Update: Rudy Sidelined

It figures.  After espousing the virtues of Rudy, Murphy and his freakin law would catch up with me in the mountains of Vermont.  Alas, this last Sunday Rudy found his match in the glades of Andre's Paradise on Jay Peak..  I finished my first turn at the top of the glades, and lept into a second jump-turn when my left foot came flying out of the binding.



"That was odd... I didn't put much pressure on it" I thought to myself.  And when I looked down to lock back into the binding, I found the problem.  The toe on the Silvretta binding had split in two.

I had heard of the this problem previously (See Lou Dawson's blog and discussion regarding the Silvretta bindings- including my post), but had yet to experience any issues.  Well, now I am a believer.

I thought back through the previous two days including a backcountry trip to Mt. Hunger (more on that later), and my first runs on Jay to try and figure out when I might have broken them.  Unfortunately the list was kinda long.

1. When the crust brought me to a complete stop and threw me out of my bindings on the upper Hunger snowfield.
2. When I somersaulted down the 45 degree crust covered rock slab on Hunger.
3. When I dropped off the 3 foot waterfall and superman-ed out of both bindings on lower hunger.
4.  When the skis sat out overnight in -20F temperatures at Gered's camp.
5. When I hit the sheet of ice on upper Jay and did a backwards somersault.
6. When the snowboarder who was following me on upper Jay hit the same patch of ice and plowed into me, also breaking my brand new backcountry ski pole.

I think that pretty much narrows it down.

Luckily I brought along another pair of skis, which I tested the rest of the day.  (More on those skis later)

And so now Rudy has been sidelined and is at the mercy of the Silvretta service department.  More to come.