MegèveSki

Back from Colorado

Our trip to Colorado was a great success. We skied 2 days in Keystone, 8 in Snowmass and 2 in Vail. All three areas were very different and the snow conditions were pretty varied but I enjoyed all of the skiing.

The Keystone days allowed me to put my technique to the test on very hard and "icy" slopes (I say "icy" rather than icy because it was just boiler-plate, hard, scrapey snow; I reserve icy for the blue/white ice patches, nobody else on the slopes seemed to understand this distinction...). When we arrived Colorado was in the middle of a warm spell, there hadn't been any significant snow for a while and the conditions were almost spring like. Lots of very hard slopes in the morning due to afternoon thaws and overnight freezing. I actually loved the hard conditions. My first turns felt like my boots were too loose, so I cranked them up and jumped into really pushing myself hard to see how my edges held on the hard pack; they held very well indeed. I spent two days doing punchy short swings and fast, aggressive hip cross-over, carved turns on steep hard pistes and loved it. My Rossi B2's (with their freshly sharpened edges) held perfectly the whole time and, in general, it felt like I was running on rails. I think my favourite run was Starfire, which, when taken fast is a lot of fun. I also enjoyed Wolverine, a black bump run through the trees from the top of Outback; the trees were widely spaced, the bumps were scrapey and a good shape and the run wasn't too steep given the additional obstacles.

Compared to Keystone, Snowmass was a huge area. We had intended to ski some of the other Aspen mountains but in the end we stayed at Snowmass the whole time; Helen had lessons, we were ski in/ski out, and by the time we were ready to try another mountain the snow arrived and we decided it would be better to ski the powder on runs that we knew. Conditions in Snowmass were generally softer than in Keystone. On the first couple of days I cranked up my speed a little and let rip on the rolling blues. Note to self; those rolls can be dangerous if you take them too fast!

On our first morning in Snowmass I took a roll on Sandy Park a little too fast and got some air. I take off on rolls quite a lot, but it's usually just a little pop and I'm down before I notice it. This time I had enough time in the air to think about stuff, that's a bad sign. I took off nicely, my body position in the air was pretty good, I kept forward, I had time to think about all of this whilst up there and then I landed... The landing could have been worse, I compressed on landing and ended up sitting on the tails of my skis but at least I was still on both skis. I managed to hold my balance and stand up and stop safely. I guess that's why they say you should "stomp" your landings, if I had pushed down rather than collapsed up then I would have remained standing (though whether I'd have actually landed it is another matter...). It was a rush, a scary rush but, well, kinda fun...

On day two I calmed down a little, still skiing hard and fast but with a little more awareness of the rolls. The bumps on Timberline were good fun and I skied them pretty well (for me), Sheer Bliss did just what it said on the tin and the runs on Big Burn and under Sam's Knob were great. Slot was an especially nice (if not too steep) black.

On day three I was skiing Sneaky's fast first thing and I decided to try and absorb the last roll, so that I didn't take off... Unfortunately I ran out of absorption before the roll ran out of roll. More big air but this time I took off fully in the back seat due to my excessive absorption. This time I had time to contemplate how my body position was all wrong (which is easy to deduce when your right knee is coming up towards your chin and your right ski is pointing straight up in front of you). The landing was, well, a case of me hitting the ground and my right ski exploding off of my foot and whipping up past my head. Score one for the helmet (which now has a nice scrape on the right temple). The ski also managed to shave a piece of my right boot's toe buckle off and leave a nice scrape on my right knee (it drew blood but didn't cut my ski pants!). Note to self; compression at either end of a jump is a bad idea... After that I calmed down a little...

Snowmass day 4 saw some new snow, not a lot, but enough to make the grooming interesting. This was probably my most disappointing day. My skis felt in need of servicing, they were sticky and the edges felt very dull; this was fixed, slightly, but upping my effort levels from my post big-air subdued level back to the effort level that I was expending in Keystone. I kept things safe by sticking to the steeper runs and going for punchy controlled short swings. I had a couple of nice leg burning, non-stop, runs down slot. I put the skis in for a service that evening.

Day 5 saw 3"-5" of new snow, more near the top. This got tracked out quite quickly but left some lovely soft choppy snow that worked great with short, bouncy turns where the actual turning usually took place with both skis off of the snow anyway... Choppy snow on steep slopes forced me focus on keeping a solid core and lifting my chest to create a gap between my bottom rib and my hips. This seemed to allow my legs to come around without pulling my upper body about. My arms and general upper body stability are getting better but they still need work to prevent unwanted rotation in more complex conditions.

More snow overnight and lots of grooming and more snow on top meant that Sneaky's was awesome as a first run of the day. We did it twice. After the ego snow I headed over to the bumps on Timberline and had my bubble popped. My usual (probably terminally broken) bump technique didn't really work that well with the layer of fresh snow on the hard bumps; I felt that I was in the back seat in bumps for the first time in ages; ah well.

Day 7 saw more snow. This time we were skiing real powder all morning. Excellent stuff. Brian did really well in the challenging conditions; I just let rip and loved it. On the Big Burn lift we bumped into the barman from the Ute City bar that we'd been at the previous night; he'd managed to tear a finger on his glove and I fixed it up with some electrical tape from my pack. His parting comment was that I'd earned some serious karma and that I'd have a good day... Miche had been having a lesson in the morning and her instructor, Tom "Coop" Cooper had been pushing her quite hard, taking her into double blacks and trees and whatever in the way that people do when they see Miche ski and don't realise that her on-piste confidence and ability levels are somewhat higher than her "difficult situation" confidence level... She'd had a good lesson but was whacked and so, having heard what Coop was like, I decided to take the afternoon lesson. The barman was right, I cashed in my karma boost with Coop and had an amazing afternoon. We took the Rock Island double black which was reasonably steep in places and had some interesting terrain issues; ideal for practising my "no more super tanker turns" technique. This worked well once Coop suggested that I started moving my outside arm forward as soon as I softened the inside leg, rather than some time after. By committing to several short bouncy turns I killed my previous habit of only committing to a single (huge!) turn in this kind of restricted situation. Another of Coop's suggestions was to hold my poles really lightly; a death grip on the poles translates into tight muscles all the way up to your shoulders and this puts tension in the wrong place... Seemed to work well; when I could remember to be gentle... After Rock Island we took the High Alpine lift and then hiked for 10 mins to get to the Hanging Valley Headwall (Unfortunately, Roberto's was closed). The Headwall was nice and steep and had great snow on it. Once down the wall we skied into the trees. Skiing trees with Coop was a little more intense than when I skied them with Lucy in Megève last year, but then Miche was with us last year and this time Coop seemed to be determined to ski me to my limits. The trees were closer together than the section that we did in Megève and there was more snow. There wasn't really time to think about the skiing at all, what with having to think about where Coop had gone and the speed that we were travelling. It was actually quite amazing to just weave through the trees and over and around the bumps and take all that the slope could throw at us without once thinking about what my feet or body or legs were actually supposed to be doing. Just do it... It worked. After that we headed back up High Alpine and took Reidars until half way down where we cut into the trees. We followed a long traverse path through the trees until a huge open section came into view; dropping down through the powder bowl we cut back into the trees for some more frantic action and then emerged into another clearing, this one untracked. Back into the trees and then back up to the top for a run down Cookies; more trees, more powder, less thinking. All in all an excellent afternoon; my recommendation is to always carry electrical tape and be generous with it; the snow gods are watching.

Our final day in Snowmass was another full day lesson with Coop. This time together. We started with some runs down under Sam's Knob. More fresh powder, bumps and trees. Tip of the day was to arch your upper back slightly back (push out your chest); this makes you more defensive towards conditions causing you to break at the waist... Don't lean back, clench your butt and tuck your pelvis under... After our "warm up" we took Powderhorn, a long black from just below the top of Sam's Knob to the Campground base area. The top section was awesome; loads of powder, some of it quite cut up, but who cares when you can take a pretty straight line and bounce from turn to turn. The bottom section was pretty bumpy and this exhausted Miche so she opted for a long coffee break; which was good for me... Whilst Miche rested Coop took me over towards AMF (Adios My Friend - or so the "family friendly" guide book suggests) - unfortunately the Cirque drag lift that accessed all of the double blacks on this side was closed and we weren't allowed to hike as they were in the middle of explosive avalanche prevention. We cut across to Sheer Bliss and took KT Gulley instead. It was scrapey with some big bumps but I skied it pretty well. No need for kick turns ;) Around towards Cirque again and there was a line for the lift, as we arrived the lifties opened it and we were the only ones to get off at the AMF exit. A short traverse and my first cornice entry; only a 3' drop and I think the lack of visibility helped... AMF was cool, a nice long, steep face with untracked powder. We were the first here and we left our mark. Once again I managed to link relatively short turns and avoid the super tankers... Once we made it to the bottom it was straight into the trees. This time it seemed even faster and more frantic than before; no time for thinking, just do it. We then met up with Miche and grabbed some lunch. My legs were pretty shot and I was quite pleased to have a reasonably easy afternoon working on technique with Miche and Coop. There were one or two more steep untracked powder faces and the odd tree for me but it was all much more sedate. Another excellent day.

When we got to Vail it was colder and the snow was drier and quite a bit was falling. We skied a short day on the first day because we were both quite tired, it was really cold and the visibility was pretty poor. The snow was awesome though; dry, champagne powder, up to around mid boot. We stayed on the front-side most of the time with a quick run down the easiest route into China Bowl before our legs gave up.

Our final day in Vail was blue sky and warmer with a little fresh snow. The powder of the previous day had settled a little but it was still fairly light. We skied China Bowl and Blue Sky Basin. I had great fun with several runs on the steep, deep, long black that is Genghis Khan and the "extreme" (well, perhaps when there's less snow!) Dragon's Teeth (I think most of the "teeth" were nicely covered with snow...). Over on Blue Sky In he Wuides was fun, as was the edge of Champage Glade. We skied Cloud 9 back and then headed home.

All in all, an excellent 12 days skiing.