Killington, small so far this season

One of the feature events that the PSIA-E runs each December is called the Pro Jam. This is essentially a week long camp for ski instructors. It seems to rotate between Mount Snow and Killington. Somewhat luckily, this year was Killington's turn. The gathering is almost 500 students and about 60 PSIA-E staff. Killington was pretty hurting for snow like all ski areas east of the Mississippi but there was just enough room for us on the mountain. I said in my last post that Gore was not really small so here is my next post about a bigger mountain. Killington is far from small but last week there was very little terrain open; it skied like a small mountain. There was no black terrain open until Wednesday (first pitch of Superstar).

I was skiing with a group of 9 all from south of Vermont except for one from Attitash in New Hampshire. We were mostly pretty old except for one 20 year old. Our chosen course was level 2 part 2 prep. Level 2 part 2 is the teaching test for skiers skilled up to beginning parallel. Part 1 is a skiing test and must be completed to be eligible for part 2. The test has three modules; creative teaching, teaching children and movement analysis. After skiing around a couple of hours Monday morning to see what was open and get used to skiing again this year (I was the only one that had skied previously). We started with movement analysis. I believe the key to movement analysis is to find a process that works for you and use it to quickly understand the movements that are being used as someone, anyone, skis through some ski turns. We started using the skills that are the basis for the PSIA Skiing Model. These are balance, rotary movements, edging movements and pressure control movements. I offered that it is useful to use these as a hierarchy for beginning skiers. First we must learn to balance on skis, then we can rotate our legs to form first turns, then we learn to edge our skis to assist in turning and edging a ski creates resistance and thus the need for some pressure regulation or control movements. We spent until Wednesday working on learning a process for quickly describing movements seen while skiers make turns and then coming up with ideas to enhance or replace movements to make performance improvements for our students. We finished Wednesday morning with an introduction to the creative teaching module of the level 2 exam. In this module,each candidate chooses a person profile and a skiing skills profile from 2 groups of cards. From these cards the candidate puts together a program that creatively uses the information about the person profile to enhance or develop skills outlined in the skiing profile. I handed out 3 by 5 cards and asked the group to list the important features of their pairings on one side and list some activities they would use to lead the group in a short (10 - 13 minute) presentation to show how they would approach a lesson for their chosen combination. We would present to the group Thursday morning because Wednesday afternoon is saved for elective sessions for all participants. I would be skiing with a different group Wednesday afternoon.

I led a Level 2 Part 1 group in the optional session. Interestingly, most of the group (4 people) were taking level 2 part 1 preparation for the focus for the week. In this session, we skied through all the demonstrations, versatility movements and free skiing activities that a candidate would see at an exam. Before each maneuver I offered what were the most important aspects and then demonstrated them for the group. I did give feedback on performance and my opinion if they were at the standard for that particular maneuver. I am sure the group found it helpful. When I was getting certified (many years ago) there was nothing like this in PSIA; you basically showed up, took the test and waited around for the results. While it is not an easier test today, it is way easier to figure out what will be expected and what someone has to do to make the standard to pass the tests.

Our group finished up the creative teaching portion Thursday in the early afternoon. I had each member give their prepared presentation and not only evaluated them as I would if it were an exam but the group as a whole discussed each presentation and gave input for things that might enhance what was done or other approaches to the issues etcetera. All in all, a lot of good information was shared.

For the remainder of Thursday and Friday until lunch time we worked on the Teaching Children module. In this portion of the exam candidates choose a card with a particular age and skiing interest and/or ability. From that information the candidate puts together a short program that addresses the skiing need and is suitable for the developmental stage of the child. These presentations are to the group about the skier so luckily, no one has to pretend they are four years old or something. A huge portion of ski school business in the United States is teaching children. Basic understanding of physical, social and cognitive development in children makes giving ski lessons to children a lot easier, which makes for more fun doing the job of ski instructor. We spent time after each presentation again to make sure that everyone had a good understanding of the issues for each scenario for the module.

Friday after lunch, people started to leave. Some had long drives, some were tired, some just wanted to stay and ski. A couple were staying and leaving Saturday. So, we just went up and down. It is always the case at Pro Jam week that the group shrinks all afternoon until the last of the group decide to quit. I had worked hard during the week; given the group all I could. I had lots of fun but it was work. It is what I do. Most all of my skiing is leading a group; either PSIA members or ski racers. I have come to cherish Friday afternoons at Pro Jam week because I just go skiing. We talk about whatever on the lift and then ski the same trail, then do it again. This year was overcast, cold, snow guns all over but the best part of my week. Just skiing in a group...

Not much snow!

New base lodge courtesy of Irene

Despite the weather, Killington made it work!

Happy skiers

Cool sky on the way home...

First Day

Since there was nothing but grass in central NY last weekend we loaded up about 15 ski racing athletes and 5 coaches or so and headed to Gore. I am not sure what my exact definition of "Small Mountain" is but Gore is usually not in this category. I wouldn't call Gore big but when the mountain is all open there is a lot of skiing there with a lot of variety. I defiantly like skiing at Gore. Last Saturday, Gore skied like a small mountain. There were 2 options off the top of the Gondola and one way down to the bottom. Two thirds the way down there was an area that was full of rocks and mud mixed into the snow that lasted for three turns or so. Other than that, the skiing was pretty good. There was also a short lift running and we wound up skiing there for most of the afternoon because it did not have a particularly thin section of snow.

While it was not a huge day for Gore the open skiing was packed with people. It is interesting that in the spring, there is often really good skiing and no one skiing. Most years, Labrador closes with full coverage of its trails but not enough business to justify remaining open. When the season begins, we all go skiing in pretty bad conditions and are really happy to be there.

As we all know the weather has been almost completely unwinter like so far this season. Well, that is not completely true...I bet the snowfall totals for this winter so far are pretty normal. This issue is that after every snowfall there is a bunch of days that are 50 or 60 degrees. Every area in the east is struggling to get going.

As a result of the small area of marginal skiing and the people density on the available skiing at Gore, the parents of the athletes opted to return home Saturday afternoon instead of staying over and skiing Sunday. As we drove by Labrador going home that evening, the guns were on and they were working hard on the goal of being open next weekend. We will see how bad the weather gets on Thursday as rain is predicted. My daughter and I agreed that while the skiing was not particularly good, and the trails were, kind of, dangerously crowded, we had a great day and can't wait for another trip to Gore (which may be next weekend if Labrador can't get open).

Okay, it is coming but not quite yet

I was originally schedule to be skiing at Mt Snow as I write this but I am home in Truxton. One of the first events of the season for the PSIA-E is the Snow Sports Managers Seminar. Unfortunately, there is so much warm weather in the east there were many cancellations. Four of the staff, including me, were asked to sit this one out...shoot. Instead of skiing, I am not only writing in my blog, I am putting plastic over the screens on my porch, working on Christmas gifts (I am making them this year), drinking coffee, sending emails to other ski coaches and commenting on the turns by Bode and Andrew Weibrecht that USSA put up yesterday at Birds of Prey training. Check them out, Bode calls it skiing upside down. I am also admiring my new boards, Elan Amphibios, with traditional camber on the inside and a rocker on the outside. Oh boy, not only new skis but new technology... I hope to take some athletes to Gore next weekend but this weekend looks like ice skating and yoga.

Pretty day but no snow..yet

Here it comes again

Okay, another ski season is almost upon us. I have friends out west who are already skiing on really good snow but, of course, they are not small mountain skiers! I didn't really finish my writing about last year and I did have some good stuff to share that did not get into this blog but, a new season approaches and what is behind me is no longer important. That said, I will do better this year keeping things up to date as I travel around the Northeast USA skiing at small ski areas.

I am lucky again this year; I will be skiing full time for my livelihood. For my race coaching job, I have moved down an age group and I will be coaching JIVs this year (11 and 12 year olds). This move will keep me fairly local on weekends in January and February. This is good because Monday to Thursday I will, most likely, be out of town working for the PSIA-E (Professional Ski Instructors of America, Eastern Division) giving ski education workshops and certification exams. I am also considering boosting my USSA (United States Ski and Snowboard Association) coaching credentials by attending some of their educational events for alpine race coaches. USSA has started mandating educational updates for it's member coaches. This is a good thing.

All we need now is some cold weather. There were a couple of early snows a few weeks ago but yesterday was 62 degrees and many places in the northeast set a record high for the day. Quite a few of my eastern friends have done some skiing, in VT mainly, and it has mostly been small acreages and pretty marginal but it is coming. I am sure we will have a great skiing year... I can feel it.

Jules

While this post was supposed to be about a trip to Virginia and West Virginia, I decided to write something about Julia Mancuso first. Yesterday, she won her third GS title in a row at the US National Championship. Julia is finishing a really fine season with some great skiing.

Last fall, I became a fan of Julia on facebook. She is great on facebook. She posts stuff all the time. She is a good writer and appears to be happy sharing her crazy life with all of us. She lives right in the moment.

While I have admired her for a long time, I became a huge fan of hers at the last Olympics. She showed me (and the rest of the world) that all her sacrifice and hard work to accomplish herself in skiing was, underneath it all, fun... just plain fun! What better message is there for any athlete in any sport at any level?

Over the years, I have coached some rather elite athletes and parents often wonder how far their child can go. I can never answer that question. There are US Ski Team athletes that were great when they were young and others that found their racing when they were teenagers. The best explanation I have heard about getting on the ski team, and one that parents can understand, is this: there is one child born in the United States each year that will make the US Ski Team...pretty long odds I'd say. Anyway, the point is; you don't make it to the level Julia has attained without being incredibly focused, incredibly focused, a great skier, and incredibly fit. Did I say incredibly focused? Julia has managed to be these things and remain interesting and fun. She gladly shares her interests beyond racing on skis with the whole world. She has managed to stay upbeat and find fun all winter and is happy when she skis well regardless of outcome.

Last week she posted on facebook to see if anyone was reading her travel blog (find also in my following list). It is the opposite of this blog; it is all about big mountain skiing all over the globe. I did not realize she was writing it until her post. It is a pretty fun read, check it out. Julia also writes a "Kiss My Tiara" blog on her website. I occasionally check that out too.

Congratulations Julia on a wonderful race season!

Skiing at home for mid-winter break

PSIA schedules no events for the presidents week vacation. Most ski schools are too busy to let any of their staff take time off to ski in a PSIA educational event. We run daytime training at Labrador for the race athletes. I took Wednesday off because the kids were pretty tired after the state championships.

Next week I was headed to Virginia and West Virginia for PSIA events. More on that latter. It was great to ski with the team at home and during the day. Night skiing is handy because it gets you on skis more often each week but it really gets old as the winter wears on. It is always a mad rush to get homework done before we head to the mountain. Dinner is usually a sandwich on the fly. Skiing at night always feels colder than it truly is. All that said, I have spent most of my life skiing 3 nights a week.

The pressure of states was off and we were just trying to have fun and get back to worrying mostly about fundamentally good skiing rather than preparing for the ensuing race. The 3 athletes that did not qualify for states could race in a New York race series called the Kandahar. It consists of a regional qualifier then a Kandahar championship. This race is open to 9 to 14 year olds that did not qualify for state championships but they all race by class (JV, JIV, JIII). New York Ski Racing Association (NYSSRA) uses this race to qualify athletes for the Piche Invitational at Gunstock NH. A trip to the Piche is not in my winter this year but is a well run and really fun weekend of racing. Anyway, Labrador was hosting the regional Kandahar for the center part of the state and I would be setting one of the courses. Of course we got almost 8 inches of small flake, dense noreaster snow Friday night making hill prep for the race and course maintenance a bear Saturday. It wen pretty well and again, I was happy to be home for 4 days. I would leave Sunday morning to travel to Virginia.

NYS JIII State Championships

I was back to Bristol for the New York State JIII championships February 19 - 21. Our team had qualified 6 athletes (not too bad out of 9 that were eligible). Another week where I got home Thursday night and left again Friday night. This was also another trip where my daughter was with me so I had a fun traveling companion. Bristol is an easy 2 hour drive and we have started staying in Victor, NY, up closer to Rochester. I spent Friday preparing skis. Nadine would need 4 pair, I was taking 2. After lots of sharpening and waxing, all were ready to go before she got home from school. I was hoping the weather forecast was good so I would not have to adjust the wax too much each night before the race. When I was down at Hunter, I bought some spray on high floro to "juice" the skis for the super G races (Monday and Tuesday). Most of the team were at the hotel by the time we got there. I was pretty tired so we just made plans to meet everyone in the morning so we could get to the ski area by 7:30 AM for the slalom race (it was about 30 minutes from hotel to Bristol).

Bristol has added a new event building which is fabric structure at one end of the area. This gets all the racers and their gear away from the regular skiing public and works to every one's advantage. They put ample outlets so it was crock pot city. There is only a few minutes of downtime between runs as the second run of a race starts 60 minutes after the second course is finished being set. Generally, 30 minutes is plenty of time to set a course. Having food ready for athletes, volunteers, coaches and parents makes life much easier. It is difficult to predict when the first run of a race will be finished.

Ready for Inspection

Inspecting the course

Happy racer!

Visualization

Confident racer!

Packing in 10 inches of snow for SuperG 1

Finishing inspection

Up at the start

As a team we skied really tight in the slalom. We had one good race out of the 6 athletes. I was the men's ref (racers advocate) and so had duties beyond the Lab athletes. This pulled me away from the kids and didn't help, but probably did not effect the less than great racing we did that day. There was a team captains (coaches) meeting after skiing so we sent the kids back to the hotel with the parents and Kathy (the other coach from Labrador) and I attended the meeting There were weather concerns about Monday and Tuesday.. there was snow and/or rain coming. Bad weather wreaks havoc on speed events and there were super G races scheduled for both days. Kathy and I finally left after 4:00 PM and stopped along the way at the Ski Company outlet. We had gotten a tip from a Bristol coach that there were supper G skis in shorter lengths. We bought 3 pair of super G skis; 2 Dynastar and one Volkle, all under 190 cm. The Dynastars were nice and flexible the Volkles, a little on the stiff side but we went through all they had and found the softest pair.

I turned out the kids were taken to the nearby mall and were eating at the food court. When I called my daughter she was eating lo mein. I walked across the parking to to the Fridays next door to eat with some of the parents and the other coach. The drinks began flowing like water. I am not a big drinker, I ordered a Guinness and nursed it. I have been making beer this fall and had some delicious pilsner back in hotel room and intended on having one after dinner. I was getting worried that the bill would be split so I ordered a steak like everyone else when we ordered dinner. I did not want to have to throw in $40.00 for a chicken ceasar and a beer...at least I would have a steak for my money. The steak turned out to be pretty good and to my good fortune my dinner was picked up by the parent drinking the most. This is not that uncommon as ski racing is for the generally affluent because of its costs and everyone knows professional skiing is a pretty marginal way to make a living. But as always, getting my dinner provided was greatly appreciated.

The GS (giant slalom) wasn't so good for us either. My daughter was clean but slow, the other 2 females made pretty big mistakes. The males had a worse day. One athlete took a huge crash and went off, not only on a sled but in a back board. The ski patrol takes no chances and when there is any complaint of head or back they always use a back board. After an ambulance ride to the hospital, he was deemed okay and given the green light by the ER doc to race the next day if he felt up to it... whew. Another make, crashed in the second run and the third was so rattled by the events of the day he was really slow and looked a bit scared. We would get the team together later to see if we could get them back into a more positive cycle. SuperG 1 was Monday and we would be skiing really fast. It was time to get some focus and confidence and remember how much fund skiing and ski racing is.

Ski racing is this amazing combination of situational variables. The game is between you and what is placed in the snow for you to ski around. But there is the weather, the trail the race is on the snow condition, your start position, who else is there, what the race means for the athlete, the physical condition of the athlete, their mental preparedness, equipment, blah, blah, blah... The winner is really the best skier that day...not necessarily the best skier at the race. This is probably true with most sports, it just feels from my (a coaches) perspective that this is about the hardest sport. There is nothing like ski racing!

We woke up to 10 inches of snow for SuperG 1...not good. All the athletes and coaches took 3 runs to push out the new snow and pack it in to get down to a hard surface. Two top to bottoms in a wedge on Bristols most expert trail was an amazing workout. At lest the third was a side slip... much easier. The race went a bit better for us. Our athlete that went out on the sled the day before had a pretty good run. One girl crashed but the other two had solid runs. Super G is fun but scary. The athletes lean to be patient (all movements are progressive) so there skiing gets better as they learn speed. The problem is watching 14 year olds going 60 miles per hour and one of them is your daughter. I love it but I hate it too.

SuperG 2 on Tuesday was better weather and a pretty cool course set. Turns were bigger and faster but overall times were a bit slower than SG 1. We had another fun day. Our female that crashed in SuperG 1 had a very good run and was enough to get her into the JIII Jr Olympics which is the eastern US championship.

I left the mountain headed for home thinking I would finally get to spend a couple of hours with my daughter. She was pretty disappointed in her performance and was taking it out on me. If you have ever lived with a 14 year old...you know what I mean. I had to use the let's not talk at all to each other approach and she napped for about an hour. By the time we were home, all was okay with the world again... but I missed finding small adventure for us to share on the trip home. Next time.

My JIII racing season was over but we had a lot more skiing to do.

Back on the horse at Hunter

After the Bristol Super G, I was back down to Hunter for an Advanced Movement Analysis course on Wednesday and Thursday. This is part of the PSIA-E Master Teacher Accreditation and specifically part of the race series. This was not only my first trip to a big mountain since I hurt my knee but it was also back to the place where I got hurt. This was also the first event where I would be skiing pretty hard. By hard I mean steeps and bumps. This course adds situation (tactics) to technique to help instructors understand and identify appropriate movement patterns in and for different situations. Things like speed, radius, pitch and snow condition change tactical approach (movements) in skiing. Ski instructors are always taking ski lessons. There is always a training program if you are employed as a ski instructor. When you ask a ski instructor what they are working on they almost always answer with a body part; "I am working on my ankles", "I am working on my hands", "I am working on my hips" and so forth. When you ask a client what they are working on they often want situational improvement like; "I want to ski black diamond runs", "I want to ski in the bumps", "I want to improve my NASTAR handicap." Hence, the reason for this event, to help instructors understand how tactics work with technique so we can better help our customers improve their skiing.

It turned out my group contained some skiers that were not too advanced in tactics and/or technique. Interestingly, none came with a process to do basic movement analysis. We spent all Wednesday working on getting a consistent approach to quickly understand the movements we see when watching someone ski. I presented 3 different approaches as suggestions for process to look at skiing. The PSIA uses a skills based approach for describing the movements in skiing as the core of the American Teaching System (ATS); balance movements, rotary movements, edging movements and pressure management movements. All movements in skiing can be described in terms of these skills. It made sense to start with a skills based approach to watching skiing.

Many newer ski instructors use the skills approach to teaching. They teach edging for instance. What they miss is that the ATS skiing model uses skills to describe skiing movements so that there is common language to describe skiing. We need to teach skiing...as in ski turns and how we move to allow the ski to turn. Using skills with this group did not go so well. People kept talking about body parts instead of balance movements, rotary movements, edging movements and pressure management movements and how these were effecting the performance of the skis. So, I moved on to the approach I basically use. I look at general balance, turn entry (how the edges used are changed like step, jump, push or move to a the new set of edges to go the other way) and turn shape (the result after the turn entry). The group started getting the idea. For each skiing activity, I would use the process to describe the movements of the others in the group for all to hear. I then moved on to let them do the describing. At this point, there was no prescription just describing what we were seeing.

The third process I presented was shown to me by my friend Becky. What she does is look at gross movements to get a general idea of how the skier is moving. Then she looks at the ski in the snow and how it goes around the corner, when the spray comes off the ski and from what part of the ski (under foot or off the tail for example) and then she moves up the body to better understand how the skier is moving from turn to turn (like hips and ankles). The group had an easy time seeing gross movements and snow spray but a little more difficulty seeing ski performance and movement of mass to the new turn. By the end of the day, it did seem like most of the group were sort of using Becky's approach. I say sort of because no one was getting past the ski spray in the process.

Wednesday dinner was at Last Chance Cheese in Tannersville with my friends Mermer and Art. All we all have in common is skiing so how skis go left and right took up most of the conversation. Mermer is a writer and gardener so, for me, it was great to talk about some summer things too. I had quiche for dinner in celebration of being in a cheese restaurant but the menu had lots of good things to eat and is a favorite of many people that ski at Hunter.

Thursday I added the situation part to the on hill program. We skied short radius on steeps, medium radius on blue, and some bumps. In these situations, we explored different tactics to accomplish some reasonably effective skiing. In the bumps, I wound up teaching a lesson to the group because there was very little tactical understanding of bump skiing. It was really fun, the sun was out, it was warm and the bumps were really good. The group had a great time.

Also on Thursday, there were some college athletes training for some sectional races. After a quick conversations with a couple of the coaches, the group went down the race trail to watch some training. I spend some time explaining slalom tactics and having the group practice by describing what they were seeing. We added line (turning tactics for the gates), pole usage and shoulders (level at the fall line and parallel to the hill from fall line to transition) to what we were looking at. Later in the day, the course was reset to giant slalom (GS) so we came back and did the same thing looking at GS. I can watch race training for hours but we only spent 15 minutes on each look so we could keep skiing.

All in all, it was a really good trip for me. I skied hard and my knee did well. I never went down the back of the mountain due to the skiing skills of some of the group. This was a bit disappointing but I came home a happy camper. I did find out after the event that I had a small fracture due to the hypertension fall I took earlier in the season. It was only visible on the MRI (not the x-ray) and it is deemed healed at this point.

Super G at Bristol

I got home from Bear Creek Thursday night and left Friday after school with my daughter to Bristol Mountain for a 2 day speed elements camp and then a Super G race on Monday. In New York, the state is split east and west for the JIII ski racers (born 1996 and 1997) and the ski areas in central NY are considered part of the west. The East camp and race is at Gore and the west, as I said, is at Bristol. Bristol is steep so the kids have to turn at high speed, Gore is not steep so the athletes have to learn to glide. At both mountains the racers get up to speeds in the high 50s or low 60s; pretty fast. It would be great if we could get training on both hills but the state championships mostly bounce back and forth between the 2 mountains. Because everyone wants a home hill advantage when possible, the west will not go to Gore when the championships are at Bristol and vise versa when the championships are at Gore. Neither venue could handle all the racers from the state at one time.

The Bristol crew has been doing this camp and race for a long time and really have it dialed in. This was a great camp. It starts with sections of the hill and gradually works to a full length run on Sunday afternoon. The athletes learn patience (waiting for the rise line to begin turning) and how to progressively add edge angle above the fall line. The only thing better would be figuring out a way to run this camp earlier in the season but this is pretty impossible due to the inconsistency of early season snow... it has to be pretty hard snow and enough of it to get the protective fencing in place so that it will work properly.

Monday saw good race conditions and the set was really good. The athletes had a blast. It was the last race of the series so the selection for State Championships followed. Labrador qualified 6 of the 9 eligible athletes (including my daughter)...not bad; no real stars but some pretty solid skiing. There is currently some really good skiing going on in the Western NY JIII ski racing world.

Bear Creek Mounatin Resort

It was back to PA February 8-10. This time to Bear Creek Mountain Resort located near Allentown. This area was called Doe Mountain until 1999. It is pretty small and pretty mild in terms of terrain. The have done a huge amount of development around the lodge. There is a nice hotel and the area put me up in a slope side room. The staff all seemed genuinely happy to be of service. They do a pretty nice job with customer service. This is the second time this winter I have stayed at the mountain (Ski Liberty was the other). Because I am a bit of a cheapskate (skiing for a living is marginal at best money wise) I did not get in my car and wander off premises for for anything the two days I was there. Wednesday night, I ate dinner in the restaurant at the mountain with some other PSIA ed staff. I have kind of fallen into a Caesar salad with chicken rut and ordered one and a Guinness. The Guinness was perfect and the salad was okay. I could have used a bit more bite in the dressing. I guess I mean more garlic and lemon. The croûtons were white bread and seemed purchased. The chicken was grilled nicely but not spiced. That said it hit the spot and I was a happy camper it is just that I seem to be eating this dish a couple of times a week so I have begun comparing.

They were doing a kind of weird snow management thing on the hill. They were grooming and then blowing a layer of man made show on top. This left the surface pretty sticky and slow. For me, this was not too much fun to ski in. My group were really nice people and despite being a level 1 exam, we all had a good 2 days. I left Thursday afternoon a little after 4:00 PM and the temperature was 27 degrees. By the time I was back in Truxton, it was negative 6...cold.

Just some pics from the last few weeks..

All for now!

A bunch of small mountain skiing

I have been traveling a lot the last few weeks and will attempt to get this up to date. I have skied at Elk Mt PA, back to Labrador, to Greek Peak, then down to Whitetail and on to Ski Liberty. I am writing this from out near Bristol where I am coaching at a western NY JIII SuperG camp and race. I finished it while drinking coffee this evening at Origins in Homer NY while my daughter practices with the Homer High School Jazz band at the nearby school.

Elk Mountain was for a couple of PSIA events. The first was a Level 1 exam group. Level 1 certification is the introductory exam in PSIA. It involves skiing and teaching tasks in the beginning skier domain. This exam, unlike level 2 and level 3 have education elements and involve coaching candidates to help, not only with success of the candidates but to provide some general education concerning ski teaching. While I have never seen a movie with a ski instructor character that is not some sort of idiot, in real life ski instructing is a really difficult, demanding and incredibly underpaid occupation. Good ski instructors spend many years getting good. That said, it is really fun and rewarding. One of the best rewards of working as a ski instructor is that you get to study skiing. Your training never stops and the things you learn are endless as the sport keeps evolving. This is a help at the end of the season when you realize everyone you know (with the hopeful exception of other ski pros) think you are a "ski bum" and you realize how little money you made over the winter.

After Elk, it was home to Labrador and back to skiing with the ski team athletes. We hosted a slalom race for the 13 and 14 year old ski racers from western NY. The race went well but our athletes had a pretty rough day. I felt awful, I had set the first course for the females and the Labrador females all had trouble. Even when I am down, I do love race coaching. I get to ski with the same group of athletes all winter. They are very motivated ski students and trying to compete in a sport that is as difficult as any. There are so many variables; technique, tactics, terrain, weather, emotions and on and on. Despite the lows, there is nothing like it. Ski racing is the best.

The team went to Greek Peak for a GS (giant slalom) race on Sunday and we had a much better time. The race trail at Greek is challenging and long by western NY standards. It is always a good test. The weather was perfect for ski racing; clear sunny and cold (mid twenties). Both of the sets were good and the race went well.

I left after the race on Sunday for Whitetail in souther PA. It was so southern that the hotel was in Maryland. The trip was 320 miles and took me over 5 hours with a couple of short stops. The good parts of the trip were that all but 9 miles were interstate and the roads were clear and dry. Whitetail is relatively new (opened in 1991) and has a lot of nice terrain for a 1000 ft vertical ski resort. I was leading a PSIA level 2 practice exam which is based on the skiing requirements for level 2 certification. This is a pretty cool event because the examiner (me) gives feedback on if the performance is at the level 2 standard and then coaches the group to make the elements even better. What could be better preparation than spending a couple of days with an examiner getting understanding and coaching for all the things that will show up on a certification exam... the ultimate review session.

I wound up going to a Japanese hibachi restaurant that night for dinner with a group of PSIA Educational Staff folks. This is the only the third hibachi restaurant I have eaten in so I hate to generalize but I will anyway. I find the food quite edible but too salty and nothing special but I always have had fun. The chef flipped a piece of shrimp right into my mount on only the third try. I had about half my meal boxed and ate it the next afternoon for a late lunch.

That night there was a big general ice storm in southern PA followed by some brutal fog at the ski area the next day. It was really bizarre skiing in less than 50 feet of visibility. The only place you could see clearly was right in from of your skis. We got through the day and all in all it was pretty fun. Whitetail is a nice small mountain.

Tuesday afternoon I traveled to Ski Liberty over near Gettysburg. I was put up right at the motel at the mountain. This was cool. In the morning I walked down the hall to go to the PSIA event I was skiing in. I never drove my car until I left the ski area Thursday afternoon. Liberty also has some pretty nice black terrain for a small mountain. There were a couple of bump clinics going on so the area had let things go on a couple of trails. The sun was out by late morning Wednesday, the weather warmed and the bumps were big and soft...really good. I think the forecast must have been a bit of a miss because this was supposed to be a storm. After a couple of nice skiing days at Ski Liberty I was on my way home (another 5 hour drive) It was a good trip with some really good skiing memories. One night at home and I was off to Bristol for a superG camp and race but I will talk about that in my next post...I am getting tired of my rambling so you must be too.

Ellicotville

Over the weekend of Jan 8th and 9th, the team had its first races of the season, a giant slalom at Holimont and a slalom at Holiday Valley. Both areas are right in Ellicotville, NY. If you have not been there before, it is something to see. The town is totally tourist; nice restaurants, ski shops, specialty shops..even a brew pub. The town is complete with all parking spaces taken and fancy, beautiful people everywhere. While I guess this could be construed as negative, I do like to go there.. if is fun. Holimont lists itself as 700 feet of vertical. I don't believe you can ski all 700 in one run. I bet it is measured from the top of the easternmost lift to the bottom of the westernmost lift. That said the area is pretty wide and has a nice but a relatively tame assortment of trails. It starts right the edge of town and is built along a ridge. It must extend a mile up the valley at least. The resort is a private club with many members coming from Toronto and Ohio as well as parts of New York. The area is jammed with houses and condos some of them absolutely gigantic. The race was held on Fall Line which is their race trail. The first course was set wickedly tight (not a lot of distance down the hill to the next gate) and there was a rumor that there were too many gates for the hill so I did a little research. The rule for the maximum number of gates in a GS course is 15% of the vertical drop in meters. Fall line is listed as 143 M of vertical drop. This means 21.25 direction changes. It turns out both courses were too many turns....

Holiday Valley is on the edge of Ellicotville and is, for me, the nicer of the two areas. While its vertical drop is similar to Hollimont, the variety of terrain and the layout make for better skiing. The race trail is pretty steep, so pretty challenging for 13 and 14 year olds. It was another cold day. The snow was hard but carvable. I was the second run course setter for the women. It was a good set but second run of a 2 race really cold weekend produced a lot of mistakes by athletes but it was good to be racing.

Hunter Mt bummer

I am at Hunter Mt in the Catskills sitting in the lodge writing this. I came down Sunday night for the on-snow portion of PSIA-E examiner training for this year. It is a pretty easy drive from Truxton; about 2.5 hours. I always seem, to stop at the Neptune Diner in Oneonta on my way. It has a huge menu and some Greek specialties but this trip I was not too hungry so I had a turkey burger and a coke. I got in around 9:00 PM, called home then settled in for the night. Yesterday morning was pretty cold and and a bit windy. I guess Hunter Mt doesn't really fit into the small mountain theme but the great thing about being a small mountain skier is that there are occasions to ski on a big mountain and they are usually very special days on snow. I went out with a group of 8. The front was pretty good but fairly buffed by the wind in places. Hunter has added a new six-pack in the front to replace the detachable quad. It is a really cool lift, you not only load 90 degrees to travel, you exit 90 degrees to travel too; first lift I have seen that is set up this way. We decided to try the back and discovered Annapurna had been blown with new man-made snow all night. It was the nicest I had ever seen it. We skied on it all morning. Just before lunch I was skiing slowly down to where the group was and my left foot went into a hole and stayed there. I went out over the handle-bars and the ski released but I hyper-extended my left leg. I thought I was okay but as I started skiing again, I realized something was wrong with my knee. I skied carefully down the rest of the run and while riding back up, decided to give up the next run with the group and go down the front and in to see if I could figure out how hurt I was. I hung around until after lunch but decided to rest my leg so, I went back to the hotel, put some ice in a trash bag and spent the afternoon taking ibuprofen, icing an elevated left knee and watching Manchester United win another soccer game. Hence he bummer in the title of this post.

Later in the afternoon the rest of the group started to return from the mountain so I rallied and went out to the lobby to be sociable. I wound up heading to Pancho Villa's Mexican Restaurant in Tannersville for dinner. I dined with the owner of Kissing Bridge ski area near Buffalo, NY, the ski school director from Gore and the other examiner out of Labrador Mt. We had a nice time and nice dinner. I ordered a Negra Modelo (Mexican beer) and Enchiladas Poblanas which are chicken enchiladas in a mole sauce. I can't seem to not order mole when I see it on a menu. I love it. This one was a bit sweet for my tastes but really good.

This morning, my knee seemed slightly better but still not right. I decided to take today off to give it some more healing time. I have a lot of days left to ski this winter. So, I am hanging around the lodge waiting for my commuting partner to finish and then head home later this afternoon. I will have my knee looked at when I get home. Hopefully I will be better soon...wish me luck.

Christmas Camp

Every year between Christmas and New Years the Labrador Mountain Ski Club runs a 4 or 5 day camp for its athletes. This is always a fun week. Many recent "alumni" (college students) return and help coach or train if they are racing for a college team. So, I spent the week skiing with the 13 and 14 year old ski racers at Labrador. This year there are 11 athletes in our group. We had a good week. The skiing has been great, the weather... so so. The week started pretty cold and Monday we seemed to get nothing done. Every three runs we had to come in for a quick warm up. When athletes are freezing focus is a problem and learning becomes difficult. We are working hard on getting athletes to drive their bodies forward as they turn using ankle flex as the primary means of accomplishing this. We were on GS (giant slalom) skis and did not ski in any racing gates but did run a brush drill. Brushes are a training tool looks basically like a bunch of astro turf gone rasta attached to a rubber base about size and shape of a decent sized carrot. The base is inserted into a hole drilled into the snow and the turf sticks out the top giving the athlete a reference of where to turn (or be). The brushes were set to help the athletes perform a series of rounded shaped turns to help develop a better turn entry. While this was working well most of the kids were starting to whine a bit about not getting into race gates. Tuesday was slightly warmer but really overcast and drab. The high temp at the top said about 20 but it was so damp it felt much colder. There was this sort of freezing mist that iced everything. This makes the trees beautiful but it also makes goggles impossible to see through. We were on GS gear again and set courses both in the morning and afternoon sessions. In the morning we used a tight and difficult training course in the afternoon we set it easier to end the day with the athletes feeling good about their skiing. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were slalom. We set training courses all three days. The weather was warming and Thursday was a fantastic sunny day. This brought out many skiers. There is a group of pass-holders that can't stand the fact that there are ski racers training on the mountain. They seem to love to complain vehemently to not only the race coaches but to the management of the mountain because our training courses are always in their favorite places to ski. What management always seems to forget is that all our athletes are season pass-holders too and we come and ski no matter what the weather... which translates into some sales even if it is only french fries and hot chocolate. We are sometimes asked to pull out training courses but luckily not Thursday. Anyway, it was complainer Thursday at Labrador... but it did not spoil our fun. As I said, it was a fantastic day and the skiing was great. Friday we found most of the kids were physically tired and we quit at lunchtime. All in all a pretty good Christmas Camp.