Skiing In The Shower: Aspen really IS extreme!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Aspen really IS extreme!

Shannon and I spent the most amazing week in Aspen. I am DYING to write all about it, but my schedule is insane!! Here is a photo album look at the incredible experience of Aspen.

Driving through Wyoming on the way to Aspen. It took 21 hours for us to get there after skiing through our Level 3 Prep at Moonlight Basin for the three days prior!

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Sleepin in the van...

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about 100 feet from Megan's house on Red Mountain we had to put our chains on. Aspen apparently hasn't had a winter like this in 30 years.
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The view from our bedroom that night. That's the town of Aspen and Aspen Highlands across the valley. We watched the cats groom the slopes from our bedroom.
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The beautiful and talented Cindy Lechtenburg who broke her elbow and couldn't ski with us. Thanks for the tickets and for going out with us, Cindy!!
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Megan adjusts Shannon's bindings on her new AC 4's. Thanks for the skis, Megan! You ROCK!
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Then she tried to adjust mine, but they wouldn't come loose... "KENNY!" We need a big strong man.

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"Don't worry, Kate, these bindings are really durable!" as my binding falls apart on the snow...

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Cat Ride to the bottom of the Bowl hike at Aspen Highlands. EPIC!

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In the Cat
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Hiking the Bowl for the first time at Aspen Highlands. All runs are double black up there.
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Megan Tops Out
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Kate Tops Out
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Shannon tops out
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At the Fundeck, a great spoof on the membership only Sundeck at Aspen Mtn.
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At the very tippy top in a total white out. The view is really fabulous, I promise! From here we skied a 1000' 42 degree pitch called G4.

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You gotta dress right if you are gonna work at Aspen. This is Reiley. He rocks the high fashion. But he actually skis well enough to pull it off!
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Welcome to the best locker room in the industry.
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Shannon checking out the shower in the private women's bathroom in the instructor locker room. I kid you not.
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And the private women's restroom in the locker room...
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The ladies changing room...
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the locker room.
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yes, they have laundry.
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got the skis fixed! now we can ski like ourselves again.
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the next morning the view from our window was amazing...
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Thats the bowl that we hiked all lit up by sunlight! We could see it from our room.
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Shan and I got to join the trainer clinic at highlands, led by Squatty, one of the most inspirational coaches I've ever worked with. The man gets results.
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One of the many D team members working at Aspen, Andy Docken, joins the clinic. I was still skiing like an idiot all day.
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watching the short turns come down the hill in the trainer clinic. got an amazing tip from Reiley on how to do them, I'm trying to get him to send me a video clip for you of this super quick teaching progression. Ive never ever done more than three short turns in a row before that!
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A great example of leaning inside the turn vs. leaning into the next turn... although I am not sure this was the point of the exercise...
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We love this man!!
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that night we hit the largest hot springs in the world with Kurt, Cindy, Reiley, Tommy, Stacy and Shannon. Ahhhh...
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Hot Springs Coma...
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Stay tuned! More coming tomorrow.

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Kate's Team 2016: Technical Skiing Coach: Jonathan Ballou

Kate's Team 2016: Mentor - Megan Harvey

2-term National Alpine Team alum, Megan was the first person to step in and help me believe I could achieve my goal of making the National Team. Megan combines an incredibly giving heart, with an insatiable drive and problem-solving bug. Megan has taught me how to be a great trainer, how to give my time to others, how to be an integral part of the ski school. She has taught me about budgeting my time, how to be professional in this industry, and how to help others. She is also willing to give it to me straight, working with me both on and off-snow. Her no-nonsense direct feedback is to the point and never couched in cuddles or bubbles. She has an opinion. She shares it. I do what she says. Megan is one of the most incredibly dedicated, giving, loving, caring people I have ever had the pleasure to meet, and I am grateful to count her amongst my friends, and honored to have her as an official member of my team.

Heros and Inspiration

These are people who I am learning about who inspire me, make me feel like I'm not crazy to love what I do, and who broke trail ahead of me so I can ski, too...

Bill Brigs:

The first man to ski the Grand Teton, he skied it alone, with no witnesses. But a newspaper plane took him to the top the next day and the evidence was still there: solo tracks in the snow from the top of the Grand. "You dream up what you want to do with your life..."

Stefano De Benedetti:

"In the Perfect Moment, I was so concentrated there was no space for other thoughts. When you want to make a turn, and you are at the top of a steep vertical wall, I mean, when you are in the situation that if you fall you die, everything changes. You think very much about turning. You think very much about WHERE to turn. And you do all this in a very special way.

You act like a different person.

You act with all your self.

You are making a completely different experience, and in some way, you are discovering yourself.

This is the magic of the mountain. You can except to die for this. You don't wanna to die. But to live so close to the possibility of dying, you understand what is really important, and what NOT.

And this makes you a better person. Its probably the highest moment of my life because in the perfect moment I was, or I felt to be, a little superman."

Anatoli Boukreev:

An incredibly accomplished high altitude climber and guide, Anatoli also pulled off one of the most spectacular high altitude rescues single handedly in a blinding snowstorm after having not had significant rest for 35 hours and after summiting Mt. Everest. He saved the lives of three climbers from his team, the ill fated Scott Fischer Mountain Madness expedition in 1996.

"Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion...I go to them as humans go to worship. From their lofty summits I view my past, dream of the future and, with an unusual acuity, am allowed to experience the present moment...my vision cleared, my strength renewed. In the mountains I celebrate creation. On each journey I am reborn."

Quotes That Help

"We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Castena

"A life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the eyes to understanding her text." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world." ~ Buddha

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver

"You are right where you need to be. And where you need to be to learn what you need to learn is not always comfortable and can be quite unpleasant." Amy Keefer

"There is nothing new in the world; everything has been done before, sometimes hundreds of times. But our perspectives always change. There are always new perspectives." - the Dalai Lama

"Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrong doing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean." - Aldous Huxley

"The Chinese character for "Crisis" is comprised of two characters: the character for "Danger" and the character for "Opportunity"."

"If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." - Nick O'Neil

"Take your face out of your hands and clear your eyes. You have a right to your dreams, and DON'T BE DENIED." Ben Harper

"Praise and blame. Gain and loss. Pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all." - Buddha

"Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get up." Chinese Proverb.

"A venturesome minority will always be eager to set off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks, for godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American." - Edward Abbey

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford

"A centered human mind is a powerful tool. An uncentered human mind is a tremendously inaccurate instrument." Kurt Fehrenbach

"What we do with our days is what we to with our lives."

"Practice makes PERMANENT, not PERFECT." Megan Harvey

"Nothing is so difficult as when it is done reluctantly." unknown

"This is hard enough without asking people to throw baseballs at you while you are doing it." Kate

"Don't surprise your skis, and they won't surprise you!" via Charlie Stocker.

"If you are walking along with nothing but a bamboo cane, and someone attacks you with a sword, you should take their sword from them. This, then, is already your victory." 15th Century Martial Arts Master (from the book Secret Tactics of the Martial Arts Experts)

"Those who say you can't shouldn't get in the way of those who are doing it" - unkown via Alyssa

"Somewhere, someone is training harder than you are. And when you meet them in head to head competition, they will beat you." No Fear

"Its not nearly as High and Tight as you think it is, Kate" - Josh Spohler

"No Sacrifice, No Victory" - Sam Witwicky (Transformers)

"With great victory comes great sacrifice." - T. Roosevelt

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Monday, February 18, 2008

Aspen really IS extreme!

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