3 hours of skiing

I went skiing for 3 hours at Wachusett today. I didn’t stay longer because I wasn’t well rested, and started to feel tired by noon. Probably would have been better not to go ice skating the day before.

I started around 9 am with Ralph’s Run, a blue trail. At first everything went perfectly! I was carving some beautiful turns and the trail felt great. Then I noticed it began to get a little bit icy. Not solid ice, but there were sections where the powder was wearing thin.

So I went over to the green trails, Indian Summer and Sundowner (my photo was taken at the top of Sundowner). Sundowner has hills which make it a little tough to practice turns, so I mostly went down Indian Summer. The only problem with this area is that the lift is slow. It’s a nice ride though, and gives you time to rest. The snow conditions were better here, but the trail is pretty short, unfortunately.

I also took a few trips down Conifer, another blue trail. This has some sections which are slightly steeper than Ralph’s Run, and in addition it had more scrape-y icy spots. I wound up on my butt more than once!

For my last run I went down Challenger, and somehow managed to invade a “NASTAR” training race. Oops! I wasn’t the only one who was confused, so I didn’t feel too bad. This area was getting icy too so I decided enough was enough, and turned in early.

Nice thing about Wachusett, if you leave before 12:30 you are refunded $10. It seemed wise to leave and get the discount, since my form was getting progressively worse as I got more tired and the conditions were clearly not getting any better.

I think my skiing technique has continued to improve. Lito Tejada-Flores' video is a really big help, especially if I watch it the night before a ski trip. Also, it feels like my ice skating work has helped my skiing technique – the pumping motion is similar, and my balance is better.

I need more practice. I also think I need to get more specific advice about how to deal with icy conditions, since I encounter them too often.

See more progress on: learn how to downhill ski better

I want to ski the black diamonds

I’ve been skiing for about 20 years, but just a few times a year, and not every year.

I’m still not very comfortable on skis. I can ski down blue and green slopes but the reds and blacks are pretty much off limits. (Of course it’s all relative; I have skied down some black slopes on very small mountains.)

Tomorrow I’m doing a little skiing. So tonight I’m pulling out Lito Tejada-Flores' video “Breakthrough on Skis”. Watching this helped me improve in the past. Hopefully it will be help tomorrow.

See more progress on: learn how to downhill ski better

beautiful

beautiful
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Did I mention the terrain in Val D'Isere is magnificent?

I have to figure out a way to take an entire winter to tour the towns in the French Alps and get a good sampling of all the skiing available. I'm pretty sure Val D'Isere is some of the best available (at least at my level), but I'd like to know what I'm missing, too.

polo

polo
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

In a weird coincidence, there were a few games of a winter polo match being played during our visit. It was fun, and we wound up standing around in the cold to watch for much longer than we thought we would.

petit dejeuner at chevallot

petit dejeuner at chevallot
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

In addition to the wonderful skiing in Val D'Isere, the town has a lot of old world charm.

For the best breakfast, you must go to Chevallot (the one on the main road). Their "petit" dejeuner is huge, and every bite is mouth-watering.

glorious

glorious
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I took another ski vacation in Val D'Isere a few weeks ago (I've been there twice before, in 2007 and 2003). This has got to be some of the most glorious ski terrain in the world!

smith walton

smith walton
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I started out skiing Ralph's Run, a green trail. After regaining my "ski legs," I tried the blue Challenger a few times.

While riding the lift up to Challenger, I asked a perfect stranger on the lift how bad the black diamonds were. He assured me that I'd have no trouble with them whatsoever! (Funny how people can be perfectly confident in this kind of snap judgment). He told me I could take Mass Pike on over to where the black diamonds were, and if necessary I could always come down a blue trail. That was true, as I verified it on my trail map before trying it.

Anyway, it turned out he was correct, sort of. I actually took Mass Pike over to Salamander Cutoff, which I thought was a blue trail, and skied down that. I thought it was a little difficult.... When I reached the bottom, I saw that on the trail map it is listed as a black diamond, although when I turned onto the trail I thought the sign was blue.

I decided that having taken a black diamond unknowingly, and survived, I would try all the rest. So I did Smith Walton a couple of times, and then tried 10th Mountain. Both were very reasonable. They were about the same difficulty as some of the more difficult blue trails that I've taken in the Alps, but were by no means the most difficult trails I've ever skied.

I also did some practice runs down Indian Summer, which is a short green trail. To get there, you take the Monadnock Triple Chairlift, which is very leisurely. And I interspersed my black diamond runs with some skiing down the blue Conifer Connection to Lower Conifer, meandering through some of the smaller trails, like Lower Balanced Rock.

It was a great day! I only spent about 3-4 hours skiing, because I got tired. I wish I'd gone skiing earlier in the season. I'll be bummed if I only get to go once this year. Everyone I talked to seemed to think that the "end is near." I'm hoping for a few more giant snow storms, though.

It's especially fun skiing where you know that you've been hiking over the summer. Although I honestly didn't recognize a thing!

my skis

my skis
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I always get rentals. Usually they don't fit my feet very well. I should probably get a pair of ski boots custom made. It just seems like too much expense for something that I don't do all that often.

If you zoom in on the snow, in this photo, you'll see the corduroy-like tracks made by the groomers.

Usually after I've been skiing for a while, my feet start to freeze. Especially my toes. But today the weather was perfect. I didn't get too cold at any point. I'm not sure exactly what the temperature was, something like 30 °F at the base. It was slightly windy, too, but nothing that I really noticed.

challenger

challenger
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is the view down Challenger, a blue trail at Wachusett Mountain. I took this a few times today. Wonderful skiing conditions!

view over look out mom park

view over look out mom park
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is the view going up the Minuteman High Speed Quad at Wachusett. First you pass over "Look Out Mom Park", where, if you're lucky, you'll get to see snowboarders doing some pretty cool tricks.

From this lift, you can take the green Ralph's Run, head down the blue Look Mom into blue Challenger, or head over to the other side of the mountain (south?) via Mass Pike. Mass Pike is so green you've got to skate to get anywhere.

Wachusett Mountain

skier
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I went skiing at Wachusett Mountain today. It was my first time at Wachusett. My expectations were rather low, because Wachusett is a smaller ski area, not very high up, and I was afraid there might be a lot of ice. In fact, conditions were excellent - nice packed powder.

Stratton Mountain

Stratton Mountain
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is a view along the blue piste called Lower Standard, under the gondola, looking down at Stratton Village.

We had the best ski conditions on Monday. By Tuesday, the warmth had caused the snow to get a bit icier than I like, but it was still not bad.

On Wednesday, we had really bad luck - we got hit by a rainy downpour just as we were heading for the ski tent, so we decided to skip skiing for that day and headed into Manchester for sightseeing and good eating (Zoey's maple bread pudding is a must, IMHO).

On Thursday, we did more skiing. By then, conditions had worsened. The trails were becoming granular and icy, due to the rainfall. However, my skiing skills were up to the challenge and I enjoyed the day overall. In fact, I actually enjoyed the increasing test of my skills as conditions gradually got a little worse the longer we stayed there...

Unfortunately, Friday was a total bust, with rain making the conditions so poor that we decided not to ski. Luckily, we got comped with two "gift certificates" that we happily spent in the village. I would have preferred a good day of skiing, but it was better than nothing. Stratton does a good job of keeping people happy even when the weather does not cooperate.

Altogether, we did cover quite a lot of territory at Stratton, doing multiple runs of the greens - Lower Middlebrook and 91 - over by Sun Bowl Lodge; skiing most of the little maze of greens in the area of Lower Tamarack; and also most of the greens that start at the summit with Mike's Way and Upper Wanderer. We became comfortable with some of the blues as well, including Betwixt and Yodeler. I think if conditions had been better, I would have done a lot more skiing along the blues.

Stratton Village

Stratton Center
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I went on a ski vacation with a friend last week. This year, after considering my perennial favorite, France, and also looking into options in Quebec, we decided to give the Northeast US a try. The exchange rate was a big factor here.

We decided on Stratton, given the large number of easy and intermediate trails, and the convenience (within reasonable driving distance).

We had good luck and bad luck. The week prior to our vacation, the northeast had been through a few frigid days (in the teens), with a good snowfall. This must have helped to build up the snow base at Stratton.

However, by the day that we arrived, Sunday, January 6, the weather had begun to warm up. On Monday, it had become unusually warm, in the 40s. Snow was rapidly melting. The photo here was taken on Tuesday. By that time, practically all the snow was gone from the center.

Something else you can notice in this photo is the lack of crowds - indeed the lack of people altogether. Apparently during this particular week, the one after Christmas week, there is a lull at Stratton (perhaps this is true of all US ski resorts?). Since I hate crowded skiing conditions, this helped a lot. It is something that I will keep in mind for my next trip.

Random vacation observation: ski tip

View from the piste
Originally uploaded by Little duckling.

When skiing for the first time each year, I am overconfident. My memory tells me that I made big improvements last time, and I think that I can start in where I left off. This year, the first day out, I bit off a little more than I could chew. I took a very long green run, got very tired out, and lost some confidence. I was sick with a cold that I caught on the plane ride, which didn't help things.

Here's a recommendation to myself, that I hope to remember next time: Stay away from long pistes to start with. With long pistes you can, of course, always stop and rest if you feel like it. But there's no enforced rest as there is with a short run, where you get to sit down while riding the lift back up. Repeating a short piste over and over again helps to get you comfortable, and practice technique on a familiar run.

Things to do in Val d'Isère

Candy at the market
Originally uploaded by Little duckling.

Since I was sick, I spent more time off-piste then I'd prefer. Fortunately Val d'Isère has some fun alternatives to skiing.

There's a cinema with movies every day of the week. Some of the films have subtitles or are shown in the original English-language version. Of course, we chose to watch purely French films, Je crois que je l'aime and Danse avec lui, to make the most of being in France! It is very entertaining to try to figure out what exactly is going on when there are no subtitles!

Then there's the open-air market on Monday, with sellers purveying traditional food like sausages and cheese, and really scary looking candy. It's fun to poke around there, but it won't distract you for more than an hour or two.

I suppose there are other interesting things to do, but I didn't take advantage of them. In fact, I spent far too much time in the apartment, hacking up my lungs and solving sudoku puzzles. But even that was fun!

Random vacation observation: rudeness

I found the behavior of some of the very young kids on the lower pistes to be appallingly rude. Some of them seemed to have no concept of queueing and pushed themselves directly to the front of the line. So far as I could tell these kids were not attached to a ski school, which would have given them some excuse. Where do these kids get their manners? I don't recall running into such behavior in the past. Maybe it's just that we were there at the peak of the season, although it didn't seem too ridiculously crowded.

Val d'Isère from a ski lift

DSCN0753
Originally uploaded by Little duckling.

It snowed almost every day and night! This is a more typical view, riding down towards the town of Val d'Isère in the Solaise Express ski lift.

A look down the piste

DSCN0734
Originally uploaded by Little duckling.

A view along the piste. Lest we become distracted by all the good food, this is the main attraction! Val d'Isère is truly "le plus bel espace de ski du monde"!

View from the apartment in Val d'Isère. It snowed almost every day that we were there. Skiing conditions were great, except that I found it disorienting to ski while it was snowing. It was hard to distinguish the snow from the sky and it felt like I was floating in an infinite field of white.

Ski!!!

     I've booked a week of skiing in France this winter! My usual winter exercise program - a combination of weight lifting and rowing - doesn't seem to give me the conditioning that I need to be prepared for hours of skiing.

So I went out and got a step platform and a couple of 5-lb ankle weights. I'd thought about getting one of those platforms to do dumbbell step-ups properly, but the idea of spending $50 on what is more or less a glorified piece of plastic really burns.

Well, I'm glad I finally broke down and bought one. The thing is solid, with a bigger stepping area than the makeshift platform I've been using (a fire-safe security chest, if you must know). And it's adjustable, so I can increase the height to hit my legs in different ways. I did a 30 minute workout today with the ankle weights on, and my legs really feel it.

I have to think about setting a goal so I get a decent amount of conditioning before my trip, which is less than two months away. With this new routine, I should go into it better prepared than I usually do.