It has been a busy few weeks for me. I have not been posting my own stuff as much as usual. The good news is that we have been adding dozens of new instructors on MySnowPro.com during that time. We are also improving the search feature, and doing a homepage redesign which will make it more valuable for visitors to the website. On a similar note, I made the Windows 7 upgrade on 3 of my computers. It was somewhat time consuming but not difficult. We have also been building a following on Twitter I will be posting from the mountain daily. We are also gaining a presence on the MySnowPro.com Facebook Fan Page. You can find the link in the right hand column of this MySnowPro page.
I have finally put this together a benefit to those who visit MySnowPro.com. You can get your own Blastoff Network homepage for free. This has been a real cost saver for my family. Also, a portion of actual purchases goes to the Educational arm of Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA-RM).
Breckenridge had a busy Thanksgiving week. Although peak 8 was busy (due to Gondola offload), peak 9 had few lines of more than 30 seconds. Continue to plan your ski day around this pattern. Skiers and Riders can get up the Gondola and then head to P9 (open now) or P7 (scheduled Dec 11). I have my ideas where the morning and afternoon powder stashes will be, but I will make sure my students are privvy to that knowledge.
I have been getting into the lesson teaching groove. Specifically making it as easy as possible for my students “get it”. Rather than filling the lesson with fluff, there are nuts and bolts mechanics we can address as we move about the mountain. We then take it to the mountain and put the content (teaching) in to the context (different conditions on the mountain).
The past week has offered some good examples. It is important to remember that the first few days of a persons ski year (which I see all year long) requires dialing in our fore/aft balance. While I was skiing with Laura C. we identified such a situation. I placed captions below the slideshow.
This past weekend I have skied with some great people via private lesson. Specifically Ski.com put together a trip for a number of Ski Club board members from around the country. I skied with folks from Massachussetts, New York, and Florida. Yesterday and for the rest of the week I am skiing with a group based from St. Louis, although the members of the group are from Germany, China, France, and Belgium. This is one of my favorite parts of teaching.
As we move into December it is important to know that the Snow Guns have been working overtime. The cool to cold and dry temps have been fantastic for making snow. As of this writing we are expecting 4 days of snow. I will believe it when it is gliding over my boot tops.