Last Sunday I woke up to rain, lots of rain, no sign of clearing up anytime soon. Lazily I took my dog for a walk picked up my lap top and without out much purpose started looking at the Alta website , the clear blue skies in the photos peaked my interested. My casual looking on the website led me to the ski clinics. There were two women’s clinics listed. How perfect, I need to work on my skills and confidence. This is my third season skiing and I have never had formal instruction. This would be perfect to boost my confidence! I am talking myself into it, looks like a good trip for next year – I looked a bit closer there was a clinic this coming up weekend. MMMMMM that would be fun and fun is exactly what I need more of in my life. I sent a quick email inquiring – is there stillroom available” I ask. Off to yoga I went to try and bring my mind and body back to the present moment.
Yes – there is still room in the clinic and the snow conditions look excellent. What was stopping me? I looked into flights, made a few phone calls, arranged for dog care and I was set to depart Thursday after I finished a big work project – perfect.
Thursday late afternoon I am riding the Alta Shuttle to Alta Lodge with two other women from the west coast also registered for the clinic. The sky is bright blue, the sun is bright and the air is dry – that alone was worth the trip. We are all nervous, talking about where we are from, what our ski backgrounds are and what our expectations are for the clinic. One lady from the bay area had signed up Monday with her husbands’ encouragement.
Never having been to Alta Lodge I did not know what to expect. It seems to be somewhat of an institution – people come back year after year. There are varying different room arrangements from a hostel style to a suite with a fireplace. The lodge looks out at the slopes of Alta and down the valley. There are no TV s in the rooms to maintain the feeling of a mountain vacation, there is a large TV in the deck room and Internet service. The Sitzmark bar in the lodge is rustic with fabulous views of the slopes, a cozy fireplace and is well stocked with traditional games for after skiing or on the days that you get interlodged – when you can’t leave the lodge because of avalanche danger. My room has two twin beds, a sideways view of the slopes and a bathroom. Breakfast and dinner are included and have family style seating available.
I am always early – I think it is because I am restless and have a hard time being idle especially in new surroundings. As soon as I arrived I immediately got my skis, boots and poles at the Deep Powder House, which is attached to Alta Lodge. The gear is included in the clinic so we can swap out boots and skis as we want. I was outfitted with a demo pair of Salomon boots and volkl skis. My gear at home, the only gear I have skied on in recent memory is AT gear, softer boot and very flexi skis. I was pretty excited to try new stuff and compare.
First group meeting the super energetic ski instructors from the Alf Engen ski school introduce themselves; we go around the room and introduce ourselves. There are three main instructors and 15 instructees with lots of back up support for the groups. First group dinner was a lot of nervous chatter about why we were here, how many times people had been to Alta, where else have people skied. It reminded me of prerace nervousness before a marathon or Ironman.
First ski day – at breakfast Jenn Scott, the lead instructor and lead for the women’s clinic called out our groupings. Three groups, based on what we had submitted in an email about our skill level and where and how often we skied. We hit the slopes after a “dryland” discussion and boot demo. It was very sunny and the temperatures were expected to reach the upper 40’s. The snow was a bit icy in the morning. First few runs to get the nerves out and to let the instructors see how we skied. Then we had a bit of shuffling around – I went to another group where I stayed for the rest of the clinic. Eva was my instructor, originally from Poland and an environmental scientist by training and her primary job that gave her flexibility to be an Alta instructor and also maintain a professional career. Our group, after the shuffle, consisted of 4 ladies, me, a lawyer in the army, an economist that worked for the federal government in the office and budget and management (interesting time because the fed’s are still trying to agree on the budget without having to have a shut down) and an anesthesiologist originally from China.
Together we worked on our skills – pointers belly button, panic button Eva called out to us as we worked our way down steeper and steeper slopes. Eva was great – very direct, few words, gave us instructions and then immediately said let’s go! And we would one by one follow her. She would yell out pointers for us as we made our way down – day one for me was “stand up Jennifer, stand up!” and “where are your hands!” After the first day of instruction I felt great, very empowered enough to take another run after the lesson was over to work on my skills before yoga.
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| Lunch |
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Oh, lunch that day. WOW, it was a picnic for the all guest at Alta Lodge. Eva lead us up to a tucked away spot that was dug out in a ring of seating. We were immediately offered – champagne, red wine, white wine, sparkling water or just water. Amazing cheese spread, olives, and sandwich makings. It was truly divine – sitting in the dug out enjoying the sun, spectacular view of Mount Baldy, watching skier jumping off cliffs as we sipped champagne and talked about our morning ski adventures.
Ski day 2 – Breakfast I filled myself up with the lodge’s excellent granola, yogurt and eggs. Excited to try another pair of skis. I swapped out the Volkls for Salomons. The Volkls felt to stiff for me. At 9:30 our group gathered and we were off. The weather the second day was the primary conversation topic in the group. It was expected to be very warm; it had not reached freezing level during the night. It was windy and a storm was predicted to move in and the temperature was expected to drop from lower 50’s to 18 degrees with an expected “precipitation event”. We were all hoping the event would be in the form of snow and lots of it. The day was overcast and windy but the snow was still good and soft, it was a nice relief from the intense sun the day before. Day two we headed over to a neighboring resort – Snowbird – to check out that terrain.
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| Snowbird |
Snowbird has a lot of terrain; big bowels and they have snowboarders. Alta is one of the few ski resorts in the US that does not allow snowboarders. Alta is a skier’s mountain and attracts a high level of skier. This was immediately noticed at Snowbird – the skiers were slightly reckless and the snowboarders were all over the place. But the terrain was massive.
Group dynamics, it is a sticky subject. Not many people voice their concerns with the group out loud, just whisper among the group. Group dynamics are always interesting and our group was no exception. To keep this honest I just have to voice my experience with our group. Eva, our leader was great she kept challenging us to steeper terrain, variety of snow conditions and keeping our form in check. Three of us were progressing with each run, excited about our new confidence and wanting to keep expanding it. One of us was not really evolving, definitely having a good time, but not really progressing in the skill levels. What this meant for us, as a group is that we ended up waiting a lot – mid slope, bottom of the slope, at the chairlift. Yesterday I had a head on collision with her and was already giving her a lot of space, her poles were all over the place and her stopping style was not quite perfected. I know this is hard – if I had stayed in the other group I would have been the weak link or the slow one. But I am selfish – there I said it! Unlike a lot of the other women at the clinic that come to Alta yearly and have done this before and will do it again, I consider this clinic to be a great gift to myself and primarily my opportunity to improve my ski skills. I want to be a good – I am not going for great – but good confident skier. So I battled with myself all afternoon to remain patient. Yoga friends of mine would say this experience is happening to me because I need to work on patience, acceptance and above all I am in control of my own experience and not to let this deflect from the really great time I was having. But it was nagging on me – when we rode up the chairlift and two of us were talking to Eva about going over to this other terrain and Eva replied yes – I want to take you over there but… I knew we were being limited after that. So that night I said something to the instructors.
Day 3 – awake early checking the snow conditions, better than predicted, 19 inches of powder and still snowing, a little windy and the visibility varied from moment to moment. I was thrilled – this is exactly what I was hoping to ski, light Alta powder. Compared to Mt Hood Meadows, where I usually ski, the wind was not an issue. Nervous and excited at breakfast, the usual conversation of weather and expectations for the day. Our first run was fabulous deep power, working on our technique but applying it to the new conditions. We made several runs in “steep and deep” powder – so great! The group dynamic issue was mitigated by another helper taking her on different runs and meeting up with us at the lift. All morning we played in the powder working on not falling back, hands in front focusing on breathing through the turns as appose to freaking out at turning in the deep powder. At lunch we switched instructors Eva was off to DC to work on water quality issues for the State of Utah and we were introduced to Angie. Angie grew up in Utah and was all smiles and enthusiasm. We made a run with both Eva and Angie then went on our way with Angie. In the afternoon Angie showed us these hidden gems of runs through trees for fresh tracks. It was great! At one point the sun came out and the snow was glittering like diamonds in the air and on the ground, we could see the basin and our fresh tracks. Now I can see how people get addicted to this sport.
Our good bye dinner was in the deck room and was filled with talk of the days skiing, everyone had a great time, dinner was all smiles, talk of next year, thanks to the instructors. Then off to bed exhausted and happy.
Overall I had a great experience with the ski clinic; my skiing improved immensely, my confidence is higher and I loved the pampering at the lodge. I could have skied harder and longer each day, knowing that my skill level is low but my endurance is high. But I take away several of Eva’s ski secrets that will serve me well in all my skiing adventures in the future. I hope to come back next year with my best friend who is in need of some pampering.
The skhoop is originally from Sweden, designed by Sissi Kewenter who - story goes - wanted a warmer solution to getting her mail in her PJ's in cold climates. In 1999 she started selling the skhoop, which is pronounced S-K-hoop, in northern Europe. In 2007 she started selling the skirt in Alaska, now you can find the zip up insulated skirt at REI. At the Skinny Raven in Anchorage I learned that men are starting to wear them for hunting and ice fishing.
