivating” through the summer (estivate being the opposite of hibernate, lying dormant in winter) hit home for me. I still can’t stand summer.

What keeps skiers like me entertained year after year? I mean, it should get old after a few years, right? Sheldrake says it well in this passage: “It can never be the same. Even on a fresh day. The temperature is different. The light is different. It might be delightful, joyous- even orgasmic- but never the same. It makes skiing as sad as jazz. All improvised and all lost in the midst of its own becoming.”

There are plenty of moments in the book when the author nails it, like he did above. And for that reason, Instant Karma is an entertaining read for both ski bums and armchair ski bums, if such a thing exists. Check it out. It’s available here:

]]> http://14erskiers.com/franksblog/2009/12/book-review-instant-karma-the-heart-and-soul-of-a-ski-bum/feed/ 0 http://14erskiers.com/franksblog/2009/11/book-review-teton-skiing-a-history-and-guide-to-the-teton-range/ http://14erskiers.com/franksblog/2009/11/book-review-teton-skiing-a-history-and-guide-to-the-teton-range/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:40:28 +0000 Frank http://14erskiers.com/franksblog/?p=770 During my trip to the Tetons last spring I was, needless to say, pretty excited about future ski mountaineering trips to the Jackson area. We were able to ski the classic Skillet Glacier route on Mount Moran as well as the Middle Teton, but obviously that only scratches the surface of what is available.

So when we were in Jackson, I hunted down and found a copy of Thomas Turiano’s Teton Skiing: A History & Guide To The Teton Range. Once home, I devoured the book with thoughts of skiing many of the lines within the book. The major landmark lines tend to have a thourough recounting of the first descent, while minor lines often have no more than a sentence or two. Rather than proclaim descents as “first descents”, this book simply calls them “Early Descents”, which is an easy way of avoiding any controversies. The amount of information packed into this book is simply astounding, with every conceivable peak and subpeak mentioned to some degree.

As a guidebook, very little information is actually given for the routes. While skiers accustomed to step-by-step climbing instructions may be dismayed, this book’s format leaves skiers to discover the routes for themselves. Trailhead directions could be more clear, however.

At times the book can bog down in a ___peak skied by ___skier in ___year on the ___face format. A new edition of the book would be a huge improvement from the current 1995 edition, and countless descents have been made since that time. What would really improve the book more than anything, however, would be more pictures with the routes labeled. While this would probably increase the price of the book considerably, a picture can sometimes be worth a thousand words, as the saying goes.

All in all, the staggering amount of information within this book is what truly sets it apart. The Tetons may be the only range in North America to receive such a worthwhile history book. While this book may not have the same “eye candy” appeal to light a fire within the heart of a ski mountaineer, the history alone makes up for it. Two thumbs up from this ski mountaineer, and a must-have for any ski-mountaineering library.

Well, does this have anything to do with skiing or biking or anything that 14erskiers usually covers? Interestingly, the book did make mention of nearby Colorado towns and how they dealt with the 1918 Influenza. Gunnison, CO enforced total isolation of the town- no one was allowed in without going to jail for a 5 day quarantine first. Not one person died of the flu. In Sargents, at the base of nearby Monarch Pass, without a quarantine, there were 6 deaths in just one day out of a population of 130. It seems that quarantines worked…

This year’s H1N1 isn’t anywhere near as deadly, but it does bring up the question of when a deadly influenza virus may occur. I say when because it seems probable that another deadly epidemic will occur at some point during our lifetimes. True, modern medicine will help many more than could be helped in 1918, but the book does raise a number of questions regarding our current level of preparedness. This book could be 200 pages shorter, as it goes over some of the same points over and over again, but I’d still recommend it to anyone interested in history or wants some background on the current “Swine Flu”.

So what did Kerig’s story morph into, you ask? It became the story of Trevor Petersen and the son he left behind, Kye Petersen, when Trevor perished in an avalanche in Chamonix, France. Trevor, along with his main skiing partner Eric Pehota, were tow of the biggest stars of the late 80′s and early 90′s ski scene, together authoring first descents like some people eat M & M’s. He was a hero to many, myself included.

As Trevor’s son Kye matured into a budding ski star in his own right, Kerig thought that taking Kye to the run where his father died, the glacier Rond, would make for an interesting story on its own. Meanwhile, Kerig describes his own rollercoaster ride dealing with a big-time movie production company. I’ll have to leave the rest of the plot there for now…

This was a good book, and ultimately even non-skiers may find it interesting on other levels. With appearances in the book by other famous skiers like Anselme Baud, Glen Plake, and Mike Hattrup, any serious skier needs this book in their library. The book foreshadows a terrible accident that isn’t Trevor’s, but you’ll need to check this one out on your own.

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