OK. This week went well.
Monday: finally managed a group lesson, where I was paired with four other intermediates and an instructor who was really receptive to what I needed in a lesson. It was also a near whiteout at the top and falling snow all day, so it was the weird experience of skiing in light fluffy powder and later chewed up powder without being able to see any of the powder.
Things I said I needed to work on: confidence, using turns to control speed, and skiing in bad visibility. Also what the poles are for. After one run the instructor told me I was skiing just fine, which was nice to hear. The rest of the group seemed to think I was much more advanced but I think that was mostly me knowing the mountain really well. Turning in a rhythm
regardless of what the mountain was doing seems to have fixed 90% of my issues -- as long as the soft is reasonably soft, just turn. It helped that with 35mph wind gusts there was no point in shopping for turns because there wasn't anything to see. After lunch one of the women who really didn't like the conditions opted for wine so we went to the top and did a bunch of windy black runs.
Wednesday: friend ski with
@contesstant ! Warmer temperatures, some falling snow, and the strangest snow conditions I've ever skied. It was deep, but not fluffy, and it felt underfoot like it should be spring snow, but it was kind of sticky. Is this what Sierra cement is like? We had a lot of fun but I think I got an unintentional cardio workout. I apparently can ski soft bumps now.
I still need to feel more comfortable with longer turns without them turning into traverses but I think the lack of light was a speedlimit today.