Ski Season (#8b) - good snow Ski Season (#8b) - good snow

It turned out to be a decent day sking. We really didn't get that much snow, but it was nicely groomed. It was a bit cold and blowy, and, as a result of that and it being a Monday, the slopes were fairly deserted.

So, we didn't stand around much today, as we usually do. Rather, we would cycle through on a fairly regular basis. I was averaging one run every twenty or so minutes, though I think I did get one cycle down to about fifteen minutes.

Yesterday, I was on a pair of Atomic Beta Race GS skis that I had bought from my brother. They work very well on hard snow, like we had yesterday, but not as well as on soft pack. Today, I was on my newer Atomic Beta Rides. These are softer and have a shorter turning radius (the Beta Race GS are 22 meter skis, and this pair of Beta Ride are 20 meter skis). I think a nice pick for both days.

Today, with the entire trails to play with, I had a gas. Its pretty easy to get the skis up on an edge, and ride that around. So, I could make big arcing turns at a pretty good speed, back and forth across the trails. Great fun. And I played with a bunch of different techniques. First time this year to Mambo (which uses a full rotation of both arms and poles to initiate turns). I tried standing fairly upright and moving my weight back a bit, feeling the entire ski carve. On the other hand, my higher speed technique requires a lower body and butt. I haven't gotten that one down, as my weight is still a bit forward (which I notice because I am gettinga little slip in the tails).

Finally, again for the first time this year, a modern short-swing, where my body stays in the fall line, but my skis carve back and forth under me at a pretty good clip. The problem though with this is that the classical short-swing would scrub off a lot of speed through skidding the tails of one's skis. As I was working on my carving, I was minimizing that old-style skidding, and as a result, was accelerating instead.

This all got me thinking about why I love skiing. Part of the answer of course is getting out and excercising, often under blue skies on good snow here in CO. But part of it is also that getting your skis to really carve is almost intoxicating. It is such a great feeling, and the faster you go, the better it feels.