Death on Shakes Slough

A hearty bowl of oatmeal warms the cold cabin.

A faithful friend passes away. After all that Bob's faithful Atomic ski has gone through (like the 150 mile Telegraph-Wrangell tour last year), they met their maker on a hummocky section of trail as we neared Shakes Lake. Bob was not pleased. We brought three extra ski poles in case one broke but no extra skis.

Examining the damage.

Repair time! I made a suggestion to pull a stay out of Bob's backpack and fastening it in some manner to the ski. Bob had some Gorilla tape that suited the purpose and went to work making the repair. It helped... a little, but there was a problem. The ski didn't want to slide. That wasn't much of a problem as we all skied up to the top of the morane at the edge of Shakes Lake. But it was an entirely different story when Bob attempted to ski down the other side! He came down the other side with the same amount of grace as an airplane trying to fly with one wing or a vehicle on the interstate with a broken tie rod. His problems were compounded by a sled that REALLY wanted to get down to the bottom of the hill. I was very impressed with his ability to stay on his feet all the way down to the lake. It was not a simple task. After trying some other things with the ski, Bob abandoned the idea of skiing and simply walked across the three miles across the lake to our campsite.