Ski in Your Own Back Yard

Back in the day, people used to just hike up pretty much any old cleared off hill, just to ski down.  Gradually, especially here in the US, we moved to only hills that had lifts, then they had to have a lodge, and parking, and then condos, hotels, and then, instead of just having a ski area near enough to your village, we had to invent faux alpen towns around the bottom of the hills.  Man, things have really spiraled out of control.


You can take skiing, and ski racing, back to its roots.  Go find a hill in your backyard and ski down it.  Preferably at night, because it's even more satisfying.  While you're at it, consider picking up one of these grooming rigs from somewhere in Austria to hook on to the back of grandpa's tractor.  Not sure who makes it, but it looks like a pretty simple PTO setup with a few hydraulic hookups.  Spotted at the top of a rodelbahn outside Maria Alm, Austria, the operator used 8 Croatians in the bucket instead of weights, and pulled 30+ Croatians on their rodels back to the top. It puts down some nice corduroy, perfect for ripping some Hinterreit-style SL somewhere on your back 40:

Who will be the first?  Hmm, wait, Mickey Cochran already beat you to it, and it seems to have worked out pretty well.

Let's get to it, America.