Montreaux

[Photos above: Montreaux lakefront walk; Chateau Chillon; Casey, Gary, Pam & Steve at pub]

I got up early today and took the train as far as Montreaux with one of the groups leaving Zermatt. At the Montreaux station I bid the group adieu and toured this magnificent town. The lakefront path was among the most beautiful I have ever taken. I walked from the train station to the castle. My knee bothered me a bit but the views made it easy to ignore. The castle, Chateau Chillon, was spectacular - one of the largest and most restored castles I have ever seen. I spent a couple of hours going through it. Afterward, I took a city bus back to the main part of town where I ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking Lake Geneva (or Lac Léman as the Swiss call it). I had Rosti Complet - potatoes with ham and an egg. Delicious. It's such a thrill to be able to get by in French when I travel now.

Around 3:00 pm I hopped on a train to Geneva. I had trouble staying awake for the hour-long train ride. In Geneva I went to the old part of the city for the two hours I had before the shops closed and made a major dent in my Christmas shopping - finding something for every member of my family. In the evening I met up with a few members of the group that were in Geneva that night at a pub famous for its beers by the litre. I don't usuall like beer but this one was pretty good.

That's the end of my posting for this trip. I had an amazing tme. I made many new friends and enjoyed reacquainting myself with old ones. The weather and snow conditions were fantastic. I ate a ton of really good food and still managed to lose a few pounds with all the skiing and hiking. I learned a lot and dramatically improved my skiing. I achieved the ultimate goal of my Level 3 certfication. I could not ask for more.

Zermatt - Day 13

It's sad this morning as some of the group are leaving. Among others, Josh and Rory have both left. I am going to ski one last day. My lessons ceased once I got the Level 3 so it will be my opportunity to free ski and have some fun. I did a little of that yesterday morning but had to be a "student" for the three men taking the Level 3 teaching exam yesterday afternoon as well as the afternoon before. My current plan is to have an early day on the hill and come back to pack so I can leave early tomorrow morning and spend a few hours in Montreaux on the way to Geneva. I will have to look into train connections too.

This may be my last post for a bit as I'm not sure of wireless availability from here on in. I hope you have enjoyed sharing my journey. No regrets. :)

Zermatt - Day 12

[Photos above: celebrating my Level 3 at Papperla Pub, solo and with Sandy. Note the shiny pin on my top.]

Sandy surprised us yesterday with an announcement to the group that Rory and I passed the Level 3. It came as a complete shock as we thought we were still going to be evaluated today. I was in a daze afterward accepting everyone's congratulations.

Needless to say curfew was lifted. A huge group of us adjourned to the Papperla Pub to celebrate. Rory spent a fortune buying rounds. Courtesy of Josh we were introduced to a Big White tradition - three rounds of three shots, all red, to celebrate. Our achievement was toasted all night. It was a lot of fun.

Zermatt - Day 11

I GOT IT!!!

Zermatt - Day 10 Part 2

[Photos above all taken at the Papperla Pub yesterday evening- Steve & Jason, Sandy & Doug, Josh & Casey]

Okay, I don't know who is going to love this more - my friends or family. I have a curfew. Sandy has instructed Rory and I that we are not to drink any alcohol tonight or tomorrow night. We are also not allowed to leave the hotel after dinner. He says if we are serious about getting our Level 3 we will follow these instructions. Or in his words, "two days or two years". An easy compromise to make as far as I'm concerned. After another full day skiing I am ready for an early night.

We had a good day. Sandy was tough on us but better now than after it's too late. I started the morning with some good runs for all of intermediate parallel, dynamic parallel, and short radus. Sandy congratulated me on becoming a "whole new skier" since I arrived. In the afternoon we did a lot of skiing the ridge. Fog had greatly reduced visibitliy by then. I had one particularly bad run on the ridge as I didn't realize a groomer had just gone by leaving a double ridge and I went down to far and hit the second one. My balance has been really good this year. Despite a few near misses, I have yet to fall in 8 days of skiing. Must be those new skis keeping me on my feet!

After skiing today I went back to the physiotherapy clinic and had the physiotherapist work on my leg with the bad knee again. She worked on the one leg for a full half hour. I wish she had another half hour free as I would've gotten her to work on the other leg as it is starting to get tight as I rest my bad leg whenever I can. My knee has been holding up well while skiing. It was starting to twinge at the end of the day today so I'm glad I had the physio work on it so I'll be fresh for tomorrow.

Sandy is going to work with us again tomorrow. He wrapped the day with telling us that we are both skiing runs at the Level 3 standard but that he wants to see our consistency increase. Today's ski tips are the things I need to keep in mind over the next two days to make sure I do just that:

Intermediate Parallel

1. Make sure feet are toe to toe in the fall line (i.e., no lead change)
2. Show a lot of mobiliy
3. Keep moves progressive
4. Cross over low in phase 1

Dynamic Parallel

1. Do not hold on too long at the end of the turn. Start the new turn before you feel you are done the last turn.
2. Start each turn feeling as though you are doing an inside ski turn

Short Radius

1. Begin each turn with a strong pivoting effort
2. Shoot feet forward at the end of the turn so they don't get left behind

Terrain Adaptation (Ridge)

1. Keep really small/compact bending even further at all joints (legs and waist) when cresting ridge
2. Ski with feet close together like you do with bumps. Keeps both feet hitting the same terrain at the same time and helps eliminate lead change.

I'll be heading to my room shortly and will be in bed by 10:00. I hope I can sleep through the night as I am sure we are going to have another big day tomorrow. I'll write again soon.

Zermatt - Day 10 Part 1

The pressure starts today. Sandy was on us last night about how hard he was going to work us over the next two days - no breaks, skiing top to bottom without stopping, and a lot of work on the ridge. It's do or die time. I had a fairly good sleep last night - with the exception of my roomie's phone ringing at 2:30 am - someone who obviously did not know she was in Europe. My knee is a bit stiff but I'll take some Ibuprofen and manage. It felt the best it had in a long time during the hike-out yesterday so hopefully it is already on the mend.

I best go as we are leaving at 8:15 today to make sure we are not late. TTYS.

Zermatt - Day 9

[First photo: the scene at the bottom of the T-bars with all the backpacks - see if you can find the racers. Second photo: Josh, Rory, and I doing our "classroom session".

I will be relatively quick today as a few of us are leaving shortly to go to the Papperla Pub for a drink. It is not going to be a late night as Sandy tells us it's another big day tomorrow, that we'll be doing a lot of skiing the ridge. We just figured we could have an evening out away from the hotel bar. My new roommate Maria goes to sleep so early every night that I am sleeping too much and am unable to sleep through the night. I figure if I go out until 11:00 pm or so I can still get a good eight hours in.

We had another perfect day in paradise today. The weather was once again bright, sunny, and warm. I've skied with just a shell and spring gloves almost every day this trip. I'm sporting a great ski tan on my face. We worked on more dynamic skiing with Josh. I felt I was really getting it and laid some really good runs in. We called it quits a little early today as we wanted to end the day on a good note. We then adjourned to a pub patio with various members of the group dropping in periodically.

What I learned today:

1. Drill for pivoting: rather than push outside ski out into a snowplow position,start with a wide stance and move tip of outside ski in. Changing the focus from pushing the ankle out prevents unnecessary hip rotation.
2. Begin all turns (and particularly short radius) with a strong pivoting action/turning of the feet.
3. Think of lifting inside ski up at the angle it would be on the snow to put more pressure on the outside ski without adversely affecting angulation.
4. When pole planting aim fist downhill. This keeps body from rotating too much.
5. For increased performance/angulation ski trying to get the inside hip to touch the snow. (Marc if you are reading this: you will know this is my forte from my training with you!)
6. Feel the heels touching the bottom of the boots at the end of the turn. Note that this is not counter-intuitive to feeling pressure on the front of the boots. Doing both will ensure a balanced position.
7. Be sure to bend from leg joints not waist (personal feedback)

Time to get ready for the late shift at the pub. Talk to you again soon.

Zermatt - Day 8

[Photo above: walking to the first gondola station at 8:30 am]

Today was the first day of my second week. I started the day determined not to complain about any aches and pains and to really give'er. Rory and I are now the only two people in our group as Sandy does his best to give us the maximum amount of opportunity to improve in time to get to Level 3 standard. Yesterday Sandy asked me who we wanted to ski with and I asked for Josh Foster from Big White and Pontiac World of Skiing. I had Josh for a couple of days last year and was impressed with keen eye for detail and his relentlessness in his desire to improve us. So Josh it is.

It was a challenging day. While Sandy recognized how far Rory and I have come, with Josh we are a blank slate. Therefore he was a lot harder on us. I think Rory felt quite discouraged. I personally would rather have Josh find things to improve in our skiing now than during the exam. I think Rory is getting nervous as we near the exam date. He has started asking for feedback constantly and seems to be getting worked up. I'm still relaxed. I figure all I can do is try to do everything asked of me. It helps that I have been getting consistently good feedback through the week.

Josh did a great job of picking up where Sandy left off. We started the day working on eliminating unnecessary lead change. Today was the first day I was called out as having too large of a lead change on one side. Wonder if it is my knee? It was bugging me again this morning, making it easier to turn to the right than the left. Thankfully my knee felt better by afternoon. Not sure if it was loosening it up or the Ibuprofen.

The tactics Josh used to improve our skiing were:

1. Begin the day by doing "shmedium" (small to medium) radius turns where your feet are parallel in the fall line. Don't concern yourself with carving, just alignment. Your ability to increase edge will be improved as you improve alignment.
2. Think of the beginning/end of the turn as being in the fall line (phase 2) rather than across the fall line. This will move the impulse further up the turn. A simple way of working this is to try to direct snow off your skis to the side instead of down the hill.
3. Most skiers begin each turn with a shuffle step forward. Their turns are not rounded but rather more in the fall line. The key again is minimizing lead change. An easier way to elminate lead change is to drop the inside ski back rather than my bring the outside ski forward (which is hard to do as it is under a lot of pressure) . I almost felt like I was telemarking today!
4. Once you have mastered foot alignment, make sure your pole plant is done with elbows down rather than elbows up. This ensures you get pinching or angulation rather than rotation.
5. To lighten the ski at the beginning of the turn, use inside ski turns (lifting the outside ski) for the first half of the turn, then put down your outside ski in the fall line and continue to bend through the turn. Once you have done a couple of runs of this, do a run simulating the feeling of lifting the outside ski at the beginning of the turn without actually doing it. This worked really well for me. I had my best run of the day after doing it.

Pontiac World of Skiing was here filming today. They are doing a four minute segment on My Swiss Trip as their two ski tip presenters (Josh and Steve) are here teaching. Steve is actually hosting several episodes of the TV show this year so they will be filming more of Zermatt tomorrow. Maybe I will get a chance to be an extra. ;) On that note I am going to sign off and have an early night. It was a big day today! Still getting a lot of compliments on my skiing which is nice. I followed Josh down one run right by the T-bar today totally ripping it up that got lots of admiring glances. :)Wheeee!

Zermatt - Day 7

I can't believe a week has gone by already! I am so glad I am here for two weeks this year. I can't imagine having to leave already. It took me until Day 3 to get to a good place in my skiing. It would have sucked to leave just as I was beginning to make positive changes. In the last couple days I have had at least 4-6 different people tell me that they heard that I was skiing very well. I don't know who they are hearing it from but keep it coming!

Today was our day off as some groups left and others are arriving. We took full advantage of our ability to sleep in today. Last night a huge group of us from My Swiss Trip as well as a couple of Ontario coaches, Storey and Cam, headed to the Papperla Pub to start the night at 9:00 pm. At around midnight we went to "the cave", a bar in the basement of the Post Hotel. I'll have to look up the real name as we just named it the cave due to its cavern-like appearance. I got home at 4:00 am and the disco was still going strong when I left! TThe Flying Hirscht/Jager Bombs kept me going. The last two at the bar last night were Josh Foster and Steve Young which is funnyas they are the only two people to have to work today. Pontiac World of Skiing is filming here this week and they are both on-screen talent.

I got up early today to send my roommate Leslie off, then went back to bed. It was a lazy, slow morning getting organized and dropping off my laundry. I then walked downtown, stopping to take some photos. I had a "hangover breakfast" of sausage, scrambled eggs, and cheese fries at a local pub. A couple of people from our group dropped by to join me. Then I checked out a few shops before returning to the hotel.

My new roommate has already arrived. her name is Maria and she is from Toronto. She remembers doing the Level 3 prep course with me at Mount St. Louis last year. She is doing her Level 3 course this week. She was on this trip a couple of years ago.

There had been talk that Rory and I were going to be the only two taking the Level 3 exam next week which would have been great as we both have the teaching and would only have to do the ski off. Unfortunately for us there are now at least two others taking the whole exam so we will likely have to be their students (victims?). These guys are in the hotel bar where I write this right now. They are total ski nerds, studying every night. This may be cruel but I hope I ski so well in their lessons that they have trouble finding anything for me to improve. :)

Back on snow tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it!

Zermatt - Day 6

[Photos above: the clouds below us in the valley, me and my British friends – Caroline, Liam, and Leslie]

Yay! My lovely roommate Leslie passed her Development Level Coach today! She is justifiably thrilled. The Brits leave tomorrow so there will be a big celebration tonight. We have already had a lot of new arrivals with more arriving tomorrow but it doesn’t feel like it will be the same without Meredith who left early this morning, and Liam, Caroline, and Leslie who are leaving tomorrow morning.

Today was spectacular on the glacier. We emerged from the clouds in the valley to ski in the bright sun. There was snow overnight so we were able to ski into Italy on a run that was able to open today. I finally took my skis to be waxed today. Conditions have been so fabulous that the wax and edges have been lasting much longer than usual, even with the rides up the T-bars.

My knee held up well on snow. The hike out was the hardest part of the day on my knee. I felt well rested and skied well. The day off yesterday to allow my knee to recuperate was a good call.

Tomorrow is another day off – no coaching. I could have skied but want to be fresh for the six days of coaching next week. I am not sure yet what I am going to spend the day doing. My knee will limit my choices to something not too physical.

Today’s tips:

With softer snow, keep the weight between both legs more equal and make sure skis are aligned tip to tip.
Start the new turn earlier than feels right. Too many of us hold on for too long.
Watch so body does not get ahead of feet in fast, short turns. Shoot feet out in front at end of turn to prevent this.
When skiing a ridge, treat it like moguls and bend knees as you go up it.

I best get off to join the night’s festivities. I’ll write again soon. Happy Birthday to Mom and Jillian! I’m thinking about you.

Zermatt - Day 5

I began my day with an 8:00 am visit to a local physiotherapist, Lucy. Luckily she spoke beautiful English. Her mother, who she shares the practice with, comes from England and married a Swiss man. I was relieved to find out my knee problems are simply a result of strained muscles around the knee causing it to track out of alignment. She massaged it and instructed me to apply some heat to it and take it easy. So my plan to take the day off skiing maintained intact.

I spent the next couple of hours shopping in downtown Zermatt. I picked up some new Uvex goggles (my first new pair in 10 years!) as well as a Swiss military pen and chocolate for colleagues, friends, and family. If you are reading this, there may be some chocolate coming your way!

I then headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit. I ended up writing a letter to a guest for our hotel proprietress as she wanted to get the English writing just right. I then had a blissful two hour nap.

When I woke I went back to the main street for lunch. It had started to rain but I still sat on a patio with an awning to stay out of the smoky indoors. I notice Europe isn’t as smoky as it used to be but people still do smoke indoors at restaurants and pubs. I had a typical Swiss lunch of bratwurst and rosti. Easily the best rosti I’ve ever had! My server is a former member of the Masedonia freestyle team and now teaches skiing in the winter. While we were talking several other World Cup athletes wandered by that knew him.

On my way back to the hotel I heard a loud rap on the window from the inside of a pub and looked up to see Josh Foster. I knew he was going to be here next week but didn’t expect to see him so soon. I joined him and his travel-mate Jennifer for drinks. Before we knew it we had a huge crowd including some other arrivals from the Ontario ski scene that I know. Soon Meredith and my British friends will be leaving and a whole new crowd will arrive.

Time to head back to the group. I just wanted to let you know that my knee is okay and that I will be back on snow tomorrow. Take care and talk to you soon.

Zermatt - Day 4

[Today's photos: Caroline, Casey, and Steve taking a break from their Entry Level Coach course and me icing my knee]

I’m posting later than usual today as I spent my après-ski time searching for a physiotherapist. Zermatt is a small village but as I found out today, ski and climbing injuries manage to support at least a couple “phisiotherapie” practices. Unfortunately I was not able to get an appointment at either today so will be visiting one or two tomorrow as I have been advised to take the day off skiing. Let me go back to the beginning…

The ski day started fantastic. Helga Cuddy from Oakville/Blue Mountain joined Rory, Paul, and I in Sandy’s group. Helga is a great lady who got her Level 3 last year. The group continued our work on short radius turns while once in a while mixing in some longer turns. I was doing great. The pain in my calves and quads was way down from the days previous. Even riding the T-bar was more comfortable. Sandy told me he couldn’t believe how much I had improved over the last couple of years. He also told me that I was skiing at Level 3 standard and that if I keep it up over the next week and a half I would have no problem getting my pin.

Then everything changed. After doing a fun, fast run where I demonstrated for the group, I was standing at the bottom of the T-bar. When everyone got there I pushed off to join them in the line and my right knee just gave out. I experienced searing pain and couldn’t put any weight on it. I figured it had to be just a cramp or something and tried again, still pain and no weight. A second later it was fine, and then again pain and no weight. I didn’t know whether I should get on the T-bar but it felt better at that point and I did. I rode all the way up with no problems. I did the run cautiously as I was scared to put too much weight on that leg not knowing whether it would hold up.

At the bottom Sandy told me to sit out a run and rest. I sat in the snow with Casey’s group and waited. They took a while as Rory had a crash and hurt his ankle. What a pair we were! We both managed to ski out to the tram. Really there were no other options from where we were.

I felt fine walking back to the hotel but still thought I should see if I could get professional treatment; hence my search for the physiotherapist. While walking through town my knee swung from being completely pain-free to being so debilitating that I couldn’t walk for a few minutes. This was obviously upsetting. I came back to the hotel and went to see Sandy. He set me up with ice from the bar. Casey gave me an herbal remedy. I had already bought some Ibuprofen as the Ibuprofen I brought from home spilled in my luggage on the way over and ground itself into a fine powder.

Sandy was great. He convinced me it was in my best interest to take a day off tomorrow – to seek treatment and to rest. He assured me that I was doing great and am well on track to get my Level 3 next week and that not to consider this a set-back. I’m trying to stay positive. :(

Zermatt - Day 3

Finally the fog in my head has lifted. Today I felt alert and wide awake. Even though my calves were screaming and my quads were complaining, I felt so much better. Our group was told to meet at the bottom of the glacier at 10:00 which meant I didn’t have to leave until 8:30. We totally missed the huge lift lines so the day was off to a great start.

I was with Sandy again. The other members of my group were Paul from Mansfield and Rory from High Park. The three of us have our Level 3 teaching and are all hoping to go for our Level 3 skiing while we are here. Paul is under more of a deadline as it is his second week here. We worked on short radius again today. I skied much better today than yesterday. It was easier to apply myself as I was feeling better.

As today’s class was an extension of yesterday’s, our group goal was to extend more gradually into the fall-line, to make sure that we carve short radius turns from the top of the arc. For Rory and Paul that meant moving more gradually in the top part of the arc and getting rid of any upward motion. What helped them with that was getting rid of any lead change. For me, my range of motion and timing was good when we slowed it down. I was softening my outside/downhill leg to allow it to become my inside leg without rising. My challenge will now be to keep the same skills and timing intact as we speed it up and decrease the width of the corridor. That will be tomorrow’s task. Key tactics we used today included:

Start with larger turns and ski “sloppy” – arc the top part of the turn and skid the bottom part. Skidding the bottom actually forces you to be in balance and allows you to soften your new inside leg.
Novice-style turns. Gradually extend into a wedge at the top part of the turn and finish parallel. Slows down the top part of the turn and simulates the feeling of arcing the top part of the turn.

As with last year’s trip, the food has been amazing. The company is also excellent. Though everyone is great, I have been spending most of my socializing time with three English people who teach in Andorra. One is my roommate Leslie and the other two are a couple Liam and Caroline. It is actually Caroline’s birthday today so I am not sure what we are going to have in store for her. They are all rural English – Caroline used to be married to a sheep farmer and Leslie is a competitive horse rider – dressage, jumping, and cross-country jumping. She has already invited me to stay with her and her husband in Andorra one winter! Not this winter though as she is actually coming to Canada to instruct at Whistler for a year. Definitely something to consider for the future!

Well, time to soak my sore legs. They felt better on the walk out than they did yesterday so hopefully I’ve now gone through the worst of it. Working on the power chord situation. Hopefully I’ll post again soon.

Zermatt - Day 2

[Photos above: walking the "ski out"]

Today’s meet-up time moved up to 8:00 am but after my second good night’s sleep I felt much better. No nauseous feeling on the glacier today. My calves continue to feel like tight steel balls and my quads started to feel it a bit today. Even with the pain, I had way more energy skiing, which was good as we spent the day doing short radius turns, including spending the afternoon doing them up and down off the sides of a ridge. That same ridge may actually be what we are tested on for moguls for the Level 3 exam as the only moguls here are the ones the World Cup ski teams are training on.

I got good news regarding the exam – the CSIA has removed wedge turns from the ski off. Yay! They are now only being tested during the teaching of Fast Track to Parallel. Because I have my teaching, I do not have to ski off the wedge turns. The other four runs remain – Intermediate Parallel, Dynamic Parallel, Short Radius, and Moguls. Both Intermediate Parallel and Moguls are now must passes. You can fail one of Dynamic Parallel or Short Radius.

The Swiss Ladies Alpine team is here training this week. The guys are enjoying seeing them in their tight downhill suits. There are also a number of international development teams including the U.S.. For once the Americans are not the obnoxious ones. They are some of the most civil in lift lines as do not subscribe to the European push and shove method. There are also several World Cup freestyle teams training on the moguls. Today I watched some of them do aerials off the bump run as I rode the T-bar up.

While the snow on the glacier is fantastic – much better than last year - because it is much warmer, the ski-out is not yet fully open. Thus we can’t ski out all the way to the second tram. Instead, we ski most of the way and then hike about 1 km over mud and rocks carrying our skis to get to the tram. That’s what the photos above are depicting. It’s not so bad though once I get there I check my skis for 2 Swiss Francs rather than having to carry them all the way back to the hotel. I am very much done with carrying them at that point so feel it is a worthwhile investment!

Hopefully I will be able to keep blogging. My computer power cord is three pronged and my adapter is only for two prongs so I’ll have to see if someone has either a chord or adapter I can borrow. We shall see.

Our focus on short radius turns today was to promote carving from the top of the turn rather than jumping or pivoting from turn to turn, particularly in steeper terrain. In order to do this we did the following:

“Soften” the outside leg at the end of the turn as it becomes the new inside leg. This allows you to begin your new turn without rising or losing contact with the snow.
Keep both tips even through the turn (ie, no lead change). A lead change prevents you from moving inside fully with ankles and knees at the end of the turn.
Stay low (compact body) through the transition between turns.

Heading to the grocery store to buy some fruit now. Not a key food group in Europe! I may have to get a treat at one of the chocolate boutiques as well. :) I'll post again soon! Thanks to those who emailed. It was great to hear from you.

Zermatt - Day 1

Something like 20 hours after I set out from Toronto I finally arrived in Zermatt. This year I was on a different flight than any of the other Toronto participants so I made my own way via two planes, two trains, and two taxis. All I could think about as I arrived in Zermatt was having a shower to wash the travel off me. As soon as I arrived at the hotel I ran into a bunch of people I knew. After that needed shower, I joined a group for dinner. I met three really great people from England. My roommate is also English. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her much as she was already in bed when I went back to the room after dinner. Considering I hadn’t slept in days I was wired after dinner and stayed up to midnight unpacking. Luckily my roommate is a good sleeper.

Today everyone met up at 8:30 am and walked to the lifts together. As it is the weekend, the gondola at the bottom was open so we did it and two trams rather than three trams. The gondola is so much nicer – less busy and you can sit. I started the week in the same group as last year – one racer kid who already has his 3/2 and an older gent who has his Level 3 Teaching and is going for his skiing. We had Sandy, the trip organizer, as our coach today.

The weather was fantastic. Warm and sunny. After my first few runs I had to drop a layer and just ski in a shell. If it keeps up I am going to have one heck of a ski tan!

Unfortunately I didn’t feel the best on the glacier today. We were advised to put on our ski boots after the second tram, rather than the top like I did last year. By the time I got to the top my feet were already killing me. I then got a stomach ache likely related to the elevation. I was also just overwhelmingly tired. Hopefully it will be better after a good night’s sleep. I already feel like a new person since coming down off the mountain…although my calves ACHE big-time and I’m kind of hobbling around my room.

On a positive note, I LOVE my new skis. They have WAY more performance in them than my last ones did. I could really feel the snap when I put things together right. Today was just about getting in balance and acclimatized. What I learned:

Ø Ski in contact with the front of the boot at all times. If you feel yourself lift off it, you are either making the move too quickly (popping) or getting too far back.
Ø For me personally I am working on not moving inside too quickly so that I have a move left to make at the end of the turn. When I did this right, it felt amazing – I could really feel the rebound from the skis at the end of the turn.
Ø Move progressively and continuously through the turn. When you have nowhere left to move start the next turn. Basic, I know. But important to remember at the beginning of the season. The way I was able to get it right is to shorten the width of my turn corridor.

More tomorrow…

Zermatt - on my way!

I am leaving for Zermatt, Switzerland in a few hours. I can't wait!!! I'll be there for two weeks this year. I can't remember the last time I was on a two week holiday. I have never skiied 12 (almost) consecutive days. But I figured if I went for the full two weeks I could do ski improvement the first nine days, take my Level 3 exam on days 10-11, and celebrate on day 12. I'll keep you updated on how it goes. Wish me luck!