After much talk about taking some kind of a ski lesson or camp, Alex and I finally took the plunge and signed up for a “Steep and Deep Ski Clinic” at our home resort, Crystal Mountain. We took the clinic last week and came away with some great tips to work on to improve our skiing technique.
Our instructor, Doug, has over 30 years of ski instructing experience under his belt and let me tell you, he is a phenomenal skier. It was so helpful to have someone with that experience be able to critique our style and tell us what we need to work on to accomplish some of the goals we have to take our skiing ability to the next level. Both of us had similar goals going into the clinic; we mainly wanted to be more fluid skiers on steeper terrain.
Doug’s suggestions for us included changing our hand position and pole plants, keeping our body position not so perpendicular to the fall line and to change our stance/weight placement and to do more carving instead of sliding. It’s a lot to work on and a lot of new styles and techniques to put together all at once, so we set out to practice putting the pieces together yesterday. We lapped one of our favorite steepish runs, Bear Pits, several times, and skied the bumpy blue bowl and a few runs in Green Valley to test our skills. We’re both to the point now that we can tell when we are reverting back into our old ways, so I’m hopeful that these new techniques will soon feel more natural.