Babes Day 1 1/2 – January 12, 2007

Greetings Babes,
I say day 1 1/2 because it was not an official babes day. But Lynn Solomon came through. The dedication of these ladies to get better should be inspiring to everyone. I remember when I started skiing the time it took to improve. This is not the article that I will go through the detail, but it is apparent to me that my Babes ’07 group want to improve.
We started off warming up, the second run we headed up to 6-chair. The wind was blowing, and the snow was very good. With no one on the run I changed my course. Rather than heading for Upper 4 o’clock I lead the group to Psychopath Gully. Now, the upper funnel was great. The wind deposited wind blown velvet in the entrance. Then, my first tactical mistake…

As we started skiing in the natural half pipe (with bumps) the conditions change. The snow became less like velvet and more like firm south facing crust. And we skied through the crux of the run (one bumpline wide). The rest of the skiers on 6 chair found us. Whereas we had respect for one another, and let one skier through the crux at a time. These yahoos had not respect for anyone. So, like when one overloads a funnel you get spillage. Unfortunately, that is what we got. Oops. Sorry ladies. However, we did find a benchmark we can shoot for. Ski Upper Psychopath smooth and at the same pace top to bottom.
Springy, and Turning the legs were themes we worked on. Isolating turning the legs from hip or whole body rotation was emphasized by putting ski pole down on flat ground. Then the arch of the ski boots on the pole. We can then pivot over our arches buy turning our legs only. Also, if the hip socket drops behind the heel of the foot it is very difficult to pivot effectively. So balance and proper movement were developed. We then took the move into sideslips down Frosty’s Freeway. Then we added some gentle bumps. Basically how can we get down a situation like frosty’s with out much stress.


We quickly recovered from Psychopath with an easier run, then we went to Peerless to work on “seeing the line”. Taking off my skis I walk a few lines. Rather than “peeling the potato” tactics , we looked at the rut line. We decided as it gets steeper, that may not be the proper line for our desires either. Let’s ski out side the rut line!!! We started playing with a ridges and bridges line. We wanted to stay where the snow was softer. Image you were skiing a topographic map. you wanted to make your way from point A to point B. In most cases to conserve energy, you would want to stay on the ridge line, as opposed to up to a summit and down to the valley floor. You would walk (ski) the ridge, and then the bridge would bow down between the summits. This is a line we wish to develop. It provides less impact, and more time between bumps. Essentially, it is skiing a slow line down the mountain. And I have come to say, “Better to ski a slow line fast, than a fast line slow.”

As the day went on, we skied much more of the mountain. We ran a few gates in the race course and had good fun.
Thanks to the ladies who joined me last friday.
I just received my new video camcorder, so I may be using this for some movement analysis. We will be able to see our images at lunch time.
to your sliding success,
Jon
“Turning the Stripes”