• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Making Skiing Fun Again

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Here's an interesting article by Mermer Blakeslee (yes, that Mermer Blakeslee, of A Conversation with Fear and the well respected fear clinics). It's about how for some people, skiing has become less than fun for a variety of reasons, and what resorts can do about it. The article recently appeared in Ski Area Management.

What do you think?
 
Last edited:

newboots

Angel Diva
I think she's on to something.

"Trail design was an art form. In the East, trails snaked along the contours of the mountain with each little dip, swoop, and knoll expressed. Old trees serving sometimes as guides, sometimes as meeting points. And then what happened? To make grooming and snowmaking cheaper and more convenient, we cut the trees, created tipped-up football fields and called them trails, though it was hard to tell one from another."

This is not representative of the whole article (do read it - it's great!). But it resonated with me. I just finished my first season, and people were forever trying to get me to ski one of those tipped-up football fields. "You have so much room to turn!"

I actually don't need that much room to turn, and when I did, that wide-open trail was terrifying. I so prefer a winding trail through the woods. I keep my speed down and just drink up the beauty of being in the woods, on a mountain in winter. Those wide-open, boring trails remind me of Wal-Mart parking lots. I feel safer in the woods, familiar and comfy, even when the terrain is really challenging.

She writes that Killington has an easy glade trail. I'm there next season! I really want to ski through some (well-spaced) trees. Sounds like heaven.
 

VickiK

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Great article. I'm not jaded on skiing, at least I hope not, but sometimes I wish it were more...something of the fearlessness and passion I felt in earlier days.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
OMG - this is so me last year. I've kind of decided that the one group I ski with just want to ski groomers and fast. I want to ski other stuff. They won't go there. But I do know people that will. So I am not skiing with "my boys" all the time next season. Time for some trees and bumps....SkiBam you up!
 

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
Yes! It's right next to a fantastic beginner terrain park, too. It really is one of the only truly intermediate glades I've ever come across. Super fun.
I used to chaperone our high school ski club's annual trip to Killington (the trip is now defunct). Anyway, on one trip, we had very heavy snow and cold, windy conditions that made visibility higher up and on many wide trails difficult. So, a few of us spent the afternoon in Squeeze Play.....lots of whoop-de-whoops and twisty turns in a non-threatening pitch. I would go off 2 jumps in the adjoining terrain park, then dip into the woods and ski the length of Squeeze Play, hooting and hollering and giggling. What a great memory.

One of my local mountains, Jack Frost, only has like 550-600' of vertical. BUT.....they blow snow in several glades so we have glade skiing, even when there's no natural snow. It's a great place to get more comfortable in the trees. Th e pitch at the top is very gentle, and steepens as you ski down. There's also a "run" called Elevator which is a very steep pitch off a trail that requires hop turns. Also their terrain park is in the middle of ski runs, so very accessible and provides good practice on getting air. There is also a seeded bump run on a blue trail. All of those features at a small resort have increased my skills and fun factor.
 

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
OMG - this is so me last year. I've kind of decided that the one group I ski with just want to ski groomers and fast. I want to ski other stuff. They won't go there. But I do know people that will. So I am not skiing with "my boys" all the time next season. Time for some trees and bumps....SkiBam you up!
Skiing with @tinymoose and her husband ensures that I will be skiing more varied terrain....so happy to have them as ski buddies!!
 

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
Here's an interesting article by Mermer Blakeslee (yes, that Mermer Blakeslee, of A Conversation with Fear and the well respected fear clinics. It's about how for some people, skiing has become less than fun for a variety of reasons, and what resorts can do about it. The article recently appeared in Ski Area Management.

What do you think?

There has been some effort by ski areas to include easy terrain features in beginner teaching areas....something that I believe is key to improving skills AND increasing the fun factor. More ski areas need to create these features. It's hard to get comfortable in glades unless you can ski low-angle ones with wider-spaced trees first.....it's hard to be comfortable in bumps unless you can practice on low-angle moguls that offer an escape route. It's hard to get comfortable in catching air unless you can practice on small jumps in a non-intimidating terrain park. It's hard to get comfortable on really steep stuff unless you can first practice on short, steep runs that are less intimidating. And when all of these features are "lappable".....you can ski them over and over in the span of a few hours, getting more familiar with each feature, experimenting with your skills...THAT stokes the confidence and desire to expand these learned skills into bigger terrain. For some skiers without such terrain to practice on, the leap from local hill to a big mountain resort is overwhelming and intimidating.
 

Obrules15

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The reasons for the ennui and the solutions did not really resonate with me (too different from my experience). However, I was struck by the concept that we are missing something in our analysis of why people don't start or continue to ski.

When I was stuck in my intermediate plateau and taking a ton of lessons, instructors kept having me do J-turns (to improve the bottom half of the turn)--but I never experienced significant improvement. Finally, after two years and some research, I got some clarity and became confident enough to say something. When I finally told the instructor that J-turns weren't helpful because I didn't know how to start the turn, he looked dumbfounded but was easily able to teach me what I needed to know. It's amazing how much easier things are when the right problem is addressed.

So after reading this article I can't help but wonder how often in our zeal to 'improve' skiing, we have been addressing the wrong problem. I don't think I have issues with the wide open pistes like @newboots but one of the most difficult things for me to get used to in the west was the disorientation due to lack of trees and landmarks (exacerbated by hypoxia) in above treeline areas. So how many things have we 'fixed' or 'improved' over the years that actually made things worse.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
I think she's definitely on to something. I lean toward mindset, too. Often, in our pursuit of trying to get better and better at something, we become so fixated on perfection that we manage to suck all the joy out of it. One of the best things about skiing is the feeling of exhilaration and freedom we get from careening down the hill. Leave that out of the equation, and you lose the fun.
 
Last edited:

vanhoskier

Angel Diva
I think she's definitely on to something. I lean toward mindset, too. Often, in our pursuit of trying to get better and better at something, we become so fixated on perfection that we manage to suck the joy out of it. One of the best things about skiing is the feeling of exhilaration and freedom we get from careening down the hill. Leave that out of the equation, and you lose the fun.

I couldn't agree more. Skiing should be joyful. And, we should be able to laugh at ourselves, too, when we make mistakes. I remember being afraid to ski moguls that ran under chairlifts because I didn't want people watching me...now, I don't care. And when I stopped caring about that, and just lapped the mogul run under the lift, I got better. It's way more fun when we get out of our heads and into the environment and enjoy all its exquisite sensations.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I guess I didn't identify with the issues in this article. It seems to me - at least in the context of lessons - that if the problem is too much focus on technique and not enough on joy, then the problem lies with the instructors. When I was taking level 6-ish a few lessons years ago, my instructors didn't just harp on technique - they would take us around a tree or two, graduating into actually leading us down a low-angle tree run (one tree away from the main run, so we could always duck out or choose not to). They would introduce us to mellow, mellow versions of advanced terrain - playing with the transition between bumps and groomers, for example. The number one goal (besides safety) was fun.

When I joined my level 6/7 group this season, it was the same thing. The instructor worked very hard to introduce the group to confidence-inspiring versions of advanced terrain. On powder days, he did some guided exploration without putting anyone into a difficult situation, and he encouraged everyone to think of freshies as "points." By the end, he led us through some (large) gaps between the trees, and everyone followed. He took us down some chop, and everyone did well. Ladies (the whole group was women) who wouldn't come near a bump at the start of the season were skiing down bumps skillfully, if not yet confidently. They knew they could get down. Maybe the east coast suffers from overly bulldozed straight groomers, but in my experience all the places I've skied lately have lots of opportunities for a creative instructor to introduce people to the fun parts of skiing that go beyond zooming a groomer. I do not expect a novice or intermediate skier to find those for themselves, or know how to deal with them.

It does take care to push someone's terrain boundaries without TFing them, but that's what a skilled instructor should be able to do.

Maybe this just means that when Blakeslee says, "We need programs and camps that reframe skiing as a mountain experience for our novice and intermediate skiers, too, as well as expert women like Dana who are either put off or somewhat intimidated by overt bouts of testosterone" - I am fortunate enough to have found this sort of program.

My instructors care about technique, but for the most part they care about technique as a mechanism for enjoying more of the mountain in more conditions - not about technique for technique's sake. A lot of instructors are technique geeks who love to hone the skill for its own sake, and you need that too - but they shouldn't overlook the other reasons to ski.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And when I stopped caring about that, and just lapped the mogul run under the lift, I got better.

Also - because all the best (plus me) are skiing under the lift, those bumps are IMO some of the best on the mountain.
 

Obrules15

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think she's definitely on to something. I lean toward mindset, too. Often, in our pursuit of trying to get better and better at something, we become so fixated on perfection that we manage to suck all the joy out of it. One of the best things about skiing is the feeling of exhilaration and freedom we get from careening down the hill. Leave that out of the equation, and you lose the fun.

Definitely a perspective issue. The thought of "careening down the hill" makes me nauseous, and the last words I would use to describe that sensation are exhilaration or freedom. But that is likely because of where I am in my skier development (and personality). I only this season had the experience of feeling like I was in control of my skis as opposed to my skis controlling me.

We all have very different goals and personalities and the beauty of the sport is that it can accommodate those differences quite easily. I started to really love skiing when I accepted that I was a meanderer who loved to look at the scenery and stopped pressuring myself to ski steeper or more challenging pistes for no other reason than the challenge.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Often, in our pursuit of trying to get better and better at something, we become so fixated on perfection that we manage to suck all the joy out of it. One of the best things about skiing is the feeling of exhilaration and freedom we get from careening down the hill. Leave that out of the equation, and you lose the fun.

Last year, I took three lessons at the start, along with a couple of practice days. I hit the bunny trail and lapped it continuously, working on learning to turn. Over and over.

Once I got some confidence, though, I headed to a varied but easy green trail, and just skied. I had to focus on the winding trail and the occasional steeps (and some flats). I stopped thinking about turn technique and just skied. What fun! After a few weeks I was ready to focus on technique again; I've got plenty to learn. Trying to get the balance right.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Definitely a perspective issue. The thought of "careening down the hill" makes me nauseous, and the last words I would use to describe that sensation are exhilaration or freedom.

Maybe it's just the word choice is a bit off. I think of careening as being out of control, and I don't want to be out of control. But going fast while still feeling like I'm in the driver's seat - that's fun. But that's only one way to have fun. When I ski in the trees, it is fun, but not fast.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Definitely a perspective issue. The thought of "careening down the hill" makes me nauseous, and the last words I would use to describe that sensation are exhilaration or freedom.

Sorry, I didn't mean careening as being out of control. Perhaps a better choice would have been flying. But if that doesn't do it for you, just substitute whatever means fun for you.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
For some skiers without such terrain to practice on, the leap from local hill to a big mountain resort is overwhelming and intimidating.

And those of us who ski big mountains will be intimidated by the East Coast skiers who are awesome carvers...
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,237
Messages
497,685
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top