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What motivates you to improve your skiing?

emmnicole94

Diva in Training
I definitely want to get to the level that allows me to safely navigate the ungroomed terrain to escape the crowds and be more creative with my skiing. So that is my overall goal.
At my local ski resort I've been drooling over their backcountry gates and know I would have so much fun out there once I'm good enough!!
 

vickie

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I want to improve so I:
  • Ski safely and injury-free. Number and extent of injuries and ski longevity seem to be inversely proportional for many people.
  • Ski efficiently so I can continue to ski for many years.
  • Can get on most lifts without worrying about finding appropriate trails down from that point. I'm good with reading trail maps. I'd rather not have to at the bottom (and sometimes middle) of every run.
The times I have felt I'm not improving are when I haven't taken any lessons and I'm just skiing to ski. I'm usually ok with that, as long as I haven't regressed too much. Sometimes that has allowed me to Feel my skiing more than Think it. And that has made me happy.

If I was taking lesson after lesson and not improving, I would get frustrated and would likely look for different instruction -- or accept it as a time to quit Efforting so much and just enjoy the activity.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
There are so many reasons. I'm wondering how many different motivations there are.
If you are working on improving your skiing, what's your purpose in doing that?

... to confidently keep up speed-wise with friends/family?
... to confidently ski more challenging terrain where family/friends often ski?
... obsessed with doing well on the terrain you already ski?
... a desire to become an expert ... just because?


Other.....?

First reason for me to improve from a confident intermediate mainly skiing groomers was to be able to keep up with my daughter. She was an advanced skier (Level 8 of 9) by age 11 because of ski school and spring break trips to Alta. But the main reason I started taking lessons regularly as a advanced intermediate or low advanced (Level 6/7 of 9) was because of a knee injury that required PT and rehab for about six months (summer and fall). I'd done a very good multi-day clinic a couple years before the knee injury but wasn't skiing enough days afterwards to understand or ingrain much in the way of better technique. By the time of the injury, it was clear that I wanted to not only continue skiing but to continue improving.

I've known since middle school that getting past the "intermediate plateau" meant not being restricted to groomers or relatively easy ungroomed terrain. Skiing blacks or ungroomed terrain makes a ski day more fun because more terrain is accessible, which is even more important on busy weekends. But getting past the next plateau related to getting comfortable in trees (widely spaced to start with) and bumps was well worth the effort and money invested in gear and lessons over the last 5-6 years. Initially, the main reason to learn to ski trees was to ski powder a day or two or three after a powder storm during a ski vacation. I started learning to ski bumps mainly to learn to ski trees. But have since discovered bumps are fun on their own.

Improving made sense because I was also lucky enough to start taking two ski trips to big mountains per season about 10 years ago. One mid-season and one during late season. When I was only taking a ski vacation once every 2-3 years as a working adult with no kids, cruising groomers was plenty of fun since I was skiing midweek and traveling on weekends.

Here's a way to expand the conversation, if anyone wants to think about improvement in this alternative way.

Assuming you are seeking improvement (I'm aware that not everyone is), do you ever realize that you have stopped "improving" --- and are now just skiing for fun at a stable skill level??

If you stop improving and progressing towards that motivating goal you were originally seeking, are you OK with that? How do you deal with lack of progress? (I assume this happens to all of us.)

Given what I've learned as an advanced skier over 50 taking lessons from very experienced instructors (25+ years, PSIA Level 3 or Examiner) in recent years, now that I'm over 60 I do not expect to stop making progress for another 10-20 years. I plan to continue taking lessons, including Taos Ski Weeks. Some time over age 80 I expect to slow down a bit. But having seen the Wild Olde Bunch at Alta, many of whom ski off-piste for free after age 80, I know I won't be sticking to groomers only for a long time to come.
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh dear.

I wrote that post in a way that leads easily to misinterpretation. I didn't intend this part below to mean we all stop improving eventually:

If you stop improving and progressing towards that motivating goal you were originally seeking, are you OK with that? How do you deal with lack of progress? (I assume this happens to all of us.)

I meant we all hit plateaus along the way. I was wondering how people deal with the plateaus. Just like marzNC, I intend to continue working on improving - forever.
 

QCskier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
For me there are three reasons. Firstly, the better the technique the more control I have and the more I enjoy the sport. Secondly, I would like to be able to consider myself an expert eventually. Lastly, I love to challenge myself so I want to improve so that I can conquer more difficult terrain. I love the feeling I get when I accomplish something that I initially struggled with.

To answer your second question if I feel I have hit a plateau I take a lesson to see if maybe I have developed a bad habit somewhere along the way that needs correcting. I'm starting to think that I should take at least one lesson a season because I notice that I always benefit greatly from them.
 

Belgiangirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Lots of good reasons mentioned already that I second but I'll add a few:

I'm a very competitive person and consider my own limits the greatest challenge of all. In that aspect, skiing is remarkably similar to long-distance running. Sure, the proper gear, technique and lots of training help up to a certain point, but you gotta conquer your own mind too. I want to see just how far I can push myself.

I also consider skiing as one of the (few?) sports where being a woman isn't a natural 'disadvantage'. So little in skiing is about pure strength and so much is about proper technique, practicing regularly, building up confidence etc. Strangers seem to have this 'little girl' impression of me - I can't really blame them - but man that gets tiring. Once we're on the mountain, that changes completely. Appearance and gender don't matter anymore, even better, you can hardly tell because of the layers of clothing. Not just keeping up with the guys but knowing there's plenty of dudes who struggle to keep up with me, that gives me the kicks :becky:

Last but not least, I love the mountains and skiing is such an amazing way to explore them! I want to keep on getting better so I can safely explore lots and lots of different mountains and terrain.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
Here's a way to expand the conversation, if anyone wants to think about improvement in this alternative way.

Assuming you are seeking improvement (I'm aware that not everyone is), do you ever realize that you have stopped "improving" --- and are now just skiing for fun at a stable skill level??

If you stop improving and progressing towards that motivating goal you were originally seeking, are you OK with that? How do you deal with lack of progress? (I assume this happens to all of us.)
I will field this one. At different times in my life, I hit the "stopped improving" stage and was fine with it. There was a period of years with my son where skiing with him was MUCH more important than improving. There was a long period of time, when home purchasing kept us stuck at local ski resorts which were too easy to facilitate improvement and I just skied for pleasure glad that there was anything in driving distance from San Diego! Even recently, we spent a few ski trips with DS's beginning and early intermediate GF. I enjoyed the family time and didn't really care if we were on green runs or easy blues. Now, I just hope that I will stay fit enough to ski with grandkids some day and ... yeah, green runs will be fine! However, when I have the opportunity, I still strive for improvement because it makes the sport more fun. It's all about fun and that depends on where, when, and who with!

Sometimes, you have to stop and smell the hot chocolate but be sure to add lots of marshmallows and whipped cream! Oh ... and peppermint schnapps is really good too!
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Here's a way to expand the conversation, if anyone wants to think about improvement in this alternative way.

Assuming you are seeking improvement (I'm aware that not everyone is), do you ever realize that you have stopped "improving" --- and are now just skiing for fun at a stable skill level??

If you stop improving and progressing towards that motivating goal you were originally seeking, are you OK with that? How do you deal with lack of progress? (I assume this happens to all of us.)

This is me. I used to be all about skiing faster and more challenging terrain, and skiing was all about the ego boost of becoming better. Did a number of steeps camps and lessons, and was always skiing with others who challenged me. That made it pretty thrilling, but it was a roller coaster emotionally and resulted in a lot of injuries.

It took a lot of mental "training" to let go of my ego that used to be screaming in my head that I needed to keep up, or beat someone down the hill or go bigger or faster than yesterday. Every day. I'm good with just cruising at my own comfortable pace now and at peace in my head with that.

But, I also don't really have much passion for skiing anymore either, to be honest. I skied this past Saturday and it was nice. (The snow was actually lovely and it was a powder storm day). But with my only real goal being "Don't get hurt", it's just... "nice".

I've toyed with taking lessons again but not sure what I'd want to work on. The terrain I don't ski anymore is because it feels too high consequence, or causes knee pain (side stepping hikes, bad conditions...) If I felt there was a technique resolution to either I'd work on it. I kind of feel like lessons would be something to do, BUT, I have so many other expensive hobbies I'd rather put that money towards, I can't see doing it.

I'll probably just continue skiing "socially" to spend the time with friends and call it good. The thing I really enjoy on skis these days is bird watching, and wer have one event a month at Alta where they have a guided tour and we ski to various spots and feeders along the way and stop to watch birds. Haha I hesitate to call it skiing though, as it takes the group like 3 hours to do 2 runs. But I do love that...
 
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LKillick

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I like the way it feels when I ski my best.. and I want to keep improving that feeling.

I learned on old straight skis, and if I'm not thinking about it, I default to moving my skis myself more than I should. I can comfortably ski anything groomed like this, but I get really tired. I'm trying to get enough time on skis both practicing on my own as well as with experienced instructors to break my old habits and use these skis like they're meant to be used every time. When I do it right, it feels so good... and so much less tiring. I want to keep improving that. I know that if I can develop those skills further, I'll be able to do better off piste, which I'd also like. I get very tired off piste right now.
 

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