Taos ski week 1/14/18 - 1/19/18: Intermediate's Trip Report

[alison wong]

I’ve been wanting to do a Taos ski week since last season and decided to go for it this season. I reached out to one of Taos regulars I met on Epic Ski. According to him, condition wise, Taos had a better condition in Jan. than Feb. the past few seasons. I pulled the plug and reserved VRBO and car rental last August for Jan. MLK week this year.

Reasons for Jan. MLK week:

1) My school will start on Jan. 22nd. Taos ski trip will be my last bash before going back to study mode (part time).

2) One less vacation day to take from work because of the MLK holiday.

Couple weeks prior to my trip in Jan., I started following Taos snowfall and terrain openings. Condition looked dismal, with only 12% terrain opening in early Jan. I checked 10-day forecast, things did not look optimistic either. I reached out to @marzNC and my friend I met on Epic Ski. Asking for opinions whether or not I should cancel or reschedule. Based on the replies I got, I decided to go for the following reason:

1) As an intermediate, whatever terrains that are not opened, I would not be able to ski them anyways.

2) Thought about the reasons I wanted to do the Taos ski week in the first place. I wanted to improve my skiing: including my technique and, strengthen my fundamentals.

3) I don’t want to have poor technique, develop bad habits and then waste time later on to correct them. (Over-terrain yourself can do that…. )

4) Betting on the fact that, there maybe less people to attend the ski week and I may get more personalized attention.

With all that said, I decided to keep the trip. My friend, Eunice, decided to join me as well.

Preparations for this Taos ski week trip:

1) Read @Olesya Chornoguz TR about her ski week experience last season

2) Figured out what I should say and not say: where I skied before, what my goals are (learn to ski bumps), what I wanted to work on (upper lower body separation)

I typed all of these on a paper and printer it out. I figured, if they asked me, I will just hand them this paper. That way, I knew I would cover everything. At times, this feels more like prep for an interview or study for a final.

Day 0 - 1/13/18
Travel day, Southwest flight at 6:25 am from Washington D.C., arrived to ABQ around 10:30 am. Rental was a Toyota Yaris, we had to put our ski bag in between passenger and driver seat because the car was too small and “short”.


We arrived to the town of Taos around 2 pm.

Town of Taos is worth a day trip by itself. The place is very “rustic”, different from any place I’ve visited in the U.S. I feel people live here are more connected to earth and roots.

By the time we did our groceries and had lunch. It was close to 4 pm. Rental owner suggested us to arrive before it got dark around 4:30 pm. Originally, we planned to go to Taos ski resort to check out all the logistics… As it was quite late, we decided to head straight to our rental place, and went early the next day to get the logistics done.

We had lunch at this place called, Farmhouse café. It was on its way to the town of Taos, had good review on Yelp. All their food was sourced local. I loved their décor, food was very tasty, Eunice had Chai Latte, she said it was very good, distinct spice flavor (much better than Starbucks). I had Mayan Cocca, it tasted chocolaty and spicy (from ginger), but not sweet (I don’t like sweet things in general, so it was perfect to my taste). Desert I had zucchini chocolate cake, also very good, because it was not sweet but strong in chocolate flavor.

Red color mug was Eunice's Chai Latte + salad and Shepard's pie (lamb).
Mine is blue color mug, Mayan Cocca + Roblano corn chowder. (zucchini chocolate cake not included in the photo because it came later)


Farmhouse cafe:


Love all the wind chimes they have outside:

Inside decor, very rustic with exposed ceiling beams.

Day 1 - 1/14/18
Arrived to Taos ski resort a little passed 8 am. Picked up my MCP pass, and ski week voucher. Funny story, I already paid and signed waiver online days in advance for this ski week, but I still needed to pick up the ski week voucher from ski school. When the staff processed my registration, she told me to swipe my credit card.

I did not think much about it, but just casually said: “I made my payment online already.”

She said: “Oh, that’s right, sorry I did not check that. I only checked to see if you are registered or not.”

I responded: “No worries. You just saved me $220.”

We only had time for one warm up run on WhiteFeather, a green run. First impression of the snow condition, much better than I expected, snow was dry. There were some icy spots but definitely not like east coast ice patches (they are skating rinks in my definition.)
By the time we arrived to top of lift 1, they already started ski off. Given the snow condition, there were more people than I thought, about ~50 or so….

I’ve never done a ski off in such large group, it was an eye opening experience all by itself. There were about dozen instructors observing from down the hill, as I reached toward the bottom, they would signal you to continue, or point where you should stop. The entire process took no more than 15 minutes, very efficient.

Most skiers were really good. Only beginner I saw, she was on pizza wedge and plowing down the slope. I was placed in level 7, along with other 9 folks. We split to 2 groups, 5 skiers each group. I was expecting they would ask you questions, like where you skied before, your goals… etc. But none of that…. we just got assigned to the group and then started following our instructor to lift 2. My instructor is Dano, he gave us a brief intro about himself, 21 years of teaching experience, living in Taos for 30 years, nickname is drill sergeant. I shall call him Mr. Drill Sergeant from now on.

My group has 4 women and 1 guy. I think I got placed to the right level, I have no complains or issues. They are all older than me and very pleasant.

For the first day, Mr. Drill Sergeant did not push us too much. Just made us practice short radius turns, skiing without poles to “steady” our upper body. That’s all I can remember. By the end of 2 hours, I was exhausted. I just want to eat lunch and called it a day.

At lunch time, we met up with my friend from Epic Ski. He and his family are Taos regulars. He was kind enough to ski with me in the afternoon. I got few more pointers from him. He was very patient and I think I skied with him for about 2 hours. But interestingly, 2 hours skiing with him was not as tiring comparing to ski with Mr. Drill Sergeant.

Man, maybe I should do a ski week just with him (instead of Mr. Drill Sergeant).

We finished around 3:30 pm. It was an exhausting day, perhaps I was still adjusting to the high altitude. My initial impressions on Taos terrains, at least from the terrains I skied today, they were not as daunting or intimidating as I originally envisioned. There were some icy, hard pack spots. But I did not get frazzled or freaked out. Probably it had something to do with mental and; also the fact I was skiing with a group, I was able to loosen up a bit.

This was the only photo I had today, Eunice took it for me. I think it was on top of lift 1(?) Sorry I am very lazy when it came to take pictures....
I look very sassy in this photo. I am not like that in real life.


For that beginner skier, Eunice later told me, since she was the only one in that group, she got placed a 1-on-1 with an instructor, essentially it could be a private lesson for her the entire ski week (if no other person join later on). How lucky!

I told Eunice, maybe next time I shall plow my way down to the slope to pretend I am a beginner as well. After I get placed, I shall then show them how I really ski.... just joking, I won't do such thing (seriously)...

I will report back tomorrow for day 2.

 

[marzNC]

I was placed in level 7,

For those who are used to a 9-point ability scale, as I remember the Taos Ski School uses a 10-point scale.

The high altitude is definitely a factor the first couple days. TSV base is about 9500 ft.

Looking forward to more reports.

 

[alison wong]

Looking forward to more reports.

Yes, ma'am.

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Love it! I am eagerly awaiting the report for the rest of the week! Have lots of fun! And say hi to Eunice too for me!

 

[vickie]

Love your reports, Alison. There's always an extra something in them!

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

I'm enjoying your report so far--looking forward to more updates!

 

[RachelV]

I’ll be in Taos in about a month for my first ski week. Looking forward to reading more about your experience!

 

[RachelV]

It does seem weird to me that they don’t ask you any questions about your goals, ski level, etc, after the ski off. Sounds like it worked out well for you but I can see that getting under my boyfriend’s skin. I’ll be especially curious to hear how that aspect of the lessons go, and if you and up feeling like you got the experience you wanted.

 

[alison wong]

Day 2 - 1/15/18

Before the lesson, Eunice and I did a warm up run on White Feather. I never fond of this trail, it had too many narrower parts and they made me nervous. I fell as I was turning from the wider part to the narrow part of the trial. Wearing thinner parts did not help, my ass still hurting from that fell. I just felt I did not have the confidence of yesterday.

Mr Drill Sergeant, our assigned instructor, had an allergic reaction from his breakfast burrito this morning, so we had a substitute teacher, another seasoned Taos instructor, his name is John. I nicknamed him Mr. Spankey (*explanation in the end).

Before we started the day, he asked each one of us what we’d like to work on. I mentioned upper and lower body separation on steeper terrain and would like to learn bumps. Others said turn completion and speed.

Eunice’s group rec’d a 4th student, the guy started his ski week on Monday; same for the beginner’s group, rec’d a 2nd student, theirs became semi-private. Our group stayed the same, no add-ons.

Mr. Spankey started our lesson skiing White Feather, same trail that intimated me and I fell during the warm up. He had me following right behind him. Interestingly, I did not feel nervous or intimated when I was skiing behind him. He was making turns very close to the edge and I did the exact same thing. This run all of a sudden felt so easy, no intimation whatsoever. What a contrast from the warm up run.

Mr Spankey’s focus was a bit different from Mr. Drill Sergeant’s. We spent majority of the time on edging, learning when and how to engage edge when making turns, how it should incorporate with our tip and tail of the skis, as well as sole and heel of the foot.

English is not my 1st language, for the longest time when he was explaining tip vs tail of the skis. I was very confused which part of the skis was he referring to? I felt stupid asking the question, so I never did. I finally figured out what he was explaining…. by then, he already moved onto more advanced concepts. Same applies when he mentioned about heel vs. sole. I had to think hard and process the translation (to Chinese), so there was a “delay” in comprehending.

I am a visual learner, throughout the lessons, he did plenty demos to show us the difference between what we were doing versus what we should be doing. For e.g. demoing making turns using the tip of the skis vs tail of the skis. Even though I only partially understood what he tried to explain (due to language barrier), I was able to comprehend by watching him. That helped a lot.

I found edging to be difficult. My brain and body were not ready to “accept” this yet. (I fell pretty hard 5+ years ago when I was a beginner learning how to edge. After that, I became reluctant to learn this). Also, I felt my upper body was not strong enough to swing me from side to side, afraid I would loss balance and then fell. I understand the end game was learning how to carve, edging is the first step. Right now, I had difficulty initializing this very 1st step.

I asked Mr. Spankey the same question that I asked Mr. Drill Sergeant (during a lift ride): what my problem(s) is (are). Pretty much I got the same answer from both: I did not look far enough and looked down too much on my skis. (Mr Drill Sergeant said: what’s holding back your skiing is, you are not looking far ahead enough, you tend to look down on your skis).

In addition, Mr. Spankey also mentioned, I need to work on lifting my body up and down as I turn….. Here is my confusion, when I was taking adult development group lessons at my local hill in PA (Liberty) 2 years ago, I tried to do that and my instructor told me I should not be doing that.

This is my problem, I took lessons from different places and different instructors told me things that are in conflict from each other. I get confused what is the right way vs. wrong way.

I was not as tired as yesterday, I skied till 3:45pm today. After lunch, I spent a good hour on bunny hill practicing some of the stuff I learned from Mr. Drill Sergeant, skiing backwards and making turns (can’t link turns yet but I get the hang of it, not as difficult or fearful as I thought), skiing without poles to steady my upper body. Also, practiced things learned in the morning from Mr. Spankey, edging my skis.

I repeated my ritual to finish a day with a good run: I took lift 1, skied down Porcupine (blue), continued onto White Feather and called it a day. Even though I did not understand everything from today’s lesson, I figured as long as I remembered what the instructor said. Eventually, those “words” and explanations will make sense to me. So, as far as I am concerned, today is another good day.

Tomorrow will be day 3, time goes by too fast, can’t believe I am already half way through the ski week. With my speed of learning things, a 2-week consecutive ski week would be the most ideal. Because for 1-week, I had to adjust to the altitude, barely got established the cadence and rhythm, then we are at the end of 6 days. If I had the luxury of doing it for another week, I think I would be able to connect things I learned in a more complete picture. That’s just my preliminary conclusion based on the 2 days thus far.

In terms of terrains, as y’all know, Taos is having a lean season, for now, it is really considered to be an “intermediate” mountain. Because there is only one short black opened, rest are all blues and greens. (BTW, their info. on website is not the most accurate. They actually have more lifts running and terrains open - last time I checked, which was last night).

For the past 2 days, we pretty much skied on the same trails over and over, working on our techniques. This is all fine with me because I need to establish that muscle memory and able to retain these after this week. So it is all good for my purpose.

(* my cousin has a pet and they had to register it with the local government. On the registration form, they had the pet’s name as: “Sparky”. When they got the registration form back, the pet’s name became “Spanky”. Apparently, someone mis-read the name or typed it wrong. Today, as I saw my instructor’s name tag, because of the similarity in the name, it reminded me of my cousin’s pet. So, I can’t help but nicknamed him Mr. Spankey).

Some photos to share:

Today they are having another ski off, for folks started today. This is right after the ski off, groups got assigned and were ready to take off for lessons.



Another picture after the ski off. 2 folks from my group (on left). Above is the more advanced group, I think....


Me in my new ski outfit: Burgundy color ski pants + ski jacket that some of you helped me to pick from REI + new Lange ski boots + my new Asian fit helmet. I am holding both mine and Eunice's skis.


So.... again, this is a lean year for Taos. This picture was taken on lift 1. According to a season pass holder, this area (below lift 1) is normally covered in snow by Thanksgiving.... we are in mid January and it is looking like this....


The "infamous' sign, in case you haven't seen it from somewhere else....


That's all for today, folks. More to come tomorrow.

@vickie

There's always an extra something in them!

As something good or bad? Do tell.

 

[Christy]

This is my problem, I took lessons from different places and different instructors told me things that are in conflict from each other. I get confused what is the right way vs. wrong way.

It took me years to figure out that there often isn't a right way and a wrong way--there are different ways. I used to feel like my lessons sometimes conflicted with each other, and now I think the instructors were just trying to simply the lesson and focus on certain techniques to the exclusion of others. There are a number of different ways to turn, for example, and some may work better in certain conditions with certain people. It could also be with something like this:

In addition, Mr. Spankey also mentioned, I need to work on lifting my body up and down as I turn….. Here is my confusion, when I was taking adult development group lessons at my local hill in PA (Liberty) 2 years ago, I tried to do that and my instructor told me I should not be doing that.

...it might be that the instructors aren't quite communicating what they want effectively. Maybe you are going up and down but not from the ankles and knees as you should be, or, maybe you are bending at the waist rather than the hips, or (?). Maybe 2 years ago you were doing one thing and now you are doing another. In any case, try to clarify what they want.

 

[vickie]

As something good or bad? Do tell.

A couple of things I've noticed are the way you characterize people -- i.e., bringing to light differences between instructors -- and the honest assessment you do of your own skills and weaknesses. It's all very, well, human.

 

[alison wong]

Day 3 - 1/16/18

Taos got about less 1 inch overnight (?). Trees looked so pretty along the road on our drive to the ski valley in the morning.

I did not want to fall again on my warm up run like the day before, I opted to do the warm up on a bunny hill. Working on more drills that I forgot to practice yesterday. Today’s lesson started at Whistlestop café shop (top of lift 2).

I arrived a bit early because I wanted to chat with Mr. Spankey about my language barrier and comprehending some of the terminologies he used yesterday, I also stated that I am a visual learner and wanted to “see” more demos to re-inforce my understanding. He was cool about my issue, and was very accommodating. I found throughout the lesson, he did do more “show and tell” and less verbal talk.

Interestingly, another student also mentioned she did not fully understand what he was explaining and found the stuff a bit too “technical” to understand. She is an American, English is her mother tongue. I guess I should not feel so bad as I am not alone on this one.

We continued on working what we started yesterday, edging, tilting and steering our skis. He showed us more drills to get a feel for what our body (legs, hips) should feel like as we turn, or tilt or edge…

One valuable asset I will be taking away from this week is, knowing more drills since we have been practicing repeatedly over the course of a week. Unlike group lessons I have taken past few years, I knew I learned something similar but they were not repetitive enough to retain in my head.

In the afternoon, I ran into two of the folks in my lesson, they invited me along to ski with them. (Eunice was too tired to ski in the afternoon, so I was skiing by myself). I happily joined them and showed them a blue trail that they’ve never been on. It was a nice wide blue run called Bambi. It was nice because of the sun exposure in the afternoon. Also, Mr. Spankey recommended it’d be a good trail to check out and practice.

I continued to have issue with narrow trails, specifically, coming from a wider part of the trail to a narrow cat walk… It just made me so nervous and frazzled, I skied as if it was my first time on the skis. This is more of a “mental” issue than skill issue, but I don’t know how to overcome it. I did 3 more lapses on Bambi before bidding farewell to my classmates, I spent the last half hour on bunny hill to do more drills. I could have skied longer but it got cold and I decided to call it a day. Also, I don’t want Eunice to wait for me too long, plus we need to drive to town for gas.

We have not done Porcupine (blue run right off Lift 1). I asked our instructor why, because I thought this was a run people normally warm up on before the ski off. He said Porcupine is considered to be the steeper blue (of all blues that are opened) and he did not think we are ready for it as the last part of Porcupine is a bit steep. But he said he may bring us there tomorrow. We will also be video-taped tomorrow! I am excited, always interesting to “see” yourself on a video, coz what you envisioned yourself to be is not exactly what it appeared to be.

I have not been paying much attention on what trials we were on for our lessons. Again, it is a mental issue. Mentally, I still think blue is challenging and I always hold back and feel timid on a blue. Therefore, I prefer not to know the color of the trail, I’d rather just ski it and focus on what I should be focusing , and not to worry about other things that can mess up my head….

Few photos to share (compliment of Eunice. I did not take any photos today, I am lazy when it comes to taking pictures).

On our morning drive to the ski valley: trees covered with light snow, in silver color. One of the reasons I like skiing because I love looking at scenery like this, it never gets old...




Pretty sure this is the White Feather (green) she took it after lunch in the afternoon.




I like Taos, a lot; more so than Alta in some ways. I love the fact this place is passionate about teaching and learning..... In the mornings, I love seeing instructors in yellow jackets leading a group of students skiing down a trail. The way they ski, they all look so gracious and elegant.... If I have to pick one thing that I dislike about this place, it'd be they allow snowboarders. The sound snowboarders make as they approach me, just make me so nervous. I don't get that in Alta and I feel more "calm" and not feeling "threatened" when I ski there.

 

[alison wong]

Day 4 - 1/17/18

After 2 warm up runs on Bambi (blue trail off lift 2), we were video taped on the same run, Bambi. Video taping was divided into 3 segments: 1st section was the least steep part; 2nd section, steeper; 3rd section - we were instructed to start with medium radius turns and then change to short radius turn.

Some of the lessons I took before, they also had video taping, but they did it in one shot, never divided into 3 sections. The fact that Taos divided into 3 segments is an excellent idea. Kudos to their program.

The videographer told us we can sign a release / wavier form, then we can get this video for free: either in the form of web link then download ourselves, or DVD. We will be watching tomorrow before our class starts.

Today we worked on short radius turn and working on different drills on skiing and making turns with one leg. Some sections of the run, he had us lifting an inside leg and then tapping 2x as we turn; other sections, he had us making one turn only with one leg lifted.

Tapping 2x as we turn was difficult, somehow I lost the rhythm and got confused which leg I should be tapping, so I was all over the place and then I fell.

He also taught us: Falling leaf - I consider this is an essential “survival skill” everyone must know. (same idea as knowing how to tread water in swimming). I started learning this last season in Alta. But last year, I could only do falling leaf moving forward. This time, I actually manage to move forward and backward. Of course, I need more practices before I can do it comfortably, but this is a good start.

Throughout this ski week, our instructor has been teaching us different “survival skills” - he showed us different tricks and tactics during the 2-hour lesson throughout; with comments like: “you can apply this if you encounter xyz….. this is how you do it and why you want to do it this way….”

In the afternoon, I skied with my friend I met on Epic Ski. I mentioned that catwalk track makes me very nervous and I don’t know how to overcome that. He first took me to a wide trail and then cat track, had me follow him making short turns. After we looked back up and looked at the short turns we made… his point was: I can do it but the problem is my head. I doubted myself too much and too often (you are your own worst enemy). For me, skiing is still as much a “head” game as game for skills & techniques.

After 4 days of skiing, few take aways I learned thus far:

1) clothing - I used to wear 4-5 bulky layers because I always afraid it would get cold. In the past 2 days, I've been wearing less layers. Even though it felt a bit cold initially, as I started moving, I'd start to get warm and my body temperature felt just right. Also, I was able to move better with less layers. (Same idea as swimming, the pool temp is usually in mid 20 degree Celsius, as long as you keep moving, it’d be fine).

2) Even with limited terrain opening, as long as the runs are long, I could work on different drills in different segments of the run - I would never get bored even if I spent the entire time on a same trail.

3) In our group lessons, I usually opted to go last. But half way into a run, I usually managed to catch up the person in front of me. For this, I thought I was skiing better because I was faster. But in actuality, this was not good because it was a sign that I did not have good control on my speed. That was a reality check and something I need to continue to work on.

Eunice usually finished the day earlier than me and I have been skiing by myself after lunch the last 2 days. When I saw her on my last run at a green run today, I was pleasantly surprised…… because she told me in the morning that she would only ski 2 hours for the lesson and not planning to ski in the afternoon at all.

She finished her day with a comment: “I must be doing something right because my muscles no longer ache. Either that or the ibuprofen is working......”

 

[newboots]

Alison, your TR is wonderful! I started out just idly skimming, and by the end of this threat I was hanging on every word!

 

[vickie]

Don't these trip reports make Alison sound like such a calm, unassuming skier? That's not her at all! She gets out there and wants to ski EVERYwhere!

"Have you been up there? I want to go up there."

"Alison, you see that? That's a CLIFF. We do not want to go up there."

"Well, maybe there's a way around it. Let's find somebody who has been up there. Maybe they will take us up."

 

[kiki]

I love these trip reports! I was so excited to see one pop up. We now anticipate them! You will have to do more trips....

 

[alison wong]

Don't these trip reports make Alison sound like such a calm, unassuming skier? That's not her at all! She gets out there and wants to ski EVERYwhere!

"Have you been up there? I want to go up there."

"Alison, you see that? That's a CLIFF. We do not want to go up there."

"Well, maybe there's a way around it. Let's find somebody who has been up there. Maybe they will take us up."

I have been skiing and discussing with a friend I met on Epic Ski here in Taos for the last 5 days after my morning lessons (he is a Taos regular). So here is the thing, he really instilled some fear in me: "don't over terrain yourself. If you do that, you will loose confidence and you don't want to go there...." With all that said, I need to pump my breaks and stay on the easy terrains, working on the fundamentals for now.

But, I admit that I am a curious person and constantly want to experience new things..... and looking for guinea pigs. Before, my ski friend, Eunice, is a better than me. She was my "guinea pig" and she would check out a trail and "report" back to me, whether it'd be suitable for me to go or not. I am better than her now... so it is time to find a new "guinea pig".

 

[Albertan ski girl]

I have been skiing and discussing with a friend I met on Epic Ski here in Taos for the last 5 days after my morning lessons (he is a Taos regular). So here is the thing, he really instilled some fear in me: "don't over terrain yourself. If you do that, you will loose confidence and you don't want to go there...." With all that said, I need to pump my breaks and stay on the easy terrains, working on the fundamentals for now.

But, I admit that I am a curious person and constantly want to experience new things..... and looking for guinea pigs. Before, my ski friend, Eunice, is a better than me. She was my "guinea pig" and she would check out a trail and "report" back to me, whether it'd be suitable for me to go or not. I am better than her now... so it is time to find a new "guinea pig".

All I'm saying is that your favourite run at Sunshine I took you on was a black run with bumps in the trees That's all I'm saying...

 

[alison wong]

Day 5 - 1/18/18

As the saying goes, good things happen in 3 (French saying: never 2 without 3). Today, I fell for the 3rd time, in quite a “spectacular” manner. I was trying to avoid my classmate as I went downhill, I managed to not run into him but the turn was too powerful that I slide all the way over and under a rope into the tree areas. Luckily, there was plenty snow and it was a flat area, I did not hit anything. My instructor was more scared and shaken than me when he saw me fell like that, kept asking me if I was ok. There was first time for everything, I suppose. I always have fear of losing control and went over a rope, I did it this time. Glad I was fine.

We watched video recording of our skiing this morning. Based on my instructor’s feedback, the initiation of my turns is “precise” and I am pretty much stayed parallel most times, there were occasional skiddings & stemmings but overall, it was good. So, I am happy about that.

I felt today I finally got the “hang” of edging, what edging vs. skidding feels like. Overall, my instructor thinks I can edge consistently, but I still need to work on upper and lower body separation and I need to look far ahead, not down. He recognized I have fear issues and the way he explained me was: “If you look down on your skis, it actually feels you are going faster than actually is. If you look far ahead enough, it won’t feel you are going to fast.”

Also, he noticed on some trails, I tend to make large radius turns and he commented that large radius turn actually carries more speed. This was news to me. All these times, my understanding was I would loss speed (that I gained) by making wide / large turns. I guess I learned something new everyday.

Tomorrow will be the last day of ski week. After 5 days of ski lessons, I have done some reflections:

1) I only get what I put in…. Taos ski instructors are excellent and the program is solid. But they are no miracle workers. There are things I need to work on my end in order to get better. It is not realistic to expect that I show up for 2 hours everyday for 6 days, and by the end, I will advance one level up. By that I mean: 1) be physically fit to prepare for the 2 hour daily lesson, ski everyday for 6 days; 2) practice everyday before and after lessons to strengthen the techniques I learned in class.

2) From posts I read online about Taos ski week, I was under the impression that: by doing the Taos ski week, my skill level will be taken a quantum leap.

Not sure if I can 100% agree to this. By doing a ski week, it can be a linear growth or exponential growth of your skiing.

Linear growth - I consider myself in this bracket. I am an intermediate. I am still lacking some fundamental pieces, I don’t know these and I need to learn how to do them first. I can learn these missing pieces from the ski week.

Exponential growth - I consider someone who is advanced / expert will probably be gaining “exponential growth” at the end of the ski week. Because these folks already knew all the fundamental pieces. Someone just needs to help them to put all these pieces together to formulate complete picture. Ski week can certainly accomplish that. (But I am not an advanced skier, that's just my assumption)

On a different note: Interesting conservation with my instructor, Spankey, today:

Me: I have heard so many stories about Jean Mayer (Hotel St. Bernard owner, Technical director of Taos ski school), but I have never met him. I heard he still skis at age of 80.

Spankey: Yes, he was at the ski off…..

Me: Really? You mean this Sunday? I did not see him. I heard he is really short, only 5 feet tall.

Spankey: Oh yes, he was there, but he usually watches from the top of the hill.

Me: I heard he instills fears to the instructors. If he sees instructors are doing something wrong in a lesson from a ski lift, he calls them to his office and gives them hell….

Spankey (laughed): Oh yea, but he has loosened up a bit in recent years. Jean is French and he is a very passionate and vocal person. I still remembered one time Jean was running a clinic for the ski instructors. He actually said to a newbie instructor: “Your skiing makes me sad…..” that comment totally devastated that newbie….

 

[vickie]

"don't over terrain yourself. If you do that, you will loose confidence and you don't want to go there...." With all that said, I need to pump my breaks and stay on the easy terrains, working on the fundamentals for now.

I really like his advice. I haven't gotten nearly as much mileage as I'd have liked over the last 3 seasons. It has hurt my skills. I have seen trails I know I could have skied before and gotten myself in trouble (season-ending injuries) because my skills just aren't what they were. This season I need to almost under-terrain myself so I can get my skills back.

Also glad to read his advice because I had gotten the impression that he tended to over-terrain people. But that was likely just others giving him a hard time.

I'm ready to join you at Taos!