Lessons learned this season ('17/'18)

[freckles]

A little embarrassed because both these lessons took about 30 years to figure out, but here's mine:
- practice, practice, practice! It's fun and makes you better
- beer at lunch makes my legs turn to jelly. I'm useless the rest of the day. As a result, I have discovered the Moscow Mule!

 

[DeeSki]

Things I learned this season:
1. A new drill for my perennial failure to keep my shoulders pointing down the hill - uphill hand to downhill knee. This really helped especially when I really came upright in the turns and waited a second before switching hands. Hadn’t realized I was zig-zagging until I suddenly started seeing big s shapes.
2. I still hate flat light, especially when I’m on my own. Even when I start out skiing really well it just throws me and I lose confidence. The solution: stop trying so hard and do laps on an easy run, ideally with trees at the edges.
3. Related to point 2, skiing is fun and fun is where the mojo comes from. This season I had a lot more of both.
4. The only thing better than having fun skiing, is having fun skiing with your kids. Doing a gazillion turns down “the big mountain” with my two little guys was the best thing ever.

 

[SallyCat]

- beer at lunch makes my legs turn to jelly. I'm useless the rest of the day. As a result, I have discovered the Moscow Mule!

I like having beer at lunch occasionally; it's relaxing, I just have to dial back what I try to do in the afternoon. But it can be nice to just chill and enjoy the day if I've been frustrated with my skiing. Vodka would get me in trouble, though....

I totally agree about practice; it sounds so obvious, but when I was an athlete, we spent as much time doing drills as we did playing the actual game. I've really tried to apply that logic to skiing. Especially when it's late and/or crowded and/or icy and your group wants to go home, I try to stay and go to a blue or green slope and do drills. Hope to do more of the same this year.

 

[marzNC]

4. The only thing better than having fun skiing, is having fun skiing with your kids. Doing a gazillion turns down “the big mountain” with my two little guys was the best thing ever.

The fun of skiing with your kid never goes away. Had a chance to ski with my teen daughter at Alta in April. First time in quite a while that she was looking to ski with me instead of preferring to ski with her friends instead. Good thing I managed to improve enough in recent to keep up with her off-piste since I was falling behind by the time she was 11.

 

[SkiBam]

The fun of skiing with your kid never goes away. Had a chance to ski with my teen daughter at Alta in April. First time in quite a while that she was looking to ski with me instead of preferring to ski with her friends instead. Good thing I managed to improve enough in recent to keep up with her off-piste since I was falling behind by the time she was 11.

And the fun of skiing with grandkids still keeps getting better - although I expect the time is coming when they won't want to wait for Bam (that's what they call me).