mikemaginn

Question For You: Flat Light Tactics

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Is Flat Light The Bane Of Your Skiing Experience? Or Just One Of Those Things?

Head for the lodge after this one? Think so. Credit: Jan Brunvand

No contrast, lack of depth perception, no tell-tale marks on the snow, flat light adds another dimension to deal with. Not welcome to many. Tolerable to some.

We’ve had a couple of our more spectacular falls in flat light conditions. Too fast, unexpected terrain. And boom. The lasting result is that whenever we see that gray-white shroud, we tighten up, and more likely than not, head for the bottom and home.

There’s an excellent article by correspondent Marc Liebman on Coping With Flat light in our archives. Check it out here.  But what is your way of approaching flat light conditions? Do you have a specific brand of goggles you swear by? What about technique? Changes in how you approach the trail? Let us know.  Perhaps you can help up break through our reluctance to head out on flat light.

Question For You: How Do You Manage Flat Light? Tell us how you do it. Or if you just avoid it.

Write a comment in Leave A Reply below.

Roger Lohr

Make More Tracks: Sustainable XC Ski Resorts

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[Editor Note: This article first appeared in XCSkiResorts.com.]

Craftsbury has a solar array, one element in a system that provides heat.

Many cross country (XC) ski areas operate in an environmentally-friendly manner, and some of these operators, who are exemplars using the most sustainable practices, are models of sustainability in the effort to combat climate change. The operators at these resorts practice what they preach such as: using renewable energy, protecting scenic values and wildlife habitats, practicing water/energy conservation, reducing waste and reusing products, designing and building facilities in an environmentally-sensitive manner, managing forest and vegetation properly, handling potentially hazardous waste properly, and educating clientele and staff about environmental awareness.

These sustainable practices are not typically million dollar investments, but they are meaningful accomplishments, and the information about many of their practices can be shared with hundreds of other XC ski areas across the US and Canada.

Devil’s Thumb has geo-thermal heating.

At Devil’s Thumb Ranch Resort & Spa in Tabernash, Colorado, a geothermal heating system is used throughout the resort. The system consists of glycol-filled pipes that have been installed in the Ranch’s on-site lake. Heat is transferred to the glycol from the water, and then heated to 105 degrees by compressors in each building. The resort has also installed EPA-approved specially designed chimneys that minimize emissions from wood burning fireplaces and used recycled asphalt for paving. “We continue to make a concerted effort to work with local suppliers and businesses and reduce our carbon footprint at every level,” said General Manager Sean Damery.

The White Grass Ski Touring Center in Canaan, WV has been awarded the WV Environmental Council’s Green Entrepreneurs Award. The facility is heated with wood and uses about $6.66 worth of electricity a day. Environmental education is a key element at White Grass as there are regular outings in the WV Highlands Conservancy and the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, which they helped to establish.

In the northeast US, the Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center in Gorham, NH upgraded an old micro-hydro 10 kw system, which now supplies 80 percent of electric needs. They’ve also got a wood pellet heating system in the lodge and have converted more vans that tour up to the top of Mt. Washington to propane gas and installed an electric vehicle charging station, too. The new Glen House Hotel has a geothermal closed loop system and high insulation for high building efficiency. The LED lighting is throughout the hotel indoors and the outside lighting is “Dark Sky Compliant” at night. One of the coolest things at the Glen House is the regenerative elevator system that feeds energy back to the building’s electric grid.

Craftsbury Outdoor Center in VT has incorporated sustainability in its mission statement to be carbon neutral. At Craftsbury Outdoor Center everything is net metered with 32kW on the solar trackers and 3,000 square feet of panels on the roof, supplying the Activity Center with close to 70kW. Between the two, that provides 63 percent of operation’s electricity and there is also solar thermal to provide  summertime domestic hot water, which is supplemented with heat pumps.

Craftsbury has incorporated massive amounts of insulation into all of the new buildings, and locally sourced many of the wood products used in the building construction. The roof of the Activity Center is at R72 and the walls are R46. It also has composting toilets, a heat pump, and locally-sourced wood for paneling and recycled steel beams for support were incorporated in the construction. High efficiency wood gasifying boilers provides all of the heating and domestic hot water demands during the cooler months. They’re tied into the 10 million BTUs of thermal storage in the form of 20,000 gallons of water. This storage system allows them to cogenerate with the snowmaking generator, providing electricity for the pumps and guns, and catching waste heat off the engine.

Sleepy Hollow owners Dan and Sandy pose in front of one of 10 solar arrays at the resort.

Sleepy Hollow Inn Ski & Bike Center in Huntington, VT added 10 kwH of solar this summer and now has 50 kwH of solar net metering from its solar panel arrays to provide for electric needs that include power for a snowmaking system used to guarantee snow early in the season. A solar hot water system heats 50 percent of the hot water use at the inn, and the lights on the ski trail have been converted to LED lights. Sleepy Hollow Proprietor Eli Enman commented, “By April, we’re expecting to see that close to 100 percent of our total electricity would’ve been powered by solar energy and that includes our all-electric snowmaking system water and air pumps.”

 

 

Nipika is totally off the grid.

A sustainable Canadian resort that practices what it preaches is Nipika Mountain Resort in BC, which is off the public power grid. It uses solar panels to supply energy needs. The resort’s furniture was built on site with wood from trees that were killed by the Mountain Pine Beetle.

Boundary Country Trekking on the Gunflint Trail in MN offsets the carbon produced on the Banadad Trail (such as snowmobile grooming) by investing in reforestation in the area. This is a planting estimated at 75,000 trees. Boundary Country Trekking is one of the few XC ski operations that have a sustainability statement and a comprehensive implementation plan. Another Minnesota XC ski area, Maplelag Resort in Callaway, is an active tree farm where it has planted thousands of trees and has created more than 20 ponds to benefit wildlife there.

For people who seek beautiful destinations to cross country ski and want to patronize businesses that fight climate change, the resorts in this select group are the places to visit.

seniorsskiing

Snow In Literature: On A Tree Fallen Across The Road

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(To hear us talk)

By Robert Frost

The tree the tempest with a crash of wood
Throws down in front of us is not bar
Our passage to our journey’s end for good,
But just to ask us who we think we are

Insisting always on our own way so.
She likes to halt us in our runner tracks,
And make us get down in a foot of snow
Debating what to do without an ax.

And yet she knows obstruction is in vain:
We will not be put off the final goal
We have it hidden in us to attain,
Not though we have to seize earth by the pole

And, tired of aimless circling in one place,
Steer straight off after something into space.

 

mikemaginn

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb.12)

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Valentine To Our Readers, Loon Visit, Resort Liability-Less, Vicarious Swiss Ski Run, Marg’s Moment, Personal Ski, XC Ski Injuries, Skiing In College In The 50s, Take A Lesson, Herb’s Weather For The Week.

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Here in SeniorsSkiing.com’s New England headquarters, we are feeling very gratified. We’ve been receiving donations from both online donors and through the mail. The notes on little pieces of paper mailed in with checks have been supportive and encouraging. “We love reading your e-magazine,” says one. “Keep it up,” says another.

Thank you very much. Here’s a Valentine picture for you taken on a beautiful blue bird day at Appleton Farms just after Sunday’s snow fall.

If you haven’t made a donation yet, please consider it. All donations go to help defray expenses which are growing as we grow. Click here.

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This Week

Correspondent Tamsin Venn visits Loon Mountain and reports on her ski experience in times of COVID.  It’s like a throw-back to the old days, simple, economical, and ski-focused. Click here.

We found an interesting video on YouTube where someone took a run at Nax resort, a small-ish area in the Swiss Alps. It’s an eight and a half minutes from the top of the lift to the bottom.  You judge if you would have been comfortable doing what the videographer did. Or whether you think it’s safe. Click here.

The traveling Australian Dave Chambers recounts a 30-day ski journey in France.  On day one, a member of his safari has a bad accident. His tale of Marg’s foreshortened vacation and the wonder of travel insurance are a lesson in being prepared for evacuation far from home. Click here.

Correspondent Marc Liebman has done some research on the potential of a “personal ski”, that is, one made just for you.  Hey, if Dell can customize computers to your specs, why not a ski? Click here.

XCSkiResorts.com publisher Roger Lohr describes the typical injuries you can get in XC and how to avoid them. Click here.

Jan Brunvand, a frequent contributor from Utah, sent us a reminiscence about skiing in college in the 50s and how his first date with his current wife worked out. Click here.

Ski instructor John Gelb advises readers to take a lesson and reports on the three common flaws he sees in seniors that can be improved with instruction. Click here.

Finally, the Skiing Weatherman Herb Stevens brings us next week’s weather prediction. Coming up to four weeks to spring. Click here.

Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com. Please tell your friends and remember, there are more of us every day and we aren’t going away.

 

 

Herb Stevens

Skiing Weatherman: The Hits Just Keep On Coming

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Busy Storms. Slopes in Good Shape.

As I write this piece at the start of President’s Day weekend, the slopes from coast to coast are in fine to extraordinarily good shape, thanks to a very busy coast to coast pattern of storms that has played out in recent weeks.  A push of arctic air delivered by the stratwarm episode that was discussed in last week’s column is providing cold air over the eastern two-thirds of the country.  At the same time, upper level energy that supports the stormy pattern continues to be ejected from an upper level trough over the Aleutians.  After the holiday weekend those disturbances will continue to favor resorts north of I-70 and I-80 in the West, but as the energy tracks eastward and interacts with the cold air flowing into the center of the country from Canada, storms will bring fresh snow to the Midwest and the East.  Here is a jet stream for Friday the 19th that illustrates the snowy “handoff” pattern that is in place now and should stay in place for the next couple of weeks.

With one trough over the Gulf of Alaska and another over the eastern half of the country, combined with a blocking ridge still hanging around Greenland, storm after storm will cross the country, some small, some more significant.  Initially, the snow will fall in British Columbia and the resorts of the Pac NW and northern Rockies.  The northern Great Lakes will pick up a round of powder as the disturbance heads toward the high amplitude trough that stretches from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.  As the disturbance in the northern branch of the jet stream interacts with the larger system, the result could be a storm that could run up the length of the Appalachians late in the week and into next weekend.  As I suggested earlier, there will be ample cold air around, as shown by this map of 5,000 foot temperatures for next Friday.

The green and gray colors show where temps will be below 32 degrees aloft, a proxy for snow vs. rain at the surface.  You can see that a long-track snow event up the eastern seaboard could indeed be in the cards.  Now if you look at the jet stream map above, you will see an extended trough reaching from the waters west of Washington northward to the Arctic region.  The counter clockwise flow around that feature suggests that after 10-12 days of domination by arctic air, Pacific air masses will get involved, leading to somewhat milder weather (less cold) by the end of the month or so.  In the meantime, enjoy the frequency of flakes and preponderance of powder!

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Pac NW/B.C.:

Big storm late this week followed by more storms from the Gulf of Alaska rolling into the mountains of B.C., Washington, and Oregon.

Central and southern Sierra:

One storm this weekend and another early next week.  Glancing blows from storms to the north bring light snow later next week.  Heavy snow next weekend.

Rockies:

Weekend snow followed by a moderate to heavy accumulation a couple of days later central and south.  Potential for another round next weekend.  Moderate amounts of snow next week in northern resorts

Midwest:

Arctic air dominates.  Light snow from Clipper systems and some lake effect snow in northern Lakes.

Northeast:

Parade of storms continues to add snow every couple of days.  Shot at significant snow middle of next week and again late in the week.

Mid-Atlantic/Southeast:

Two shots at moderate to heavy snow in next week…first one around Tuesday and again a couple of days later.

 

 

mikemaginn

Question For You: Liability-Less

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A Recent Court Decision Changes The Legal Landscape For Skiers In Colorado.

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Watch this video news story from Channel 7 News in Denver, CO. Basically, a recent December 2020 Appeals Court ruling has decided that skiers cannot bring action against ski resorts, expanding protection for resorts, releasing resorts from any and all liability from injuries, including chairlifts and gondolas.

Question For You: What’s your reaction? Is this any different from what we’ve always read on the backs of lift tickets? Or is this decision more ominous?

Please note your comments in Leave A Reply below.

 

Cross Country Skiing
Roger Lohr

Make More Tracks: XC Ski Injuries And How To Avoid Them

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Either Falls Or Pre-Existing Conditions Can Cause Problems.

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Injuries are rare in XC, and conditioning is the best medicine. Credit: SnowSportEngland

Cross country (XC) skiing is a sport with a very low incidence of injuries for a number of reasons.

It’s a low impact sport with low sliding speed, plus the free heel allows twisting if you fall. The ski boot is connected to the ski binding only at the toe, and the heel is free.

On the other hand, there may be some injuries during the ski season by falls or by aggravating pre-existing conditions. Like the Maytag repairman, ski patrollers at XC ski areas are not the busiest employees because they do not have to address many serious skier injuries.

According to Sophia Sauter, a registered physiotherapist, about 75 percent of injuries sustained by XC skiers are the result of overuse due to the repetitive nature of skiing, while the remaining 25 percent are the result of trauma. Here are some common injuries and appropriate treatment.

Traumatic XC ski injuries (25 percent), for example, include ankle sprains, thumb sprains, knee ligament sprains, groin muscle strains, and wrist sprains. Upper body injuries are often the result of falling down. Since XC skiing speeds tend to be somewhat slow, the impacts are often less severe than impacts at much higher speeds. The recommended treatment for the traumatic injuries is RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Then, slowly restore range of motion, strength, proprioception (such as the ability to drive using brake, accelerator, and steering wheel without looking at your arms and legs), and power. It’s suggested to see a physiotherapist to obtain a proper diagnosis and set of rehabilitative exercises.

Overuse injuries (75 percent) from XC skiing, could include knee pain, compartment syndrome on shins, Achilles tendon problems, rotator cuff and shoulder problems, and low back pain. The recommended treatment for these problems is a bit different. In these cases it’s important to correct muscle imbalance (e.g. tight/weak), equipment faults, and possible training errors. Seek medical advice from a physiotherapist or other qualified health professional specializing in injuries common to XC skiers.

Most people skip the warm up or preparing for recreational activity altogether, but the best way to avoid injury is prevention. This means using appropriate training progressions, maintaining physical strength, balance, flexibility, adopting appropriate recovery techniques, and treating any lingering individual alignment problems, weaknesses, and imbalances. It makes sense to warm up before hitting the trails.

Physiotherapist Sophia Sauter suggests a full body analysis with a professional to identify individual mechanical inadequacies. Also consider a specific core stability and functional strength program for athletes. Popular core-strengthening strategies might include yoga, Pilates, and a regular fitness regimen.

Think about getting in shape staying, warming up, and dealing with your injuries before going out on the trails and you can continue to have a great season.

Warm ups can help prevent strains and sprains. Credit: CONCR

John Gelb

Take A Lesson And Improve 25 Percent?

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That’s the simple question, would you like to improve your skiing and enjoy it more?

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When was the last time you took a lesson? Perhaps a mid-season lesson might boost your skill. Credit: Breckenridge

Would you love skiing as much if you were a wedge skier?  Probably not.  What about a pretty good parallel skier, but anxious on the more challenging black diamond runs?  Maybe you’d avoid them, stick to the corduroy and feel great.

My point is this: The more skilled we are, the more we love our skiing days!  It’s that simple.  And when I began as a part time ski instructor in VT eleven years ago (my kids had moved west, and so had my ex-wife), I got myself hired at Stratton.  First thing I learned while doing “clinics” with the best instructors: There was a lot to learn about technique that I DID NOT KNOW.  I thought all my expert skills learned in the 1960s-1970s were enough.

Wrong.  Skiing techniques have changed, because ski design has massively morphed.  Back in the day, longer skis meant you were a better skier.  Today, not so much.  And ski shape has changed dramatically: One shape for all-mountain, and something very different when you’re going into the deep pow.

Here’s what I see the most among my own “senior” skiing friends, and those I teach:

1. Many skiers forget about the importance of maintaining the “athletic stance” on skis, but it’s so important because it’s what brings us forward into our boots, and gets us over our skis for maximum edging and  balance effectiveness.

2. Skiers like to look straight ahead over their ski tips, when much of the time they should be facing more downhill than their skis, such twisting thus keeping the hip into the hill and edges carving.  This is where the saying “move the skis more than the jacket” comes from.

3. Skiers get lazy and stand up too straight and tall, and by doing so, lose control and confidence on more challenging terrain.

These are all little things that can easily be fixed, but it’s easier to “show” the error to skiers and then have them fix it in their own skiing than to simply “tell” them to do it without any demonstration of what’s being done incorrectly.  And with some focus and concentration, any skier can correct these bad habits and see/feel their improvement so quickly,

So what if you could instantly take a step up to a higher level of skiing with one or two short private or semi-private lessons?  Remember the way we used to hop at the moment of turning in order to cause the weight change from one downhill ski to the other?  We don’t do that with today’s skis, because the skis are much more effective, and they have the ability to be moved from one edge to the other almost magically with subtle movement. All it takes is a little new knowledge.  It’s called carving, and it works.  But even as an instructor, I thought I didn’t need it.  Now that I’ve got it worked into my skill set, I would never get rid of it.

And don’t you hate it when you get to a run (usually a black diamond), and you don’t feel confident enough to turn your skis downhill on that run?  A single lesson or two at the beginning or middle of the season could set you on a glorious path of improvement enabling you to ski previously daunting black diamond runs you’d avoid.  Or enjoy them much more!

Let’s face it, we’re not getting younger, but as Mike’s recent piece pointed out, getting more skilled and proficient at the sport we love is just one more way of “keeping the old man away” (or “old lady”), so we can still feel young plunging down the trails we love. And there’s nothing like improvement to make us feel younger.

When you think about all the money you’ve spent (and still spend) on ski clothing and equipment, don’t you owe it to yourself to spend just a fraction on actually getting better?

One lesson each season, that’s all it takes. Just find a great instructor. I’ll tell you more about doing that in another column.

Group or private, a lesson opens new capabilities. Credit: Vail Resorts

mikemaginn

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb. 5)

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Supporting SeniorsSkiing.com, Time For Gratitude, StratWarm, XC Ski Length, Reflections On Comments, Best Restaurant Ever, Odyssey Between US And Canada, And More Ski Art.

About eight years ago, Jon Weisberg, a college friend and fraternity brother, mentioned on a holiday phone call that he had been thinking about starting a website for senior skiers. He even chatted up fellow senior skiers on lift chairs across the West to validate his vision.

Interesting idea, he had.  We discussed. Why a website? Why not an online magazine? Published for free. To senior skiers. Advocating for their interests, concerns, and needs. Providing information about best skis, best boots, where to ski free (or almost free). Highlighting topics of interest to older sports enthusiasts. Conducting survey research to better understand the readers. Recruiting writers from around the world, both professionals and amateurs.

So, we became co-publishers of SeniorsSkiing.com, not knowing anything about online publishing, Mail Chimp, Survey Monkey, web hosting, WordPress, or any of the realities involved with putting out weekly editions. We tapped into our 401Ks to start pulling the threads together. We lucked out when we found Alice Winthrop of Gatehouse Design who produced our prototype and taught us how the backend worked.

We found a group of extraordinary journalists who clicked with the idea and who had stories to tell. This stalwart group has been the cornerstone of how we grew. We simply could not have “gone to press” without them. As a completely shoe-string operation, we couldn’t pay them, but they provided first-rate stories that resonated with readers.

And, SeniorsSkiing.com started to catch on. In truth, we never really tried to “sign up” new readers; we just encouraged readers to tell their friends about us. And so, we grew.

Sometime last year, we realized that we were publishing more than an online magazine. We had created a community of seniors who loved the outdoors, winter and summer, and who were active, engaged, experienced, opinionated, and knowledgeable. And who used SeniorsSkiing.com to talk to one another.

SeniorsSkiing.com has become more than an online magazine. It represents a forum for seniors who love the active lifestyle.  Help us to keep this going.

Please consider supporting SeniorsSkiing.com with a donation. We appreciate your help. Click here.

__________________________________________

This Week

Avalement was the French answer.

Ski Coach Bob Trueman has reviewed the comments to the Question For You article: How Did You Learn? He offers his opinion about the state of ski instruction. You may disagree or agree, but you can’t deny he has some interesting points. Click here.

Skiing Weatherman Herb Stevens has identified a wrinkle in the arctic atmosphere called a StratWarm condition. It means cold is coming.  Find out what a StratWarm is and why you should love it. Click here.

Don Burch has another unusual ski art video. This one is really different. What do you think? Click here.

How do you select the proper cross-country ski length? Hold your arm up and measure the ski against your wrist? Think again.  Here’s the straight skinny on skinny skis from Jared Manninen from TahoeTrailGuides.com. Click here.

This week’s Question For You asks you to identify the best restaurant you’ve been to in ski country. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the most gourmet or luxurious, although it could be.  It could be a remarkable hamburger joint on a mountain road. Tell us your story. Click here.

Curlew Saloon is a taxidermist’s showcase. Credit: Dave Chambers

Our traveling Australian correspondent Dave Chambers offers a narrative about traveling across the border from Washington state to British Columbia, the little towns he went through, what he found, and a hidden gems ski resort in BC. Click here. Click here.

Finally, correspondent Pat McCloskey takes stock in mid-season about how this sui generis year is turning out. Nice story about being grateful for what we have. Click here.

Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com. Please tell your friends, and remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.

 

Herb Stevens

Skiing Weatherman: Thank You, Stratwarm

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Hint: Cold Air Coming Your Way.

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I assume that this week’s headline has many of you scratching your head wondering “What in the world is a stratwarm?” I will try and explain but the bottom line is that this phenomenon is in large part responsible for the colder than normal pattern that covers much of the country, much to the delight of snow lovers. The past ten days or so have brought fresh snow to just about every resort in the country, and the coming two-three weeks look very promising, as well.

Okay, what is stratwarm? The technical term is Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW), and it is an almost exclusively northern hemispheric winter event that typically occurs in about six out of every 10 years. Unusually warm air develops in the top 10 per cent or so of the atmosphere (the stratosphere) over the high latitudes. The warming works its way down in the atmosphere and then reverses the winds circling the North Pole from westerly to easterly. Those winds weaken as well, which disturbs the polar vortex. If you imagine the strong westerlies around the pole acting as a dam of sorts, keeping the coldest air trapped at the top of the world. When the wind shifts direction and weakens, the dam breaks and cold air heads southward to the mid latitudes. Here is a map of the current temperature anomalies at the 10 millibar level of the atmosphere, right near the top

Notice the orange/brown swatch draped over the North Pole. The warm air is in place and has been for a couple of weeks. Stratwarm episodes take weeks to develop and mature, and this one started in late December. You may have heard that both Europe and China experienced severe cold outbreaks last month as pieces of the vortex broke loose and reached the mid-latitudes. The next thrust of cold is now aimed at Canada and the U.S. It will first move into the northern Plains next week before spreading east-southeastward. Here is a forecast of surface temperature anomalies for Monday, the 8th

The greens/blues/purples indicate where temps will be below normal, with the core of the coldest air moving into the Dakotas. A week later, the cold has pushed southward to envelope most of the lower 48. Have a look.

Now, cold air doesn’t always lead to snow, but with an upper trough likely to cover much of the same area as the cold mid-month, the likelihood of significant snow events from the Rockies to the east coast will be enhanced. Resorts west of the continental divide and along the west coast will be more influenced by upper ridging over the eastern Pacific, so snow events will be harder to come by, except in the Pacific NW, where a typically snowy La Nina winter will carry on. Stratwarms can cause some uncomfortably cold days on the slopes, but this one will also lead to a cold and snowy February for a majority of the slopes we love.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Pac NW/B.C.:

Snow this weekend, only B.C./Washington resorts pick up snow next week as west coast ridge builds.

Central and southern Sierra:

Very snowy late January morphs into dry first half of February as new ridge on west coast keeps the flakes away.

Rockies:

Occasional rounds of light snow across the south, somewhat heavier spells of snow central and north from small disturbances embedded in cold northwesterly flow.

Midwest:

Cold shot from the arctic arrives this weekend and dominates for more than a week. Several rounds of light snow during that time.

Northeast:

Light/moderate snow event early next week. Arctic air gradually spreads into region thereafter. Potential for sizable storm around the 15th.

Mid-Atlantic/Southeast:

Higher elevation snow early next week, colder weather follows and dominates through mid-north. Next shot at significant snow around the 15th.

mikemaginn

Make More Tracks: How To Pick Ski Length

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If You Thought It Was Based On Height, Think Again.

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Thanks to Jared Manninen from TahoeTrailGuide.com for this advice. We’re curious.  Are readers able to buy cross-country equipment at mid-season?  We’ve heard inventories have been depleted. Let us know.

 

Bob Trueman

How Did You Learn To Ski: Reflections On Comments

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Austrian Ski School had its principles for better or worst.

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Perhaps The Underlying Question Is: “What Do You Want Your Skiing To Be?”.  

There is no right or wrong answer.

If you want your skiing to be about maximizing bar time, that’s fine. I’m happy with that.  If you want it be “covering as many miles, or ticking off trails, in a day as possible”, that’s fine, too.  If it’s checking your wearable gadget to see your maximum speed that day, so be it.   If it’s “having a laugh”, who could complain?

But none of those is concerned with developing skill.   The replies to the recent Question For You on How Did You Learn suggested that a considerable percentage of skiers did not commit to any structured long term learning process, instead choosing to get out there and “do it” perhaps with a few intermittent lessons, perhaps in the belief that skill is developed by learning a few “secret” tips.  It isn’t.  But I can live with that, it’s your skiing after all.

The tacit belief is that practice makes perfect. It doesn’t.  Any expert observation of a skiing piste with plenty of skiers on it, confirms that: though it fully supports paragraph two, above.

The reason is that practice does not make perfect: practice makes permanent.  Only perfect practice makes perfect. SeniorsSkiing contributor Pat McCloskey made that crystal clear with his video of Kristoffersen proving the point. The racer has a deep understanding of his subject and spends hours perfectly practicing his technique, to become more skillful at executing it. Practice is a process of habituation; the psychologists call it an “associative” phase of learning.

Skill is the learned ability to bring about pre-determined outcomes with maximum certainty, often with minimum effort. Accurately throwing an American football to a wide receiver is not a skill; watch me try it! It is a technique at which you can either be skillful or useless.  Guess which I am? Answers on a postcard to …..

And so to my main point: respondents made reference to all sorts of unfortunate mis-understandings which will perforce have constrained the respondents’ skill development. They may not care too much about skill development, but there was a sense of slight frustration. The sort of feeling that, “You know, I was hoping to improve on this year’s trip, but I came back at the end of the week no better than last year. Still, it was fun”.  A trace of disappointment.

Some examples of incorrect perceptions from those responses (please, I’m not picking on anybody!)  –

  • “Shifting your weight”: No, please no! I see this being taught today! Was that forward/back, or side to side?  Shifting your weight laterally will reduce the tilt on the ski.  It will obtain less resistance and may slip.
  • “Rotating the ski” (to ‘do’ a turn): It depends, but usually it’s better not to. It will work, sort of.  But what it is doing is commencing the new arc with a skid.  It’s better to end with a skid.
  • “Steering with the inside ski”: Don’t tell Kristoffersen that, it’ll kill him. Quite possibly the writer didn’t mean this. For stability, the snow resistance (steering force) needs to be obtained with the outside ski rather than a “leaning-in” toward the arc’s centre. Pressurizing the inside ski is destabilizing.
  • “Counter rotation”: An ancient and thoroughly mistaken and mistaken Austrian idea from the 40s and 50s that grew from faulty observation. (Which, incidentally grew from “watching and copying”!) My comments about this concept deserve a more extensive discussion. Basically the idea started as a misconception of what Austrian racers were doing and became a branded, “national” ski technique. More on this at another time.

Further reference made by a number of respondents was to “styles” of skiing. This is treacherous terrain. There is only ever one correct solution to a problem of physics. The idea of skiing “styles” is a marketing one, not a technical one. The skiing nations needed to try to differentiate what they were selling, from what the others were selling, and pretend it is (was) in some way superior.

Avalement was the French answer.

So, you got a “French style” of skiing, involving feet clamped together, swish the tails about by waggling your bum, keep your elbows near your torso and flick them “stylishly” behind you after your pole plant. Or the “Austrian style” involving clamped feet, skis across the mountain, and arms and torso twisted to face down the mountain. The “Italian style” involved (don’t know if it still does) a weird kind of extra bobbing up and down, immediately prior to any attempted direction change.  They all get you down the mountain, but not as well as you might.

Stein had ankles welded together and that famous Comma Position.

Mine is not a criticism of SeniorsSkiing respondents, they may well get from their skiing everything they want, and I hope they do. But all that (what I call) “instructor speak”, and potted short-cuts will not develop your skill as a skier – there are few short cuts to anywhere worth going.  My job was/is as a sports coach specializing in skill development, and in particular in recreational skiers.  I care about it.

Pat McCloskey

Gratitude

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Half-Way Through The Season, Pat McCloskey Takes Stock.

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My Ski Lodge. Credit: Pat McCloskey

We are halfway through winter, and the groundhog has come out to let us know what he thinks about the rest of the winter. I wonder if he will be masked? In any event, this has been a different ski year with booting up in the parking lot and eating lunch in the car or at a tailgate. The good news is that, for the most part, snow has been really good this winter, and lots of folks are getting out to enjoy the slopes nationwide.

Here in Western Pa, the snow has been plentiful, and all of our ski areas have been operating well. There have been a few glitches along the way but for the most part, I am grateful that the lifts are spinning. The outside fireplaces are roaring, and, when there are only a few people in the lodge, I sneak in early to sit by the fire, one of my favorite things to do.

There’s been snow in western PA. Gratitude. Credit: Pat McCloskey

There have been a lot of changes this year in the operation of skiing. We don’t really know the half of it, but I am sure that operating a ski resort in Western PA is challenging enough let alone in a year with a pandemic. In the fall, there were questions about whether there would be skiing this season.  However, the resorts have made it possible even though their bottom lines are probably not as robust with the lack of bar and restaurant business. Tough to survive on take out and limited indoor seating. But they are doing it, and, for that, I am grateful. When I ride up that old chairlift and look out over the Laurels, I am so thankful that I have the health and the skill to enjoy skiing. And an hour and a half from where I live, I will take it.

Janet and I are headed west in February and I will be going again in March. From what I am hearing from friends out there, the resorts are doing a good job in general. Sure there has been the issues with long lines due to social distancing on the chair lifts, but it seems to have sorted itself out as the season has progressed.  This past week, most of the west has seen a significant snowfall which will hold them in good stead for the rest of the season. Outdoor recreation is essential to all of us if we want to get through this pandemic and nothing better than enjoying the snow in the winter.

As I sit in my folding chair at the beginning of the day and boot up, I look around and think we are much better off than we thought we might be. The weather has been cooperative, and it has led to good times outside for a lot of us. So the next time you see a snowmaker at the resort, any resort, thank them. They work hard in really adverse conditions. When you see the patrol, the ski school, a groomer , restaurant employee, ticket booth personnel, or management at an area, take a moment to thank them all and tell them how much we appreciate their efforts to keep us all going strong this winter. The good news is that no matter what that ground hog says, we have a lot of winter left.

 

Don Burch

And More Ski Art

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Don Burch Has Yet Another View Of The Ski World.

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Don has created a series of artistic videos depicting impressions of the sport. He uses different AI techniques to create the images, some of which are startlingly beautiful. Please let him know what you think of his work in Leave A Reply below.

 

Breckenridge
mikemaginn

Question For You: Best Restaurant Ever In A Ski Town

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During This Pandemic, We Are Yearning For Those Fantastic Meals. Let’s Have Them Vicariously.

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St. Marcel, French Alps, three Michelin stars

Part of the fun of going on a ski vacation, a ski weekend, or even a day trip is eating out. Whether it’s a hamburger from a grill on a sun deck, magnificently pungent Chili from a cafeteria line, a crowded sit down restaurant on a mountain road that “everyone goes to”, or a luxurious, white table cloth, meal with wines and candles, these experiences are memorable and, we think, worth sharing.

What we are looking for this week are the places where you’ve dined at a ski resort or ski town that were totally terrific. Where was it? Mountain town or at a resort? What was the place like? Fancy schmancy? Or rustic and rugged? What kind of food? Pub grub? Gourmet? Have you been back? What made it so special that it stands out from countless other dining out experiences you’ve had in your snow sports career?

Breckenridge lunch deck. 0 Michelin stars.

What’s the most memorable dining-out experience you’ve had in a ski town or resort?

Please enter your comments in Leave A Reply below.

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Support SeniorsSkiing.com

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Once In A Year, It Is Not Thought Amiss.

SeniorsSkiing is halfway through its seventh publishing year. Over that time, we’ve advocated for seniors, conducted research on on-hill accidents, published best skis and best boots listings, recognized those seniors who really ski a lot, and provide a directory of where seniors can ski for free or almost free.

We publish articles about conditioning, gear, resorts, ski history, alternatives to Alpine skiing, interesting personalities, the weather, instruction, personal narratives, and lots more.

All for free.

No subscription.

But we do have expenses.  And our once a year appeal for support helps defray those costs which, by the way, keep going up as SeniorsSkiing.com’s number of readers grows.

So please consider a donation.  Hey, $10 is a tuna fish sandwich, five gallons of gas, a bowl of chili and a diet coke, three tubes of toothpaste, a bottle of okay Pinot Noir.  You get the idea.

Thanks.

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This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Jan.29)

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Mid-Winter, Ski Art, SmartPhone Photography, XC Booming, Question About Racing, Reminiscence, Skiing Weatherman, AI Ski Coach, Rx Goggles, And More.

Jon WeisbergComing soon: Prognosticator of Spring.We are approaching the middle of the winter season, and Ground Hog Day, coming up next week on Feb. 2, marks the half way point till spring.  Hope you have half your firewood and half your hay left, at least that’s what the old time New Englanders say.

Curious that Dec. 21, the first day of winter and the date of the winter solstice is considered “mid-winter” just like June 21, the first day of summer is “mid-summer”. On Ground Hog Day we are technically half way through the twelve weeks/three months of the winter season, and the dark, long days are behind us, the longest, and darkest Dec. 21. So why not call Ground Hog Day “mid-winter?”

Actually, Ground Hog Day falls on a cross-quarter day, an astronomical event that marks a midway point between the solstice and equinox.

There are four cross-quarter days each year, Ground Hog Day, usually Feb. 2 or so, is the first. The others are May 1 (May Day), between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, August 1, between Summer Solstice and Autumnal Equinox, and November 1, between Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice.

Our ancestors used these cross-quarter days as well as the equinoxes and solstices to mark the progress of the year, these markers indicating the time  to begin planting or harvesting. In our non-agrarian world, we’ve lost the significance of the sun’s movements across the sky. And no one really celebrates the significance of August 1 and November 1. May 1 has occasional followers (May poles and Morris dancers) as the mid-point of spring. Only Ground Hog Day remains as a celebration of movement towards spring and a huge public relations event for Punxsutawney, PA.

And as a symbol to snow sports lovers that time is running out for this crazy season.

This Week

Don Burch is posting the second of his Ski Art series. Don has managed to create a unique art form from video images, turning them into impressionistic, sometimes dramatic pictures of the ski world. Thanks again Don for publishing your work here. Click here.

Sugarloaf inversion taken by Smartphone. Credit: Tamsin Venn

Correspondent Tamsin Venn has tips from a professional photographer on how to make the most of Smartphone pics in snow country.  Almost everyone we know pauses at the top of a lift or mid trail to take a picture of the scenery or their pals. These ideas can raise the quality of those “snaps” and put them into the “art” category.

XCResorts.com publisher Roger Lohr reports on the boom in XC activity: Visits to XC areas, gear sales, etc.  People are coming back to the sport, bring in old XC gear for tune ups.  First timers are being accommodated when Alpine areas run out of capacity.  Interesting trend.

Our Question For You this week asks about your racing experience, if any.  If not, why not? We are impressed by the many essays we received on how readers learned the sport.  Your stories make interesting reading.  Thanks for all your contributions. It makes SeniorsSkiing.com a tighter-knit community.

Veteran ski journalist Dave Irons recounts the only time he was a ski instructor.  He was called to action to teach a small group of women despite the fact he never took a lesson in his life. How’d it turn out?

Dave had to teach a group of local women, and he never even had a lesson himself.

One again Herb Stevens checks in with the next week’s snow forecast. His mid-season predictions more snow for all coming up next week. Standby for news.

Co-Publisher Jon Weisberg describes the SnowVision Rx goggles he’s been using on hikes. The uniqueness of this goggle is that it claims to be fog-proof and full range of vision using a prescription lens insert. This can be a positive feature if you use this for XC skiing as well as Alpine. By the way, SnowVision is a SeniorsSkiing.com advertiser.  Check it out.

A reader Bob Margulis reports in a new AI product that is essentially a custom ski coach.  CARV is a tool you can use to get feedback as you ski.  It consists of footpads in your boots, a Smartphone app, and Bluetooth trackers. He’s found his skiing has improved after just a short time using the product.

We have another poem for this week.  In the past, we’d occasionally post a poem or story about snow, skiing, winter, and the like. We’ve posted a lot of Robert Frost, an excerpt from a Hemingway story, modern poets like Linda Pastan, Wallace Stevens, Wendell Barry, Emily Dickinson, W.S. Merwin, John Clare, John Greenleaf Whittier. We’ve published a song by Pete Seeger, and a poem written just for SeniorsSkiing.com by a street poet in Denver.  This week we are very pleased to present a poem written by Matthew Haddad, 11 years old, submitted by his grandpa, SeniorsSkiing.com reader Doug Haddad. It’s really good.

Thanks so much for reading SeniorsSkiing.com.  Please tell your friends. Remember there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away. Stay safe out there.

 

 

 

 

Herb Stevens

Skiing Weatherman: Mid-Season Update

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Terrain Opens Coast to Coast

In my mind, the end of January is roughly the mid-point of the season and as we hit that mark, the slopes of North America are in good shape from coast to coast.  There are a few spots here and there where trail counts and base depths are lacking a bit, but overall, the very active weather pattern of late has helped resorts in just about every winter sports region.  A persistent Pacific trough has absolutely pounded the southern Sierra and Southwest this past week, with the amount of open terrain skyrocketing in the past several days.  That trend will continue this weekend, pending avalanche work to ensure skier/rider safety.  The parade of storms across the country will continue in the upcoming week, with the northern mid-Atlantic and Northeast in line for a significant snowfall to kick off February.  At the same time, another juicy Pacific storm will bring new snow along the full length of the Cascades and Sierras, from Mount Baker, Washington in the north to Mammoth Mountain in California.  We will likely have two major winter storms going at the same time, as suggested by this jet stream map outlook for Monday night.

The upper level low centered over Cape May, NJ, will be supporting a surface low that will spin south of New England, a classic Nor’easter track.  The orange area over northeastern Canada is a blocking ridge, a feature that will not move out of the way, and that will slow down the progress of the coastal low and result in heavier snow amounts from the central Appalachians into central New England.  Heavy snow will fall with the trough off the Pac NW coast on Sunday and Monday, and as the trough pivots east-southeastward, Monday and Tuesday will bring a couple of feet of snow to the southern Sierra.  By the end of next week, the western trough will be positioned east of the Rockies, as you can see on this jet stream forecast for the afternoon of Friday the 5th.

The deep trough over the center of the continent will result in a surface low cutting from the southern Plains through the Great Lakes, which will bring a welcomed snowfall to the northern Lakes, but a messy storm farther east, where the deep southwesterly flow will bring a warmup that will last for several days.  Meanwhile, along the west coast, a strong upper ridge will build and help to deliver a cold air mass to the Rockies.  The very cold air will also move into the Plains and Midwest in the wake of the passage of the surface low next weekend, and then spread into the East early in the week of the 8th.  By the time we reach the second week of February the overall pattern will be cold pretty much from coast to coast, and I anticipate a favorable pattern for snow and cold to persist through much of the month. 

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Pac NW/B.C.:

Early week storm brings another dump…dry and colder pattern develops thereafter.  

Central and southern Sierra:

VERY snowy pattern brings another round early in the week.  Drier pattern develops later in the week as trough departs.

Rockies:

Light to moderate snow northern resorts middle of next week.  Heavy snow central and southern Rockies as core of trough passes through.  Colder throughout after the storm. 

Midwest:

Cold pattern in place.  Western Lakes in line for significant snow later next week…mixed precip central and eastern Lakes.  Lake effect snow follows passage of storm.

Northeast:

Cold weekend.  Major storm from central Appalachians to central New England Monday/Tuesday.  Lighter amounts across the far north.  Messy mixed precip event late next week. 

Mid-Atlantic/Southeast: 

Moderate to heavy snow early next week.  Turning milder with late week rain event.  Colder thereafter. 

Roger Lohr

Make More Tracks: Cross Country Skiing is Booming Despite COVID

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XC Is Hot And Getting Hotter.

Crested Butte Nordic Center attracting alpine skiers who can’t get downhill reservations.

The Cross Country Ski Areas Association (CCSAA) has been conducting online sessions with its cross country (XC) ski area members since last spring, focused on sharing information about how XC operations should respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussions resulted in widespread adoption of plans aimed at minimizing risk of virus transmission for staff and guests.

For example, many XC ski areas have adopted e-commerce and are requiring on-line purchase of trail passes, rental equipment, and lesson reservations. Plans to alter the flow of ski area traffic on the premises and in buildings for safe distancing, as well as limiting or eliminating indoor capacity, have also been put in place.

With plans ready, the onset of winter has come—and business is booming.

High Demand

As per usual for the XC ski business, there is snow in some places and a lack of snow in others. But one thing is consistent­ and fresh—at least since August, XC ski gear has been flying off the shelves.

There are shortages for popular sizes of skis and boots. Bindings and ski poles are also hard to find. Manufacturers have been unable to supply enough products to fill the dealers’ needs. Adding to the shortage, an October fire at a huge Ukrainian factory that reportedly produces a majority of the industry’s skis has hampered the ability to meet demand.

Great Start

XC ski area operators attending the meeting were upbeat about the demand and the level of business this winter, so far.

Christie Hicks of Crested Butte Nordic Center, referring to the two weeks before Thanksgiving when the center in Colorado first opened, “We were slammed from the beginning, and the holidays have been through the roof with five of the seven days during the period being the biggest ever.” Crested Butte Nordic’s season pass sales were up 40 percent, and rental revenue was up more than 100 percent.

First timers at Crested Butte Nordic over the holiday enjoyed good snow conditions and great weather. The center also welcomed alpine skiers who failed to reserve tickets in advance at the alpine ski resort and were turned away due to capacity restrictions.

Richard Hodges of White Pine Touring in Park City, UT, described “business being relentless, as everyday is as busy as a great Saturday. The on-line retail sales are up 300-400 percent, with all the beginner gear sold out and significant gaps in the inventory, but we are hopeful that we can get more products from suppliers by the late winter.”

“With regard to our retail equipment, we are now almost all sold out,” explained Dustin Hite of Osceola Ski & Sport Resort in northern New York. “Indoor capacity is limited to 50 percent per the state, but all the rentals are out on most days and season pass sales have been very strong,” said Hite.

Woodstock Nordic Center is tuning up old XC gear people are using to come back to the sport.

In Vermont, the Woodstock Nordic Center, which traditionally relies on guests at the Woodstock Inn & Resort, has doubled sales of season passes with locals compared to other years despite a 50 percent decline in occupancy at the Inn. Woodstock manager Nick Mahood said, “We had our biggest day ever for revenue leading up to the holidays, and then there was a rain out. Then we got enough snow to open and increased business has occurred despite Vermont’s restrictive travel policy.”  Mahood said that many local people who left the sport for years were coming back with their old gear that they want to get tuned-up.

In Truckee, CA, Tahoe Donner Cross Country is experiencing a low snow winter so far but has had strong season pass sales. According to area operator Sally Jones, “the state has set capacity limits, which is impacting the rentals and food operations. The health authority opposes eating at the premises—even outdoors—because it wants to minimize congregation on the area’s patio.”

On a recent visit I made to Green Woodlands in western New Hampshire (recently named a top place to XC ski in the US by an on-line outdoor website), there was enough snow to ski. And out of 50 XC skiers I saw in the parking lot and on the trails, there were only a couple not wearing masks. XC skiers appear to be respectful without being told to wear masks and there seems to be a minimal chance to get infected with the virus when passing other skiers along a trail if you’re wearing a mask. So join in, get outdoors, and hit the XC ski trails!

Green Woodlands in NH has groomed trails, parking, warming huts and no fee!

Tamsin Venn

Tips To Better Smartphone Photos

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Don’t Lug Your DSLR. Smartphones Can Do It.

It’s steeper than it looks. Credit: Tamsin Venn

Do you want to take better photos with your Smartphone? Transform your friends into Alpine or Nordic heroes?

Mark Phillips is a professional photographer.

Mark D. Phillips, a former AP photographer, is used to lugging around SLRs and long telephoto lenses for photographing ski racing. Increasingly, for sheer convenience, he uses an Smartphone to get good high quality shots. Here are some pros and cons of using the Smartphone and tips for how to take better photos, according to Phillips.

  • The Smartphone quality level is about half of your standard SLR so you sacrifice quality. But if you are doing photos mostly on the internet and sharing with friends and family, the clarity will be fine.
  • The phone works best as a wide angle lens. You can take that a step further and turn on the fun panorama feature. Use anchor points on either end to bring the image together.
  • One drawback is not having the use of a telephoto lens (true on the earlier models). Stay tuned for new phones which will have new zippy telephoto features.
  • To compensate for the Smartphone’s lack of depth of field, try to connect the elements of the photo: the skier with a line of trees or throw in a pop of color to give a sense of depth.
  • Use the rule of thirds. Put your subject in a third of the camera, and use the rest as a complement.
  • Mix up the camera angle. Hold the Smartphone down at your knees and get an interesting low shot. No need to bend way down or get on our knees.
  • Fill as much of the screen as you can.
  • The Smartphone has good light values for night photos, but again you are going to lose the depth of field. Use lines for composition to give more of a sense of depth.

Sugarloaf inversion taken by Smartphone. Credit: Tamsin Venn

  • Photoshop tools in the Smartphone rival any of the other tools available for playing with photos. Change the exposure, the highlights, lighten up the shadows and bring some details back into the blacks, or add warmth to take the blue out of the snow. Or, turn the photo into a moody black and white.
  • Most people email their photos to their computer, but if you have a lot you may want to use a cable. (If you turn on the “send to cloud” feature, they will show up on your computer.) Work with the largest file size you have, the more data you have when you resize the better the image.
  • Shoot video with the slow motion feature, then scroll through the images one shot at a time to find the best single action photo.
  • Finally, if you want to shoot your ski tips hanging over the top of Corbet’s Couloir at Jackson Hole, just accept that the Smartphone is going to erase the steepness factor. Then drop in.

Got any tips for taking better Smartphone photos? Share them in the Leave A Reply section below.

Moody day at Deer Valley has been edited with built-in editing tools. Credit: Tamsin Venn

Don Burch

Ski Art II

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Don Burch Does It Again

Here’s a new Ski Art video from Don. Some of these images are dramatic, colorful, peaceful, engaging, aesthetically pleasing, and just plain fun to see.

seniorsskiing

Question For You: What Lessons From Racing?

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Have You Raced? When? What Did You Learn?

Billy Kidd making his move.

We are curious how many of our readers have actually been involved in ski racing in the long arc of their skiing careers. Did you race in college? High school? World Cup circuit? Olympics?  Or just the odd NASTAR race at the local hill? 

Regardless what level you raced or your degree of success, what did you learn from the experience? How has what you learned changed your skiing experience, or, for that matter, your life and your outlook? If you didn’t race, what do you think you might have missed? Or, if you didn’t, why not?

What did you learn from your racing career that still sticks?

Please write your comments in Leave A Reply below.

 

 

seniorsskiing

Snow In Literature: Fwooosh

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Fwoosh! By Matthew Haddad (Age 12)

[Editor Note: This poem was written when Matthew was 11 for his grandfather SeniorsSkiing.com reader Doug Haddad. Proud grand dad submitted it on his behalf.]

Past snowy hills

On a 100 degree down

Intricate snowflakes

Frozen hearted yet making a winter wonderland 

Where skiing takes place

Over thousands of moguls

Making the snow a light wave

Directed down a thin river

When at a halt below, at the base all seems your fault

For the fun has stopped

Yet you may go up for another round

Lifted up by chairlifts

To another zoom down the mounting

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This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Jan. 22)

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Does Technique Matter? Corduroy XC Tracks,  Beginning XC, Making Turns, Think Arc, Robert Frost, How Did You Learn?

This week we reflect on how you ski and how you learned. We learned by following a fellow college student down the baby trails at Song Mt in Tully, NY, many decades ago. “Just do this”, he said showing me how to snow plow, then a stem christie. And that’s how I turned for many years: stem christie.  Couldn’t get past it.  Imprinted. Embedded. Habituated.

That was in the years of 205 cm skis and, yes, leather boots. After a long hiatus of non-skiing, I returned to the sport with new short skis and better boots.  I could shake the stem, but, honestly, when things got touchy, I stemmed. A long, long overdue lesson gave me some concepts to practice that helped stamped the stem and take advantage of those new skis.

All of which got us to wonder about technique, especially when ski coach Bob Trueman sent us a provocative article on forgetting about “making turns” and thinking “arcs” instead. His is a conceptual view of what is happening when going down a hill with skis strapped on feet. We are curious what you think.

Pat McCloskey, a ski instructor, gives us a view of slow turning and why that helps control along with a clear video of slow turning practiced by Norwegian national team member Henrik Kristoffersen.

There is such as thing as “vicarious learning”, that is, learning by watching someone perform.  If you were a Warren Miller fan back in the day, you couldn’t help but pick up what “rhythm” meant and how “flow” looked. That helped frame the mental part of what had to be done to create those arcs. The physical behavior was another matter.

Let us know what your experience in learning to ski and what the “mental model” is that you keep in your brain as you arc down the hill.  Or if there is anything in your brain, for that matter, and maybe that’s the point.

This Week

An arc is a segment of a circle.

The Skiing Weatherman Herb Stevens is calling for coast-to-coast snow in one form or another over the next couple of weeks.  Just in time as we hear snow is needed in the Rockies and Northeast. Click here.

We have an unprecedented third week in a row with a Snow In Literature poem.  This time, it’s Robert Frost’s wry Brown’s Descent, Or The Willy-Nilly Slide. Old Robert had a sense of humor, New England-style. Click here.

As mentioned there are two articles on ski technique: Bob Trueman’s Don’t Do Turns, and Pat McCloskey’s Slow Start, Good Turns. We’d love your comments.

Finally, we also have two Make More Tracks articles, a great how-to video on beginning cross-country skiing from Breckenridge Nordic Center.  Even if you feel like you know what you are doing on skinny skis, you’ll pick up some neat tips in this video.

Arc thinking makes a difference. Perhaps.

And correspondent Jonathan Wiesel explains why ski trails are “corrugated”. There is a reason the corduroy shape is used to groom ski trails.

Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com.  Tell your friends, and remember, there are more of us every day and we aren’t going away.

Credit: M. Maginn

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Wiesel

Make More Tracks: Corrugation For Groomed Trails

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The Technical Reason Why Ski Trails Are Corrugated.

Freshly groomed XC trails last longer. Credit: North Shore Nordic Association

[Editor Note: This article was written in collaboration with Auguste Lockwood, Yellowstone Track Systems.]

Interest in winter recreation promises to grow phenomenally in winter 2020-’21, despite—or because of —COVID-19, and a lot of us are looking forward to more friends and families on more and better groomed trails.

One of the subtle, unsung, but vital elements of high-quality (read “fun”) cross-country ski, snowshoe, fatbike, and snowmobiling grooming is corrugation. You’re probably familiar with metal or plastic corrugated panels that increase strength and rigidity for roofs and siding. Those same qualities apply to trails, where consistent, durable, beautiful surfaces are essential for skiers, snowshoers, and riders as well as groomers. 

If you’re interested in either producing or using high-quality trails, first thing to know about corrugation is something about the physics of snow. Corduroy —that’s the grooming version of corrugation —has peaks and troughs that create minute pressure differentials. These differences promote the movement of free moisture up through the snowpack to the tips of the peaks, where evaporation is accelerated by increased exposure to cold air.

The phenomenon of “hot moves to cold” describes the movement of moisture from a warm material to a cold one, like condensation on a cold drink on a hot day. Corduroy increases the surface area of the trail, exposing more snow to the air where moisture transfer can happen.

Corduroy creates a strong, stable surface if it’s in place long enough before being used. In addition to faster set-up time (“mechanical age hardening”) and increased snow metamorphism, the triangular shape of the individual ridges adds strength and stiffness. Ideally, corduroy peaks form a thin glaze that extends about 1/3rd of the way down the trough, in effect building a little ice cap. With a well-distributed load, these caps are the first defense against trail flattening, friction, and melt.

En masse, these caps are extremely strong, easily holding the weight of a skier, fatbiker, etc., leaving virtually no damage or even marks. Once the caps or tips fail, the upper half of the ridge is fairly soft, but the layer just above the trail base (about 1/4 inch high) remains extremely strong.

This slightly ridged trail can last for days or weeks under the right conditions. A ridged trail sets up faster, bonds harder, and lasts longer than a flat trail.

Fat Biking On Corduroy

Fat biking promises to become a major winter sport that complements cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, and it’s new enough that grooming for it is a little mysterious. Groomers’ knowledge about any of these sports can help create a premium product for the others.

With the widely-spaced lugs of a fat bike tire, there are two types of interaction with the trail: the lugs, and the smooth rubber of the tire. A corduroy surface makes for a better riding experience by providing consistent traction. With corduroy, tire lugs fall between the peaks of the ridges, allowing the smooth rubber to evenly distribute pressure between the tips of three to five ridges at a time.

Lugs that contact the ridges will crush the snow, digging in and providing lateral traction, while the lugs between ridges grab the edge of a ridge and provide lateral traction, without damaging the trail. This creates a superior surface, as an increased number of ridges per foot of the grooming comb has several advantages.

One advantage is increased surface area, decreasing setup (consolidation) time. Another is more surface contact with a tire, since with widely spaced ridges, the tire will only be contacting a couple of ridge tips, increasing the pressure on the tips and breaking them. In contrast, on a smooth trail, tire lugs either don’t penetrate enough if the trail is too firm, thus reducing traction; or they’ll penetrate the top surface of the trail, until the weight is transferred to the smooth rubber of the tire.

The ideal density can be hard to achieve—too hard and there’s not much traction, too soft and the weight of the rider will crush the top layer of trail, creating a weak spot.

Finally, from an aesthetic point of view for fat biking, really good corduroy leaves a small line of snow on the tire. So while riding, there are three or four (depending on tire width) thin white lines that circle the tire. This produces a mesmerizing pattern on the wheels to watch on your front tire or on the back tire of someone you’re following. The lines run longitudinally around the tire if you’re going straight, but you can zigzag and make cool patterns as they interact with the regularly spaced lugs while turning.