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What are your current ski goals? What were your wins (big or small) this season?

Knitjenious

Angel Diva
I just spent the afternoon trying to learn to get off a chairlift on a snowboard. I fell so many times that when I finally succeeded a very sweet lift operator walked out of the top shack to say “YOU GOT IT!!” and did a fist pump!

I love this!! I remember one time a couple years back I was in a lesson with another mom and on the lift she was talking about the idea of someone having to stop the lift for her being so mortifying. And I was like, you know what, I decided that anytime they stop or slow down the lift for someone, I choose to think to myself, "Yay! Someone is learning to ski or snowboard!"
 

contesstant

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
True railroad track turns.
I skied with a PSIA hall of famer today who is still an examiner (many of you will remember S at Snowbasin!) Lucky me. Three runs with him and the change in my skiing was remarkable. I am so close to carving railroad tracks to my heart's content. I'll be skiing a ton in the next two weeks to try to cement those movement patterns before the end of the season.
 

RJ*

Angel Diva
Wins:
*Skied twice as much as my previous longest season
*Managed to only get injured at the very end of the season (yes, counting that one as a win lol)
*Much more comfortable on moguls than back in December
*Did a Taos private ski week with my new ski buddy @Susan L
*Skied my first double black Diamond EVER -WOOO!!
*Had the most fun I’ve ever had skiing

Goals:
*Take good care of my ankle now and keep up with physical conditioning throughout the year
*Ski harder stuff
* Have even more fun next season
 

SallyCat

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I can't even imagine getting off the lift with a snowboard!

Yay, @SallyCat ! Yay, liftie!

As much as finally figuring it out, I would put my perseverance in the "win" category for this season, because I'm a little proud of not getting frustrated and giving up.

I practiced riding one-footed for hours on the magic carpet slopes before trying the chair. I can now ride straight, turn, and stop in both directions very comfortably with one foot. But my problem with the chairlift dismount was the standing up part! The board just kept sliding out from under me.

It was super embarrassing and a little nerve-wracking, because when you can't stand up on the off-ramp you fall very close to the chair. The lifties never had to stop the lift (I always made sure there was an empty chair behind me), but it was discouraging.

After about eight falls, I somehow found the right position that worked and when I stood up, I was balanced over the board and had no problem at all riding away from the ramp. And happily, once I "got" it, I never fell again that whole day; it was like I'd hit an "on" switch. And it was so nice to be able to access so much more terrain. I really enjoy the snowboard in soft spring snow.

Anyway, I'm a little prone to getting easily frustrated, so it may sound silly but that was a big win for me.
 

ilovepugs

Angel Diva
@SallyCat That’s awesome! I have to confess that after 6 or 7 seasons of riding this may have been the first or maybe second season I actually haven’t fallen over getting off the chairlift. It’s not easy to find your balance getting off. It really helps to have the extra space on the lift chair. I have stomp pads on most of my boards but I don’t really think those do much for me.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
My DH had a Swivlr - a piece under his binding that would allow his foot to be facing forward in the lift line and getting off the lift. Then he’d swivel it back when clicking in his bindings. Never had a problem boarding with it and saved tweaking the knee. I’ve always thought that boarders should all have knee issues from early on.
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm boredly awaiting the start of my season, just under 3 months off. I started thinking about the goals I have for this upcoming season:

* make at least 2 consecutive powder turns
* learn to carve (now there's a nebulous goal!!)
* get better at skiing chop/crud. If I can make it down any ungroomed run at my local without stopping, in chop/crud conditions, I'll consider that a huge success!

With my season now drawing to a close, I was trying to remember what exactly my ski goals had been and wondering how I did.

* make at least 2 consecutive powder turns - SUCCESS!!
* learn to carve (now there's a nebulous goal!!) - not yet but my piste skiing is slightly improved anyway, it's been hindered by lockdowns and other factors as well making it hard to get a) time on snow, b) carving lessons! i'm still practicing railroad tracks along cat tracks
* get better at skiing chop/crud. If I can make it down any ungroomed run at my local without stopping, in chop/crud conditions, I'll consider that a huge success! - I'm yet to make it down any ungroomed run without stopping at least once (except a very short run!!), but I've definitely improved a ton and gained confidence, and can link a lot more turns than I could before in those tricky conditions - I'll call it a success! (if not a huge success ;) )

I made another goal at the start of this season which was to ski a specific long black groomed run at my local mountain - without stopping. I've
succeeded at that too! It required me to exit turns with more control, so that I could enter the next turn without coming to a stop first or without gaining too much speed (which also caused me to stop haha)

Other bonus wins:
* skied two new skifields (remarkables, cardrona)
* hiked to access terrain for the first time (remarkables) - and discovered I am ludicrously unfit!!
* gained more confidence and speed in general

Good luck to all the northern hemisphere ladies for the upcoming season :smile:
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Ha I love the term “ludicrously unfit”! I often feel the same when hiking to ski. :smile:

Sounds like you made some great progress this season despite the outside continued challenges due to Covid!
 

scandium

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
With my season now drawing to a close, I was trying to remember what exactly my ski goals had been and wondering how I did.

* make at least 2 consecutive powder turns - SUCCESS!!
* learn to carve (now there's a nebulous goal!!) - not yet but my piste skiing is slightly improved anyway, it's been hindered by lockdowns and other factors as well making it hard to get a) time on snow, b) carving lessons! i'm still practicing railroad tracks along cat tracks
* get better at skiing chop/crud. If I can make it down any ungroomed run at my local without stopping, in chop/crud conditions, I'll consider that a huge success! - I'm yet to make it down any ungroomed run without stopping at least once (except a very short run!!), but I've definitely improved a ton and gained confidence, and can link a lot more turns than I could before in those tricky conditions - I'll call it a success! (if not a huge success ;) )

I made another goal at the start of this season which was to ski a specific long black groomed run at my local mountain - without stopping. I've succeeded at that too! It required me to exit turns with more control, so that I could enter the next turn without coming to a stop first or without gaining too much speed (which also caused me to stop haha)

Other bonus wins:
* skied two new skifields (remarkables, cardrona)
* hiked to access terrain for the first time (remarkables) - and discovered I am ludicrously unfit!!
* gained more confidence and speed in general

Good luck to all the northern hemisphere ladies for the upcoming season :smile:
Where did you hike? All I did was traverse across Shadow this year, and Covid has ended the rest of the season for me!
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Where did you hike? All I did was traverse across Shadow this year, and Covid has ended the rest of the season for me!
Agh, covid. :( let's ski together next season instead!

So I got some time off work and did a solo trip to Queenstown just over a week ago, managed to hit a powder day while I was there and spent two happy and tiring days at Remarks. I did a very short hike from the top of Sugar bowl (didn't get any photos because my phone had died by then but i only walked up enough to do like three turns back down), a hike from the top of Curvey lift to the edge of the ski boundary (though the ski back down was very mediocre):

20210926_121148.jpg

- and multiple hikes up from Shadow which was kinda worthwhile. I walked up to the lookout point, on both day 1 and day 2 (day 2 was sunnier so got better photos) -

20210926_102552.jpg

20210927_100205.jpg

- also hiked halfway up the chutes which is lookers left from the Shadow lift. I didn't want to commit to looking at some scary chutes but there was a lovely mostly-untouched face of snow if you peeled off halfway up and skied back down toward the runs under the lift.

20210927_104756.jpg

You can't see how dead I am here! It would have been such an effort to hike all the way up, and everyone behind was catching up to me/passing me anyway :eek:

Worth going halfway for the skiing down though :smile:


At 0:15 seconds i visibly hit a rock with my left ski :P

20210927_114327.jpg
 

scandium

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Ah yes! I haven't hiked at Remarks yet. I also really struggle hiking - not just with skis, but in general my hiking fitness is terrible up hills and my speed is very slow compared to others of a similar age. I wasn't made for walking, clearly I'm supposed to ski or bike! Usually I traverse across Shadow to the second bowl and try to sneak down Waterfalls which is one of my "how much better am I getting?" runs as it is both narrow, steep, and forces me to confront the fact that I am trying to crack the advanced skiing nut.

I think the face you skied down was Sunrise maybe? It looks awesome (as did those turns!) - it was a bit of a sneaky rock garden that side when I was there as well!
 

newboots

Angel Diva
I couldn't see you hit that rock, but I heard you make an unhappy noise! I hope your base feels better soon.
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Ah yes! I haven't hiked at Remarks yet. I also really struggle hiking - not just with skis, but in general my hiking fitness is terrible up hills and my speed is very slow compared to others of a similar age. I wasn't made for walking, clearly I'm supposed to ski or bike! Usually I traverse across Shadow to the second bowl and try to sneak down Waterfalls which is one of my "how much better am I getting?" runs as it is both narrow, steep, and forces me to confront the fact that I am trying to crack the advanced skiing nut.

I think the face you skied down was Sunrise maybe? It looks awesome (as did those turns!) - it was a bit of a sneaky rock garden that side when I was there as well!
Ah yes, squinting at the trail map I think you're right! This is I think the approximate path we took (and all the leftover powder was at the top part off that dotted-line-hike)

1633466762769.png

Did it a couple of times because the snow was so good :smile:

I think I went down Waterfalls once, but it was full of tussock and it felt like it took me years to get down ahaha. It was actually quite bumpy! Either that or valley floor I guess, I just know I went down some run that I kinda regretted :rotf: I went down the blue cat track (calypso?) to the base from that point after that, haha. A lot of people were doing that traverse, I did that a few times as well, I feel like it's not obvious from the trail map but there is just a ton of terrain out there, so you can traverse as far as you want and drop down into either of the bowls. It's a nice area.
 

scandium

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Ah yes, squinting at the trail map I think you're right! This is I think the approximate path we took (and all the leftover powder was at the top part off that dotted-line-hike)

View attachment 16592

Did it a couple of times because the snow was so good :smile:

I think I went down Waterfalls once, but it was full of tussock and it felt like it took me years to get down ahaha. It was actually quite bumpy! Either that or valley floor I guess, I just know I went down some run that I kinda regretted :rotf: I went down the blue cat track (calypso?) to the base from that point after that, haha. A lot of people were doing that traverse, I did that a few times as well, I feel like it's not obvious from the trail map but there is just a ton of terrain out there, so you can traverse as far as you want and drop down into either of the bowls. It's a nice area.
I always get regrets about 3 turns into Waterfalls. I keep THINKING I can ski those bumps better than I actually can....haven't managed any more than one or two turns without ending up survival skiing! There's a bit just before the top of Waterfalls that tends to tussocks, rocks and moguls as well (quite close to the lift, just before the fence above the bottom part) that I think you can still get to Calypso from.
 

Iwannaski

Angel Diva
Are we continuing this for the Northern Hemisphere 2021-22 season?

In the spirit of being intentional and following my reading of A Conversation with Fear, I want to be more confident on blues. I know for many of you that's a no big, but for me, especially in flat light, I freeze up at the top of a new blue before my first time down. If you think about what your body should be like going down on skis, and what being nervous makes your body do, these things seem incompatible.

After that first time, I am fine, but literally every time I'm at the top of a yet unskied trail, I have to work to calm down. My goal is to develop the confidence in my skills that I need to quell my critic.

To help, I ordered the SkiA trainer today, I feel like that is the type of biofeedback that works for me, based on @ski diva 's review.
 

AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Are we continuing this for the Northern Hemisphere 2021-22 season?

In the spirit of being intentional and following my reading of A Conversation with Fear, I want to be more confident on blues. I know for many of you that's a no big, but for me, especially in flat light, I freeze up at the top of a new blue before my first time down. If you think about what your body should be like going down on skis, and what being nervous makes your body do, these things seem incompatible.

After that first time, I am fine, but literally every time I'm at the top of a yet unskied trail, I have to work to calm down. My goal is to develop the confidence in my skills that I need to quell my critic.

To help, I ordered the SkiA trainer today, I feel like that is the type of biofeedback that works for me, based on @ski diva 's review.
I do a similar thing, I dont get nervous as such but I'm always a little more apprehensive and tend to take a more cautious approach when skiing on a trail I'm not familiar with:smile:
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Are we continuing this for the Northern Hemisphere 2021-22 season?

In the spirit of being intentional and following my reading of A Conversation with Fear, I want to be more confident on blues. I know for many of you that's a no big, but for me, especially in flat light, I freeze up at the top of a new blue before my first time down. If you think about what your body should be like going down on skis, and what being nervous makes your body do, these things seem incompatible.

After that first time, I am fine, but literally every time I'm at the top of a yet unskied trail, I have to work to calm down. My goal is to develop the confidence in my skills that I need to quell my critic.

To help, I ordered the SkiA trainer today, I feel like that is the type of biofeedback that works for me, based on @ski diva 's review.
That is a great goal! Super relatable too. I've had a lot of problems with lack of confidence (which does making skiing even more difficult when it causes me to freeze/stiffen up!), on all sorts of terrain haha.
 

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