The snow is falling!!! And the conditions are really good. The southfacing runs are still a little crunchy underneath. Now the East and North facing slopes, different story. Very sweet. The windows are in great conditions as are the runouts. Whale’s Tail, Magic Carpet and Art’s Bowl are cherry! Although visibility has been challenging for the past two days, a good pair of goggles and and a knowledge of terrain has been going a long way.
Richard laying it down on Art’s Bowl
Kady H. taking it down the hill in Window 7
Today we work working with accuracy and Apex to Apex turning ideas. i.e. Looking to the outermost parts of the turns (control phase) for the skis to travel through.
We started with using brush gates. As we skied through a race course of brush gates we tried to have the brushes hit the crease between the boot top and the boot shaft (shin the gates). We do this while looking toward the next turn. I will be playing with this idea more in upcoming lessons.
We then headed to the windows. We thought the light may be flat on the upper mountain so the choice was to head for the trees. A good decision. Not only was the North facing snow excellent, but it provided us the opportunity to look at the runs a bit differently. For years it has been about fall line skiing. Belly button on a string down the bumpline. But what if we tweaked the idea. What if the skier looked toward “outside” of the corridor as a point the skis would pass through. That outside point is the “Apex”. Hmm, it also is the point the ski should have the highest edge angle (theoretically). This also creates a tendency to flatten the ski through transition more easily,
This is our video
After lunch we chose to head up to the top of P8. Whale’s tail, to magic carpet, then Art’s. The band of skiers had not yet skied the goods found in Art’s Bowl. The best snow of the day was found there! It was so good, and so steep. Excellent. The pictures tell some of the story, as will the movie.
I look forward with skiing with you all next week,
to your sliding success,
Jon