
A few weekends ago, I decided to try kite skiing. I have several friends/co-workers who kite board (one is with skis while one is with a snowboard) and it intrigued me. I decided that before I invested much in gear, I would give it a try and take a lesson. I did some research (love research mode) and came across Pete Kuhn who gives lessons locally in Minnesota. I only needed to bring a pair of downhill skis (I borrowed some) and a helmet of some sort.
I met Pete out on Lake Waconia on a subzero Saturday morning. The class was supposed to be about 6 hours and I would get to try out several kites. The winds were pretty good (around 14 mph). There was only one other student (a ski instructor) so awesome student/teacher ratio. Pete started out by talking us through some introductory stuff about the kites and winds. We then tromped out to the lake minus skis to start but we did have a sled full of different sized kites. We started with a 2.5m ozone kite. Pete had us both put a harness on (they have a loop on the back that he could hold on to us with). We learned how to anchor the kite with ice screws and how to unfold/prep the kite. The trainer kite didn't attach to the harness but did have a wrist loop. If you got scared or in trouble, you drop the bar and the wind goes out of the kite although it is still attached to your wrist (saves you from peeling it out of the trees hopefully). Even with such a small kite, it pulled both Pete and I for a ways till I was able to figure out how to guide the kite more effectively.

Ultimately as the wind died down through the day, I was able to try a 4m and a 6m kite that were harnessed. I learned how to move the kite in vertical figure 8's (signing) so that it would pull me both upwind and downwind with my skis on. Since I was so green on skis (I've only gone 2x as a kid), maintaining balance while a kite is dragging you across the ice was a bit...well...iffy shall we say. Pete assured me that I was doing fine on my kite skills but would need additional skiing work.I had a blast and really enjoyed it!
Notes to self: subzero weather all day on ice is cold! Bring about 50 hand and toe warmers. Also note - Waconia has no bathrooms and no coverage. When you are: a) a girl b) wearing 50 layers of clothes c) the trees have no leaves --- there are certain annoyances.