Blog: Third Pure Ski Trip
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Third Pure Ski Trip - Sunday, March 8, 2015
I skied a blue run today.
Well, however much you can call it skiing.
This weekend was our third annual Pure engineering ski trip! While we had something like 75 people last year, this year we had 130 from all our different offices!
Last year I took the second-timer ski lessons, and this year I did the novice lessons. Our class was only four people, with one being a co-worker. I started off really terrible, being unable to turn well or slow down well. But by the end of the class, I was carving up the beginner slope with relative ease!
My problem was in the feet. When turning, you're supposed to put more weight on your outer foot and less weight on your inner foot. I had been doing the opposite, and then trying to pull with my thighs to compensate for my inability to turn. Yuck. Once I learned the correct method, my form greatly improved immediately.
Our instructor Jacqueline (aka Jax) was great. She analyzed what people were doing and got to the underlying paradigm of why we were doing things that way. For instance, turning is all in the feet, but novices often try to turn with their legs or hips. This is a natural paradigm in normal life because we turn around first with our shoulders, then torso, then legs and feet. But in skiing, turning is done mostly in the feet, a small amount in the legs, and almost none in the hips.
My form greatly improved throughout the day, though making sharp turns was still difficult. At the end of the day I decided to go for a blue run, so I did the California Trail, the same route that I tried and had to walk down two years ago.
While a green run can mask imperfect form, a blue run will reveal it. My inability to make tight turns hurt me on the blue run, causing me to pick up too much speed and/or bail out of turns. Halfway down, I got a sense that my problem with that I was leaning back in my boots out of fear. Leaning forward is more scary, but I found that by doing so, I had greater control and was able to execute turns better and actually be more effective in slowing down. The trail kicked my butt (100% of my falls that day were during this run), but suffice it to say that I made it to the bottom without having to walk down!
I enjoyed getting to know some people over our dinners. Dinner on Friday was served in a private room at the hotel, and dinner on Saturday was at Himmel Haus, which our company had booked the entire restaurant for the evening.
Instead of Harvey's, this year we lodged at the Hard Rock. The rooms were not as nice as at Harvey's, but no complaints; it was still nicer than the hotels Priscilla and I typically stay at.
And just like last year, my roommate ended up not being able to go, so I got a room all to myself and didn't have to pay extra for it.
Lots of fun. Looking forward to next year's!
Well, however much you can call it skiing.
This weekend was our third annual Pure engineering ski trip! While we had something like 75 people last year, this year we had 130 from all our different offices!
Last year I took the second-timer ski lessons, and this year I did the novice lessons. Our class was only four people, with one being a co-worker. I started off really terrible, being unable to turn well or slow down well. But by the end of the class, I was carving up the beginner slope with relative ease!
My problem was in the feet. When turning, you're supposed to put more weight on your outer foot and less weight on your inner foot. I had been doing the opposite, and then trying to pull with my thighs to compensate for my inability to turn. Yuck. Once I learned the correct method, my form greatly improved immediately.
Our instructor Jacqueline (aka Jax) was great. She analyzed what people were doing and got to the underlying paradigm of why we were doing things that way. For instance, turning is all in the feet, but novices often try to turn with their legs or hips. This is a natural paradigm in normal life because we turn around first with our shoulders, then torso, then legs and feet. But in skiing, turning is done mostly in the feet, a small amount in the legs, and almost none in the hips.
My form greatly improved throughout the day, though making sharp turns was still difficult. At the end of the day I decided to go for a blue run, so I did the California Trail, the same route that I tried and had to walk down two years ago.
While a green run can mask imperfect form, a blue run will reveal it. My inability to make tight turns hurt me on the blue run, causing me to pick up too much speed and/or bail out of turns. Halfway down, I got a sense that my problem with that I was leaning back in my boots out of fear. Leaning forward is more scary, but I found that by doing so, I had greater control and was able to execute turns better and actually be more effective in slowing down. The trail kicked my butt (100% of my falls that day were during this run), but suffice it to say that I made it to the bottom without having to walk down!
I enjoyed getting to know some people over our dinners. Dinner on Friday was served in a private room at the hotel, and dinner on Saturday was at Himmel Haus, which our company had booked the entire restaurant for the evening.
Instead of Harvey's, this year we lodged at the Hard Rock. The rooms were not as nice as at Harvey's, but no complaints; it was still nicer than the hotels Priscilla and I typically stay at.
And just like last year, my roommate ended up not being able to go, so I got a room all to myself and didn't have to pay extra for it.
Lots of fun. Looking forward to next year's!