The Progression of Learning to Ski

My ass headed back up the chair lift

Even though I act like a child more often than I should, I am a 42 year old man. I have never been a risk taker when it comes to adventure. I am active and I have a lot of hobbies. Although people that I work with think I'm crazy and a risk taker, they are pretty safe if common sense is used.

When I first decided to take up skiing, I made up my mind that I would not rush the learning curve. I want to do everything in my power to keep from getting hurt. I also want my progression to be steady. There was no way I was going to rush. I want to learn as fast as I can, but learning is more important to me than pushing the limits.

Hopefully, in a year, I won't be writing down every time I go skiing. Hopefully, like fishing, if I do something memorable, or try out a new place, I'll write about it. If there is nothing useful to write about, then there will be no need for a blog post. However, today was only my third time skiing. Since the few people that read this are adults, and I assume many don't know how to ski, it might be useful to read about how another adult is doing on the slopes. Although we all learn at different speeds, maybe reading my blog entries will help you to decide to take up the sport

Stardate 2017.19, Time 6:49 EST


Today was my first time using the lift. Before today, I had rode the Magic Carpets. The first day was on the small bunny hill. The second time was on the bigger slope. Today I went up what is known as the Monadnock Lift. This lift goes partway up the mountain to the beginner slopes. Even the smallest, easiest slope was five times longer than the bunny slope.

The first thing to learn was how to use a chair lift. Dave explained to me the concept of leaning forward when you get off. The first time I got off was, what I thought fairly easy. Dave said I had bad form. The second time getting off, I waited a second to long, and fell off. I realized what I did wrong before I landed. It was the only time I had any problems getting off the lift. Pop up off the seat quickly and lean forward. Seemed easy enough to get the hang of.

So, I get to the top of the slope for my first run. I tried to remember the stuff I had learned last time I went, two weeks ago. Less than a third of the way down, I couldn't turn and fell near the trees ( I was not going fast). I was not impressed with myself and still had 2/3 of the slope to ski down.. There is a steep section of this hill, that I had to negotiate. I did it in many, many turns. I certainly did not want to pick up any speed. Needless to say, it took me forever to get down the hill.

Much more importantly, I somehow developed a bad habit of the last two weeks of "leaning". Every time I would pick up speed or loose a little control, I'd lean "up mountain". This is the exact opposite of what you want to do. I could feel myself doing it over and over. I would try to correct it, but usually I'd turn my skis uphill to stop and then start again. I kept doing this until lunch. (Explanation- if you feel like you are going to fall, naturally you are going to try to fall uphill. It is a shorter distance to the ground, and you fall on your side, not your face. The problem with doing this is you are putting weight on your uphill ski. I didn't need anyone to explain to me what the "effect" of that was- you can't control the uphill ski, and your legs will not come together). We worked on this until lunch.

After lunch, Dave left me to ski with a friend for an hour. I was fine using the lift myself, and honestly, just needed to practice, be more willing to go faster, and stop leaning uphill. Soon after lunch, I stopped leaning. I only needed a couple of runs to fix that problem. My other problem was the steep section about halfway down. Until lunch, I had been cutting across the slope with so little drop, that I was coming to a complete stop. Dave said we would be on the slightly steeper beginner slope today, I told him that I would only consider it if I could make it through this steep section without stopping on one continuous run. After I got rid of the leaning I decided to put on my big boy pants and hit this slope a little faster and cut down it without stopping. It took me a couple runs, but I finally got through the whole slope without stopping.

Dave came back after an hour and I was doing everything right. His friend Russ, followed me down on a run, and amazingly thought I was doing great. We did a few more runs on that slope and Dave talked me into trying the next beginner slope. The truth was, I was ready for it. Dave was kind enough to lead, and did big wide turns to keep the speed slow. I followed. We made it down pretty easy. It was at this point that I realized something I had been doing wrong all day- I was back on my heels. Once I got up more on my toes, I was lighter, and my skis more maneuverable. We did this slope three or four more times, and each time I got better and better on it.

Dave asked me if I wanted to go to the other chair lift and do the easiest intermediate trail called Ralph's Run. I declined. Obviously, I haven't done it, but I think I could based on looking at it from the bottom. However, I was having fun, I was improving on every run. Even if I could have done that trail, it would have felt like working. I spent most of the day "working" on my form, and speed. For most of the day, while trying to fix my other mistakes I was practicing parallel skiing. I really wasn't doing a good job, and even my Wedge Christies had taken a step back.

Finally, on my last run of the day, everything clicked. My turns were not only better, but they were parallel, well at least half of them. I was really happy to have had a few actually perfect turns. By far my favorite part of the day was my last run. I was going "fast" with really good turns. It was awesome.

*Fast- As Dave says," fast is a relative term when skiing." The difference in my speed from my first run to an hour in was huge. At first I was creeping down the hill. When I decided to "put on my big boy pants" I was moving at a speed fast enough that I could make it down without stopping. On my last two runs, I went much faster than I had all day. My turns were smaller and tighter, not giant S shaped turns to really go slow. However, the kicker is, as fast as I thought I was going, I still had people blowing by me. Dave, who was gracefully gliding down the slope, had to wait for me a couple times to catch up.

I can turn. If I remember to stay off my heels, I should be able to keep transitioning to parallel skiing since I have so much more control over the skis. By far, the thing I have to work on most is feeling comfortable going a  little faster. Without feeling comfortable, I'm not going to be able to do intermediate trails unless I do giant slow S turns that keep me upright, but creep down the mountain.

Lastly, If I would have gotten off my heels earlier in the day and not leaned uphill, I think I could have accomplished a lot more today. Although today was not a setback, the progression could have been much greater had I just remembered what I learned two weeks ago. I would have been on the intermediate lift. On the bright side, even with all the mistakes I had to correct, the only two times I fell all day were on my first run, and getting off the chair lift once.