Visit me on ABCs of Skiing.com!

Well, my photo is lame, but its a start. Here is my ABCs of Skiing profile, I'll be posting articles on skiing twice a month for them. Come visit!

THANK YOU!!

oh, my goodness, some one made a contribution to my training fund quite a while ago, and I just now saw it on my paypal account! Thank you so much for your support!!! I'm very grateful!!

Invited to write!

Hey, I was invited to contribute to the Abcs of skiing.com! Whaddya know. Exciting!

Any one have a copy of this book?

Hey, I'm dyin' to read this book, anyone have a copy? Its $80 on Amazon!

*** UPDATE***
Thanks for the loaner, Ric!!

Oh yes its ladies night!

Don't you wish you looked this good in your helmet?? WOW. I love Thursdays. For Women Only at Bridger Bowl, and today, we took a run down "Crazy Woman" and had a little powder adventure. Awesome.

Time to sign up for National Academy!

PSIA National Academy
Snowbird, Utah
April 18 - 24, 2008

REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2008

It's time to come have big fun with your fellow instructors in Snowbird, Utah. PSIA is excited to bring this annual event back to its regular home. The primary event is limited to 180 PSIA-certified alpine members. Participants must be Level I or above and will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis. If limit is reached prior to deadline, the remaining registrants will be placed on a waiting list.

More info will be posted as it becomes available.

academy@psia.org-->

Please direct questions to academy@psia.org.

Movement Analyisis: tom on bronco

Tom skis the big bumps on Bronco.

Movement Analysis: Kate on Upper Bronco

These are just the gnarliest bumps I could find at Bridger, they are huge, steep, irregular, spiney, and have huge deep troughs. Perfect!

Having Trouble? Throw your spouse off the Ridge at Bridger!

Tom, brave soul that he is, hiked the ridge for the first time with Alex and Julien and I. It was an incredible day, and though Tom really screwed up his finger on the Ladies Traverse (which, yes, is a double black diamond traverse which includes a little turn called "don't look right"), he skied like a champ.



Tom tops out...
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About to traverse across to the Apron.
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We are NOTHING if not professional. Alex's pants broke. Could be a chilly ride down!
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Thank GOD for the Bridger Bowl Ski Patrol. Alex's Pants really really needed a sled ride, but on the spot care may get us down...
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I get a crack at it... no pun intended...
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Julien chills while we do surgery on the pants...

In which we ski Super Coular, and the Apron...

Good morning, Bozeman!!
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Jeff gives me a crash course on the four essential skills to skiing the ridge well: drifting, straighting, emergency speed check, and hop turns. What a great day for a ridge tour!!
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Jeff drops into Super!
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Doug Monger took me down the Apron, and if I pass my three, we have him to thank, this guy follows me around and makes me ski fast and A LOT! By the way, Doug, thanks for helping me get my head straight again this week.
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Next on the list... Morning Glory, top to bottom. See the chte in the middle with the big rock wall skier's right? yeah!
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Because it wasn't fun enough... we had to have another adventure.

The canyon on the way home from Aspen...
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Yes, its beautiful, Wyoming can be like that... but do you see a gas station anywhere? Because I don't.
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Now we only have 6 miles to flat empty and we are in the middle of nowhere with no cell service! AWESOME!
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YES! YES! YES!!

Movement Analysis: Kate on Abelain's

This is a really steep pitch off the Bridger chair. Watch my turns change three times! Dangit.

Please TACKLE the kid that stole my backpack!

Yesterday, after skiing the ridge with Tom, I left my pack on the backpack holder at the bottom of the Bridger lift. It was a new Black Diamond Covert with Avalung, the yellow one. It had my nice quick deploy black diamond shovel in it, my new life link probe, my wallet, my sunglasses, my food card, extra gloveliners... etc in it. Its the only yellow avalung up there. If you see anyone hiking with a pack like this, please tackle them and tell them that they walked off with an entire paycheck worth of stuff, and to please give it back to me NOW!

Bodhi skied the snowflake!

Last spring, I got Bodhi on skis, and he amazed me by standing perfectly in the middle of them. But he was afraid. Every day since then I've asked him, "Do you want to go ski with mom?" and he's said no. Today, he said yes! So in true Montana style, the boy went out in his Carharts and shredded the flake. It was so fun! We are going to give it another try on Saturday. YAY!

Ski Demo Day!

Women’s Ski Demo Day at Bridger Bowl

Thursday, Feb. 28
9:00 – 4:00
Roundhouse Deck

FREE demos – courtesy of Chalet Sports

Stop by and try out women’s skis from K2, Volkl, Rossignol, Elan, and Line.
Bring a credit card or valid driver’s license to secure your demo equipment.
You may try as many pairs of skis as you have time and energy for!

Can you tell exams are coming?

Thursday morning clinic, we are all lined up to practice hop turns on a steeper pitch. I worked on these with Josh a bit, and my goal here is to make sure that I don't do them like a girl!! I need some serious SPRING off of a flat foot, with NO hip or butt action. Its tough. Neil, Josh and Alex are really springy, this is my goal. Besides, I want to be able to do 360s etc, and its the same spring action. Too bad its not the same as launching off your skates!

My homework from Josh: get a frieakin' jump rope and get to it.

Move along the length of the ski!

Shannon and I spent a powder day geeking out on a new movement pattern on the groomers at Aspen Mountain.

This is a rough edit of the thought process we went through on that day. Now that we've spent a week skiing it and talking about it, I think I can explain it in a much more succinct way, but I am very eager to get this up and hear your comments and ideas.

I'll shoot a new, shorter version as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for watching!

Level 3 Prep Video

We had a video clinic the other day to look at some of our tasks. My favorite, arcing, is blurry, but check this out to see our Bridger Level 3 candidate group at work!


***UPDATE***
sorry, had to take it down, but I'll post it again from my own site in a bit.

Aspen Aspen Aspen!

9er goes carving!
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Reily shows us how its done.
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Lets do that AGAIN!
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Yes, there is a five star restaraunt at the top of Aspen Highlands. Its 1:30 on a clinic day, in for pizza at the bottom, or schnapps at the top? Johnathan thinks its time for Schnapps!!
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I wasn't kidding! Its pear schnapps. Its delicious. Its even better on an empty stomach after a day of hard skiing!
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Cheers!
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Service with a smile at 11,000 feet or so...
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Watch out for the ones with accents, they're deadly.
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Post-schnapps, we all skied much better! (Or at least we think we did...)
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Johnathan pulls off a killer tip-roll.
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Its the end of a long day, and time to go out dancin'!!
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But first, a little movement analysis!
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Aspen has only had 8 days of sunshine this year, and we got three of them!
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More snow than they've seen in 30 years, and they have to increase the budget so they can truck it out! There's no where to put it!!
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Nothin' like a nice indoor hot tub at Megan's before a long night of clubbing. YES, we did watch Aspen Extreme on that TV. For reals.
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Time to go. Chains for 100' to get out of the driveway and then off we go!
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Bye Tiger! Thanks so much for everything. We loved the dinners, the company, the skiing, the terrible shabby accommodations, and your beautiful faces!!
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And by shabby, I mean...
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Bye, Aspen! We already miss you!

More adventures in Aspen.

We ate lunch at Bonnie's, and Aspen institution. Such a cool, funky restaurant with GREAT food!
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Look at Shannon's goggles!
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Nothing but the best in instruction...
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Megan gives Reily feedback on his short turns.
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Megan hikes the bowl on a beautiful bluebird day! We shot video on this day with Reily, Johnathan, Will and 9er. The most fun day of all!
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The crew at the top of the bowl! We're about to ski Before, a beautiful pow run.
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Shan tops out again. You go girl!
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yes, it really is quite the long hike. this girl is in a bowl coma.
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The Bells (a great view from the top of the bowl at Aspen Highlands)
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Psyched to drop in and rip it up.
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Beat, but made it!!
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This is how you feel after you ski like a rockstar!
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Yes, this is Shannon! Yes, its over 40 degrees steep! YES, SHE CAN!
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Johnathan stylin' it in Before.
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Yes, it really was that fun! Lets do that again!
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Ladies and Gentlemen, Megan Harvey!
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Reily plays hard.
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Not to be outdone... Will rocks it.
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Johnathan drops in again!
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Such a beautiful day. Its a pity our job sucks so much!!
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more to come!