Finding a Round Line in the Bumps with Josh Fogg

This season I was struggling with bumps. In the past, bumps and steeps have been my favorite thing to ski, and for some reason as I worked on a more aggressive zipper line in the bumps, I lost my reaching round turn.

Suddenly I had no speed control, I was afraid every time I rolled up to a bump line. My heart would start beating super fast, and I fell into a world of stories that said I lacked the skill set to ski what used to be my favorite terrain.

I searched all winter for some tip or help to change my timing, my tactics, to somehow re-access the ability to be playful and free in the bumps. On CLOSING DAY at Aspen Mountain, I had the pleasure of skiing with Josh Fogg, one of the trainers in our ski school at Aspen/Snowmass, and a recent selection to the 2015/16 Rocky Mountain Alpine Team.

In dispair, I stood at the top of Easy Chair, a bump run NOTORIOUS for spiky, cross troughed zipper line bumps. I have never ever skied this short run well from top to bottom, it is fast and difficult and the bumps are enormous. It's not very steep but people ski it with high intensity, so it begins to look like a series of tombstones on the way down. The holes are huge, and with each turn, I think, "I'm supposed to stuff my feet WHERE??"

I turned to Josh and asked him, "Can you show me a round line in here, in Easy Chair?" Josh said yes. He gave me one simple tip: Think of the line as a waterslide. Let the momentum of the finish of one turn exist for the purpose of sending you up the wall to begin the next turn."

I had been searching for the "outside line" all season, but for some reason, I was still losing the downhill ski, I was skiing out of the line after five bumps, I was pushing the tails up the wall rather than driving the smeary ski, or in my attempt to get round, I was getting edgy and accelerating. I was so frustrated, I felt like I would never every figure this out again, it was just gone and I would never give it back.

"Ski it like a waterslide." Josh said, and then proceeded to do just that, top to bottom. A lightbulb went off in my mind, and I followed, for the first time skiing Easy Chair top to bottom with ease and control. I was astonished. The fear went away. The enormous spiky bumps presented opportunity after opportunity to ski like a waterslide. We lapped the run, trying it in Blondie's, and on the back of Bell. Suddenly, I could ski again.

Josh gave to me his time, and energy, it was easy and fun for him to go out and ski, and in this one sort of throw away moment, he handed me hope again.

I was so stoked I asked Josh if I could record it as a ski tip so we could share this fantastic coaching cue with the world, and so I would never forget it again. Kindly, Josh agreed, and the result is the video below, shot on my iPhone that afternoon.

Thanks so much to Josh Fogg, Kurt Fehrenbach, Megan Harvey, and Jonathan Ballou for mentoring me and coaching me all season, I am incredibly grateful for your guidance!!

Finding a Round Line in Bumps with Josh Fogg from kate howe on Vimeo.

Aspen Academy Training News Volume 1, Issue 4

Home from Surgery

Alrighty then! Here we are, back home from surgery. I ended up staying in the hospital a day longer than I expected too, my first two days after surgery were great, felt strong an surprised at how good I felt (and I need to apologize to all the people who had to deal with completely unintelligible texts from me while I was trying to give "no really, I'm doing great' updates".

So I'm back in Aspen, ensconced in Kurt's house, where he's helping me keep my insane need to be outside in check.  Kurt slept on the lazy boy in the hospital room for three nights even though he had a friesnds'  house to stay at, an I have to say  waking up to see his face, fuzzy and through the haze, sleeping right there was an incredible comfort to me.

I couldn't believe he was willing to do it, and do it night after night, and I finally slept, knowing that his care was there, and complete, an good. I felt calm and grateful, and I slept.

Dr. Corenman's team at Vail Valley Hospital was incredible, so gracious, even when they were insanely busy, they wanted to know what they could do to help me, to help Kurt, to make things easier, better, they didnt' rush us or try to get us out the door. They encouraged me to heal and helped me along the way. They cared for both of us in a patient and gracious way that was way above and beyond what I expected.

I was so happy to wake up and realize this was it, it was over. They weren't going to take me back and say "okay lets get started" again, because it was over. We'd done it.

I held it together until we checked in. Then I sat down and the tears came. I just really didn't want to be be crippled and bed ridden.

Kurt was there. Right there. His hand was on my shoulder, he let me do as much as I could on my own two feet, and when it got right up against that part where I could have pushed through, he just gently took the reigns and kept it rolling. He knew without asking what I needed, quiet and gentle, up the stairs, into the gown, into the iv, no extra coddling, no fear, no extra concern, just he was there, and so was I and so was this next thing we were going to do together.

And I went back, and he kissed me good bye, and the lights went out. That's the last I remember,

Until thinking, wow, we are done, and my throat doesn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would.

I am so grateful to have gotten this done. Does it hurt? Yup. My neck is sore and the surgery sites are swollen and oogey. But I have my hand back so far. My shoulder doesn't hurt. For the first time since 2008 I don't have a headache.


I'm caring for myself, I'm standing on my feet, but miraculously, when I need someone to do the velcro on the back of my brace, there are his strong hands, holding the back piece in place and pulling the tabs down tight. He takes long enough that I see in his hands and his eyes that he wants it done right, it is important that it heals well.

Today, Tom and Kurt and the boys and I went up Aspen Mountain (we took the gondi, Kurt hiked) and wandered around in the sun. The boys are happy to see me whole, Kurt and Tom visited and my skin drank in the Vitamin D like crazy.

Right now, I feel very blessed, very lucky, and very open. The road to recovery, the other side, has begun. (Right after this nap.)

Aspen Real Life - Blogging in Paradise and keeping it real.

Jillian Livingston is the mom of three boys, an adventurer, a writer, a dreamer and an all around amazing woman. She writes the blog Aspen Real Life and has the most amazing eye for a great local story! Of course, living in Aspen, local stories include ones like this; an interview with POWDER magazine's associate editor (and his nephew.)

Rock on, Jillian! Thanks for inspiring us all!

(You can always find Jillian's blog on the Blogroll in the sidebar on Skiing in the Shower.)

From Aspen Real Life:
My title is “blogger” but I consider myself a writer and feeling the need to connect with other writers, I contacted Mike Rogge, Associate Editor of Powder Magazine, for an interview.
Mike gives a witty account of what it is like to work for one of the world’s most popular ski magazines. Thank you Mike. And for the record, I’m up for hire!

For more of this article, follow ME!

Aspen Mountain Powder Tours opens THIS MONDAY!

From the Purl himself:

Hi One and All, it's that time again.

There's 18" of new snow on top of Aspen Mt. and the Powder Tours reservations books open for the season this coming Mon. Nov. 1st.

Please call 970-920-0720 or email powdertours@aspensnowmass.com to book!

Let's Go Skiing!
                                                            Cheers, Bob.

West Maroon Pass

So I chased Kurt up to West Maroon Pass the other day. 11 miles round trip, back before lunch. Training is paying off, he didn't get more than a half a mile ahead of me this time, and I was able to jog some portions.

At the very end, going up the shale to the pass proper, which is up around 12,500 feet, I suspect he may have been dawdling and waiting for me while I sucked wind and pumped my slippery tennis shoes up the steps he'd kicked in the last small snowfield. I felt good when I got up there, not beat, so I think that the training is helping, I'm slowly increasing my speed, but I still can't perform in an anaerobic state for very long without caving and wishing I was stronger.

On the way back, the spectacular turquoise of the broken rock nested against the red and purple earth was pretty spectacular to look at, and we checked out the South Bell Couloir, which had two parties climbing in it. We've made tentative plans to boot right up that sucker this weekend, its steep snow, but its in great shape! 

If I thought I was challenged before, I've got another think coming. This climb requires crampons, boots and an ice axe. I found a pair of great soft boots made by Teva at the Mountain Sports Outlet in Glennwood Springs, and now I'm hunting around for flexible crampons and the axe that I can borrow. Hopefully the weather co-operates, and I'll get to stand on top of my first Colorado 14er. Fingers crossed!

A lovely Ski in June

Kurt and I headed up to Independence Pass for a quick ski yesterday. It had snowed the night before about six inches, and had been at freezing temps for two days up there, so we knew we had the possibility of some good skiing. He had gone up the day before with our friend Mike, and I was supposed to go with them. For the first time, I think EVER, I called the morning of and begged off because I was too tired. I slept sooo late, and then went on a hike with Bodhi out into our hills. I got a little sliding in, but it wasn't the ski I'd been hoping for with Kurt and Mike. Ah well. Better to be smart about being so tired.

I also had to go into training at Remede (one of the spas I work at in town)at one, and I didn't want to be delirious with tiredness and unable to pay attention.

I'm not sure whats going on, but I'm listening to my body. For some reason, its wanting naps and I'm not sleeping as well as I have been. I think that I slowed down so much after I got my shots (as is appropriate) that I just don't have the energy that I did when i was working out hard. Its a tough cycle, it takes energy to make energy. So I'm doing that balancing act, walking back toward fitness without killing myself on the way there.

This little ski was just the thing. A short hike up the spine and skin to the top of a little pitch, I did two laps and Kurt did three. We've spent enough time in the back country together, that its very comforting to be able to get out there together, and yet be able to work separately.

I'm used to seeing Kurt way off in the distance on some of our climbs, I follow the skin track and work on picking the line on the way up, see if his track goes where I would have chosen, try to deduce why he picked the line he did, and take the time to climb into my mind and have a look around.

I was slow, but I wasn't dying. I was about 3/4 of the way to the top when Kurt finished his change over and came skiing happily by me without his pack. I waved. "See you on the top in a minute." he said.

I smiled and trucked on up to the top, switched over, we had cloud cover so I wasn't that worried about the snow changing and going quickly, had a quick snack and left an apple for Kurt in the snow by his pack. I figured I'd head down and ski by him when he was about 1/2 way up.

I turned around. He was three feet from me, sweating and smiling. "Hi." he said. He'd managed, in the time it took me to go 1/4 of the way, change over and eat my snack, to ski the entire pitch, change over, and sprint back up it.

"Um. Hi." I said. Okay. I want to be that fit. And I have some idea of what it takes to get there. And I'm not sure its possible for me, but I'm going to do everything I can. He skis as well as he does in part because he is just so incredibly fit. Its time for me to get to work.

We skied that pitch together, a nice steep shot, and talked about all kinds of things from the history of religion in politics to tactics for staying warm at the tryout when you have to stand around (we were waiting for the sun to come out when that one came up).

We hiked up for another lap and talked about the Cloud of Confusion, how in pursuit of understanding, information tends to get over complicated. Something has changed in my skiing, and in my understanding of what I'm trying to do on the ski (stand on it.) and in my understanding of what I want the ski to do (curl around my foot and turn). and of my understanding of how to ask it to do that. (stand on it.)

It was a beautiful day, we were down by 11, with the rest of the day to play with Bodhi up in our drainage ditch, his very own little river.

Pink Martini is coming to Aspen! AHHHH!

Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Festival: Pink Martini



"Pink Martini is a rollicking around-the-world musical adventure... if the United Nations had a house band in 1962, hopefully we'd be that band." - Thomas Lauderdale, bandleader/pianist

Comprised of twelve musicians, Pink Martini performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia and New Zealand and North America. Says Lauderdale, "all of us in Pink Martini have studied different languages as well as different styles of music from different parts of the world, so inevitably our repertoire is wildly diverse. At one moment, you feel like you're in the middle of a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, and in the next moment, you're in a French music hall of the 1930s or palazzo in Napoli. It's a bit like an urban musical travelogue."

"This is rich, hugely approachable music, utterly cosmopolitan yet utterly unpretentious. And it seems to speak to just about everybody...from grade-schoolers to grandmothers to the young and hip and beautiful." - The Washington Post

For more information and tickets call or go to our website.

*
Date:
06/27/2010 - 07/03/2010
*
Time:
8:30 p.m.
*
Location:
Benedict Music Tent
*
Phone:
866-JAS-TIXX
*
Website:
http://www.jazzaspen.org

Congratulations, ASPEN/SNOWMASS! Outside Magazine's Best Places to Work 2010 Again!

WOW, how awesome. Aspen/Snowmass has once again won a spot on Outside Magazines Best Places to Work in 2010! I have to say, I totally agree. I've never worked for a company that values and empowers its employees more, pays better, and takes better care of us. That kind of treatment breeds loyalty, and I gotta say... I'm hooked! Come join us next season, you can search for jobs at this awesome place to work HERE!

What do you expect from a company whose mission statement is "Renew the Human Spirit!"

Congratulations, Aspen Skiing Company!

Playing in the Park with Ethan

Playing in the park with Ethan today was absolutely the best thing ever. His confidence is bubbling up, his control over his little body is suddenly increasing, he's realizing its okay to fall over and get a bruise when he's playing.

This morning, the kids both wanted to go to Snowmass and play in the park and pipe, they were excited to see what I'd learned in my Freestyle accred, and they really look up to the Stief kids, who can throw down on their skateboards and their snowboards. They are ready to play with the big kids.

Ethan earned his tricks today, hiking the park over and over.

Cat Skiing with Julia and Katie

I have the tremendous good fortune to have a really nice job. This past week, I got to go cat skiing with each dump we got. Julia and Katie and I went out into the Aspen back country with Aspen Powder Tours on some huge fat skis, and skied fresh powder all day long.

Its an incredible experience, and the terrain is perfect for someone who is a high intermediate level skier. Its mellow in pitch, with enough turns that you don't get exhausted, but you get into a rhythm. We had about 6" of snow each day, just enough for a beginning powder skier to learn to bounce. When there is a bottom like that, you have something you can push on just in case. And if you can butter your skis just right, you never have to hit the bottom.

Its an incredible ego booster for the skiers, to realize that they can ski conditions like this, and the great thing is that they can take their instructor on the cat for free. So you get all day practicing powder with an instructor there to help you out.

We met a ton of cool people on the cat, rocked the iPod all day on the way back up to the top, ate an amazing lunch at the little cabin in the woods, and bounced our way to bliss all day long.

For more information, visit Aspen Powder Tours

National Powder 8 Championships

Jill Dorken and kate howe prepare for the seeding run at the National Powder 8 Championships in Aspen, CO.

I had my first opportunity to ski in a competition! The US National Powder 8 Championships was at Aspen again this year, and I entered with my friend Jill Dorken from Canada.

To be quite honest, I was terrified until about a week before the competition. Okay, until about two days before the competition when I finally got in the bowl.

Powder skiing has not historically been my strong suit, and I was worried about being able to make round, rhythmic, predictable turns in the steepest part of the bowl in powder.

Lucky me, the bowl was all skied out and was full of rather rowdy, minimally bumped up chalk! This is the snow condition that I've trained on the most, perhaps, especially when I was going for the Level 3.

It was interesting, too, to talk to Megan and Cindy and Jill, all of whom told me individually that they were really nervous about the bowl to downright terrified of it. It was surprising to hear, and it made me feel like perhaps I'd just go and do the best that I could, and if I made funky, sharp, heavy on the bottom turns, well, that would be what I would do.

Jill was phenomenal during the proceeding weeks at getting me to believe that I'd be fine and she'd ski whatever turn I made right behind me. Finally I stopped worrying about her ability to cover me and just worked on my skiing.

Two days before the comp, I got to take a client up into the bowl, and we skied down the North Woods trees, g3, which were steep and wonderful. I felt that demonstrating in the trees was actually pretty good, and that perhaps I'd ski slower than I wanted to in the bowl, but that I was capable of making the turn I needed to make.

The day of the comp, we all signed in and got our National Powder 8 loot, which was wonderful, and headed up there chair at about 8:15. We had a few free runs before the seeding round, and Jill and I were clicking well. We were enjoying ourselves, rocking out to music together, and being generally silly.

My nerves were gone, and I felt happy to be competing, present, and tuned in to Jill, who was slowly amping out of her boots. We worked on it together, and it felt good.

Our first run wasn't our best, but in our second, we clicked, and we ended up coming in third place! This would be third out of five women's teams, and one spot above Cindy and Megan. I was blown away. I could have quit then and been quite happy. But even better than that, my mom and my friend Virginia had uploaded in their tennies to watch, and were sitting at the bottom of the run with the judges.

I can't tell you what it did to my heart to have my mom and my great friend sitting there, watching me do this ridiculous thing that meant so much to me. They jumped up and down and cheered and hugged me, they watched a total of about fifteen minutes of skiing, and downloaded again because of course, they can't watch the bowl run without hiking up it.

We took a quick food break and then headed up to the bowl. The hike was spectacular again, blue sky, sunny, warm, friends all around, and we gathered at the top and heard the results of the seeding round. I knew we were in trouble as soon as I saw Megan and Cindy's face. They are fierce competitors, and both are incredible skiers. They were going to step it up, and so I would also have to.

There was no more room for what if I can't ski this well, what if I can't make the right kind of turn, this was time for gold or explode, this was time for make the turn or eject trying to.

We headed out into G8, which was steep and rowdy and chalky, and I pulled out my iPod and cranked up some Led Zeppelin. As I was standing there, one ear bud in my ear, and one in Andy Docken's, I looked around at my fellow competitors. I knew most of them from the Demo Team, from Tryouts, from Academy... I've skied with them for three years, and have always been chasing the group. Welcome, and okay with being waaay out of their league, but chasing.

I looked around and I realized, standing in the sun there, that we'd come in third. That Megan and Cindy were going to line up next to us, we'd choose the lane because we were one up on them. I looked around at this strong field of skiers and realized that I belonged in this group. I have finally become a strong enough skier that I'm not chasing them down and hoping that I don't explode, but that I can actually ski with them.

I felt proud and calm in that moment, like I was sinking through my boots and into the snow. I was proud of myself for feeling good in that group before my feet could really reliably keep me there, and proud of myself for continuously working on my skiing until one day, I was in the ballpark. I have a ton of work to do on my skiing, and a long way to go. But things still change every day, every run I gain some understanding, and now, I'm moving from a different place.

I think a lot of this impetus came from Cindy being willing to tell me that I needed to stop apologizing for my history, my skiing, the length of time I've been in the sport, that I need to own that this is what I do and move on from there.

Suddenly, it was our turn, and we chose the skiers left lane, across from Megan and Cindy. I was in front, with Megan, and Jill was in back, across from Cindy. I remember looking across at Megan and thinking to myself, this is happening. I am lined up across from Megan and I am going to ski against her in the bowl. She can light it up and ski me into the ground, but somehow the parameters of the Powder 8s made it possible that we could contend for a top spot against my mentor and friends.

Racers ready, GO! We took off and immediately, the first two turns I'm tossed into the back seat, rolling up the windows, its much rowdier in here than I thought, and the next thought that came into my mind as Megan came arcing back toward me was, I'm on sync with Megan. She hasn't taken it down the hill more than me. This speed is okay, and I can ski this speed, and I can ski it better than I am.

I'm not looking at the snow in front of me, I'm just trying to absorb everything and let the skis turn. I pulled it together and made probably my best turns ever in the bowl. Unfortunately, I hit the same knuckle that had tossed everyone else, and had quite a bobble in there, and Jill was slowly left up hill of me. Megan and I stayed on sync to the end, crossing the finish line at the same time, and it was over, I'd done it, and Jill and I had fulfilled our motto, "TEAM UPRIGHT!"

The whole field was invited onto the Cat the next day, and we skied down to await the results. We were sooo sad to hear that we had placed terribly, and weren't really sure why that had happened, but we weren't too concerned about it, happy personally with our performance in the bowl, and excited to go cat skiing.

The next day dawned extremely serious, I was up till two in the morning having some super serious conversations and contemplating all manner of things that made it difficult to concentrate on the fact that I was entering the second day of the national championships.

We got up there early and loaded the cats, heading out to the little Annie's hill, on three inches of breakable crust over bottomless rotten sugar. I've never skied snow like this before, and I wasn't quite sure how to handle it. everyone got extremely nervous as we hiked up a little hill to test out the snow. I was alarmed to discover that i couldn't turn at all in it. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle that, but I figured, well, if worst comes to worst, I'll just stem Christie my way down it.

Jill and I were to go first, the fourth place team against the new third place team, and we lined up while they set the start. Finally, I'd decided on my tactics and was pretty psyched to get going, and they decided to bring the men in first to do their first run and break up the snow, so that it would be easier for us to ski.

We watched the men ski down and it looked relatively easy. We got a snow report back that they hadn't punched through till the bottom, and we lined up again, Jill and I overlapping the lane that Schanzy and Docken had just taken. We took off, me covering Jill, and our first four turns were dead on. We were clicking, skiing well, and it felt good.

I moved across and in, edged my skis on this cardboard box we were skiing in, and my outside ski fell in a hole that they boys had made when they'd punched through much higher than I'd expected. Suddenly, i was on the ground. Instantly. It hadn't occur ed to me that I might fall, after not falling in the bowl, i thought I might ski poorly, but the thought of a fall was foreign.

I was on the ground instantly, whipping my neck pretty good and sitting there, stunned and watching Jill ski away from me. I got up and packed out the huge hole I'd made in the snow, still high enough up to have conversations with people at the start. I skied down, burning with disappointment, I wanted to know where we'd have placed had we continued skiing like that.

Everyone was very kind at the bottom, and I sat and watched the rest of the competition. As I watched, it occurred to me that I would have fallen on turn three or six or eleven anyway, because this was phenomenally challenging snow, and I didn't know how to ski it.

After the comp was over, and Cindy and Megan had taken first place (YEAH!), we ate lunch and had the opportunity to be towed to the top again on the snowmobiles. I cornered Jonathan Ballou and Kevin Jordan and had them explain to me what their thoughts were on skiing it.

Finally, I had Kevin show me with his hands, while describing the things he was feeling while going through the turn. Eight laps later, I had it. Breakable crust, Buttery retraction turn.

The day was a complete and total success and win, my skiing changed dramatically, and by the last lap, i was skiing with the speed and confidence and technique that I would have needed to actually contend in the first lap where I crashed.

Huge congratulations to all the competitors for skiing SO well in such challenging snow, and to Megan and Cindy for crushing it in the Bowl and on the backside! Thanks to Schanzy for putting this amazing event together, it changed my skiing and helped prepare me for tryouts! I can't wait to get after it again next year!

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet is INCREDIBLE!

I had the unbelievable pleasure of watching the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet perform tonight with my mom. I have heard wonderful things about this company, but nothing could prepare me for the incredible treat that was waiting for us tonight!

The district theater is in the Aspen Elementary School, and, thinking once again that Aspen is a typical town (silly me), I expected an average school theater. Wrongo, the theater itself is a wonderful container, reminding me of some of the terrific small venues in Mountain View and San Francisco.

We watched three pieces, all of which were exquisite, from the lighting to the costuming to the stage design. But what really stood out for me was the incredible choreography. Somehow, the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet has managed to stay firmly rooted in classical ballet, honoring the discipline of form, the dancers expressing line in a seemingly never ending extension and unfolding, while bringing us into the conversation with the language of today's movement.

To call this "modern ballet" would be doing it a terrific disservice. There is none of the stilted self indulgence of purposely awkward and unusual movement, every gesture with foot or thigh or shoulder is an economic and carefully chosen dialogue with the audience.

I was astounded at the complexity of relationship and story telling that was accessible to us through these dancers and the beautifully designed choreography. I felt drawn immediately into each relationship, and not because of didactic over expressionism, but because I recognized the physicality from my own human experience.

I lived in LA, Boston and New York, and spent a lot of time at the ballet, and rarely have been so captivated, not since Mathew Bourne's Swan Lake, which I had the pleasure of seeing on its American Debut, have I held my breath like this.

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet will be in town again March 6, if you can get yourself here, by all means, drop everything and go see this rare and incredible treat.

Bring the Travelocity Roaming Gnome to Aspen!

The Travelocity Roaming Gnome has Cabin Fever and can't decide where to spend his next winter vacation, Aspen or Vail. No Contest, right!?

We it IS a contest and YOUR VOTES COUNT! Go to www.facebook.com/travelocity and click on the Cabin Fever tab to vote to bring the Travelocity Roaming Gnome to Aspen! Vote as often as you like through February 17. Please share this campaign with friends and family!!

Trainer Passport Journey Begins!

One of my goals is to become a trainer for the ski school at Aspen. To this point, I've been training this year refining my understanding and movements. In order to become a trainer, you have to pass your current Level 3 cert (they look at your skiing again to make sure you are skiing at a contemporary Level 3 level), and complete the Trainer Passport, which includes the following:

Professional Development:
Interview with your Coordinator, Lead Trainer and Team Leader
List of Accreditations (Including Freestyle, Children's, Coaching etc)

Teaching Ability:
Current Level 3
Organize and lead a small group indoor movement analysis video session, formatted with the current GCT model. 4-7 people.

Technical Understanding:
Completed assessment with boot alignment pro (or checkup on current alignment)
on snow movement analysis of another trainer skiing
attend a physics/biomechanics lecture

Skiing Skills
Verifiers can sign any number of maneuvers - must have 2 signatures when one verifier has signed more than 3 maneuvers.

Short radius leapers
dynamic medium radius turns
wedge christi
linked pivot slips
short radius performance turns
open stance parallel turns (in the bumps)
railroad side cut turn
Fall Line Bump Run (double black)
Crud/ powder run (double black)

I was not really expecting to get any signatures on my passport until the end of the season, and then maybe just one or two. I met with Rick Vetromile, our Lead Trainer at Aspen Mountain to ask him if it was appropraite for me to go down this path, if he could see me as a member of the trainer pool, and he was very enthusiastic that I get started. With that encouragement, I went to the Race Clinic that he held, and have been working hard ever since our first Demo Team training day on getting short turns down.

Being in the brushes, and stubbies and skiing with some true legends from ski racing for two days really changed my understanding of what I was doing and how to get to that outside ski early early early. I was pretty beat up by the end of the clinic, but I was beginning to bend the ski in a way that I never have!

With this new understanding, I went out to our verifier day and was lucky enough to have Mike Haas as my clinic leader. Right off the bat, he re certified my Level 3, and signed off my bumps and railroad track turns as skiing at the trainer level. I was BLOWN AWAY!

We had a big talk in the large group before we went up about Aspen's standards for trainers and how high they are, and how stringently the Verifiers keep to those standards.

My short turns were STILL not quite there, and I could feel it. By the end of the day, I was touching it, the turn was shaping high up, but I was still getting kicked into the back seat with the skis squirting at the end of every turn. It was making me crazy. I am getting obsessed with short turns and how to take the movement patterns that have changed SO significantly in my skiing exist in such a compressed timeline.

Mike asked me to allow my hip to come through, apparently I've worked so hard at keeping my pelvis open to the hill that now I'm all locked up. Mike asked me to advance my outside foot through the turn. I couldn't believe it.

I'm getting the ski to its edge by pushing the toepiece back! This is the thing that is moving my core foreward and against the platform progressively. I feel power and control with that move, I don't want to change it!

But, as Milton Katsellas used to tell us in acting class, you have to be willing to kill your babies. Its true. Don't ever love anything in your skiing so much that you aren't willing to try it differently. So I tried advancing the ski.

Suddenly, something clicked. When, where and why?

I can still push my toe piece back at the begining of the new turn, and then slice the ski through the snow. Think of slicing a tomatoe. You have to pierce the skin first, and then slice the knife through. If you just push down, you will crush the tomatoe. If you glide a blade with no pressure across the tomato, you won't get any penetration through the surprisingly resiliant skin.

If you drive the tip into the tomatoe, and then slice the knife forward, it goes through beautifuly.

I was now able to pressure the ski at the top and bend it just before the apex. Of course, once again, I got rocketed across the fall line from the energy of the ski, and spent the rest of the day learning to want that energy and put the energetic intent of my core down the apex of the turn while letting my feet turn under me.

The only issue now was that in short turns, the skis were still squirting.

Kurt and I went out a few days later, and he agreed that my skiing had changed significantly, it was smooth and much more powerful. But the short turns don't match the rest of the skiing yet.

The next day, Cindy and I went out together to train in the bumps and take a break from the insanity that was becoming my obsession with the short turn.

Though my bumps had been signed off, I still have a lot of work to do in the bumps (and always will!) We participated in a clinic with Weems in the morning on hand positions and pole planting (a hand jive clinic) which gave me some clarity about alowing my hands to "float" in a neutral position that is equidistant from anywhere they might go were I to get out of balance.

With this piece floating in esoteric extsacy around my brain, and with Megan and Katie's video analysis of my hands in the bumps from the week before, we went to work.

Cindy and I worked Scarlett's, a long blue bump run on Highlands and lapped it with Weems. I am working hard to learn to steer a flatter ski in the bumps, engage my spine, and quiet my hands.

We spent quite a few laps up there, and by the end of the day, my understanding of how to navigate my way through the bumps had changed and improved YET again. Cindy was incredible, she's working hard on her movement analysis eye and her ability to communicate coaching ideas, it was an ideal day for me!

We discovered that we have similar learning styles.

Stop me if I am doing it wrong, I want to identify in effective movements as well as effective ones, so I can feel when I am doing it "wrong".

Tell me (and show me) what you see, and what you want to see. Tell me succinctly with a good picture.

Tell me what I can expect to feel when I do what you are asking me to do.

Let me practice, stop me if I am doing it wrong.

Using these guidelines, Cindy coached me to a new level of understanding in the bumps in about five runs. It was fantastic!

Today, Cindy and Schanzy and I skied at Snowmass together, Schanzy was working on a new movement concept which he borrowed from Martial Arts, and Cindy and I were his guinea pigs. It was outstanding, as it plugged right back in to the short turns training I've been doing, and seemed to be the next piece.

Schanzy was talking about energetic initent (which I love). He was talking about what its like to throw a punch in martial arts, where you turn your fist over, effectively doing a corkscrew type movement with his arm and fist.

We applied this idea to the new outside ski, screwing the ski down into the snow as it lengthened. This simple idea combined so many movement patterns in one thought, we had tremendous success with it.

By the end of the day, I realized what was going on with my almost short turns, and was able to screw the ski down into the snow directly under me, trusting that this impetus would force the ski to bend and turn under me. As usual, I had a run of my best twenty turns about ten minutes before I had to go pick my kids up from ski school.

It was a great day of discussion of ski technique and technical understanding, Schanzy and Cindy are both terrific at creating a safe space to experiment and play, there is no judgement, just open discussion and space to create your skiing.

I came home exhausted but happy things are happening under my feet, my skiing is changing and I think I may just get my trainer passport signed off this season. Even if I don't the journey there is incredible.

Tomorrow the kids go back to ski school, I have on snow Demo Team Training again!

Let your employees WORK for you!

So its been a very busy couple of weeks. I've been teaching almost every day, which is wonderful, and working hard to find out what my guests need, how to help them not just improve their skiing, but really enjoy and celebrate their ability to improve!

To that end, I emailed Katie Fry, the director of all four mountains here at Aspen to let her know that I had some ideas for my VIP guests, and perhaps guest services overall. I thought I might just email her a few ideas.

Her response was, lets have a meeting, and lets get Dee Byrne involved, our new director of Business Development. I was shocked. Really? Okay...

So we got together and met for a couple of hours, and Katie and Dee were excited and open to these ideas, and they formed a task force company wide, and asked me to Chair it.

We are now building a ten person team from ticketing to the Treehouse to Ski School to explore the guest experience in Aspen!

This is exciting and wonderful, but I have to say, one of the most incredible things about this is the way, consistently, that the Ski Co values its employees. I was just a person with an idea.

And the company I work for is interested in constantly evolving and becoming the best company it can be. The company culture is hungry to continue to change. It is always looking for ideas, and because of that, its employees feel valued.

Because we feel so valued, we are fiercely loyal. We are appreciated, so we work harder. We are listened to, so we feel ownership.

I have never worked for a company that understands, so clearly, how easy it is to get your employees to work as hard as they can for you. Listen to them. Value them. Be open to ideas from everywhere.

This idea is clear right from the top: our CEO, Mike Caplain, started as a liftie here. Aspen is a culture of impetus. If you have an idea, and a willingness to follow through, you will make it. And they'll help you get there!

Ethan skis in his first ever torchlight parade! Aspen mountain WinterSkol!

Tonight was an absolute treat. Ethan and I drove over to Aspen Mountain and went down into the empty locker room. we suited up and headed over to the chair at the Little Nell where Ethan was given a torch shaped flashlight. ("Aw, mom, I want something that lights on fire.")

Apparently you have to be 12 to have something that lights on fire. We were the second ones up on the chair, and suddenly, here I am sitting in the dark, swinging in the crisp winter air, bundled up next to my eight year old, skis on, no poles, just looking around and seeing the town fall away behind us.

Riding a chairlift in the dark is a wonderful and strange experience, and doing it with Ethan was a sudden moment of bliss. He tucked right in next to me, suddenly a combination of big kid (gonna ski Aspen Mountain at night) and little boy (tiny and warm under my arm.)

"Mom, this is so cool I can't believe we are doing this." he kept saying. We got up to the top, and he settled right down, he was one of six or so kids who skied in the parade, the youngest of whom was only six years old!" We had the requisite fifteen minutes of waiting around at the top and then the torches got passed around, we were up in the front and suddenly we are off, two leaders, then me, then Ethan, and then John Fayhee, a wonderful instructor from Aspen Mountain right behind him.

I was a little nervous, the Nell is a steepish blue groomer, it was pitch black and we are skiing in a huge snake with things on fire all around us. Ethan, once again, impressed me with his ability to get it together when it really counts. He followed the line perfectly, even over the ice (in a giant death wedge, but he said he is used to sliding and was never worried), and as we crested the hill, about five hundred people let out a huge yell.

We skied it down to the bottom and put out our torches, and put up our skis. The crowd was high fiving Ethan, and asking him how old he was, and he was just absolutely full of pride. We got to stand inside the barricade and watch the huge fireworks display in our ski gear, and then troop back down to the locker room carrying our skis, getting congratulated by the crowd once again. Ethan was just saying over and over, "I can't believe how COOL that was! Lets do EVERY parade there is!"

This was truly one of those moments where you get to feel, I am sharing something I love most in the world with someone I love most in the world, and they are loving it! It was a wonderful, amazing, magical night in Aspen!

Teaching at Mach Chicken (that's one past Plaid...)

I took my Level 3, (or "Full Cert") for the first time at the end of my second season of skiing and teaching. I was excited to see where I was compared to the bar, and I didn't really expect to pass.

I passed the teaching portion with room to spare, but I didn't pass the skiing. I came pretty close, though!

Michael Hickey, my coach at the time, told me, "Kate, be careful, you don't want to pass your Full Cert unless you feel confident that you could get hired at any resort in the country, and they could give you any client, and you could take that client anywhere on any mountain and teach them and ski with them."

I took these words to heart, but I didn't really appreciate their impact until the beginning of this week.

I passed my full cert at the end of my third season teaching and skiing, last April. This year, I moved to Aspen Mountain, and on Monday, I had my very first lesson there. Now, Aspen Mountain is one of the oldest and most respected ski schools in the world, and I am a full cert instructor there. So I should be able to take anyone that comes into the ski school and work with them anywhere on the mountain.

As a rookie, I expected my first lesson to be someone that was not a ski instructors dream, but no. Right off the top, first lesson, third day on skis, I got thrown some amazing work off the desk. My clients wanted to ski top to bottom gondola runs as FAST as they could, through bumps, powder, over groomers, off cat tracks, through the trees and off the backside. We did eight laps by lunch. EIGHT. It took 17 minutes to ride the gondola and 2 and a half to ski down.

I don't know that I've ever skied that fast for that long. Not even chasing Troy Nedved and Josh Sphuler around Big Sky. I was grateful for Jill Imsand and Christine Bakker, who got me skiing at Mach Chicken (as Dave O says... that's one past Plaid...) through the skied out crud last year. I was grateful for Chris Jones in the bumps, and I was grateful most of all that I hadn't passed my three the year before, because I never would have survived this lesson had it been a year ago!

The best part was, they wanted me to teach! But they didn't want to slow down. So not only are we SKIING at Mach Chicken, but I'm trying to TEACH at Mach Chicken! At this point, I'm really REALLY grateful for Michael Hickey and Josh teaching me to keep it concise. I had literally 30 seconds. 15 to explain what I wanted, 10 to check for understanding, 5 to reiterate, and BAM we were off, melting the snow in our wake.

Two days of this. Welcome to Aspen Mountain, Kate! Sheesh!

Can I tell you something, though? It was great, amazing, awesome fun. And I did it. I changed their skiing, I stayed on my feet, I skied respectably well (although i have a loooong way to go...) and they booked me again for when they are next in town. Yippee!

First Aspen Ski School Meeting!

Suddenly last night I got a text from Andy telling me to get my butt down to the Mountain Chalet, it was time for the Aspen Mountain Ski School Annual Meeting! I was excited for my first official mountain event, and I learned a lot at it, but most important, I learned that I have a LOT to learn! I have no idea how things work here, and I don't think they are used to having a total newbie to the Ski Co working on Aspen Mountain. I am the only new pro this year on Aspen Mountain (hired out of the Ski Co), and I was standing there looking around at this distinguished group of people and I sort of realized, maybe, what I've gotten myself into.

Its Andy's first year as ski school director there, and everyone is very excited to have him. He got up and said howdy, and in his short speech, he said that it was an honor, and honestly a little intimidating to be the new director of one of the oldest, most distinguished, most respected, and most tenured ski schools in the world. Gulp. A few minutes later, he welcomed the transfers in from the other schools, and then he introduced me. "And new this year from Bridger Bowl, Montana, Kate Howe."

It was really almost comical. I feel a little bit like a toddler who just learned how to run who is hanging out with a bunch of people that are training for a marathon. Like I'm running along with them, and the feeling of running is so awesomely fun that I don't really care that I just figured out how to do it.

Mike Caplain, the CEO of the Ski Co got up and talked to us, and it was great see the personal and deep investment that he has in the ski school. We heard some great statistics from the survey, every year, the Ski Co surveys 5000 guests through an independent company. While most other resort's numbers slipped, Aspen came in on the top in Value, and in Customer Satisfaction. I'm proud to work for a company that can kill it like that in the midst of a scary recession! Wooohaaa!

I walked around after the intros and met my fellow ski instructors, I've skied with many of them, and recognized a lot of them, but there are a LOT of people to remember! The thing that's been amazing is how incredibly HELPFUL everyone is offering to be! Its been amazing how many people are asking how I'm doing, how I'm adjusting and if they can help. Just knowing that this support is HERE makes me feel strong and raring to go, unafraid to keep walking and moving and working.

I'm really struck by the fact that three years ago I was a non skiing stay at home mom, sad, very lonely, overweight, and dead inside. Today, I am full cert, I play outside every day, I'm fit, I've graduated from school, I have energy to play with my kids, I have a wonderful relationship (and three more kids to go with it) and three amazing jobs, one of them teaching at the legendary Aspen Mountain.

HOW did this happen? I gotta say, its strange, and wonderful, and I feel very blessed.

Aspen Skiing Company: Renew the Human Spirit

Hello hello gentle reader! Thank you so much for your patience! Its been a week and a half since I posted, it feels like its been an eternity. I'm gonna go a little out of order here, and just get em up, I have so much to write about! Mike gave me a little voice recorder so I've been able to make little notes about post topics that occur to me.

On Thursday, I had my first "official" Aspen Ski Co. meeting, we went to New Hire Orientation where we filled out sooo much paperwork... this is the first time that I've worked for a large corporation, and while I've seen Tom go through it when he got hired at RightNow, and my mom used to administrate stuff like this as the head of HR for some huge silicon valley companies, I've never been a cog in a wheel like this. It feels... beautiful!

Aspen Ski Co seems to have managed to become an enormous, well oiled machine that does not let the very important aspect of valuing its employees slip through the cracks while it continues to grow.

At orientation, we were not only told what would be expected of us, but we were told what we could expect from the company. This message, I think the message that every company wishes it could send, is one that seems to have delivered itself just by the virtue of how the company is run, what its core principals are, and the people that they hire. I've heard this about the Ski Co, it was one of Outside Magazine's Top 10 places to work in 2008, but I was always a bit skeptical of it.

Of course everyone who works here thinks its the greatest place to work, that's how you recruit people to work somewhere! But then I thought about that for a minute longer... I've never actually worked somewhere where everyone I talked to was happy with their job and grateful to work at this particular company. People readily say there is room for improvement. People say its a work in progress. But people also say its the best place they've ever worked.

So here it is. The mission statement of the Aspen Skiing Company is: Renew the Human Spirit. That's it. How do they do it? By honoring the Mind, Body and Spirit. The Ski Co is committed to being here for the long haul, and they aren't focused on luxury. They are focused on opportunity for excellence. The result of this... its the best ski experience in the country, and therefore its where those who love luxury travel.

I'm so very excited to join this team! Its something that Kurt and I used to talk about quite a bit. "What's the point? I'm a ski instructor. What does that do in the big picture?"

I'll tell you what it does in the big picture. It is yet another opportunity to wake someone up. To put their feet in touch with the earth, their skin in touch with the sun and the wind. Its an opportunity to show them that they are so much more than they ever imagined. They can do more, and be more, and they will leave here and cary that idea into their other work, home to their kids, and their spouses, and if we are lucky... that will ripple out and touch thousands of people.

And not because they could afford to do an expensive sport at an exclusive resort. Heck, I have about $220 to my name right now, and I ski all the time at this place. Its because here, in Aspen, there is a collection of people who believe that its important to be outside, its important to breathe, to play, and to be free for even just a day. It renews you.