My Skis have Edges

Yesterday we went for round two of skiing. As Kyle pointed out in the comments in the preceeding blog entry and M. pointed out last week when we were skiing, my technique has a major fault. I lean too far back in my skis. When skiing in Vermont, mostly only on intermediate trails, I could get away with this and even manage to feel like a pretty good skier. Yesterday I learned the hard way what the problem with this lack of technique was on much harder slopes.


We went to another mountain in the Alps, Zillertal. As we were riding up the narrow mountain road I looked over the edges to the valleys hundreds of meters below and started to get really nervous again. I'm afraid of heights a little bit and the heights in the Alps are higher than most. We parked the car and started to gear up. This time, M.'s friend A. was with us ready to to try out his sweet new snowboard.

We got on the first lift and one look at the first hill and I knew I was in big trouble. In this area the slope levels are blue for beginner, red for intermediate and black for advanced. Blue would be comparable to an intermediate or high intermediate in VT. Our first hill was a red and was easily the second or third steepest slope I had been on in my life. To make a long story short, I came down that hill just about every way imaginable except on my skis. Both hips, my butt, my stomach and at one point my chin carried me a good half of the way down. All I can say is ouch!! To my body and my ego.

We got to the bottom and I decided that my career as an Alpine skier was finito. These mountains were just too big for me. I told M. and A. to go skiing and I'd chill out in the lodge. However, M. wasn't going to let me give up that easily. He told me again what he had told me last week, that I'm a good skier and just need to make some changes to my technique in order to be able handle the steeper slopes. So with tears of frustration in my eyes, he took me over to the practice slopes to see if he could help me.

I have a hard and fast rule to not take instruction from anyone I am dating. I hate being helped especially once I am so frustrated to begin with and by someone who's opinion I actually care about who potentially might be judging me. But after the embarrassment of that first hill in front of M. and A. it really couldn't get any worse. And somehow with M. I feel like I can just be myself for better or for worse. So we got on the t-bar and the instruction began.

He showed me why leaning back so much makes you speed up and lose control. Then he showed me how to reposition my body at various points in the turn. Up and down the hill we went. I fell about 20 more times trying to do what he was showing me and things started to improve a little. Then he gave me a drill because he could see that my upper body was also misaligned for control and carving. I hold my poles parallel in front of me and followed him down the hill a few more times. It wasn't pretty but something started to happen from time to time. I began to have the right weight on my skis and my edges and I wasn't speeding up, losing control or falling as much. I even started to smile.

We took a lunch break with A. who had been boarding by himself. We decided to go up to the top so the boys could go do some black trail skiing for a couple hours and I was going to practice my new technique and get more of a feel for it on the blue trails.

There were people everywhere but I was in a world of my own. Even on the icy parts I had good control and I kept repeating the key points I had learned that morning to myself. The sun was shining, I was smiling and I felt unafraid and able to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the fresh air.

I had about 30 minutes left before the lifts closed and I was supposed to meet the boys so I headed back to the practice hill and did the drill a few more times. I was really digging into the mountain, the poles were aligned correctly in front of me the whole time and I was completely in control. As the sun was setting I decided to go for one last ride down but I wanted to try it with some speed. I tore down the hill using the same techniques and it was still working.

I met the boys back at the car and we wound our way down from the sunny mountain into the fog in the valley. It ended up being a very fun day and I'm eager to go try it again! Who knows? Maybe I'll even venture onto some red slopes next time. Maybe. ;-)