Ski Girl Says

Set a Ski Resolution

The New Year is here. Here's to 2010!  When you set your resolutions, did you include a ski resolution?

Ski resolutions are a great idea. They involve fitness, being outdoors and doing something good for yourself.

Here are a few ideas that might work for you:

• Resolve to ski more often
• Decide to call up a friend each week and plan a ski day together
• Plan to get in better shape to support your skiing. Pilates, cardio, and strength training are all helpful for your skiing. 
• List every resort you have been to and determine to try at least two more areas by year end.
• Aim to ski down a slope you have never attempted.
• Think of a skill you wish you had in skiing and take a lesson to learn it.
• Look over your equipment and apparel now and decide what you need to replace for next year and go find it at a deal when the season winds down.  Yes, this is a skiing and a shopping resolution.
• Get a friend or relative interested in the sport.
• Try something different like telemark or freestyle if you haven't already.

There are plenty of resolutions you can make, large or small in skiing.  There is no end to learning and improving your skills in this sport. No matter how much you progress, room for growth never goes away.

My 2010 ski plans?  

• I will take at least 2 more ski trips. 
• I will take my boyfriend skiing as much or as little as he wants to learn the sport.  
• I will keep up my ski blog. 
• I will train for and take my level II PSIA adaptive ski instructor exam.  
• I will watch and cheer on Team USA in Olympic skiing.

Happy New Year and Happy Skiing!

Olympic Tickets, Anyone?

Wouldn't it be great to see ski competition at the Olympics? I've seen World Cup races, regional competitions, and masters of skiing compete in the Jeep King fo the Mountain.

Freestyle and Aerials put on an amazing show. If you've never seen a Slalom or GS, it's something you should really make a point of doing. But pay close attention. The racers go past you with incredible speed.  I tend to listen for the sound of the skis and snap the button on my camera as soon as I hear a swoosh. If you wait to see until a skier comes into view, you will miss the shot. The skiing is that fast.

The Olympics with all it's pomp and circumstance would be an amazing venue to watch an international event. February this grand competition comes to Vancouver, BC. It's worth the trip if you can get tickets. 

Does anyone understand how to buy tickets? It looks like the official Vancouver Olympics site sells only to Canadians. The official US ticket outlet sells only hospitality packages, raising the price of an event ticket by about $1,200.  What does a ski girl have to do to plan a vacation?  It is certainly not easy to figure out how attend. When I do, I'll post it.

Spring Ski Travel

Have you headed off on your spring ski trip yet? At least one of them yet? My bags are packed. My skis are at the door. My dog is looking at me sadly, knowing I'm up to something involving a suitcase.

Off to New Hampshire!  Adios! Reports when I'm back. As the slopes soften, get out and enjoy some great spring skiing this weekend.

~Ski Girl

Nordic Skiers Under Attack

A friend sent in this link.  There is no point in me summarizing, the article says it all:

Owl Attacks Skiers

Perhaps if the skiers should consider alpine and leave the skinny skis at home. Might be a safer way to travel.

Bad Night; New Resolutions

I had a bad dream last night. Do you know you you get a notice in the mail when your subscription to a magazine is about to expire? "Only one issue left?"

I had a dream I received one of these postcards in the mail telling me there is just a month of ski season left. "Only a few more weekends."  I couldn't believe my season was almost up.  I was scared by the dream, but thankful for the warning.

I wonder if this dream caused me to sleep through my alarm this morning and miss the ski lesson I was going to take at 8:30 am?

So here's your warning, your wake up call.  Depending on where you live, you have different amounts of the ski season left. How are you going to use it? Is there a run you're dying to take? A trip you need to squeeze in?  Think of all the great spring festivals, spring skiing and pond skimming just around the corner. Have you blocked off your calendar to partake? 

We make New Year resolutions. Some of us make Lenten resolutions. How about your ski resolution? What are you going to get out there and do, before your season expires?

A Skiing Magazine for Women

I just opened my latest issue of Skiing Magazine.  It was bundled in a plastic wrapper with the first issue of, Women's Skiing.  It is a 64 page stand-alone supplement dedicated to women. (The regular issue is 144 pages.)

I have long thought the editors of Skiing catered to a twenty-something testosterone-driven market. Whether their marketing staff says that is their target audience, I do not know. The magazine definitely slants that way.  It is nice to see the editors paying some attention to women.  It's about time.

I'll be reading through the pages to see how well the magazine is targeted to ski girls. More to come...

The Thoren Experience - Part II

I have to start the 2nd half of this post  by thanking the people who brought Jeannie to my little neck of the woods to speak.

Lange/Dynastar was smart enough to add Jeannie Thoren to their staff. She gets the credit in my book for helping the manufacturer understand women's equipment needs better.   They help make her tour around the country to deserving ski shops happen.

Dekdebruns Ski shop was clever enough to secure a tour date for her series in Ellicotville, NY. That's how I got to hear a women's ski guru speak when I don't live in the Rockies, or the Green Mountains, or the White Mountains.

      

Thoren tells it like it is. Her talk is filed with personal experiences, stories, humor, and a serious look at designing ski equipment for women.

This isn't just thinking about how skis and boots should be built and speaking your mind (which is what I do).  No, this is serious scientific stuff. Physics, anatomy, and years of teting are behind Jeannie's ideas.

She explains principles like canting, mounting points for bindings, and footbeds and why they should be customized for the right ski experience for women. 

More information about her programs is available at, Jeannie Thoren's web site.I am not going to give away all her secrets. I left energized.  I went home, threw out a pair of heels (they look great, but strain my knees)  explored the construction of my new ski boots and footbeds, and dreamed that night of snow.

Photos Right: Jeannie Thoren and Patti Dekdebrun of Dekdebrun's Ski Shop
Left: Jeannie,Patti, and me - author of what Ski Girl Says.

The Thoren Experience - Part I

I recently had the chance to hear Jeannie Thoren speak about ski equipment and the evolution of her theory on how to design equipment with a woman in mind.  I walked out energized, excited and feeling extreme vindication for all the times I argued that my equipment limited my skiing.

In my earliest ski instructor adventures, I remember arguing with the ski school director. We were in a clinic. Everyone in the class was a tall guy, except me. The director insisted we stay in his tracks, mirror his moves exactly and maintain the exact same speed. I explained I could not possibly maintain the exact same speed and I could not possibly create the same angles. Girls are different and we flex our equipment different, not to mention I weighed half as much as anyone in the group.  He looked at me blankly and claimed I was making no sense.

I knew there was some logic to my argument. I knew I was not going to ski like the guys, or even a mini version of the guys.  I don't want to look like a guy on men's skis.  I am a ski girl.

Jeannie's speech proved everything I suspected all these years and more. Her logic on women's ski equipment is not just theory. It is rooted in physics and anatomy and years of experimenting with equipment. Thank goodness someone is out there teaching equipment manufacturers that women are not small men.  More on the Thoren experience to come....

So You Want to be a Ski Bum?

Are you a ski girl between the ages of "living off mom and dad" and "independent and paying a fair amount for your hairstylist, wardrobe and groceries of choice"?  Are you looking for new adventures, but don't feel that requires a gym membership, or a car that runs reliably  every day?

If so, this may be the perfect winter to take the plunge. Work a season as a ski bum. Explore life as s a liftie, instructor, rental shop agent, or cafeteria worker.   You can eat mac and cheese three times a week, share a run-down condo with four strangers and work multiple jobs. If it means unlimited skiing and adventures; sure you can!  Try it before your standards become too high to live off minimum wage and freeze your butt off every day.

So, how do you find that ski job?  Your local resort probably has a recruiting fair. Check their website, or give them a call. If you are willing to travel to a new ski town for the perfect winter of hard work and play, check one of these sites for opportunities:

www.coolworks.com

www.skiutahjobs.com

www.skijob1.snow.com

www.jobmonkey.com

www.intrawest.com

Good luck and stay warm!

Catch the Movie Tour

Warren Miller films have been part of ski culture for decades. Walk into a ski town bar and you're likely to catch the extreme skiing and riding tricks playing on a large screen.  Browse the ski shops and find videos and dvds.  A new film is released every year.

Last winter I watched a Warren Miller film in a new atmosphere. I caught the tour.  In late fall and early winter the newest film is screened city by city, across the country.  This experience put extreme action ski films in a whole new light for me.

Picture a dark, crowded movie theater.  The seats are packed with ski fanatics, all hungry for snow. Most have gone 6-8 months without laying tracks.  The air has turned crisp and cold and the promise of snow is near.  Adrenaline-pumping music fills the theater. The screen explodes with a series of ski runs, so radical that we can only dream of experiencing it first hand. The audience erupts in cheers for great runs, grimaces for memorable wipe-outs and is overcome with envy of the athletes in the picture.

If you can, catch the film on the release tour.  Share in the camaraderie of skiers anxious to make their first runs. It is a great way to build anticipation of the new season, and a whole lot of fun. You can look for tour dates near you at www.warrenmiller.com

Don’t Let Old Skis Die Young

Don’t retire your skis, or trash them when  you’ve worn them out,  gouged them up, advanced beyond their  level, or even snapped them in two.  Don’t banish your straight skis to a garage sale where they will never move. 

After all, didn’t they save your neck on at least a few days of dicey conditions? Weren’t your skis there to perform and make you look spectacular on the slopes. Haven’t  they been a prized possession of yours? So how can you trash them to the curb?

In the spirit of going green and recycling versus piling up landfills, give your skis a second life.  Turn your boards into something useful.  My sister converted my brother’s old skis into a chair as a gift. It turned out so well, she and I each made rockers from our own pairs.  The skis are doing much better service on my deck, than in the corner of the garage.  I can lounge on my chair in the sun and be reminded of some of my best runs.  Here’s a shot of my old friends, re-purposed.  In this cozy new fashion, they could  stay with me for decades.

Saluting Local Legends and Individuals

Every ski area attracts a few local legends--people who everybody recognizes. You know immediately when someone references the legend, even if you never met him or her.  These are the ski-enthusiasts who show their unique colors, day after day and are proud of it.  You know these people.  Think about it. Some ski for a few seasons. Others return year, after year, after year.

Back Seat Jesus comes to mind for me.  For three springs, he returned. His long hair flowed freely. He often skied without a shirt.  The sound system in his backpack, blaring down the hill, threw his stance into the back seat as if seated on a wooden chair in a classroom. He skied tireless, day after day.  Somehow his turns and his timing were never thrown off by that invisible chair forcing his legs to a ninety degree angle. I did not give him his nick name. But, I know exactly who the locals mean when they speak of him.

I don't know the name the locals use for the most recognizable area individual. I call him " The Vuhyper" (Voohp-er). I was floored to open the new issue of Skiing Magazine and find him on page 145. If you have the magazine, you are looking it up now. Yes that's him. Yes, that's what he wears every spring.  He pounds the corn-snow moguls for as long as the sun can shine as bright as his multi-colored one-piece. You do not get the full impression of this fair-weather showman from SkiNet's ad in Skiing. There is no audio in a print magazine. I call him the Vuhyper, because with every mogul he expletes a distinct sound effect. "Vuhyp----Vuhyp----Vuhyp."  You can hear it from two slopes over.   It shows off the rhythm of his mogul skiing and the joy he takes in the sport.   Not to mention, you know he's on the hill.

If you ski where I do, you know this man. If you ski elsewhere, you know a different local with a different flair. All over the world, individuals are sometimes nameless, yet regionally famous. Why? Because we all like to watch them stand out on the slope from our safety net where we blend in on the chair. We watch them express their individuality and love of the sport.  We all know who they are. Here's to the local legends.  Ski your way, your style. Love what you do without fear of showing it.

Movies and Skiing

The movies never seem to know quite what to do with skiing or how to depict ski girls.

First you have your action adventure Hollywood films.  James Bond had his share of ski adventures. The earliest films show him with his Bond girl, hair and scarf blowing in the wind as the scenery glides past.  This was clearly filmed on a set with a blue screen and no real mountains in sight.  Later films depict true chases down the mountain.

Then there’s Warren Miller, who despite Hollywood has created practically his own genre of ski films.  Warren Miller creates a film each year mixing music, anecdotes on ski adventures, and action shots of true extreme skiing.  His movies have quite a following in the ski world. If you have a chance to go to screening at a theater when his film comes out in the fall, do it.  Anyone who is not a die-hard skier or snowboarder has probably not seen a Warren Miller film, unless it was playing on the screen at the bar or hotel in a ski town.

Ski School and Ski Patrol are examples of the B....no I can't bring myself to cal them B movies. Maybe C or D. They  feature partying and guys chasing women at ski resorts. The characters are  two dimensional. The dimensions are alcohol and sex. The humor is weak and and the skiing is not much fun to watch. Maybe you are supposed to watch them under the influence of something much stronger than alcohol to enjoy them.

One of my favorite ski films, Better Off Dead,  features possibly the best ski girl on film--Monique, the French foreign exchange student in Better Off Dead.

Here’s a movie that won’t win any critics’ awards.  It is not artsy, or intellectual.  It’s a 1980's comedy starring John Cusak as Lane, the high school student who wants to make the ski team to win back his ex-girlfriend.  In this film, becoming ski team captain is more important than being football captain.  Not everyone watching today will get 80’s references like Wide World of Sports.  But I dare you not to laugh at some part of this campy comedy where fancy TV dinners are fit for Christmas gifts and paperboys become ruthless stalkers. 

Monique is the exchange student staying across the street from Lane. The audience doesn’t know much about her through half the film. This ski girl is smart, has her own stylish sense of fashion, loves American baseball and has a killer pitching arm. She can fix a car and dish back attitude to the school bully and get away with it.  Little is said about her skiing, until you see her tackle the slopes. She can ski, probably better than anyone else in the film. She tackles the slopes with technical form and makes skiing appear effortless.    Monique is a great ski girl on film.

Perhaps Hollywood will find real roles for skiing in the future.

Off Season

I'd like to start with a side note:

I've been catching some flack for not posting recently.  I apologize for thinking I'm too consumed in my daily activities to complete a well-thought-out post.  I've started several, but not completed them.  It is flattering to get complaints; I know I have readers. Thanks for complaining.

Off Season

So what do ski girls do in the off-season? The lucky ones go to South America, or other destinations in the Southern Hemisphere. I understand the season is off to a rough start in New Zealand, where skiing is just getting started this week at Snow Park.  The lifts should have been turning much earlier, but the slopes were starving for snow. 

Many of my ski friends are sailors. There seems to be a large crossover from snow-bound to nautical.  My sailing season is also off to a rough start due to weather cancellations. Mountain biking, road biking, roller-blading, jogging and kayaking all draw skiers during the summer months.

Some, like me, go to ski areas and hike or mountain bike. It is a chance to visit your old stomping grounds and haunt the hill. But, much like a student who returns to campus after graduating,I find the place is different. Slopes are not the same without the snow. Honestly, that green trail is a lot more intimidating to me on a mountain bike than on skis.  It instills more fear, but is less exhilarating.

Whatever you do, don't become a slug in a chair watching reruns of the shows you missed while you were out in the snow all winter.  Biking and rollerblading are excellent cross-training programs for skiing. A little sunshine everyday (not a sunburn--I am not endorsing a lack of sunscreen) is good for all of us. So find your sport, or several of them. Get outside and play.  You'll be happier, and in better shape when the first flakes stick to the ground.

The Future of Skiing

Where is the future of skiing headed?  Many trends are affecting the sport.

• Skiing is becoming a more and more expensive sport to participate in. The cost at most areas is prohibitive for many Americans to get started in the sport. 
• Alternative gear to alpine skis come like the monoski come and go. The ski blade phase is dwindling.  Ski bikes are on the rise.  Yet snowboards and telemark are here to stay. These sports are competing with skiing for new participants and forcing resorts to redesign their slopes to accommodate multiple sports.
• The Olympics in 2010 will feature ski-cross as an Olympic event. This should spark a whole new interest in a facet of competition that is not seen at just any resort--yet.
• Ski areas are becoming less emphatic on the "ski" name. They are ski and ride areas. Echo Mountain, Colorado, is putting more emphasis on promoting their variety of terrain features than trails.  Big Boulder, Pennsylvania, claims to be an all-freestyle mountain.  Mount Snow is designating an entire mountain as freeride terrain.
• Gear continues to change, skis are shorter, fatter, or more specialized to snow conditions and skis styles. Yet the prices are going up and up.

The same old, same old will not do for resorts that want to compete for younger markets and new participants in winter sports.  Variety of terrain, price points and niche markets are all part of the new snowsports industry.   It's an interesting road ahead.  Your favorite resort may look very different in 5-10 years.

Top 10 Assumptions and Myths about Ski Girls

10.  Girls can't ski as well as you.
I love when someone at a resort offers to give me ski lessons who has never seen me ski. I love it more when I blow past that "volunteer" on the slopes. I may not be perfect, but I might ski better than you.

9. We like to be called ski bunnies.
If you believe that, you probably think cat calling and names like "toots" are compliments too.

8. Women's boots should have a liner as soft and cushy as a pillow.
I tried on some supposedly high end women's boots that had more give and compression in the liner than a pair of fuzzy slippers. Mushy boots are good for no one.  Overly cushy liners destroy the fit and performance. Duh.

7. Ski girls buy skis to match their outfits.
Seriously?  Do we buy cars to match the garage? Double Duh.

6.  Women who say they go skiing on a regular basis go to shop and sit in the lodge.
Some women do.  Shopping and après entertainment are great and should be part of any ski vacation.  However, there is a reason it's called après ski…it means after.  You ski first. Ski girls go skiing to ski.

5.  If she skis under the lift, it is solely to impress you.
No. She is just skiing mountain, but it is okay if you watch.

4. Ski girls are afraid of steeps bumps and jumps.
I'm game if you are.  However, ski girls are logical. We don't jump off a cliff just because it's there.

3. Women don't need different skis, just different color skis.
Thank goodness this thinking has changed! Women's skis are one of the best changes in skiing in the last 10 years.   With a different center of gravity and different weight, women need different skis and different mounting points for bindings.

2. Women who ski on other than sunny days need parkas that look like men's jackets.
When will the ski apparel industry wake up?  Walk into any snow sports shop.  With a few exceptions, the high performance jackets that are windproof, waterproof and functional are in drab, muted colors and cut in the shape of a box, with little or no detail.  Jackets are either: a) stylish and flattering on a woman's figure, or b) designed to withstand the elements. Ski girls want both in one.  That is not too much to ask.

1. "You ski really well, for a girl" is a compliment.
It's as much a compliment as saying, "Wow, that outfit is pretty and it looks great on you. I think my mom has one like it."

Ski girls do ski really well, especially if the ski is made with women in mind.  Yes, we do enjoy a good après ski party and can look amazing in the lodge or out on the town. That's only after we've clocked dozens and dozens of runs down the diamonds and the double diamonds and the back bowls.  We can look just as amazing or more doing that.

Guys, the next time you go skiing with a female, don't assume she's going to sit in the lodge and wait for the boys to return from the slopes.   Assume you're actually going skiing together.  We are here to share the slopes….yes that means the expert terrain too.  But isn't that so much more fun?

Ski Withrdrawal

Sadly, the last of the ski resorts in my area closed this weekend. Now begins the dreaded phase of ski withdrawal.  Skiers, you know what I mean. 

A general melancholy sets in.  You miss the slopes. You miss your ski friends. They traveled from near and far every weekend. Now, they are gone until pre-ski season events next fall.

Your metabolism is completely confused.   You are still functioning as if your body needs to burn enough calories to ski, ski, ski.  You are hungry, but not exercising at the rate you were. You might pack on some pounds if you don't cut back. But then again, you'll lose some pounds as well-toned ski muscles start to break down.  You don't want muscles to break down.

You need to work out.  You want to be outside.  You could go running, roller-blading, or trek to the gym. You could tune up the bike and start riding.  Some, or all of these things will happen. But, it isn't the same. The season is rainy and gray.  It is not much fun to run in April.  Extra motivation is necessary to go out the door and start any activity at this time of year. 

No one has to convince you to get out of bed and go skiing in the winter, regardless of the weather. You have no excuses to make about going skiing any day. Today you stare out window, wishing for snow.  It isn't coming. Even if a storm brewed up a foot of powder, the lifts are closed. 

Skiing is over until November.   Then you realize, somewhere there is still snow. Snow may be a  day trip away, or short flight.  A road trip sounds good...very, very good.

Have Your Own Ski Resort

You can find almost anything on EBay these days.  Yesterday I found a ski resort for sale. This was not just any ski resort, it was the area where I skied as a little girl with my family.   I loved that place. The hills had character.  The mountain was in just the right spot to receive dumps of lake effect snow on a regular basis.   It has been closed for a long time.  Locals still curl one corner of their mouth in a nostalgic grin when you speak of the resort.  Oh, how I would love to own that mountain!

Unfortunately, the price tag of $8 million is a bit steep for me.  Let’s face it, I don’t know anyone in a position to buy it.  Purchasing the land is only a fraction of what it would take to reopen the slopes. The hills are overgrown. Rusty towers and a few chairs strewn on the ground are all that remain of the lifts.  The shell of the lodge is probably only fit for a haunted house these days, if that.

So just would it take to own your own ski area?  Scale that request down to a ski hill.  Doesn’t every ski girl want a ski slope in her yard?  I don’t need a full resort. I just want a private ski slope, in my backyard…someday.

People have managed to build ski slopes at home.  The Cochran family of Vermont designed their own hill. All four Cochran children went on to the US Ski Team. The family arsenal of medals includes several world cup prizes and an Olympic gold.  Their family is testament that having a slope at home is good.  So why can’t I dream big? It could happen, but what would it take?

I will start my budget with a few assumptions.  The slope will be in my yard, for personal use, so we will skip the cost of a lodge, staff and crazy ski resort insurance premiums.    I’ll run it myself. My friends can help me build it and ski there with me.   My friends will not sue me if they fall. Prices for land can vary dramatically based on where you are building.  Just assume I’m lucky enough to live on a piece of property with a decent pitch (which currently is not the case).

I just need snowmaking, vehicle(s), and some sort of a lift apparatus to get started.  I said you can buy anything on EBay.  However, you can not buy everything on one  given day.   I may need to surf the web a bit.  I wonder what I can find a price for on the Internet today to ballpark my budget?

Lift apparatus. I had to go to some ski industry sites to find what I wanted. Here we go, used chairlifts starting at $15,000.  I don’t think I need a full-fledged chair for home use. How about a nice rope tow, or handle tow?  Be careful what you shop for. Most ski tows and ski rope tows for sale on the Internet are for waterskiing.  I see used handle tows (operational) priced starting at $6,500.  

For snowmaking you can make your own gun system.  There are plenty of web sites devoted to that.   I’ll take the easy route and buy used.  Snowmaking , $2,000 and up. That’s just for one gun, but I will move it around.  If I have to set my alarm during the night to wake up and move it periodically, I will.

Vehicles are a more difficult call. Do I really need a snowcat? Cats are great, but too expensive. I don’t care if I groom the hill.  It is necessary to have some sort of vehicle to get around the property with equipment for lift and snowmaking maintenance.   I could settle for a snowmobile .  Aha! I found a used snow tractor for $7,500.

Grand total, bare bones, running a lift and and a snowgun in my yard…$16,000.  That doesn’t include utilities, installation or trail cutting. Maybe my friends would help set this up for ski perks on my land. That’s right, I don’t  have land on a hill yet. Maybe someday.  It is an attainable dream, though perhaps eccentric.  I call it a worthwile pursuit for any ski addict. 

Links of interest:

Is there a now overgrown ski area in your past you’d like to reminisce about?  Check out New England’s Lost Ski Areas.

For information on the Cochran Family Ski resort, visit Cochran Ski Area