Just another day on the hill. Ho-hum. If you've ever been clocked at high speed you knew it was just a matter of time before someone would be able to quantify what you've known all along; It's possible to ski friggin' fast.
Although downhillers and GSers in speed suits, with custom skis, and magic wax concoctions, can reach into the 80's and sometimes 90's, conventional wisdom would say a recreational skier in baggy clothes, wearing stock, fat skis, would not. Simply unpossible.
Well, conventional wisdom is once again snubbed today via a Bushnell radar-verified reading of 80MPH on Anderson's. 'Stroupskier' is DA MANG ! !
I was aiming the gun at him and watching the reading go up and up. I had seen a 78 and we were stoked enough about that, but when I later checked the memory for highest speed attained it displayed 80 !! Stroup had finally proven what 7 previous years of radar events had been sorta trying to achieve (well, as an incidental bonus to the real purpose of just having fun anyway).
We did try another run to see if he could do better and got a reading of 79 (127kph), which reaffirmed the gun was working fine but also told us the snow surface had changed slightly with the sun exposure.
So, boys and girls, the next time you're in a discussion about whether or not a weekend warrior ever comes close to experiencing Olympic speeds, the answer is a resounding, verified, witnessed, inarguable, unequivocal, and documented; YES.
(this is a 4/24 crosspost from another ski forum)
