Skiing Notes from Ira Riklis

More on Ira Riklis’ first skiing experience:

“So there I am, about 10 years old, a never-ever skier, with all blood flow to my feet cut off, and my father decides that I need to be more self reliant. It would have been a simple matter for my father, or some other compassionate soul, to have closed the binding on my skis. But I was to stay there until I closed the bindings myself.

I tried to lean forward to close the binding, but my heel is being held down and I’m too short to be able to lean forward and gain the necessary leverage to close the binding. It took me about an hour, and many failed attempts, to figure out how to use the ski pole to close the binding. So there I am, feet aching, finally fully equipped to go skiing, and I haven’t even left the staging area yet. Now I have to learn how to move on skis.”

Ira Riklis continues:

“My father initially tried to teach me to use a herringbone method. I have now been skiing for almost 45 years and I have yet to see anyone use the herringbone for simple movement around the slopes. It is much easier to teach a new skier to use a sidestep method. Also, while modern skis are meaningfully shorter than they were about 45 years ago, the skis I was wearing were so long that I couldn’t even come close to getting the herringbone step to work with my prepubescent stature (or lack thereof).

“After about another hour of total frustration, I had traveled all of about three feet and I simply sat down in the snow and started to cry. At this point my sister, who had already been skiing before, had pity on me and showed me how to sidestep.”

We asked Ira Riklis, “Where is your favorite place for skiing?” He responded:

“This brings me to my love of Vail. Vail is the largest single mountain ski resort in the United States. That provides a massive amount of terrain to traverse. Unlike other ski towns such as Aspen, Steamboat Springs or Breckenridge which were actual towns prior to the establishment of their ski resorts, the town of Vail grew as a result of the Vail ski resort.”

Ira Riklis continued:

” The area was used during World War II as a training ground for the 10^th Mountain Division. Some of the mountain shelters used in the training are still around and available for rent for camping, hiking and off-roading adventures. Veterans of the 10^th Mountain, remembering the beauty of the area, returned in the late 50’s with dreams to create a world class ski resort.

“Even more important to me, Vail is famous for the quality and extent of the grooming of the terrain. Every day there will be numerous slopes, many of them black diamond “Expert” slopes, which have been groomed overnight. This dedication to grooming is part of the “secret sauce” that has propelled Vail from a brand new mountain and village 47 years ago into one of the premier ski venues in the world.”

Continuing our sit down with businessman and skier, Ira Riklis, we asked, “What type of skier are you?”:

“I’m what would be called a mountain cruiser. I like to go down groomed slopes, the steeper the better, but always groomed. I will cruise at anywhere from 20 to 45 miles per hour and can travel down Vail Mountain, top to bottom, non-stop in 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the path and the conditions (and the traffic from other skiers).

“Most people consider an expert skier to be someone that can handle a bump run, a ski run covered in deep moguls. These types of runs would be problematic for me for two reasons. First, I’m skiing on long, stiff, racing skis. My skis are not designed to allow the tight turns in the confines of the crevices in between moguls. My skis are designed to maintain contact with the snow while I bank a tight turn at high speed.

“If I were to be on mogul skis, or other recreational style skis, the pressure on my legs and feet to maintain the carve of my turn under high speed and steep angle would be most unpleasant. Second, and in that same mode, if I go down a mogul run, I use up my legs and energy and would have to rest for a couple of days afterwards. This just doesn’t appeal to me. “

Look for future parts of our interview with Ira Riklis in coming days.

Picture provided by Ira Riklis to accompany his interview:

Ira Riklis provided this photo of the 10th Mountain Division

Ira Riklis recently sat down with us to discuss skiing, his friends, and life. This is the first installment of many from this interview:

“Skiing is one of the great passions of my life.  It may seem strange, as I’m a fat, middle aged, non-athletic, New York Jew, but there it is.  What is even more surprising is how good I am at it.  Hard to believe of a fat guy, but I’m actually quite elegant on skis.  Other skiers on the slope stop to watch my technique as I come down the mountain.  I take great pride in my technique.  I learned it from my ski partner of more than 20 years, Mike Bartasuis.  We originally met when Mike was working as a ski instructor at Vail/Lionshead and he was assigned to me on a private lesson.  Over the years we have become much more than ski buddies; we are also business partners and very close friends.”

Ira Riklis continued:

“Mike is one of only five people in the world to hold the dual record of skiing over 100 miles per hour and jumping over 200 feet.  His personal bests are 110.5 miles and 220 feet.  I’m happy to say that he has retired now from both sports.  Mike once showed me the equipment he used for the speed skiing.  The skis must have been 15 feet long, 8 inches wide, almost 2 inches thick at their center point, no edges, no center cut, and very heavily weighted.  Contrast that with his ski suit which was skin tight and made of Teflon.

“It occurred to me that the skis are designed only to go straight, no turns or stops, and the suit, which is designed to act as a slipstream for air currents, would have no traction in the snow if he fell.  I asked Mike what would happen if he fell.  Mike told me that they would be finding pieces of him two to three counties away.  I then asked how he was going to insure his safety.  Mike responded that he did not intend to fall.  How could I argue with such as simple, but effective, plan.  As I said above, thank God, but Mike is retired from both sports and is in fine health.  Now instead he hang glides by jumping off mountain cliffs, much safer.”

I wonder if anyone has ever tracked an entire year to find the optimal skiing conditions around the world. If one were really going to try and do that what would it take? 

Does that mean tracking the actual amount of snow?  Well, that  would probably be pretty easy to do with existing data, but then one might end up in a place with lots of snow and not very good skiing. It’s not really that much fun to have to climb a mountain (risking one’s life or possibly just losing a limb to frostbite) for let’s estimate four months and then having one good ride down.

So perhaps finding the best ski resorts around the globe so you could spend an entire year going from one to the other might be a better idea. So is that about the weather or the slopes and how they are maintained. Maybe Hugh Grant and Jamie Oliver could give me their ratings of Verbier, Kate Moss seems to know Aspen and could also chime in with George Clooney about St Morit. I could talk to Ira Riklis for Vail and Harrison Ford, Uma Thurman, Christina Ricci and Matthew McConnaughey for Jackson Hole. If I get really lucky I could catch up with Salma Hayek and Paris Hilton for the scoop on Park City, Utah.

Well, that’s a pretty good start – getting in touch with them should take a day or so, then I really need to go interview with a photographer. Oh, and I don’t want to  forget that Prince Charles and son Harry could fill me in on the Klosters, of course. Maybe this is really more of a film. Maybe Ira Riklis can give me the name of a good camera crew.

Wow, this idea is really snowballing… This should keep me busy over summer break at least.