Arapahoe Basin Opening Day

[JMD]

A-Basin just announced that they are opening for the 11/12 skiing season tomorrow morning at 9am (Thursday October 13th). Wolf Creek opened last weekend making them the first resort to open in Colorado this season.

[geoffda]

See you there!

[HeluvaSkier]

Jealous...

[emakarios]

I'm stuck in MN at work! But I do have a season pass there.

[geoffda]

A suprisingly great day at the Basin today. Usually, I kind of dread opening day because I figure I'll only get three runs in and my skiing won't be back together by the time I leave. Today was the usual junk show, but unless I'm imagining things, it seemed like more people were on on conditions-appropriate gear than ever before. I only noticed one knucklehead on a full rockered setup. It also seemed like there were fewer out of control riders than usual. The snow was pretty super--generally grippy, with just a few slick spots to remind you which ski you needed to be standing on. Weather was sunny and warm, visibility was good. The lines were only barely out of the corral and didn't seem to take too long (or maybe it was just because I was enjoying the good company of JMD, CO_Steve and his wife). All told we got 6 runs in in two hours of skiing--which for A-Basin on opening day is fantastic!

The best part though, was that for the first time ever, my skiing just worked from the moment I clicked into my bindings. I started out slow; a few railroad tracks in the flat at the top, then quickly transitioned to brushed turns, just focusing on my movements. Amazingly, balance was there from the get go. Tipping and flexion were there too, as was (unbelievably) fore-aft. So I just focused on my CB and CB. As the slope got a little steeper, and the crowds a little thicker, I dusted off my bullet-proof short turn. Oddly enough, it seemed to be in about the same condition as I left it last season. Subsequent runs were similar except that I took advantage of some big gaps in the traffic to lay them over. Once again, rather suprisingly, things just seemed to work. On the first few attempts I focused on tipping and just building some good angles, but by the end of the morning I was focused on inside-leg flexion and getting some good vertical seperation.

Even by my own standards I skied well today and I can't even tell you how awesome that feels. I knew exactly what I wanted to do on every turn, and whatever it was, the movements were just there. There was no stiffness, no tension, and best of all, no sense of being tentative. I felt pretty "let go" from the start. It is unbelievable what slightly more than two seasons of dedicated PMTS work has done for my skiing!

I also saw some great turns from JMD and CO_Steve as well (especially once the latter moved the binding mount on his Icon TT-80s forward ). Neither of them looked too far away from where they were at in July. It will be fun to see how our skiing continues to develop this year--particularly after we all get done with our respective camps.

[skimore]

Thanks for the report, Geoff. I hope the snow doesn't melt off as we get back to Indian summer. Hope to see you down there - may-be next week.

[JMD]

Really fun Opening Day at A-Basin. Great snow conditions and made to order weather. Really felt comfortable with my early season turns although I have a long way to go with my PMTS training to "Master the Slopes". Geoffda was already in great form and co_steve with his wife were looking comfortable also. Really looking forward to attending the December Blue/ Dark Blue Camp.

[geoffda]

Thanks for the report, Geoff. I hope the snow doesn't melt off as we get back to Indian summer. Hope to see you down there - may-be next week.

Hope to see you too, but unfortunately it won't be next week as I have to travel. JMD and CO_Steve should be around though!

[ToddW]

The best part though, was that for the first time ever, my skiing just worked from the moment I clicked into my bindings. I started out slow; a few railroad tracks in the flat at the top, then quickly transitioned to brushed turns, just focusing on my movements. Amazingly, balance was there from the get go. Tipping and flexion were there too, as was (unbelievably) fore-aft.

I'll pass on making the jealous comment that came to mind about Geoff's fore-aft.

This is a strong testament to Geoff's dedication to rebuilding his skiing from the ground up and the power of PMTS. When a formerly really good "bad skier" like Geoff can engrain efficient movements into his muscle memory this firmly in a few years, you know there's a dynamite system behind it. Congrats to both Geoff and Harald on this outcome!

[CO_Steve]

Geoff, James, thanks for the props. Yet another great season underway. As noted everyone skied better than expected. Of course Geoff looked great. Could be it's only been 100 or so days since we quit.

As noted I had picked up a new pair of TT80s over the summer. Thought I'd break them and myself in at the same time. I guess I missed the memo about binding position and had them set up at the factory point. AACK! I literally couldn't ski. I'm thinking I'm rusty but dang these just aren't working. After being reminded to move the bindings up I ended up at +1.2 and they felt like old friends.

See you guys tomorrow.

[geoffda]

I'll pass on making the jealous comment that came to mind about Geoff's fore-aft.

This is a strong testament to Geoff's dedication to rebuilding his skiing from the ground up and the power of PMTS. When a formerly really good "bad skier" like Geoff can engrain efficient movements into his muscle memory this firmly in a few years, you know there's a dynamite system behind it. Congrats to both Geoff and Harald on this outcome!

Thanks Todd. Are you going to be out for camp this year?

[ToddW]

Short turn camp in a few weeks to start the season and Hintertux to close the season down.

[HeluvaSkier]

Geoff, I can only hope that my season starts as well as yours did. I have always been fortunate in the last to pick up where I left off, however I was not so lucky last year due to poor preparation. I think [hope] this season will be better though.

[ToddW]

bump.

Any updates from Geoff, James, Steve, or other A-basin locals about the return to skiing? I enjoyed this thread last year.

[geoffda]

It's been good. High Noon is open with good cover. Been skiing with JMD and Co_Steve and Co_Steve's wife--though Co_Steve has missed the best days in order to play golf. JMD and I were joking that he should just keep playing until Keystone opens as it seems that whenever he is absent, the crowds are minimal.

Skied just one run on opening day--combination of lack of breakfast, maybe a bit dehydrated, overheated, and severe foot pain was making me light-headed and a bit nauseated. Since the light headed wasn't going away in what was going to be a 15 minute wait for the next chair, I decided to bail. However, the one run I took felt generally good. Bullet-proof short turns were working from the get go. Had the expected minor balance issues after a five month lay-off, but it felt really good to just step into my skis and start snapping off turns without any of the usual uncertainty.

After doing three 45 minute sessions of wearing my boots on Wed. afternoon at home, my feet were in much better shape on Thursday. Crowds were light and we got in a bunch of runs. Snow alternated between several inches of loose man-made (they were topping off High Noon) and slick icy spots. In general, I felt great--was able to arc some turns on only the second run; usually it takes me longer to work up to that. My biggest problem was that I wasn't getting early counter balance and there were several instances where I leaned in and lost my stance ski on the slick spots. However, after focusing on that for several runs, the problem went away and I was feeling really good. Being able to ski ice well (both with BPSRT and arced turns) on essentially day 1 was definitely a new experience for me. On one of the last runs, I made some really pretty turns slicing through the loose man-made (which skied a bit like wind crust).

The great thing about PMTS is that it makes self-coaching so easy. You know what you are supposed to do and when you aren't getting it done, you have the self-awareness to recognize what the problem is and fix it. It just doesn't take long to get your skiing back to the previous season's level.

On Friday, it felt a little more crowded and I think the mix of folks wasn't as good. Lots of fast/out of control and timid skiers in the mix. Ran into DR after a run or two and we skied with her the rest of the day. Snow conditions were grippy and I was working on maximizing my tipping. D mentioned that I was tipping really well, but I was stopping a bit before release. So I spent the rest of the morning trying to continue the tipping all the way to release. Also, I'd been noticing that I wasn't tipping my left foot as well so I was really paying attention to that. In addition, I worked a bit on increasing the frequency of my tipping to try to get some short slalom arcs going. I had some success with this, but mostly it was too crowded to really let them run, so I mostly focused on BPSRT.

Monday was firm but super grippy for the first several runs. The previous week I'd been skiing on my worn-out TT Icon 80s and DR pointed out that I wasn't getting rewarded for my inputs. As a result, I brought out my new TT Icon 800s. That was a nice change. As I continued to focus on continuing my tipping to release, the fresh skis rewarded me with some nice rebound energy. Paid attention to flexion for a few runs, trying to smooth out my release.

Light crowds today and another good day. Continued mostly working on the BPSRT and was pleased to see my counteracting was starting to work really well. Focused on counteracting and counterabalancing throughout the turn; always moving, never static. At one point, I was making BPSRTs down the steeper part of the pitch, focusing on counteracting when it dawned on me that I was making completely edge-locked turns. Also caught a good gap and was arcing short turns down the flatter upper part when I realized the first steeper pitch was empty. So I just kept arcing and while I let my radius increase somewhat, the turns were still less than GS radius and were very controlled. I was hooking them up and pulling the radius in. That was very gratifying. All in all, it's been a good first several days of skiing. I'd say I'm already beyond what I was doing last year and am back to making progress. I made some of my best turns ever today, for sure. Can't wait for Tech Camp!