Adam Jewell – Search & Affiliate Marketing

The 2009 PSIA National Academy ended two days ago already and now the Snowbird trip that included it is coming to a close. Upon waking up this morning, there was so much fog it was impossible to see anything out the window. A little wet snow fell last night and it was debatable as to whether or not it was worth going out to ski in the wet, foggy, sleeting weather.

At about noon, I headed down to the Snowbird Tram center to see if the ski pass from the PSIA Academy was still good. The ski school desk scanned it and said it looked like it was still good until April 25th, today! Another big thanks to PSIA for the extra days on the pass for the PSIA Academy! Since no cash outlay was needed and the slopes were waiting for another body to welcome with open arms, it was time to go venture out into the cold, snow, fog and wind.

The first ride up the tram didn’t look to promising. There was water dripping down from the poles in the tram. Obviously it was wet out there. Upon reaching the top visibility was fair at best and the first run down Mineral Basin was a little tricky, though it was possible to pick out some landmarks and see skiers scattered around on the hill. There was some fresh powder on top of crud but it was fairly well scraped and windblown off of the groomed part of the slopes.

After a run in Mineral Basin, the next area to to explore was the Little Cloud chair area. Visibility was getting a little worse. I hugged the left (uphill) side of the catwalk so as not to fall into the bowl area. It was virtually impossible to see the edge and much safer to hug the uphill side so as not to go tumbling off the side into steeper terrain. With such heavy snow and fog, it is extremely easy to make a wrong turn and get lost particularly in an area such as Snowbird with such diverse terrain. It didn’t take long for me to take a wrong turn and end up on somthing a little steeper than I had anticipated. It was not a huge deal, however the area I ended up in had about 12 inches of fresh powder on top and then about 12 inches of soft crud undernieth it. The snowboarders who ran out of steam and had to walk were struggling to get thorugh that thick stuff and I knew if I fell, I’d have some difficulties as well. Who knows if ski patrol would even find me if something happened? Slowly and carefully, I made my way down to the Little Cloud lift.

That run was nice and if I could only keep my sense of direction, there was an easier and safer way down to the Little Cloud lift. The next run down, I managed to stay on what had been the easier groomed trail back down to the Little Cloud lift. By this time I was in need of a pit stop. There were three options. Freeze my dick off and risk spraying myself by finding a tree to water, ski all the way back down to the Snowbird Tram, or go ski Mineral Basin and stop in the little shack attached to the ski patrol building. Mineral Basin was the choice!

Just as the first run down the Little Cloud area had me hugging the uphill side of the catwalk, I had to hug the right (uphill) side of the catwalk down into Mineral Basin heading in the direction of the bookshelf cliffs. The only difference was this time it was a TOTAL whiteout. Imagine if you stuck your head in a jug of milk and opened your eyes. That is what it was like. I could not see anything at all. There were a few shadows from the formations in the snow but it was snowing so hard that most bumps and ruts from previous skiers were quickly getting pained over by the snow so there was only endless white. I could see my ski tips and that was about it.

Luckily, I’ve skied Snowbird about 15 days in my life and had a rought idea where I was. No matter how well you know an area, however, when you have no reference points (trees, cliffs, lifts or rock formations) ou never know exactly where you are of what lies ahead of you. It must have been 30 minutes or more of slow going. I had to try to maintian my balance, stay upright on the skis and move in the direction of the lift all while seeing nothing but my ski tips and endless white all around me.

I stoped to ask a few people who were suffering the same vertigo and struggling more than I if they were ok. They were handing in there, some spending more time roling around in the snow in an effort to get back down to the lift rather than trying to remain upright and ski down to the lift. I can only assume they all made it down, though if they had significant trouble, ski patrol would have to get within about 25 feet of them to even know they were there.

Eventually I made it back down to the Mineral Basin lift only to find it shut down. At least I was back where I could see people and I knew where I was. Apparently out in Utah, sometimes lightning rolls in right along with a big snow storm and the Mineral Basin lift was shut down as a precaution so as not to have anyone on it if lightning struck. The 30-40 mile an hour wind gusts may have had something to do with it as well.

After riding the Mineral Basin lift back to the top, I was finally within a hundred feet or so of the bathroom by the Ski Patrol building. I made my way over there against a raging wind spraying snow in my face, secured my skis outside so as to prevent them from blowing down the hill and joined some other frozen souls inside the little building.

The bitter cold wind and snow at the peak of the mountain kept me captive inside the ski patrol hut for at least 30 minutes. I was soon soaked as all the snow melted from my baseball cap, jacket collar, pant and gloves. The snow and wind were not letting up but if I could at least warm up and dry out a little bit, I’ve have a better chance of making it back to the base as a human being rather than an ice cube.

There was to much moisture in all my clothes to have any real chance of drying out but I was able to get warm, let the snow melt off my beard, warm up the gloves a little bit and swap my soaked Winter Park baseball cap for the dry zip on hood I was lucky enough to still have in the jacket pocket.

The last run down was going to be a doozy. Ski patrol offered to let us take the Tram back down and a few people went for that. Maybe if it wasn’t the last day, it could have been an option but today it was not an option. I suited up, put on the warm (but wet) gloves, pulled the hood tight, strapped on the soaked goggles and added the helmet cam as the final accessory. If I was going to ski down through blinding snow, wind and fog, it might as well be captured on camera. After checking to make sure the cam was recording, I ventured out into the elements and started to make my way down.

The wind, snow and fog at the top still kept visibility near zero and had it not been for the trail signs and roped off cliffs, I probably would have fallen of one or at least into more difficult terrain that one would want to tackle with the sensation of being blindfolded. As I got off the peak and onto Chips Run, visibility gradually became better and the wind died down.

The bottom 3/4 of the run was the type of run all powder loving skiers hope for. It wasn’t perfect but there was up to 24 inches of powder in wind blown areas, there were very few tracks thorugh it, nobody else around and no rush to get anywhere. I took my time, enjoyed the run and didn’t notice the cold. The warmth of a great last powder run after a great 2009 PSIA National Academy was a great feeling. Upon getting back to the Cliff Lodge and up to the room, Hartley (roomate) ws sleeping peacefully, the Pittsburgh Penguins had just knocked the Philadelphia Flyers out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round and the Wildflower restaurant down at the Iron Blossom lodge at Snowbird had a pizza and wing special with my name all over it. Life is good. Time to go get some pizza and wings!

The 2009 PSIA National Academy is now over. It’s the kind of event you look forward to all year with eager anticipation for the time you touch down in Salt Lake City and the shuttle drops you off at the Cliff Lodge. You are there with the top skiers and ski teachers in the US and sometimes from around the world.

Day 5 of the 2009 PSIA National Academy ended with the final banquet and then a few (to many) drinks at Aerie restaurant & lounge on the 10th floor of the Cliff lodge. Today is was a little rough getting up in the morning. Bruno, my roomate from West Virginia was out the door to catch a flight at 4am and after getting up at 7am or so for the last 5 days, enjoyed getting a little more sleep. Sapporo, tequila shots and Polygamy Porter can combine in such a way as to make the body crave a little more sleep.

A new roomate, Harley moved in as we decided it would be a good way to save a few bucks by spliting the cost of the room. By about noon I was out on the slopes and feeling a little sluggish from the previos nights’ festivities and simply skiing my @ss off the previous 6 days.

I took a few runs in Mineral Basin, tried out the bumps on slopes serviced by the Wilbere chair, had some pizza and a drink at one of the places under the Snowbird tram and called it a day at about 4:00. The snow was really heavy, wet and sticky all over the mountain. This usually makes for great spring bumps. The bumps were ok but the snow was so heavy and thick it took a lot of work to ski the bumps and wade through all the heavy stuff.

After skiing, the happy hour special at the Wildflower Lounge at the Iron Blossom lodge hit the spot. The pizza of the day was pesto with mushrooms and sausage & was delicious. To round out the happy hour dinner a dozen wings were added to the order. A real diner with tax and tip for $15.00 at a ski resort is a great deal and it hit the spot tonight! Following dinner there was time to write but no energy to go out and do anything else. Even with intense daily exercise, 7 straight days of hard skiing in high altitude, low oxygen air takes a toll after a while and leads to exhaustion.

As I write this, the sky is spitting some wet snow at the slopes so tomorow could be an amazing powder day, it could be solid ice everywhere or the same slushy kind of snow today was. In any case it had been another amazing experience at the 2009 PSIA National Academy and there is one more day of free skiing to go before returning to the daily grind of staring at a computer screen 8 hours a day. There has got to be a better way to do something I love and make money at it. If the economy claims my job, it’ll be a great chance to start thinking differently and go do something that does a better job of aligning interests and work.

Now that the 2009 PSIA National Academy is over, we’ll be anxiously awaiting anouncement of the dates and location of the 2010 PSIA National Academy. It’s sure to be one of, it not THE best ski instructor event in the US in 2010! Will it be at Snowbird or overseas somewhere?

The final day of the 2009 PSIA National Academy started of with the usual great breakfast buffet at the Aerie restaraunt on the 10th floor of the Cliff Lodge. My roomate, Bruno was up for the morning exercises at about 6am but that is far to early for me to be getting up. A few minute before 9am I got down to the Snowbird tram and joined the morning clinic group with Andy Docken again. It’s amazing how fast these events just zoom by. I can’t believe it is the last day already.

We took the tram up and skied Mineral basin to start off the day. We skied groomers to start out, did a little ungroomed crud and then hit some bumps. I didn’t use the helmt cam at all today but did have the regular digital camera and got some great pictures. Andy was nice enough to take hte camera and get some great action shots of me and the rest of the group. He actually got some of the best action shots of me skiing that have ever been taken. It’s tough getting good action shots but he did an amazing job.

The afternoon clinic was an intro to Park & Pipe – essentially riding half pipes, rails boxes, jumping and other freestyle skiing techniques. The afternoon sessions are only about 2 – 2.5 hours so it is obviously impossible to cover a whole lot in such an area as large as Park and Pipe. For this clinic we had PSIA Demo Team Member David Oliver. Dave is an awesome guy and a great instructor.

When surveyed, the group was most interested in learning 180′s and helicopters. It seems that the language has changed since I gave freestyle much thought. If you started talking baotu helicopters in a group of young freestyle skiers, they’d probably start looking up in the sky for a helicopter. Now the proper term seems to be a 3 for 360. The other thing we worked on was riding rails except we didn’t have any rails to ride and most in the group probably would have sustained some serious body damage had we jumped right in to trying to ride rails.

Dave had a very simple, yet valuable progression of steps and skills to work on to get to the point of being able to do 180′s, 360′s and riding rails.

The first topic in the clinic was basic safety, how to manage a class so as to minimize the chance of injury and maximize learning. This was a review of safety basics, where to stand, where to have a group meet (off to the side of the trail), be aware of all the surroundings, keep people spaced out when traversing a catwalk or other narrow trail.

Next up was thinking more in terms of freestyle and going with the flow of the snow and terrain in front of you. Ride the bumpy stuff like a dolphin, get a little air here and there, look for terrain and obstacles to get some air, do a little jump and have some fun. Back when I started skiing, the safety patrol would be after you in a second if you actively skied like that and took advantage of terrain to get airborn and do some tricks. Now that freestyle is becoming more and more accepted at resorts and there are more and more pro freestyle events, it is becoming much more accepted to ski and ride in a freestyle manner.

The first specific freestyle more we dabbled with was the helicopter or 360. Natually we didn’t just start jumping in the air and pulling off 360′s but we did start with exercises that would help us learn the movements and progress toward being able to get airborn and pull off a 180 or 360. Whirlybirds were the exercise of choice – simply skiing down the hill and spining around with the skis on the snow. This was first done on a steady grade groomed slope and then on the crest of a ridge where you might actually be able to get enough air to do a 180 or 360 .

With this approach we weren’t able to achieve our goal of being able to do a 360 but we were armed with the progression of steps to take that could lead us to be able to successfully launch and land a 360 while minimizing the chance of major injuries. Keeping a low center of gravity and keeping the skis relatively flat were also emphasized as keys to successfully ripping the first 360.

The next skill was riding a rail. This is where you ski down a hill, jump and turn sideways and ride (what is generally) a metal sideways rail for a short distance. Obviously, there is an inherint danger in riding rails, particularly when just learning the skill. Dave had an ingenius solution to this issue and that was simply to us a couple rubber bands to keep the brakes in the skis restrained and then turn the a ski upsidedown and push it into the snow. Instantly you have a slippery rail that is right in the snow. With the rail right in the snow, its easy to practice riding rails without the danger of actually riding one when you don’t know how to ride them. It is a simply brilliant approach and this ski turned upside down in the snow kept us all busy for at least 20 minutes “playing”. Dave presented very simple, yet immensly valuable things that we could use in our own personal skiing as well is in any freestyle lessons we might teach.

Following the clinics, we hit the hot tub for a while and had a couple beers. I skipped the classroom clinic and never did make it to any of those all week. The classroom clinics were from 5-6 and that was recovery time from skiing hard all day. Had those clinics been after dinner in the same room as the banquets, it would have been much easier to just stay seated there and soak up the information.

As is tradition the last night of the PSIA National Academy, there is a final banquet. The ski groups typically get a card and gift for the weekly clinic leader. There is a collection of videos and still photos shown to the group and people tend to let loose a bit more than on any of the previous nights of the academy.

We all got PSIA National Academy certificates as well as the PSIA National Academy pins. These pins are the same size and look very similar to the Level 3 full certification pins so when people see you on the slopes with the National Academy pins they think you are a big deal (cause they think you are level 3 unless they look at it very carefully).

After the banquet, most everyone headed up to the Aerie for a night cap. The place is an outrageously expensive place to drink but for one night out it was worth it. We all had a blast and drank enough to get a little buzz going. It was a great finish to anoher great event. Sometime around September 2009, we’ll be anxiously awaiting the anouncement for the details of the 2010 PSIA National Academy!

Day 4 of the 2009 PSIA National Academy started out like the previous 3 with bright sunny skies, soft now in Mineral Basin and a morning clinic with Andy Docken of Aspen Highlands resorts. Everyone in the group was holding up well as was the snow considering the almost hot sunny weather.

Mineral Basin softened up before the rest of the mountain in the morning and we stared the day there. Later in the morning session, we bounced back to the Peruvian side, skied the Cirque and a variety of other terrain.

Following another good (and free) lunch thanks to the folks at PSIA National, it was off to the afternoon elective – The Video Session. Another amazing PSIA demo team skier, Nick Herrin Director of the Ski and Ride School at Crested Butte, Colorado. Nick is an amazing skier and did a phenomenal job running and filming the video session. Video sessions typically don’t involve much skiing because it tends to take up so much time actually filming and then going into watch and critique it. For this video session we took about 3 runs and got in some good video.

Nick filmed one run on groomed terrain, one in crud and one in bumps. We were out on the slopes for about 90 minutes and then headed down to the Alpine Room (I think it was) in the Tram Building. We had about 8 people in the group and got some great feedback on each of the different types of terrain we skied. Video is such a useful tool for improving your skiing since you can actually see what the instructor sees and is giving you feedback on.

My biggest takeaway from the video session was timing of the pole plants. My skiing in the bumps looked pretty sharp but on the groomers and in the crud I was forcing the pole plants and making a more abrupt turn than necessary so needed to work on a more smooth turn initiation. The PSIA folks bring their own personal video cameras for the video sessions which is cool. The PSIA National Academy is simply one of the best events in any professional organization and it’s probably bootstrapped more than we know. This year was every bit as good as last year and the national staff who put it all together did an amazing job on absolutely everything from the opening banquet to the skiing sessions to the dinners and banquets.

Tonight there was no banquet so we were on our own for dinner. The Wildflower down at the Iron Blossom lodge had a wing special so I headed down there for 2 dozen wings and a Siera Nevada Pale ale. After letting that settle for a while, I hit the hot tub for about an hour and a half and then headed back to the room and hit the sack.

Next up is Day 5 (the final day) of the 2009 PSIA National Academy In Snowbird Utah!