pinto
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And like anything else, try to practice whenever you can, so that if you are traveling somewhere that traverses are important, you are more comfortable. I had never really thought about it before, but it occurred to me in January that the Enchanted Forest traverse at Copper is quite good prep ... it has some exposure, some narrow, some rocky, some steep, some whoopdedo, some "keep up your speeeeed!!" parts.
When we took the kids to Utah, they were completely comfortable on the traverses. We didn't have any powder frenzy to deal with, but conversely, the traverses were pretty darn sketchy. We got into something nasty off Wildcat, and the far side of Ballroom was barely navigable, as well. They didn't think twice about it, since they've been on that Copper traverse about 100 times (since before they knew to be frightened).
So, search them out.
Now, climbing an icy Spanky's Ladder, on an empty stomach, in all-plastic boots, while the tendinitis in my thumbs barely allowed me to hang onto my skis on the way up -- and my DH (D stands for something different here) was heckling me from behind/below -- that was definitely the hairiest "travel to ski" experience I've had. I much prefer having my skis on.
When we took the kids to Utah, they were completely comfortable on the traverses. We didn't have any powder frenzy to deal with, but conversely, the traverses were pretty darn sketchy. We got into something nasty off Wildcat, and the far side of Ballroom was barely navigable, as well. They didn't think twice about it, since they've been on that Copper traverse about 100 times (since before they knew to be frightened).
So, search them out.
Now, climbing an icy Spanky's Ladder, on an empty stomach, in all-plastic boots, while the tendinitis in my thumbs barely allowed me to hang onto my skis on the way up -- and my DH (D stands for something different here) was heckling me from behind/below -- that was definitely the hairiest "travel to ski" experience I've had. I much prefer having my skis on.