The benefits of buying local… or Thank You Wilderness Sports For Making Things Right

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Broken Fritschi

Thanks so much to Frank and the guys at Wilderness Sports.

I just bought some Fritschi Diamir Freeride Pro Randonee Bindings at Wilderness Sports last week. I just got them back from mounting yesterday.

After about 4 hours of fast skiing without lift lines, I initiated a right hand turn and suddenly found myself without a ski. Fortunately I was most of the way down the run and ski patrol was already there with a snowmobile, for a snowboarder with a busted shoulder. Chris the patroller, was kind enough to give me a ride to the Ruby lift, where I was able to catch the gondola back down.

A few minutes down the road at Wilderness Sports I explained what happened and they were happy to send them back for warranty. However, after talking to Frank, who broke 3 of them last year, they gave me a new binding from store stock. 15 minutes later, I was out the door with a freshly mounted pair of bindings!

I can see why the binding broke. The toe piece is only held on by a 3/4″ square of plastic. I won’t be buying another pair until the design changes.

But thanks again to Wilderness Sports for making things right.

Now, to make a pot roast and wait for traffic to die down.

Criminal Vacation

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Overheard: “I’m tellin’ you man,  it’s criminal the work he does.” – the maintenance guys discussing the contractor’s workmanship. This was after they had already come to unclog the shower drain, and were now investigating a leak.

So far that has been the worst of it. Yay. Now, if I can sleep on the way home…

In total,  a nice relaxing vacation in Sint Maarten. Snorkeling, diving for Russ. Hiking, snorkeling, open water swim training for Becky. Kayaking and eating for both.

BIG thanks to the Browns for the room! Turned out to be a very affordable vacation.

Knife Sharpening Experiment

When Becky and I took a cooking class, the chef lamented how he had damaged (I believe “ruined” was his exact word) a knife by trying to sharpen it himself. Between that, and all the difficulty I’ve had sharpening hand plane blades freehand (ie without a guide/jig/fixture), it was with quite a bit of trepidation that I attempted sharpening 2 of our good knives tonight.

Both had become incredibly dull, now that the cheap knife sharpener had become deformed with use. It has since been relegated to the circular file (AKA trash).

However, I am happy to report that the experiment was a success! I only needed to start with the 1000 grit stone, and worked my way through 4000, then up to 8000. Both knives sliced a fresh tomatillo (small green tomato-ish Mexican vegitable/fruit) without really even being able to notice that it was there.

Buoyed by that success, I tried sharpening the cleaver. I think I did a pretty good job, but because the cleaver has such a quick transition from edge to 1/8″+ thickness, I definitely felt the tomatillo.