Steep terrain in itself is not necessarily difficult; it’s the combination of pitch, terrain, and snow conditions which combine to a degree of difficulty at any one moment. As brief examples, the White Nitro trail at Sugarloaf/USA in Maine has a 52 degree pitch, but is usually groomed smooth corderoy from edge to edge. The Broccoli Garden Glade at Sugarloaf/USA has about a 10 degree pitch, but contains endless trees at a 10 foot spacing, undulations in topography, and inconsistent snow conditions. Which trail is more difficult? As we say ‘herah’ in Maine, “Well, it depends.”
Archive for January, 2006
It’s always good to have a personal connection with the Olympics, and Torino 2006 could be a special year for the State of Maine. Seth Wescott is the reigning 2005 World Boardercross Champion and has been selected to compete in that event in Torino next month. Seth Wescott is a resident of Carrabassett Valley, Maine, which is home to Sugarloaf/USA and, when off the slopes, acts just like any local Sugarloafer. We’ve always known him as an awesome snowboarder, especially in the pipe and park but his successes have begun to give him international exposure and Torino should be just another step in that career!
There are many learning styles in skiing including visual, thinking, doing, and feeling. When you’re out working on your skiing by yourself, feeling has an advantage over the other three in that it provides direct and tangible feedback through your body. The other three really require external reinforcement by a coach to help you determine if you’re making the desired moves or not. Since feeling allows you to work solo, so to speak, it’s a useful method for a self-check to determine if you’re moving in a balanced stance. How your gear feels on your body is excellent feedback and one specific sensation to know if you’re balanced is where you feel your ski boots on your calf.
Just where are the Winter Olympics being held, anyhow? While searching the web, I’ve noticed no less than three spellings for that city in Italy; Turin, Turino, and Torino. In the spirit of the Games, it’s ‘caio’ (Italian for a familiar goodbye) to confusion and ‘pronto’ (Italian for hello on the telephone) to figuring this out. Just what is the name of that place where most of the world’s best winter athletes are going to meet on February 10?!
Skiing’s just plain not like other activities, you know. Many activities require some form of a weight change in order to make a change in direction and skiing surely requires that as well. Where skiing is unique is that in order to move in the direction you wish, you need to initially move away from where you want to go. This subtle rule for the weight shift is critical and its absence will result in less balance and control as a turn progresses.
If you are one of the growing number of people who has a GPS device, a company called Mountain Dynamics now offers a product called SnowRanger which provide trail maps in electronic form on your GPS device.
The idea is this, let’s say you are planning to take a vacation to Steamboat, Colorado. You download the GPS map for $4.95 and install it on your GPS device. Then while skiing at Steamboat if you ever get lost or are just wondering how to get from one point to another you simply pull out the GPS and find your location.
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There isn’t a single athletic sport that has been invented that relies on a lack of movement (or being static) to develop balance. By definition, athleticism is the creation and maintenance of balance. Due to the fixed nature of alpine skiing gear at your ankle, it’s possible to place your body in a position that you couldn’t sustain if you were wearing street shoes. Skiing that relies on unbalanced bracing movements is surely uncomfortable, uncontrolled, and forced. Good skiing relies on a balanced stance that doesn’t brace off the equipment.
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Consider why a NASCAR stock car has a wider body than the family mini-van. The forces on a stock car in a high speed turn are better managed when the wheelbase is wider. You’ll find similar sensations making turns on steep terrain where the forces of gravity and turning are higher. Like the stock car, you’ll be more athletic and consequently have more control on the steeps if you use a wide stance.
The annoucement of the medal design for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino included the presence of famed skier Jean-Claude Killy, Chairman of the IOC’s Coordination Commission. It’s an ideal choice, given that Jean-Claude won three gold medals at the 1968 Winter Games on his home turf in Grenoble, France. He was only the second skier to ever accomplish that feat (Austria’s Toni Sailer at the 1956 Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy Games was first), and no skier has since won more than two Alpine events at any one Olympic Games. Killy’s skiing triple crown in 1968 plus a World Cup Tour victory that year (his second in a row) made him the most recognized skier of the 60s and 70s and elevated him to the status of a ‘Great’ of skiing history.
The Winter Olympics open in 4 weeks! The opening ceremonies for the 20th Winter Olympic Games will be held on February 10, 2006 in Turino, Italy. Turin was awared the Games in 1999, beating out a total of five candidate cities, including Helsinki (Finland), Klagenfurt (Austria), Poprad-Tatry (Slovak Republic), Sion (Switzerland), and Zakopane (Poland). I was in Turino 10 years ago and found it to be a unique alternative to better known Italian cities such as Rome and Venice. Turino was actually the capital of Italy until 1945 and has a beautiful setting at the edge of the foothills of the Alps.
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