The first day of the 2009 PSIA National Academy kicked off today with breakfast at the Airie breakfast buffet on the 10th floor of the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird. There was actually some other morning warmup exercise scheduled at 6:15am but that is just way to early for any person on what is essentially a vacation to get up. Following breakfast (which is always insane with 200+ ski instructors converging on one place to get breakfast and get out on the snow quickly), it was time to head down to the Snowbird Tram base and meetup with the groups we broke into last night.
Our group wasn’t the most aggressive group but we had some excellent skiers. The group leader was Andy who was a PSIA demo team member and the ski school director at Apen Highlands, a position I believe he still holds. First thing in the morning we headed up the Snowbird tram and went over to Mineral Basin to find the softest snow on the hill. Yesterday was warm and the wet snowfall was like deep, wet cement & easily the most difficult snow I’ve ever skied. Today there was no cloud cover in the morning so the sun softened things up rather quickly. The snow was still thick and deep in some places but much more manageable.
We skied some intermediate to expert terrain and some chutes but nothing over the top. After about three runs we took the catwalk way around to the skiers left in Mineral Basin, did a little climb (maybe 30 feet vertical) up on a cliff of sorts and then skied down through some thick but manageable snow. The biggest thing for everyone was, as usual trying to stay balanced in order to ski smoothly through variable and thick snow. I’ve gotten much better at that over the years by keping just a few things in mind:
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Stay centered to forward on the skis.
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Make sure not to drop the downhill hand and in fact drive it around. When you do that it seems to put forward pressure on the downhill ski so it cuts through the thick snow instead of wandering off out of control.
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Complete the turns a little more if the going gets tough instead of trying to muscle through shorter turns a edging harder to control speed.
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Be confident that your skis will do what you want them to do and plow through the crud if you practice the three points above.
These simple steps make a world of difference and prevent fatigue from setting in so quickly. You need to rely more on our skeletal structure to support your weight and use the smaller muscles to fine tune your movements. If you sit back, your thighs and other larger leg muscles but bear much more weight and work much harder and skiing through thick heavy snow will wipe you out in no time.
Throughout the morning session I was able to cruise rather smoothly through all the crud. Later in the morning session we went back to the Peruvian Basin (aka front side of Snowbird) and skied a few chutes and some bumps. Everyone in the group could hang, though some apeared more comfortable than others.
Lunch came around 12:30 in the Rendezvous room under the Snowbird tram. PSIA was nice enough to provide lunches this time around which will save everyone around $15.00 a day – a very nice touch on their part!
During the afternoon session, I elected to go for “Steeps and Bumps”. The first two runs, we took the Snowbird tram back up and my feet were killing me since you have to stand on that thing. After three runs in that clinic I bailed. We didn’t really hit any bumps and the steeps we hit were mostly the same wet cement like snow left over from yesterday. It just wasn’t fun skiing that stuff and so I sat out in the sun at the top of the mountain and let my feet recover.
After about a half hour, the feet started to feel more normal and I went over to the Little Cloud lift. The snow there was soft and deep but manageable and it was not quite as steep as some of the other areas of the mountain. Skiing at my own pace with the tunes cranked up it great and that’s exactly what I did over on the Little Cloud lift area. Little Cloud closes at 3:45pm so the last run of the day was on the Peruvian Express. It was a good run, though as the night afternoon wore on the sticky consistency of the snow came back.
After skiing over over for the day, I had a couple Polygamy Porters, relaxed in the room and then headed down to the Sunday night buffet in the Cliff Lodge. There wasn’t much energy among the crowd for drinking and partying more so here I am back in the room typing away. Bruno, the roomate is already out cold, probably worn out from the altitude, bright sun, and intense skiing all day. That’s a wrap for today and there will be lots more tomorrow during day 2 of the 2009 PSIA National Academy at Snowbird, Utah!
