Schlopy's Quiver: Back on the course at Solden

Schlopy's Quiver: Back on the course at SöldenI'm glad that the first race is over. I'm really psyched. This was my best race ever in Sölden, so I'm officially off to my best start ever in my career. Seventeenth place beats last year. The famous pictures of my crash last year were all over the place, and reporters were asking me about it. Like I told Ski Racing and the Denver Post, it's a great picture: The photographer who took it got really lucky and that picture deserves a lot of credit, so I'm happy for that guy.

I'm feeling pretty healthy. Not 100 percent yet, but I know that when I am — I think by December — I'll be giving these guys a run for their money. I'll be pretty much challenging Bode, because he's beating everyone else, and I know he's psyched for that. I know he knows that I'll be there pretty soon. It's just a matter of getting my knee to 100 percent and getting my new equipment set up the right way.

For me, Sölden is one of the toughest courses on the World Cup. None of my fortés come into play on this hill. My forté is even steepness, and this is maximum flats to maximum steeps. I'm better at the whole middle range (sidehills are fine with me). But this is a tough hill. My knee is a little sore, but that's just because it's race day and I was giving it what I had. I took it easy on the second run a little bit.

Basically the most important thing for me was deciding what the best ski to use on that hill was. That hill is pretty unique. It's fast and bumpy more so than most World Cups. So you need a ski that's really stable, and that you feel comfortable on. So I found the ski that was best in that scenario.

One of the things that I talked about in the last entry was the importance of finding the right binding positions. But I hadn't gotten a chance to do that yet before Sölden. I still haven't gotten to the 'best in show process' that I was talking about. That will come in the next couple weeks. So I took the ski that was going to be best on this hill, and then started playing with the binding position and found a better one, but I'm not convinced that this is the optimal place yet. But it's definitely an improvement.

I skied on a 193 cm ski. There's another one that I'm testing that's really good. It's a 191, but I was a little more comfortable on that hill at Sölden with the 193. It's not quite like a super G up at the top, but it's always a lot of speed. It's a hectic hill. Fortunately, the 193cm Nordica worked out great, it felt really solid and smooth. Another Nordica athlete, Daniel Albrecht from Switzerland, chose the 191cm Nordica ski that I have been testing, and it seemed to work for him.

Bode and Dane and I raced with extra plastic on our gloves. We actually sewed it on, and then riveted it. There's just not enough padding on our gloves, and we're clearing the gates at such high speed: We were all hurting our wrists. So we each fashioned our own design, all differently, to see which way worked best. Plus it goes off the gate a little faster.

After the last column went up, a few readers out there e-mailed me about ramp angles. I haven't really started testing ramp angles yet. Right now I'm at four millimeters higher in the heel than in the toe. But I'm going to start testing that, going both ways. It's different for every ski. Every ski and every set-up has a different reaction to ramp angle changes. So it's not always going to be better one way or the other.

One fan wrote and asked if I have different ramp angles for turny courses and straight. I believe that once you pick the right set up, you can ski on just one ramp angle. It's going to be optimal for one condition, but World Cup is mostly ice, so you have to prepare for that. If it's turny or straight, if you've got the right feeling, you'll be fine. But I should also make it clear that works for me shouldn't be read as a prescription for others.

I was on Nordica boots before my injury, and I still am, obviously. I haven't modified my boots at all since before the injury. Not at all. They are the same. I'm going to start dealing with that later. There's a lot of work to do, but it's coming. I'm ready to go to work.

Previous diary entries:
October 15, 2004: Welcome to my world

–Erik Schlopy will keep his irregular equipment diary, 'Schlopy's Quiver' here at www.skiracing.com all year. He already has a stack of reader questions to work through, but he encourages you to send him more equipment-related ideas and questions through the site's editor at webeditor@insideinc.com.