February 1st 5th Telemark Lesson

The snow is extremely hard up at Pajarito right now and so with huge firm icy bumps not seeming so appealing, I thought it would be a great day to work on some edging techniques on my tele skis on Sat. Mike Skaggs was up tuning skis and gave my new skis a nice sharp edge. It turned out to be one of those days where I started to feel like things were starting to click. I worked on my edging as well as making those smooth transitions that Bob was talking about the week before. I was pretty excited because it was just starting to feel pretty good and much more natural. Because the snow was so firm, it was not a long day on the runs, but a very nice sunny day for some wine on the deck with friends :-)

Sunday was going to be my last lesson, and I was a little sad about that. I think I could use more, but I couldn't find a way to get to my class, to Alb and on a plane to Houston all in the same day. Work ruined my fun once again.

Since we didn't have to stop by the Boot Doctor (since we are all geared up now), we were on the mountain a little earlier than usual. It started out as a very nice day, and the snow was soft. Donna and I took it slow and worked on our turns, we were joined by Katie, a woman in Donna's class. This was the first day that I didn't feel like I was starting all over again on the first run. The thing that makes me the happiest is my left hand turn, it is starting to come around and I was afraid it never would.

Donna and I took a break and had lunch at the Bavarian, a beer and some Spatzel, it was yummy. The girls (Linda and Deborah) were back for our lesson, and Katherine couldn't make it so there were just the four of us (including Bob). Linda and I will not be back next week, so Bob tried to wrap things up for us as best as he could. We again worked on the smoothness of the transition, pulling your leg back and not pushing the downhill leg forward. Also weighting our skis continues to be a focus for Bob. Bob feels that what we need is to get the turn mechanics down as best as we can, and then we can take it to other terrain. We worked on shortening up our turns so that we would have experience in turn ratio's that match the terrain we are on.

We had two video's taken of us on different terrain. This was great, the video was close up and we watched it in slow motion while Bob showed us specifically what we were doing well and where we were needing improvement. It really helped to be able to see what he was telling us.

The last thing we did was just plain mean. Bob took away our poles so that we would have to concentrate on our balance. This was hard, but I think a very worthwhile exercise. At the end of the day, as usual, Bob asked us what we found most useful and what two things did we want to take away to work on for the rest of the season. Mine are weighting the skis and not bracing my downhill ski (especially on my left hand turn). He thought these were the two things that would take me to the next level as well. S

o I have been let loose from lessons (YIKES) to work on this by myself. This blog will serve to be useful in remembering what Bob taught me.

Donna didn't have as good of a day on the mountain and was somewhat frustrated at the end of her lesson. Her instructor Stephanie will try to see how they can work with her more next week to meet her particular needs. I hope that happens. Donna and I stayed up on the mountain to watch the SuperBowl at the Martini Tree, but left shortly after half-time because we were so tired. We listened to the game on the way home and it sounded as though we missed a lot.

Next Friday begins the K2 Women's Ski Weekend at Pajarito. I signed up to tele-ski with other women tele skiers, we will have socials, yoga, etc. it should be fun and another chance to practice my tele-skiing.