PSA: Mount your own fucking skis.

[chaka]

That felt really good. Thanks to this place I mounted my own fucking skis for the first time.

Thank you tgr.

[sethschmautz]

Not my first, but my most recent. Looking forward to a spring of touring.

[Vitamin I]

I moved out of my Whistler housing and am just car camping for a week or 2 before I move back to Calif, so today it was fun drilling, mounting, and waxing these 2 pairs by using an electrical outlet at the bottom of a stealth stairwell of a public underground parking garage in Whistler.

New-old-stock 193cm Blizzard Gunsmoke 2014 mounted with used 916's for 314mm BSL at -4.8cm from true center (+1.2cm from manufacturer recommended line).
New-old-stock 196cm Blizzard Bodacious 2013 mounted with used S900 DIN=16 for 314mm BSL at -10.8cm from true center (+0.1cm from manufacturer recommended line).

[mr_pretzel]

Looks sick! How'd you end up with both of those new?

[Meadow Skipper]

I moved out of my Whistler housing and am just car camping for a week or 2 before I move back to Calif, so today it was fun drilling, mounting, and waxing these 2 pairs by using an electrical outlet at the bottom of a stealth stairwell of a public underground parking garage in Whistler.

Quoted just because it's core.

[Norseman]

That is core.

[pfluffenmeister]

Nice iron.

[skimaxpower]

I moved out of my Whistler housing and am just car camping for a week or 2 before I move back to Calif, so today it was fun drilling, mounting, and waxing these 2 pairs by using an electrical outlet at the bottom of a stealth stairwell of a public underground parking garage in Whistler.

That's some serious dirtbag-ball-prom-king shit right there. Well played.

I hope you left a pile of wax scrapings to mark your territory.

[Vitamin I]

Stealth Mounting
Episode 2

For my little ski project dream, over many years I have been accumulating a storage unit full of skis, and I think now is the time to mount them all, because it’s looking like next winter will finally be the winter when I will have enough free time to embark on my little project.

Today, in the same stairwell of a public underground parking garage, I drilled, mounted, and waxed:

New-old-stock 192cm Atomic Bent Chetler 2013 mounted with used 916's with wide AFD parts for 314mm BSL at -2.7cm from true center (-0.3cm from manufacturer recommended line).
New-old-stock 197cm Volkl Katana 2009 mounted with used 977 DIN=17 for 314mm BSL at -12.8cm from true center (+1.3cm from manufacturer recommended line).

[Vitamin I]

Looks sick! How'd you end up with both of those new?

I bought those 2 Blizzards about 1.5-2 years after release, when the shops did an off-season clearance online. Then I left them in storage for 2-3 years.

…I hope you left a pile of wax scrapings to mark your territory.

Haha, for waxing, I will just keep using my getto thrift store clothes iron until it breaks. I’m too lazy to scrape off the wax. I just ski it off during the first 2-3 runs of the day, and after that I sometimes look for any remaining sidewall drips (and then I actually scrape those drips off).

.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Fischer fanboi? Mebbe

Both bought used with 1 mount and I mounted my own fucking bindings on 'em.


Have a drill press so limiting the depth on the last 3 holes to 7mm for the Fischer Adrenalins on the Rangers was no biggie.

Yes, those are Rossi pivots on the Pro Mountains - my skinny skis

[Vitamin I]

Stealth Mounting
Episode 3

Today, in the same stairwell of a public underground parking garage, I drilled heel holes (and re-used previous toe holes) & mounted:

196cm Scott Stunt 2009, used, now mounted with used 997 DIN=20 for 314mm BSL at -12.6cm from true center (+3.7cm from manufacturer recommended line).

[plugboots]

Dude.

[mr_pretzel]

Vitamin I is killing it. Would you mind sharing about your project and the thought process behind saving all those skis?

[pfluffenmeister]

^^^ Yep, I was just going to ask the same thing.

Vitamin I is breaking out the big dogs!

[Vitamin I]

...Would you mind sharing about your project and the thought process behind saving all those skis?

I've been reluctant to talk about my project idea, because it seems like every year that I believe I will finally do it, then something always comes up to prevent me from spending the time on it. Plus it's hard to justify spending significant time on it when I want it to be just a hobby, not a profitable business venture. To be intentionally vague, I want to build a website about ski models, and part of it will be "quantitative" results data from head-to-head A/B testing on-snow for a "small" subset of ski models past and present. We'll see if I can deliver the first few features in a beta version website before next winter. Maybe my website will be viewed by tens of tens of people!!! ...and maybe someday I could make all these skis available in Tahoe or Whistler, sort of like a tool-lending library, if any ski nerds out there even care about trying old skis every once in a while. Anyway, back to mounting skis...

Stealth Mounting
Episode 4

Yesterday and today, in the same stairwell of a public underground parking garage, I strengthened old holes by replacing plastic plugs with epoxy and sometimes wood plugs, then barely squeezed in some new holes between old holes, & mounted:

194cm Dynastar Legend Pro Rider 2006, used, now mounted with used 997 DIN=14 metal heels & 957 DIN=17 metal toes (with added toe shim parts), for 314mm BSL at -11.0cm from true center (+1.0cm from manufacturer recommended line).

193cm Stocki Stormrider DP Pro 2008, used, now mounted with used 977 DIN=14 (metal heels, plastic toes) for 314mm BSL at -12.5cm from true center (+0.4cm from manufacturer recommended line).

[mr_pretzel]

I've been reluctant to talk about my project idea, because it seems like every year that I believe I will finally do it, then something always comes up to prevent me from spending the time on it. Plus it's hard to justify spending significant time on it when I want it to be just a hobby, not a profitable business venture. To be intentionally vague, I want to build a website about ski models, and part of it will be "quantitative" results data from head-to-head A/B testing on-snow for a "small" subset of ski models past and present. We'll see if I can deliver the first few features in a beta version website before next winter. Maybe my website will be viewed by tens of tens of people!!! ...and maybe someday I could make all these skis available in Tahoe or Whistler, sort of like a tool-lending library, if any ski nerds out there even care about trying old skis every once in a while. Anyway, back to mounting skis...

That is awesome! Hopefully you get that website up, I would love to see it.
You going to contribute to the post your quivers thread btw? I saw you posting about it a while back i think

[Vitamin I]

...You going to contribute to the post your quivers thread btw?...

Yeah, I will post photos of the ridiculous multinational quiver after I return to Calif in late May, where 3-4 more pairs of skis are waiting to be photographed.

Stealth Mounting
Episode 5

Today, I finally took a shower after 13 days or car camping, and did laundry. In the laundromat parking lot, I completed the easiest mount job ever. All I had to do was pull out plastic plugs for previous Jester holes, drill 1 more hole on each ski, and screw in Jester Demo bindings (with epoxy):

195cm Zag H112 2015, used, now mounted with Jester Demo bindings.

[Vitamin I]

Stealth Mounting
Episode 6

Yesterday, I drilled 5 pairs of skis in the stairwell of a public parking garage, mounted 2 of those pairs right there, then today I mounted the other 3 pairs in the hallway at my storage unit:

- 193cm Head im103 Pro 2005, used, now mounted with used 997 DIN=14 metal heels & 957 DIN=20 metal toes (with added toe shim parts), for 314mm BSL at -14.8cm from true center (+1.0cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 195cm Line Mothership 2010, used, now mounted with used 916, for 314mm BSL at -9.2cm from true center (+0.4cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 193cm Blizzard Cochise 2014, used, now mounted with used 997 DIN=14 (metal heels, plastics toes), for 314mm BSL at -10.4cm from true center (+0.5cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 192cm Salomon Rocker2 122 2012, used, now mounted with barely used, most minty pair of S900 DIN=16 that I've seen in a long time (with new wide AFD parts), for 314mm BSL at -2.3cm from true center (+2.8cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 188cm Rossignol S7 2010, used, now mounted with used 977 DIN=14 (metal heels, plastic toes), for 314mm BSL at -4.7cm from true center (+1.2cm from manufacturer recommended line).

[CaliBrit]

Vitamin, how do you come up with all your bizarre mount points?

[plugboots]

Vitamin, how do you come up with all your bizarre mount points?

I was wondering this as well.

Also, I'm that guy that would love to demo the old boards. It's a great idea, especially on a spring corn day at Alpine Meadows for example. Maybe park a truck in the small backside parking area. Rent from that. I mean, it'd be great to demo those for a run or 2, have a frosty or 3, and give your buddies shit.

Problem is, I'm old and live East of Seattle. Bring the truck to Lot 4. Maybe do a Plake-like thing and tour it around.





Edit: with tacos.

[skimaxpower]

Edit: with tacos.

You're a wise man.

[Vitamin I]

Vitamin, how do you come up with all your bizarre mount points?

In general, I use every bit of info I can find, which makes my methods more complicated than necessary, and yields weird numbers...but I like the results. I end up with non-obvious mount point numbers for different reasons in different cases.

One reason is I usually buy used skis, and sometimes there are conflicts with previous holes that force me to move a few millimeters fore or aft. Or if I can re-use previous holes that are not too far from my forecasted fave position, then I will use those holes instead of drilling more holes.

My favorite reason is when I buy a used ski drilled for Jesters, then I mount Jester demos into those holes (plus I gotta drill one more hole per ski for the toe demo plate), then I ski it to dial in my favorite position, which sometimes ends up being a non-obvious number (e.g. Yesterday I skied and dialed in a 195cm Zag H112 ski at -0.7cm from manufacturer line). And even with that method, when I pull off the demo bindings with intent to mount Salomon bindings at my newly confirmed fave position, sometimes I see that previous holes force me to move it a bit fore or aft than my fave position, yielding yet another non-obvious number.

Plus I have kept up a ski diary for a long time, with lots of notes about my mounting preferences for various ski shapes, etc. E.G. My diary reminds me that the manufacturer line feels too far back for my tastes for old traditional chargers from Head and Volkl, so nowadays I mount those at around +1.0cm. And I can sometimes apply my dialed-in demo binding prefs for one ski model, and apply that to a new unknown ski model with very similar shape...like I took what I know from dialing in a 189cm Blizzard Spur and applied it to mount a very similarly shaped 193cm Prior A-Star.

Sometimes my methods make me feel confident and empowered to accurately forecast my fave position on an unknown ski, but other times my forecasts end up being way off...so I am still learning. Like while dialing in my fave position with a Jester demo binding on a 196cm Volkl Two, I started testing way far back and incrementally moved it forward. It felt so good from the start, even way back, but in the end my fave position ended up being way more forward than my original forecast. Even in the middle of testing, after testing the first few positions, I kept saying "I will move it forward one more time just to confirm I don't prefer it", and then I would INDEED prefer it each time I moved it forward, basically unlocking new strengths of the ski that I couldn't detect from the aft positions. Etc.

.

[Vitamin I]

Stealth Mounting
Episode 7

Over the past couple of days, I drilled 5 pairs of skis in the stairwell of a public parking garage, mounted some pairs right there, then mounted the other pairs in the hallway at my storage unit:

- 194cm Surface New Life 2012, used, now mounted with used 916, for 314mm BSL at -1.9cm from true center (-1.7cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 189cm Blizzard Spur 2015, used, now mounted with used S900 DIN=16, for 314mm BSL at -11.0cm from true center (-0.7cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 196cm Volkl Two 2014, used, now mounted with used 997 DIN=17, for 314mm BSL at -3.7cm from true center (+6.0cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 195cm Zag H112 2015, used, now mounted with used 997 DIN=14 (metal heels, plastic toes), for 314mm BSL at -14.4cm from true center (-0.8cm from manufacturer recommended line).

- 195cm Rossignol S7 2011, used, now mounted with used 916 heels, a mismatched S900 DIN=20 toe & a 957 DIN=16 toe (with swapped in matching old driver toe AFD and shim parts), for 314mm BSL at -6.6cm from true center (-0.3cm from manufacturer recommended line).

[mr_pretzel]

I get stoked everytime I see you post!
How do you have so many old salomon bindings? And how do you know they still work?