Ski Day 23: Another Tune-Up

Last Saturday the 26th was a big day. Not only were a handful of the patrol trainees that I worked with last weekend going to take their toboggan tests, but I was putting on another tune-up clinic for the folks we hope to have ready for the next weekend of testing. In the morning, coaches John, Jeff, and I gave a pep talk to the folks going over to Ski Bowl to test, then I went with Jeff and a group of 6 trainees to Meadows to train.

It was a freakin' great day to ski. Almost a shame that we weren't there to free-ski. But we had work to do - the gang we had with us needed more work to be ready for their toboggan-handling tests coming up. So Jeff and I set about getting them ready. Most of what we worked on was stance and balance stuff. We did manage to get in a free run, though. The gang needed it, and it was epic.

No real exciting or memorable moments came from the day's session, however. Pretty routine day of toboggan training. We started off with some drills, then dragged sleds around, pretty much like last time.

When we got done, however, we called one of the coaches that was up with us last week. He was with the group that was being tested, so we wanted to find out how things went. We were very pleased to find out they all passed. After we got back to Govy, it was congrats all around, and we did some shots from the shot-ski at Charlie's. Congrats to the apprentices who passed, and best wishes to the ones testing this weekend.

I'll be away from the hill this weekend, but back coaching next week for whoever is still preparing. Hopefully there will be more good news on Sunday.

Ski Days 21 & 22: Tryouts and Tune-up

Sunday the 13th was Day 21, and the first day in a long time that I wasn't training patrol apprentices. Instead, I was helping evaluate candidates for next year's group, same as back on Ski Day 4. One thing was different this time, however - I got put in charge of the ski test portion of the tryouts program.

Since this one was kind of my baby, and we were expecting maybe half of the number of applicants we had in December, I thought we'd try a station-based approach instead of having it group-based. So, we had pairs of evaluators looking at all the candidates doing different ski/ride skills instead of groups of evaluators only looking at 8 or so candidates doing all the ski/ride skills for the test.

The weather wasn't as bad as we had expected, but it did rain on and off at Ski Bowl. Our scorecards held up better, thanks to some better paper and better use of zip-loc bags. The tryouts went pretty well. I paired up with "Tool Time" again, and we were evaluating the candidates' ability to handle bumps and off-piste skiing. We ran laps on Calamity, and the snow and bumps over there proved pretty much perfect for seeing what the candidates were made of.

After the last group came through, we packed up our stuff and headed back over to the patrol building in Govy to wrap things up. Mother Nature had other ideas, however, and it wasn't too long after we settled into the discussion that we lost power thanks to what turned out to be downed trees. We had a nice little thunderstorm going on as well. After a flurry of phone calls and everyone at the patrol building waiting anxiously for word on whether or not we'd have to run off to one of the areas to help with lift evacuations, we got word that we weren't needed.

We'd heard a lot of different reports about road conditions and blockages due to fallen trees and so on, so tried to check and see what the trip home would be like. We didn't get any good indications one way or the other, so we headed home on US26 per usual. We encountered stop-and-go traffic maybe halfway to Sandy, and it was pretty slow going even after we passed where the major power-line problem was. There was no power to anything in Sandy - it wasn't until we got to the A&W just west of Sandy did we see any lights or evidence of power.

Day 22 was Saturday the 19th, and it found me back coaching again, this time at Meadows. As part of my bid to become an Instructor-Trainer (IT) for the patrol, I was asked to put together a training plan for a more focused clinic than our usual training days call for.

I put together what I felt would be a good tune-up for the skiers, focusing on getting back to some of the fundamentals and really exaggerating some of the movements and stance stuff that they all were still having issues with, to varying degrees. I split the group up into two groups: one group that would work on more ski-skills stuff to try and get some of the more basic things addressed, and the other group would work more on fine-tuning their technique running the toboggans. I probably could have done a better job in the initial briefing to make sure no egos were bruised, but at the end of the day, everyone seemed to have gotten what they needed out of the training.

It was a gorgeous day, too. Sun, fresh snow, light and smooth. We made sure we didn't go off and track out all the good stuff early, so we stuck to the groomers - which had probably about 3-5" of fresh on them anyway. Glorious warm-up runs on the smooth stuff.

I was with the second group, and we started off with some rope-handling drills to make sure everyone was getting on the same page as far as hand position, and focusing more closely on what they were doing with the hands at transition. So we had them out of their skis, walking the ropes in and out, with tension. I think it worked pretty well, and we moved from that into rope-a-goat, and then started working on some more stance stuff. I wanted to get the apprentices to really square up their shoulders, and we did a drill where the 'driver' takes the inside hand off the handle and puts it on the downhill thigh. To keep the toboggan under control, we had tail-ropers, empty toboggan, and we ran on a gentle slope. Pretty neat little drill, as it works the driver and the tail-roper on different things. The tail-roper kind of gets some rope-a-goat practice, while the driver works on body position. Seemed effective.

We did sneak in some turns in the trees over on Star just before breaking for lunch, and it was glorious. Managed to find a few untracked lines over there, which was a bit of a surprise after 11am.

We moved on to the steeper stuff after lunch, loading 'em up and working on transitions in the steeps in chunky snow and getting some traversing in as well. We moved on to the really steep and challenging stuff later on, and while some fatigue set in, we saw some really good things from the apprentices on the last couple runs. They were really clicking, for the most part, and apart from a couple tactical bobbles that caused some falls and frustration, they looked good. Some of them looked to me and the other coaches to be ready for testing next week.

Ski Day 20: Training in the Glop @ Ski Bowl

Saturday was another training day, and I found myself back with B Team once again. One of their regular coaches couldn't make it, so I joined them for some more toboggan training over at Ski Bowl.

It was snowing, and with the temps where they were, in my mind it was threatening to rain. Thankfully, the precipitation on the hill remained snow, but it was pretty wet stuff. The fresh/overnight snow was fairly heavy, kind of like mashed potatoes. Good snowball snow - the kind of stuff that ends up causing a lot of slow, twisting falls that end up needing patrol help.

Skiing this kind of glop concerns me more than most, having had/repaired/rehabbed a torn ACL, but some recent little tweaks to my technique had me actually fairly unconcerned with the snow after a few tentative turns. Some of the glop-skiing was actually fun.

The apprentices all still need to work on the same things, which is a little frustrating at this stage in their training. I think they are understanding what we are telling them they need to do, and why it's important for them to make the technical adjustments we're giving them, but it seems like they're having trouble applying it. I think they need to spend more time making the adjustments out of the handles, on gentler terrain, then get back in the handles.

That said, some of them made some really good progress this week. Test weekend looms ever closer, so hopefully they all make strides this coming weekend.

Since I didn't want to get up at 3am to do it, I had to do my P90X workout when I got home. Legs & Back / Ab Ripper X is not the workout you want to have to do after a day on the hill.

Ski Days 18 & 19: Flippin' Cold and Flippin' Awesome

Day 18 was another training day with the patrol. I was covering for one of the A Team coaches at Ski Bowl, and it was VERY cold. Probably the coldest day I've skied since coming out here to Oregon. Temps were in the single digits as the day started. Not as cold as that GS at Burke that one year, but pretty darn chilly.

The cold, plus the recent fresh snow, made it a pretty damn good day to be on the hill. Too bad we had to spend the bulk of the morning on the gentler groomed slopes. All the apprentice groups seemed to have jumped right into the steeps a little before the trainees were really ready for it, and some of them were really showing that they needed a little more time working the fundamentals.

So, we spent the morning over on Multorpor, tweaking things and working on reinforcing stance/balance and their importance to good, smooth transitions in the handles an on the tail rope. I think it helped - they all looked like they had made improvement by the afternoon. Good day of training, and some of the stuff in the upper bowl was still pretty good skiing, even in the afternoon.

Day 19 was today. I'd gotten permission to take the day off because it'd been just DUMPING snow on the mountain the last few days. Fellow patroller NoPoGirl and her friend were already planning to ski, and invited me to tag along.

It was awesome. Snowed all day, a little breezy, but some freshies and wind-blown stuff were to be found all over the hill. Place was practically empty, and we just cranked out run after run. I saw Grant Myrdal (the photog from Day 14) over on Star, so we skied by to hopefully get a few shots taken. He managed to get a handful of each of us, which we got to check out on the big screen in the lodge at lunch. We called it a day a little early, but I wasn't complaining - Bex and I recently started P90X and today was Plyo X, so my legs were pretty beat anyhow.