Your Season of Firsts (2014)

[ski diva]

Was there anything you did for the first time this season?

I had a few:
• First time skiing at Powder Mountain and Snowbasin. LOVED them both!
• First time cat skiing (at Powder). A foot of fresh snow and first tracks. What could be better?
• First time skiing with a resort guide (also at Powder). So much fun to just turn off your brain and GO!

What about you?

 

[Jenny]

First time up the Imperial Lift at Breckenridge. Pretty impressed with myself, too, even though I know it wasn't the conditions that people who really belong there might like (i.e. no powder - it was as close to groomed as it will ever be, I think).

And I wasn't scared going down, either.

 

[MissySki]

First time on any of the trails on Oz peak at Sunday River, this is a peak of all natural terrain that I'd frequently ski by and not even think about wanting to try. I found it's quite awesome as long as the conditions are right! I also went on a bunch of other bump and tree runs that I'd never dared try, with varying amounts of success haha.

First time at Smuggler's Notch and Sugaqrbush, loved them both!

First time renting a condo for the season which allowed me to ski way more than normally possible.. no going back now!

First time to Utah with all of the firsts Ski Diva mentioned above, which also included the first time I actually started getting more used to powder skiing and having fun in it.

 

[Albertan ski girl]

Nothing earth shattering, but a lot of little success for me this season:

-First time down a blue run early on in the season (after starting skiing last season).

-Once I got new skis, first time down a blue run unafraid of getting some speed...and really enjoying it for the first time.

-First time down a very very easy black run. It wasn't pretty and happened only once, but I will work on mastering that run next season.

-First moment of 'ski bliss.' I've often heard people wax poetic about these moments where they were 'in sync' with the snow and they had a rhythm and it was just this 'it' moment. And I never really knew what they were talking about. I knew I really loved skiing, but I still spent most of my runs focused on getting to the bottom without killing myself. We were at Sunshine during a big snowstorm early in the season, and we were staying low in the trees because the visibility was so bad. And we were on this really dinky lift, Jackrabbit, that services a bunch of really really short runs (some of them connectors). There's a green, 2 blacks and a blue by the lift. My SO and I skied the blue together and then he decided he wanted to go down the black, and I decided to just do a short fun run on the green. There were very few people at the mountain that day, but when I got to the green run - Larch Glade - there was absolutely no one. And no one had been through the run since the snow started coming down. Untracked foot deep beautiful snow on this short easy green run. And I just went down and it was great. I was all by myself, the snow was coming down really gently at this point, I was at a good rhythm, gliding through the snow and it was just so quiet and amazing! It was this moment where everything I loved about skiing just clicked. I've tried to recreate this moment unsuccessfully since - the run is so short, usually tracked out and full of ski schoolers...but that one day, for that one run in those beautiful conditions, I just felt such bliss.

 

[Skier31]

First season teaching at Snowmass. I had so much fun, met some great people and improved my skiing tremendously.

Returned to Breck for a ski day and ripped Horseshoe Bowl in some crappy conditions and didn't even realize it.

It was the best season ever for me.

 

[volklgirl]

First time skiing powder for a full day on true, honest-to-goodness, big-fat, full rocker, powder skis. Awesome! Sigh. So sad my season is over.

 

[Skisailor]

First time teaching skiing! Anywhere. Ever! I really really loved it. Hoping Big Sky will hire me back as a ski instructor again next year.

First time cat skiing . . . (at Powder Mt with the Divas )

First time skiing the Gullies at Big Sky, which was preceded by my first run in one of the Dictator chutes.

Then . . on one of my last ski days this season . . . first time skiing the North Summit Snowfield off the peak at Big Sky (including first time skiing any run where I needed a transceiver and had to register with Ski Patrol before descending - gulp). It was a fabulous run! Can't wait to do it again next year.

Oh . . almost forgot . . first time standing at the entrance and looking down into The Big Couloir. Whoa! Not ready for that one yet . . . maybe next year.

 

[abc]

Interesting reading others' "first". I forgot I had a few of my own...

* Some aren't too exciting:

A few new mountains, but those really aren't worthy"first" for me, because I almost always try at least one new mountain each season. So nothing really new there.

* Some are more exciting FOR ME (even if it's old hat for others):

- First time getting a season pass. Verdict? I'm getting another one for next season!

- 14 days consequetive skiing, I don't think I've ever done that! At some point, I realized things starting to "click"

- First time teaching. A lot more fun than I had expected. I also didn't realize even teaching low level skiers actually helps my own skiing quite a lot! (I SHOULD have known, I taught in classroom setting and found teaching helps my own understanding enormously) And making a crying child turn to smile? Priceless!

 

[Jilly]

Well I can't say I had any firsts except skiing without DH this year. Lucky for me I have many ski buddies to make up for that.

But:
1. Back to teaching ladies night at the home bump. I can still teach, but not as confident as I would like to be.
2. Took season long lessons (11 sessions) of Summit Club at Tremblant. High performance lessons. I haven't had access to something like this for a long time. It did take my skiing up a notch or two. And to get "good skiing" from Rock Newberry (level 3 course conductor) made it worthwhile.
3. Much more confident in the bumps now because of that.
4. Got a bronze medal in the Summit Club ski race at season's end. Got it because I'm old!!

 

[marzNC]

I went to a dozen new ski areas, but most don't feel like memorable "firsts" in the sense of this thread. What I will remember without having to refer to a list or pictures:

1) Skiing at Jackson Hole, including a bump lesson from snoWYmonkey that made a run down North Hobacks fun.
2) Doing the Devil's Castle traverse at Alta after an April snowstorm. The powder turns in Castle Apron (have skied it before from the Supreme traverse) were so fun!
3) Skiing in the northeast (northern NY, VT, Tremblant) as an adult. Last time I skied in the NE was in 1969-70. Looking forward to explore more places in the NE next season.

 

[VickiK]

1. Skiing 6 days consecutively
2. Skiing Utah resorts Snowbasin & PowMow.
3. Taking a multiple-day ski clinic.
4. Joining up on SkiDiva and Epicski trips.
5. Winning a season pass.
6. Being in the position of deciding which ski to ski.

 

[iamOshawott]

1) Started Skiing (HUGE)
2) Went down my first blue
3) Had a taste of fresh powder
4) Skiing on Sun Peaks

 

[litterbug]

On the one hand, I've been disappointed because I haven't skied more; not necessarily more days, but more hours per day, because my "days" have often been two or three hours at the end of the afternoon. On the other hand, who cares how many hours I skied, because I'm so happy with my progress this season:

* First ski clinic. I had an awesome time with our little group at Diva West, under the tutelage of Stew, who just kept patiently reminding me of the task at hand, while I whined and grumped around until I got it, and that few hours grew into a season's worth of learning. I've probably got a few things wrong, and will need some corrective action next season so I don't get too entrenched in bad form. But oh boy, I milked those lessons for all they were worth, and things feel awfully good!

* First railroad tracks. This winter I started to suspect that I might sometimes be carving, and it certainly felt like I thought it should, but I figured nah, can't be, just keep skiing. Then a few weeks ago I came down one of the big open faces that lead to the Collins Angle Station, and on a whim I stopped to look up and sure enough, there they were, long narrow parallel lines wiggling right down to where I stood. Carving isn't my normal condition, but honestly, I thought I was pretty far away from it.

I'm also working on turning while in a tuck, but I guess that's more like wagon train tracks.

* First fun in crud. I used to dread it and thrash around in it and generally just try to survive it, but lately I've been seeking it out and playing in it! I think my balance and technique are just good enough that I can find the right piles to turn in, or just turn between the nice piles because that fits where I want to go better, or skip from the top of one soft pile to another without getting thrown off kilter. And the other day my Shoguns taught me another option, which is simply to blast big long turns right through all of it. I'm not skiing much off-piste crud, just the chopped-up, pushed-around, uneven-textured, often half-frozen, and sometimes boggy stuff on what once looked like groomed slopes. Very cool.

* First time not panicking if my skis leave the ground for a millisecond. Not that I've been catching air, but for the longest time I'd just lose it if a bump or lip made me lose contact with the earth. You know those little jumps kids develop next to the groomers, that launch them when they zoom by? I just try to absorb most of the lip and end up just dropping an inch after leaving it, and it's no.big.deal.at.all. I think it's better balance and stance (special thanks to @marzNC for urging me to keep elbows forward of ribs and not crouch over).

I think that's enough. Who knows where I'd be if I'd taken more lessons and had more time on the snow, but frankly, for someone who started the season afraid of falling because of what a mess I was last season, and who hasn't done much of anything for physical conditioning, I think I did pretty darned good! Who knows what could happen if I start next season with some aerobic conditioning and a few palpable leg muscles?

 

[Pinky Smash]

Wow! You really started your season with a great blast. Good job! Hopefully me too :3

 

[Libby]

First time skiing in Europe - it was awesome. We will definitely be back!
First time skiing on a glacier - fantastic!
First time skiing with a cast on - not awesome but at least it was temporary!

 

[Marta_P]

I had a season of "firsts" since it was only my second season skiing, but it was a great season and I felt as if things really clicked for me!

first time feeling sad winter was over since maybe 1977
first time buying skis
first blue (wohoo!)
first time skiing from the top of Loon
first ski-trip to the west and skiing powder (Breckenridge - so much fun!)
and as Albertan ski girl so eloquently put it - first moment of ski bliss - as I cruised down brookway at loon and got lost in the moment - fresh, pine scented air, beautiful scenery, sun streaming through the trees, and my inner ski diva just cheering me on. Feeling at one with nature and myself. Really fabulous. I LOVE skiing!

 

[litterbug]

I had a season of "firsts" since it was only my second season skiing, but it was a great season and I felt as if things really clicked for me!

first time feeling sad winter was over since maybe 1977
first time buying skis
first blue (wohoo!)
first time skiing from the top of Loon
first ski-trip to the west and skiing powder (Breckenridge - so much fun!)
and as Albertan ski girl so eloquently put it - first moment of ski bliss - as I cruised down brookway at loon and got lost in the moment - fresh, pine scented air, beautiful scenery, sun streaming through the trees, and my inner ski diva just cheering me on. Feeling at one with nature and myself. Really fabulous. I LOVE skiing!

I love this post. May all your seasons be as wonderful!

 

[SkiBam]

Hmmm, hard to come up with too many firsts at my age! However, I did ski in Colorado for the first time. It was wonderful.

 

[Marta_P]

Thanks litterbug, yours too!

 

[callmijane]

• First time skiing a double black!
• First lesson in over 20 years (and 2nd, and 3rd, and 4th- I'm hooked!)
• First time skiing at Silverton
• First time (of many) of skiing trees without sheer terror