Month: March 2020

Ben, Michele, Mary (St. Louis, NYC, San Francisco). Focus: still eliminating the last remnants of the wedge, tipping before steering, lots of skidding practice, larger radius turns, pole drills, speed control from friction and shaping, hip counter, face the photographer, open knees to come forward, ankles closed, hops, shuffle turns, inside ski turns, some bumps, staying off the hard edge. Vail/Breckenridge now closed for at least a week, dang, can’t practice. Good day, progress for sure … enjoy the hot tub and a drink.

Mary – San Francisco. L3 trying to get ride of the wedge … the dreaded ‘wedge’, why do we ever teach that – job security I suppose. Tipping with ankles and femurs, tipping both skis together, side slips, side/forward slips, leg steering to shape a turn, upper body stable, let it come from the legs, bigger turns, patience, hockey type slides, coming off the hard edge (this is hard, like taking away a pacifier), pressuring the skis. Take this up tomorrow with rhythm, upper/lower body separation, CM/feet separation. Amazing progress today!

McKenzie, Luke, Rhett, Luke – Dallas, TX (or a community close by). Sunny by afternoon, war, nice day, lifts running slow for some reason. Start L2 (gliding wedge but not much turn shape), finish close to L4 (starting to match, controlling speed with turns). Worked on: trying to match in the traverse, tipping inside ski to help match, controlling speed with turns not power wedge, sliding sideways with both skis parallel, pops, lifting uphill ski to facilitate matching. Two runs (well, almost two) runs down Springmeier from top of Colorado Super Chair, first blue run – congrats. Got stuck on Spruce at end of day, did some butt sliding which was probably just as fun as trying to ski it. Dandy progress guys – good day!

Enjoy your tubing.

Sunday Club: Catharine, Kay, Tina, Don – still an odd number, how does it always work that way. Kind of sunny until late afternoon, clouds and snow up high, not much traffic on the mountain, no lift lines. Tele drill, even ski tip drill (feel the closed ankle), tip/pressure/steer, use more of a ‘hockey-ish’ turn/slide/shape when it gets steeper, narrow corridor is good, open/close the knee good IF the ankle remains closed, lateral CM movement at transition, spray the snow up the hill. Debs (Death Alley), Vertigo, Y Chutes, Peak 7 Bowl, Whales, Brill’s, Dukes bumps. I’m tired, you guys wore me out, great day of skiing – see you in three weeks (maybe two, I’ll let you know).

Saturday Club: Meow, Brenda, Don, Gina. Another blue bird day, almost no wind, snow hard and fast (‘good for you’ snow), lots of high speed traffic on the mountain (‘not so good for you’). Morning drills: keep ankle close-open at knee to come forward, hip begins to rotate at transition to face outside the turn (think we are finally straight on this one), as the edges change the knee opens/hips rotate/cm crosses over so we come forward & inside the new turn, not just forward, not just lateral, but both together – definitely not ‘up’ which means the ankle is opening. Brill’s, Whales, Debs, Vertigo, Y-Chutes, Dukes.

Friday Club: Ernie, Phil, Bob, Terry, Terry, Kari, Gina … big party at Terry house the night before, low energy in the morning, we all rallied by lunch time (well, kind of). Sunny and warm, no wind, spirits up. Drills in the morning: outside ski turns, inside ski turns, thumper turns, spray the snow up the hill, paired up and swapped focus … Peak 10 in the afternoon, ‘pick one focus and go with it, only one’, some bumps, groomed blacks, lifting one ski when traversing the flats. Solid skiing, congrats to all. Thanks again Terry, the lentils were best ever!

Thursday Club: Laurel, Rebecca, Mitzi, Deb, Vicki, Olive, Diane, Chongie. Sunny and warm – could this possibly be Breckenridge? Snow hard and some strugie stuff but quite ski-able. Not a lot of teaching, mostly just skiing, put a focus in the mind and play with the results. Brill’s, Outlaw, Lulu, Peak 7 bowl, Whales, Imperial bowl, High A, Rounders – a lot of fun with some steep stuff. You ‘guys’ are skiing strong with technical panache!

Sunday Club: Kay, Don, Annette, Tina. Ides of March is not the 1st, that date is March 15th, I mention this because for years I had it wrong. Kind of a spring day, some sun, some snow, some low visibility (actually a lot of that), almost smelled wet. White Crown, Y-Chute, Brill’s, Outlaw, King (those first two turns are a bugger). Focus: keeping the ankle closed, open at the knee at transition to come forward and load up the front part of ski, hip rotation to outside of turn bringing the butt to the inside (bit of a mind twist), long leg/short leg. I’m tired, you guys wore me out – thus a great day!