I will expand on these later, maybe, if I can remember anything else, but I’m exhausted - I don’t sleep well in the mountains, and had a couple early mornings before we left so I started out at a deficit. It's 8:00 pm and I fully expect lights out by 8:30!
There were about 5-6 of us doing the ski off today. I acquitted myself fairly, didn’t fall, and ended up in an appropriate group. I don’t know what level it is, officially, but I’d guess 6/7 based on what we did. Feel free to correct me if this sounds wrong.
We’re working toward moguls - after all the years of saying I’d never do them, here I am!
Yesterday they apparently worked on what Derek (instructor) calls "rocking" to start the next turn. This terminology isn’t resonating with me, but he said that it's what flattens the ski so you’re ready to turn. So, we did that first.
Then he had us carving some turns.
We also did drills balancing poles on our arms, falling leaf, side slips, skiing while keeping our gaze at one particular place (so as to keep the body facing downhill), using our hips to angulate more(?), and pole plant drills, which was funny, because I had actually noticed I was the only one pole planting and had kind of wondered if he told them yesterday not to worry about it.
He gave a big introduction to moguls, talking about different ways to do them, different lines, etc. His way is to ski the troughs, which honestly doesn’t sound like a good idea to this Michigan skier - all the troughs I ever see are more like icy ruts, but I’m in this with an open mind, so giving it a try. Right after he took us down some bumps he skied us over to some trees and we went through a little bitty section there.
Tonight it could 8-14” or so of new snow, depending on where you look. And it's supposed to snow another 3-5” tomorrow. And the temps could be anywhere from single digits to high teens/low 20s. Apparently, it's anyone's guess and I have no idea what to wear.