Early turns at A-Basin

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Early turns at A-Basin

Postby geoffda » Fri Nov 02, 2018 7:04 pm

<Edited to add one more video>

A few inches of new snow at A-Basin and some early season turns on High Noon. Skis are 170cm Head World Cup Rebels iSL. I am working on being less aggressive with counter balance at the top of the turn in order to avoid locking my hips and stopping the tipping (and hence the turn). By staying relaxed, it is easier to get more tipping earlier and keep that tipping going so that the skis come around. Liking the direction these movements are going; my alignment not so much. Neither foot is working well. The left ski is railing, which might mean that leg is too strong (but it isn't) and the right is weak and wobbly. On the positive side, I spent the afternoon down at the shop working with Walker from the footbeds up and he may have identified a fit issue that explains why my alignment has been such a struggle. BTW, if you don't think PMTS skiers can stivot, you can see one at 0:12 when I have to use one to avoid the skier in brown and gray who came from behind and from the opposite side of the slope to try to hit me. Stay safe out there folks!


One more video where the alignment issues are a little less noticable as I'm not getting bounced around quite so badly.
Last edited by geoffda on Sat Nov 03, 2018 1:11 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Early turns at A-Basin

Postby tigernbr » Sat Nov 03, 2018 2:51 am

Nice Geoff! It will be much better this Friday when Keystone and Breck open. That should take some of the pressure off A-basin. Also, if they get the snow that is predicted, A-basin should open more terrain this week. A whole slew of mountains open on the 16th.
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Re: Early turns at A-Basin

Postby ErikCO » Sat Nov 03, 2018 7:18 am

Very nice! Now I'm envious that you have someone to video for you! I'll have to track you down when I'm next at A-basin and get you to video me! That way my presumably abysmal performance won't come as quite as much of a shock when I see it the first day of short turn camp at the end of this month. :)

Nice job avoiding the other skiers. I did get up there once 2 weeks ago and it was almost like a moving mogul field with the added pleasure of people flying by me from behind and occasionally letting out curses at me because they mis-judged, were going to fast, and almost hit either me or another skier. Can't wait for the other mountains to open so the people will all go away!
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Re: Early turns at A-Basin

Postby geoffda » Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:43 pm

ErikCO wrote:Very nice! Now I'm envious that you have someone to video for you! I'll have to track you down when I'm next at A-basin and get you to video me!

Unfortunately, I don't have a good camera at the moment. I have to rely on Harald and Diana for video when we are doing coach training.
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Re: Early turns at A-Basin

Postby tigernbr » Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:34 pm

Keystone is opening 2 days early, November 7th. That should really take some pressure off A-Basin. BTW, A-Basin got over 2 feet of snow in the last 6 days. I'd be shocked if the upper mountain isn't opened by this weekend.

ETA: Just announced: Sundance (a green run) will open tomorrow. By the end of the week, Lenawee Mountain Lift, Lenawee Face, Dercum's Gulch and Humbug will be open. It's getting there! This last storm put A-Basin at over 200% of its normal snow pack for this time of year. And it is still snowing....Amazing!
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Re: Early turns at A-Basin

Postby Ken » Thu Nov 22, 2018 11:08 pm

Geoff, how much weight is on that inside ski? Look at :11 in the first vid.

A test I invented for myself (not HSS approved) is if I can lift the tail of my inside ski up off the snow momentarily during a turn, I have my weight pretty much divided as I want.

Meager snow here in the Pacific Northwest. Local areas either aren't opening, or will open Black Friday on horrible snow. Whistler had 5 (five!) runs open on Thanksgiving. Snow is on the way, but it'll take a while yet to get decent.
Rooster today
Feather duster tomorrow

VIDEO OF NOT ME
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Re: Early turns at A-Basin

Postby geoffda » Sat Nov 24, 2018 10:39 am

I don't really think about weight on the outside ski, it is more about location of balance. Unless I've decided to put all of my weight on the outside ski (meaning I've lifted the inside ski), I couldn't tell you what percentage of my actual weight is there. People make stuff up all the time like 90%, but that is nonsense; we don't know. About all that I can tell you definitively is that I ski with anywhere from most to all of my weight on the outside ski and that I try to balance such that I could lift the inside ski if I needed to. Being able to do that is a great test of correct balance and we teach it to students all of the time. It is definitely HSS approved, so keep using it in your skiing!

At 0:11, I hit a patch of ice and lost grip on the outside ski. That can happen regardless of how much weight is on the ski and it is a not uncommon when you have a few icy patches mixed in with very soft snow. But yes, at that moment, balance transferred automatically to the inside ski to avoid a fall. In many cases, you can transfer balance back to the outside ski once you recover and just finish the turn, but I had to immediately redirect the skis to avoid the skier that was overtaking me from behind.

Sorry to hear PNW is getting El-Nino'd. Hopefully things will get better as the season progresses. Heard Crystal opened with a Colorado-style White Ribbon of Death. Hopefully, some good storms will follow.
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