ULLR Lives!

I broke my skis about a month ago and went out and bought some new ones for the first time ever. Usually, I've picked up second-hand skis at thrift stores or had them given to me by someone "no longer using them". The new trend in skis is probably a very old trend. Skis made out of wood (in my case bamboo) and quite wide all the way through the ski. I paid too much money for these Solomons but they have proven themselves to be simply awesome skis. I can now ski in hugely deep powder, chunked up powder, bumped up moguls and of course the well-groomed stuff. These skis allow me to go ski "the back-country"- that area of Mt. Ashland where you feel like you've been deposited there by helicopter and you have to pick your way through rock and tree to get back down to the parking-lot of the ski resort. These skis make you feel like you are water skiing when you ski on fresh powder. They also have a flipped tail which means if you want to, you can ski down the hill backwards. The other day I was up skiing without my ski buddy. I got on the chair with a guy who had a jacket on and on the back of the jacket it said "Ullr Lives!" I asked him about it and he told me he was trying to start a new religion. I thought "Great! Just what we need. More goofy nonsense." He explained that Ullr was the ancient Norse God of skiing and that they still had festivals in his honor way up in the coldness of northern Europe. He said that Ullr was the nephew of Thor, and I said that I liked Thor because he swung a big hammer and I swung a big hammer as a carpenter and if I were choosing a God, I'd choose one with a hammer and not one nailed to a board. He got off the lift and I got off the lift. He then proceeded to ski down the same steep slope I was skiing down, only while I powered my way through turns and picked my way through the bumps with skill and daring, he did the same only he did it BACKWARDS all the while looking back at me as if mocking me and my conventional approach to skiing. Ullr lives! indeed.