Wednesday, March 4, 2009

28 Days to Level 3 Exam!

What an AWESOME day! Went up with the intention to be very disciplined, and ended up skiing on my fat skis in a posse with Jeff Abelin, Joe Krakker, Zach Rogala and Angela Patnode! Wheee!

We were trying to carve on the groomers with the fat skis, and carve the bumps on flippers as well. It was fun, but at about 9:45 I went down to get my exam skis. I still ski a bit in the back seat on the fatties, I'm kinda scared to get forward and really pressure them, and that's not confidence building for the exam, and I really need to focus right now. So they all went over to Slauchmans and then did a ridge hike, and I went down to get my brain in exam mode.

So I changed feet, but I only brought one ski up on the lift, I left the other at the snowflake, and rode up to Pierre's, where I did about six laps on one ski, switching feet. Upper Thunder Road is a bit tricky on one ski! But whats FUNNY to me is I remember my first day with Karen Kirk, three Februarys ago, standing at the top of that run for our warm up and thinking, holy hell, we are warming up on a black diamond, I am going to die. We call upper Thunder Road the "funnel of death" because it gets all scraped out and icy. But today, it got a bit bumped up but was carvable.

I was working on making the ski function like it is supposed to, engaging the tip, moving across it like I would were I on two skis, rather than flattening it and pivoting it. It was SO much fun! I ventured into the crud when it was on my left foot for about a quarter of the run, but hopped back out because I wanted to really focus on the mechanics of what makes the ski function most effectively in the turn. It was great to only have the one ski on, because there is TWICE as much to think about with two skis on!!

I went down and got the other one at noon and took one "arcing" run to see what the practical application of the drill to my everyday skiing would be like, and I have to say it was AWESOME! It did something significant to the transition portion of the turn, my inside leg was softer faster, and I was on the edge earlier in the turn, but not with a hard move. I also felt more stacked, less broken at the waist and was skiing into and out of counter better. Very nice!! We'll see if it sticks.

Right now, its DUMPING outside, but I think I'm going to take my slalom skis up tomorrow and try them out in the powder, they are only 63 underfoot, and see what happens. I have my ladies group tomorrow (Whoops, better upload that video!), and then some time to train at lunch. I think I'll probably be working on powder technique and tactics all day!! Wooo Hoooo!

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