Cantabrigienne
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Putting up this thread in the hope that this will help Divas find each other at the camp - I'll definitely be at the Feb 16-17 camp & if early season snow is decent, will be at the Dec 8-9th camp too.
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Anyone planning on going to the North Face women's camps at Whistler this year?
- Thread starter Cantabrigienne
- Start date
kiki
Angel Diva
Nice way to start planning, @Cantabrigienne !
I was at the camp last year and really enjoyed it, have you been before?
I was at the camp last year and really enjoyed it, have you been before?
Albertan ski girl
Angel Diva
K
@kiki did you ever write a report about the camp? im thinking of maybe doing a 3-4 'just me' oriented getaway to Whistler this year, and am considering the camp. Any thoughts you'd want to share?
Thanks!
Cantabrigienne
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I went to the camp over the Feb long weekend and again in late March - really enjoyed both times. When did you go? I was in the Spicy 4 group with Gillian.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Cantabrigienne, what did you learn in your two camps? Curious....
Cantabrigienne
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hm, at this point the memories of the 2 camps are all mashed up. Both times our group basically did a bunch of drills each morning and then put the new skills/movement patterns into practice in the afternoon. In reality there wasn't anything new - I've been on the cusp between intermediate and advanced for a long time - but the 2 day format meant that the kinds of things I've been told to work on in other 1/2 days classes finally sank in a little better. I think my pole planting is a lot more consistent now and I'm more comfortable just sucking up the conditions + not stopping as much.
Since this was the "spicy" 4 group, most people were also upper intermediates with similar problems. First time round it was sunny and hardpacked & we agreed to focus on moguls and feeling more comfortable on steeper terrain Day 1 was Blackcomb. Ski-off was a couple of laps mid-mountain where we stopped and shuffled & regrouped and the instructors would watch you ski specific pitches and then reshuffled to get a closer match of skills/speed. Then we did a lot of drills for a) mobilizing ankles (hands on knees, holding poles halfway down the shaft and dragging them on the slope etc) b) pole planting/better turn initiation - lot of shouting to get the uphill hand forward for the next pole plant!, plus c) getting our turns shorter/faster & more consistent (we did a fun follow my leader game where you skied behind a partner and had to turn exactly when they did, regardless of whether you were on similarly sloped parts of the run). In Feb we went over to Seventh Heaven and lapped that 3x or 4x - same entry at the farside each time - to tie everything together. In March I remember doing Jersey Cream Wall and thinking I picked a terrible line (went too far to skiers left, which is longer and has rocks in the middle of it!)
Day 2 was over at Whistler - again starting with a couple of drills (though honestly in Feb I thought we need more of a warmup ski on day 2 to replicate the ski-off before settling into straight up drills like bricage & falling leaf). This was more focused on steeps in Feb - we ended up finding short steep pitches like specific parts of Whistler Bowl - to build up our confidence. We kind of just fun skied towards the end - I remember doing Dave Murray 2x.
I don't remember as much from the 2nd time around because it was much foggier and I somehow felt a lot less confident than in the Feb camp (fog rolled in while we were going down Whistler Bowl & another local-ish lady and I chickened out and traversed out of the bowl because we couldn't see enough to pick a good line out, which was a dumb call in the end because it was probably more work traversing through a foot+ of fresh. She and I also had a great wipeout on the T-bars when a snowboarder lost his balance and took us out....again, with cooler heads we probably could've coordinated ourselves and skied around him. )
Since this was the "spicy" 4 group, most people were also upper intermediates with similar problems. First time round it was sunny and hardpacked & we agreed to focus on moguls and feeling more comfortable on steeper terrain Day 1 was Blackcomb. Ski-off was a couple of laps mid-mountain where we stopped and shuffled & regrouped and the instructors would watch you ski specific pitches and then reshuffled to get a closer match of skills/speed. Then we did a lot of drills for a) mobilizing ankles (hands on knees, holding poles halfway down the shaft and dragging them on the slope etc) b) pole planting/better turn initiation - lot of shouting to get the uphill hand forward for the next pole plant!, plus c) getting our turns shorter/faster & more consistent (we did a fun follow my leader game where you skied behind a partner and had to turn exactly when they did, regardless of whether you were on similarly sloped parts of the run). In Feb we went over to Seventh Heaven and lapped that 3x or 4x - same entry at the farside each time - to tie everything together. In March I remember doing Jersey Cream Wall and thinking I picked a terrible line (went too far to skiers left, which is longer and has rocks in the middle of it!)
Day 2 was over at Whistler - again starting with a couple of drills (though honestly in Feb I thought we need more of a warmup ski on day 2 to replicate the ski-off before settling into straight up drills like bricage & falling leaf). This was more focused on steeps in Feb - we ended up finding short steep pitches like specific parts of Whistler Bowl - to build up our confidence. We kind of just fun skied towards the end - I remember doing Dave Murray 2x.
I don't remember as much from the 2nd time around because it was much foggier and I somehow felt a lot less confident than in the Feb camp (fog rolled in while we were going down Whistler Bowl & another local-ish lady and I chickened out and traversed out of the bowl because we couldn't see enough to pick a good line out, which was a dumb call in the end because it was probably more work traversing through a foot+ of fresh. She and I also had a great wipeout on the T-bars when a snowboarder lost his balance and took us out....again, with cooler heads we probably could've coordinated ourselves and skied around him. )
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for answering -- sounds like you dealt with refining short radius turns and using them on steeps. And on building confidence on steeps with those turns. And also on figuring out how to manipulate those short radius turns using different body movements (pole plants, ankle action, and so on).
I like to hear about what people learn in camps. When I've been a participant, I afterwards write notes so I can cement in place what I've paid attention to, and go over the notes later. I think I'll start a thread and ask people to tell their stories of camps and what they've learned. That might be fun to read.
I like to hear about what people learn in camps. When I've been a participant, I afterwards write notes so I can cement in place what I've paid attention to, and go over the notes later. I think I'll start a thread and ask people to tell their stories of camps and what they've learned. That might be fun to read.
