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Lessons learned this season...

I love it!!! Sometimes ya just gotta rock the snow plow and I do :smile:... I see nothing wrong with the occasional snowplow.

I know my body and when I start fighting the mountain and snow plowing A LOT it's time to hang it up for the day and belly up to the bar.

One thing I also learned this season is that a fun day on the mountain doesn't necessarily have anything to do with great skiing. I mean it can and it has but it could also be the sun was out, or lots of laughs with my friends or some good ipod cruising on my favorite trail or any combination of these. It's about my mindset.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for the vote of confidence! My issues have mostly been related to coordination. Like, when turning with one ski, after about 3 turns, I forget whether I'm doing the ski with the uphill ski or downhill ski drill. :doh:

I have this issue, too. I prefer "inside" and "outside." Especially on mellower slopes where we usually do drills, I have trouble picturing uphill and downhill because I'm not going across the hill.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
I have this issue, too. I prefer "inside" and "outside." Especially on mellower slopes where we usually do drills, I have trouble picturing uphill and downhill because I'm not going across the hill.
Which is a good thing!
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Which is a good thing!

Exactly!

I'm sure not everything can be expressed using inside/outside, or that some things are more intuitive as uphill/downhill, but if it can be couched in inside/outside terms, it's more likely to make sense to me. Unless we're talking specifically about addressing issues in my skiing related to excessive traversing between turns on steep runs - then I can relate all too well ;-)
 

vetski

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
In 15 minutes with @Ursula at Diva West, she told me to change two things to make life easier: First let my nose and head go down the hill first, just like I would normally do if I was going to take a step forward from a stopped position. Next, instead of making an up/forward/downhill leg lengthening movement to initiate my turns, simply let my downhill leg shorten with my nose and head moving downhill and voila! The rest will follow without so much hard work and thinking about it. I got out of my head and forgot about how steep the terrain was for once. Amazing feeling!

Another lesson: One should never make fun of @KatyPerrey 's singing and don't feed @ScottishGirlie asparagus. :nono:
 

alison wong

Angel Diva
I did 1 east coast trip, 2 west coast trips this season. The following is the list of lessons I learned for each trip:

1) East coast trip (VT: Sugarbush / Stowe/ MRG/Kton) - Condition was very icy and hard packed snow. I fell on the 1st day, 1st run, with my head downhill and legs pointing uphill. As I was sliding down, I almost lost my pants. Lesson learned from this fall: make sure your pants are not loose! When skiing in VT, you must put the bar down. Otherwise, ski patrol will come after you!

2) West Coast Canada Whistler/Blackcomb and Sunshine/LL - experienced first powder day (67 cm the night I arrived) at WB. Lessons learned:
i) I fell again on the 1st day at WB, but that was like falling to the bed of white clouds/cotton, so soft and it did not hurt at all.
ii) How to put my skis back on in a steep trail.
iii) Sunshine / LL: if you are skiing with a group or in a group lesson, whenever you stop, you must stop downhill from the person next to you. That way, if you fell, you would not put others at risk of falling too.
iv) it is actually easier to get up if you fall on a steep terrain.

3) West Coast Alta/Snowbird - experienced what spring skiing was like. Lesson learned:
i) difference b/w traverse and cat track
ii) how to use rope tow and disc tow
iii) never stand at the choke point
iv) real reason why I tend to sit back and not leaning forward enough when I ski on a steeper trail
v) it was more fun to ski with others. (Ski with someone lower level than you: you have time to practice different drills. Ski with someone about the same level as you: you get to enjoy the terrains and scenery. Ski with someone above your level: you get to push yourself and advance further.)
vi) how to keep both skis at the same level (i.e. not one ahead of another) when going downhill.
vii) Depends on the time of the day and temperature of the day, it is crucial to know which part of the mountain to avoid, and where to go first.
viii) how to hold my poles, so they won't be in the way as I ski down a steeper trail.
ix) wear sun screen so you won't end up a raccoon face at the end of your ski trip.
x) your lips can get sun burned too! This one took me a while to figure out. Stupid me. My lips were swollen starting the 3rd day in Alta but I did not realize it was sun burn until I returned home 1 week later! How do you prevent it? Is applying lip balm with SPF 15 enough to prevent sun burn? I did not wear ski mask because it was so warm there.

All in all, after the 2 west coast trips this season, I consider myself no longer a country pumpkin and I've seen the big world! Before this season, I could only venture to do the easy blues in the mornings. Now, no more "morning blues"! I can do blues any time of the day, even some black diamonds!:clap:
 

VickiK

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Try a higher SPF like Dermatone, it's good for lips, small enough to tuck into any pocket. For face, Clarins has a nice SPF lotion.

You learned so much, there's so much good stuff in your post!

My lesson? Don't forget the Clarins, the wind burn is just as unpleasant as sunburn. Together ouch ouch. I really ought to know better.
 

beckylh84

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My most valuable powder lesson happened on the last pow day of the season. Standing atop a secret stash with the ski school manager.

Ashley: "Hey Becky, you want a tip on skiing powder?!"
Me: "YES!"
....as he skis off, "You gotta get it first".

:doh:

At least he paid for my beers the rest of the weekend.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
I was lucky to have a pre-scheduled semi-private lesson at Alta on a day after a powder storm dropped 14+ inches. Asked the instructor what width skis to rent for the lesson. I'd worked with Arthur before. He suggested something around 100 underfoot. So I went with DPS Nina 99, which I'd enjoyed before.

I'm 5'0", 115 lbs, older advanced, and own Black Pearls, 88 underfoot. That weekend I also learned that I can have fun on the BPs in deep powder. But it was easier with the Nina 99 the next day.
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh, I thought of something besides #rockthesnowplow!

I've put a lot of emphasis on # of days and its correlation to improvement the last few years. Well, I skied 13? 14? days this season... thanks mothernature! And getting more appropriate equipment (boots and skis) did more than days days days did last year. Not that mileage isn't important, but I was pleasantly surprised about this.
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Tell me if this is weird, but this year I learned that I vastly prefer to ski alone (on groomed trails, that is, not backcountry, which we don't have here anyway). I just like to zip around from trail to trail and decide what I want to do on the fly. I like hopping on the singles line, going fast or slow as I feel like it, hitting the terrain park, stopping when I want, and not being self-conscious of my skiing. I feel sort of anti-social about it, but I don't think it's unsafe at a small resort. I tend to be a solo-ist by nature in hiking and biking as well.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
there are no friends on a powder day!!

Waiting for people on a powder day is really painful for me. I am not a good person. But if I'm with someone who's about the same pace and wavelength, it is SO FUN to ski with someone else on a powder day and gush about it together on the lift. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of powder days this season - days when I actually skied deep snow for more than a run or two - and sharing that experience is amazing. But - so is being able to completely dictate your own choices, which brings me to SallyCat's post ...

Tell me if this is weird, but this year I learned that I vastly prefer to ski alone (on groomed trails, that is, not backcountry, which we don't have here anyway). I just like to zip around from trail to trail and decide what I want to do on the fly. I like hopping on the singles line, going fast or slow as I feel like it, hitting the terrain park, stopping when I want, and not being self-conscious of my skiing. I feel sort of anti-social about it, but I don't think it's unsafe at a small resort. I tend to be a solo-ist by nature in hiking and biking as well.

There are days when I feel this way, especially on good snow days. There's definitely the singles line aspect, although several of my favorite chairs don't have singles lines. But also other things, like being able to choose exactly the runs I want, which saves time, and not having to wait for the group to assemble at the top. My ideal group size, if I'm skiing with other people, is a pair. With two people, you're still pretty maneuverable, can share doubles and the T-bar, and you have the safety element.

I do some solo skiing that is objectively unsafe, like skiing aggressive tree lines that are not on the published map (though they are on the ski patrol map). It is possible that I could hurt myself and not be found. But on the other hand, Breck gets so much traffic that someone else is bound to come along. So it's mostly just tree wells, and it's unlikely that even a ski buddy would be able to find me in time to help. There are runs I won't do solo, but especially this season, I've gotten a lot more comfortable with a lot of aggressive terrain, so most of the mountain is available to me.
 
Until this season I'd only ever skied with my guy and a friend of ours. I like skiing solo and with others. I am learning to ski with other people and while I have found it fun it can be very stressful to me if you have people at different levels. I started skiing with some of ski instructor comrades this season and this has helped tremendously. Its a struggle with me because I am learning and having fun skiing with with other people and have come to accept I might likely always be bringing up the rear and I am ok with that. That said there's something to be said for skiing solo, you can listen to whatever you want on the way to/from the mountain and you can take a break whenever you want. You are on your own schedule, take any run you want, go as fast or slow as you want, can cruise to music and its all about you and what you want to do. On the flip side I take it easier when I'm skiing solo and tend to push myself more when skiing with other so there's benefit and fun to that also.
 

just jane

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I like a mix of solo and joint. Granted, my DH is a 'boarder so I'm rarely *skiing* with others. When I'm with him, he pushes me to try harder terrain than I would on my own, and that's helped me advance, which I like. But sometimes I don't want to push it that hard and then we split up and I can do whatever I want, like go practice technique on easy blue runs. He's been mentoring his nephew this season so we've gone as a group of three this season and that's fine except OMG they talk and talk and talk. So they both can board way faster than I can ski, but I swear I can lap them when they start going on. My new favorite phrase is, "this is a ski hill, not a tea party!"
 

just jane

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I know! Shut up and ride already! :wink:

Plus they do that 'boarder thing where they just plop down on their butts wherever they happen to be (okay, these two at least don't stop in the middle of runs, they get out of the way on the side, but still) and chat and chill. Hence my tea party observation.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Tell me if this is weird, but this year I learned that I vastly prefer to ski alone (on groomed trails, that is, not backcountry, which we don't have here anyway). I just like to zip around from trail to trail and decide what I want to do on the fly. I like hopping on the singles line, going fast or slow as I feel like it, hitting the terrain park, stopping when I want, and not being self-conscious of my skiing. I feel sort of anti-social about it, but I don't think it's unsafe at a small resort. I tend to be a solo-ist by nature in hiking and biking as well.
Not weird at all. We've talked about the advantages of skiing alone before.

https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/skiing-alone.16391

After spending a morning and lunch with a group of friends at Alta, I sometimes like to finish up the day skiing solo. Alternatively, I head out early for a few runs before meeting up with others at a pre-designated time and place. I know Alta pretty well. But even at a new mountain, sometimes I like to explore on my own for a couple runs.
 

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