Tvan
Angel Diva
This was my third year at the Okemo Women’s Alpine Adventure. The former 5 day program is now a 3 day program, and this year, I convinced my best friend of 35+ years (and new diva @Principalskis ) to join me. We decided to take advantage of the fact that this year’s program was scheduled for MLK week, and started our adventure with a day at Stratton.
On Tuesday, we met in the parking lot at the Stratton main base area and booted up in the main lodge. The lodge was fairly empty, which was a precursor of things to come on the mountain. Under cold bluebird skies, we started our day on the Gondola and spent our first few runs getting our feet under us on the front face. Conditions were good – hard pack and packed powder – and we never once waited for a lift the entire day. We hit mostly blues and greens in the morning, and after lunch in the main lodge (butternut squash soup and a delicious a thai chicken noodle bowl), we moved to the Ursa lift and hit a few blues and blacks there before heading down Upper Kidderbrook on the Sun Bowl side. By 2 pm, we had exhausted most of what was open, including my favorite greens in the Tamarack area, and decided to call it a day. We packed up and proceeded to Okemo, driving up Route 100. We made a pit stop at the Vermont Country Store, where we ate our weight in samples of oyster crackers, pretzels, various dips, cheeses, and ginger cookies.
After checking into our studio apartment in Jackson Gore, we headed to Kilarney’s in Ludlow for what has become the traditional pre-WAA Diva dinner where we joined @ski diva , @Abbi , @ski now work later, and Mr. Ski Now Work Later for gigantic portions of Irish fare. Hilarity ensued.
Wednesday morning came early, and we joined the WAA participants in the upper floor of the Roundhouse to learn that @Principalskis , @ski now work later and had all been placed, coincidentally, into the same group. Our coach was a WAA veteran with over 50 years of experience and a pension for skiing fast. There were 6 of us plus our coach in the group, and we were fairly well-matched, although I was the slowest skier in the bunch, and maybe the most tentative. We spent the morning in Jackson Gore and the afternoon on the main face working on edging, railroad tracks, and C-turns primarily on blue runs. Lunch was a brief affair, and we returned to the hill afterward and skied till closing. We joined the rest of the program in the Jackson Gore Inn for après drinks and appetizers, still in ski clothes (thank heavens for short puffy skirts that make base layers look like black tights) and helmet hair. Nobody cared. Dinner was in the Coleman Brook Tavern in the hotel, with a newbie WAA attendee who was there on her own. I hit the bed by 8 and was asleep nearly instantly.
Thursday we ventured over to the South Face at Okemo – my favorite part of the mountain. Another day of bluebird skies. The South Face runs are beautiful and it’s typically less busy than the main face off the bubble chair. We again worked edging, keeping both skis parallel through the turn, and finishing turns. My darn left leg still wants to pick up on my turns to the right, so this was good practice, albeit frustrating as well. We also did some partner skiing. Our coach paired us up, had each partner state their focus point for the run, and then had us take turns watching / coaching each other. This was fun and very useful. On Thursday, lunch was at the new restaurant in the lodge at the peak, and it was nice to be able to try out different menus on the mountain. An added bonus was running into @Abbi and @newboots who were taking a break between runs (this might have been on Friday... I can't remember exactly). The afternoon took us down many blacks, applying the same skills and teaching points as we had worked on in the morning session. Thursday night was the traditional off-mountain fondue party hosted by one of the long-time instructors. This is an event that surpasses description. You have to experience it for yourselves.
Friday was another beautiful day and we hoofed it to South Face first thing, after running into @ski diva at the ski racks and picking up new "The Ski Diva" stickers for skis and helmets! More blacks, more edging practice, and lots of laps. The mountain was also noticeably busier on Friday. Where we never had lift lines on Wednesday or Thursday, we had to wait on Friday and use the instructor queue. Lunch was held at the new restaurant at the Solitude base, and was much better organized that last year. Milestone year awards were given, and we all received our WAA branded gifts. We gave our instructor a card with cash tips for the week, and said our goodbyes. Some teams went back out to ski for the afternoon, but our team members were travelling, so we headed back to the Jackson Gore base to gear down and pack up for home.
Overall it was a very good week. The theme of the WAA program is "Camaraderie, Confidence and Courage." As always, the Camaraderie level was “11” and Confidence building was very high. The Courage level is always up to the individual, and I realized that I was less confident in this year’s program than I had been the prior year. I think that I was in a group whose overall ski ability was above mine (whereas last year, we were all about even), and I felt like I was stretching to keep up. This was probably a good thing in the long run.
If you’re interested in my reports from my two prior years at the Okemo WAA, you can find them here:
Happy to answer questions about the program.
On Tuesday, we met in the parking lot at the Stratton main base area and booted up in the main lodge. The lodge was fairly empty, which was a precursor of things to come on the mountain. Under cold bluebird skies, we started our day on the Gondola and spent our first few runs getting our feet under us on the front face. Conditions were good – hard pack and packed powder – and we never once waited for a lift the entire day. We hit mostly blues and greens in the morning, and after lunch in the main lodge (butternut squash soup and a delicious a thai chicken noodle bowl), we moved to the Ursa lift and hit a few blues and blacks there before heading down Upper Kidderbrook on the Sun Bowl side. By 2 pm, we had exhausted most of what was open, including my favorite greens in the Tamarack area, and decided to call it a day. We packed up and proceeded to Okemo, driving up Route 100. We made a pit stop at the Vermont Country Store, where we ate our weight in samples of oyster crackers, pretzels, various dips, cheeses, and ginger cookies.
After checking into our studio apartment in Jackson Gore, we headed to Kilarney’s in Ludlow for what has become the traditional pre-WAA Diva dinner where we joined @ski diva , @Abbi , @ski now work later, and Mr. Ski Now Work Later for gigantic portions of Irish fare. Hilarity ensued.
Wednesday morning came early, and we joined the WAA participants in the upper floor of the Roundhouse to learn that @Principalskis , @ski now work later and had all been placed, coincidentally, into the same group. Our coach was a WAA veteran with over 50 years of experience and a pension for skiing fast. There were 6 of us plus our coach in the group, and we were fairly well-matched, although I was the slowest skier in the bunch, and maybe the most tentative. We spent the morning in Jackson Gore and the afternoon on the main face working on edging, railroad tracks, and C-turns primarily on blue runs. Lunch was a brief affair, and we returned to the hill afterward and skied till closing. We joined the rest of the program in the Jackson Gore Inn for après drinks and appetizers, still in ski clothes (thank heavens for short puffy skirts that make base layers look like black tights) and helmet hair. Nobody cared. Dinner was in the Coleman Brook Tavern in the hotel, with a newbie WAA attendee who was there on her own. I hit the bed by 8 and was asleep nearly instantly.
Thursday we ventured over to the South Face at Okemo – my favorite part of the mountain. Another day of bluebird skies. The South Face runs are beautiful and it’s typically less busy than the main face off the bubble chair. We again worked edging, keeping both skis parallel through the turn, and finishing turns. My darn left leg still wants to pick up on my turns to the right, so this was good practice, albeit frustrating as well. We also did some partner skiing. Our coach paired us up, had each partner state their focus point for the run, and then had us take turns watching / coaching each other. This was fun and very useful. On Thursday, lunch was at the new restaurant in the lodge at the peak, and it was nice to be able to try out different menus on the mountain. An added bonus was running into @Abbi and @newboots who were taking a break between runs (this might have been on Friday... I can't remember exactly). The afternoon took us down many blacks, applying the same skills and teaching points as we had worked on in the morning session. Thursday night was the traditional off-mountain fondue party hosted by one of the long-time instructors. This is an event that surpasses description. You have to experience it for yourselves.
Friday was another beautiful day and we hoofed it to South Face first thing, after running into @ski diva at the ski racks and picking up new "The Ski Diva" stickers for skis and helmets! More blacks, more edging practice, and lots of laps. The mountain was also noticeably busier on Friday. Where we never had lift lines on Wednesday or Thursday, we had to wait on Friday and use the instructor queue. Lunch was held at the new restaurant at the Solitude base, and was much better organized that last year. Milestone year awards were given, and we all received our WAA branded gifts. We gave our instructor a card with cash tips for the week, and said our goodbyes. Some teams went back out to ski for the afternoon, but our team members were travelling, so we headed back to the Jackson Gore base to gear down and pack up for home.
Overall it was a very good week. The theme of the WAA program is "Camaraderie, Confidence and Courage." As always, the Camaraderie level was “11” and Confidence building was very high. The Courage level is always up to the individual, and I realized that I was less confident in this year’s program than I had been the prior year. I think that I was in a group whose overall ski ability was above mine (whereas last year, we were all about even), and I felt like I was stretching to keep up. This was probably a good thing in the long run.
If you’re interested in my reports from my two prior years at the Okemo WAA, you can find them here:
Happy to answer questions about the program.
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