Observations

[Ken]

-One thing I like about PMTS (besides the fact that it works so well) is that we get the "Why," not just, "Do this." I'm an engineer. I can fix most things if I know the "Why." If I don't know the Why, then there can't be a fix, just a patch.

-I skied Wednesday. Western Washington has very thin snow and it's not going to get better soon, but Wednesday was good soft pack. I re-re-re-re-viewed HH's #2 video with the intention of taking a couple of things up to the mountain to work on. I was working on "lifting the arch" of the inside foot and pulling the foot back. I also tried the weighted release and carving on the outside edge of the inside foot. That's scary. It'll take me lots more practice on easy runs to get comfortable with that.

-There were very few skiers on the mountain Wednesday but several bus loads of skiers with the concession ski schools in this area. I tried for a teaching job with one of these schools, but with the low bookings due to the poor snow they didn't hire anyone new. Anyway I eavesdropped on a couple of these groups. I saw an instructor making beautiful picture-perfect two-footed releases into steered slip-slide turns. Graceful. But, it was on snow as smooth as a ballroom floor. I'm sure that he'd use different technique in lumpy snow, but he wasn't teaching an all-purpose technique. I also heard an instructor telling his pupil that the reason she was getting tossed around in lumpy snow was because she wasn't putting enough pressure on the ski tips. That might be, but he said nothing about the fact that she was taught to steer and slip-slide her turns, not to slice through the lumpy snow (and all other snow) on her ski edges.

-I saw a few really good skiers. They must be naturally athletic folks who just "found" good skiing technique without or in spite of PSIA. Sure, they could be better skiers, but they were doing really well skiing all-mountain. I'm not naturately athletic, skiing is the best athletic endeavor I've done, and I really appreciate how PMTS techique and equipment guidance have made my skiing much more fun.

-I was on new Volant Gravity 71 175cm skis (I'm 6', 205#) and really did well with lifting the arch into a Super Phantom move and pulling that foot back to keep my feel under me, not ahead of me as is my usual fault. I usually lift the new nonstance foot but forget to tilt it.

-My Nordica Beast 12 boots work great. They have a cuff lock..."Firm" locks the cuff to the lower shell and "Soft" unlocks the cuff and allows some movement at the rivets. "Firm" gave me too quick an on and expecially off forward pressure. "Soft" allowed smooth pressure changes--I skied much better on "Soft" even on firm packed snow.

WE NEED SNOW here in the PNW.


Ken