Snow Skills

Sugarloaf’s own Seth Wescott finished a disappointing 5th in the Men’s Boardercross event at the 12th Winter X-Games on Saturday, January 26.

Seth was favored to win the Boardercross event and held the early lead with an excellent move out of the starting gate. He was passed about a third of the way along the course by by Nate Holland, who held on to win the crash-filled event. Seth was later bumped from behind by one competitor and then knocked down by another.

In all, a rough and disappointing race for the Maine native. Winter X 12 was Seth’s 11th attempt at a X Games gold medal, but it wasn’t to be this year.

The Rayzar Hat is an excellent headgear choice for aerobic activities in very cold conditions.
The weather in Maine this time of year is typically in the single digits during the day and most light hats intended for aerobic workout don’t hold enough heat for temperatures below 10 degrees. Read the rest of this entry »

The Maine Winter Special Olympics are being held at Sugarloaf this week. Over 600 athletes and coaches have assembled in Carrabassett Valley, ME to participate in skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice skating, and other winter sports over 3 days. Maine was the first state to hold a Winter Olympics event in 1968.

Release both edges at the same time to start a turn.

Black diamond trails will respect you if you develop the ability to edge your skis throughout the entire turn. From a sideslip, practice the skill of releasing your edges initially with your ankles and then supplement the motion with your knees. From these subtle movements, now be even more precise by focusing on the downhill ankle releasing milli-seconds ahead of the uphill ankle. Think about the little toe of your downhill foot leading the way to release all the remaining body parts to enter the turn. From these fine movements, release both skis simultaneously at the start of a turn and ride your edges through the turn. You’ll show gravity who’s the boss.

Posthole is winter hiking slang for stepping into snow that isn’t dense or strong enough to support your weight. Your foot will drive down into the snow, making it hard to remove your embedded foot from the snow cover and leaving behind a deep, distinct footprint in the snow. What happened there was that your weight was greater than the support of the snow and your foot drove downward, stopping only when the snow compacted to the point where it held you.
Read the rest of this entry »

In the world of outdoor recreation clothing, it’s not uncommon that the best performing clothes and gear are also an expensive choice. There are some items that this situation can’t be avoided; for example, we strongly recommend you do not buy a disounted, low quality water filter. ’nuff said.

But not all gear that will meet your needs well will be the most expensive choice. A good example of a good value in down jackets is the EMS Men’s Glacier Down Jacket from Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS). Read the rest of this entry »

To improve skiing from a seeing focus, try the following:

Seeing: “Put your jacket zipper over the downhill edge of your inside ski”

The jacket zipper is a visual clue that your balance is in the best position through a turn. In order to place your jacket zipper in that position, you’ll find you have to adjust the orientation of your torso through the turn. Your torso will continuously tilt toward gravity, and you’ll use your legs to create this alignment. As you see your jacket zipper stay over the downhill edge of the inside ski, you should also see your outside leg set up outside of your hips for good balance.

This is a simple seeing focus, try it with a trailing partner for best feedback!

Bode Miller has set the U.S. Record for individual wins with his 28th World Cup victory.

Bode won the combined title at Kitzbuehl, Austria by placing 14th in the Slalom and second in the downhill. With this performance, he solely owns the title previously held by Phil Mahre.

After a World Cup Downhill at Kitzbuhl, Austria this week, skier Bode Miller continues to share the American record for individual victories with Phil Mahre. Bode was one of many skiers who did not finish the course which led to complaints about the course conditions.

With his next victory, Bode will have 28 victories since 2001. Prior to the Kitzbuhl event, Bode was second in the overall World Cup Standings to Benjamin Raich of Austria. The next World Cup event was a Combined Event scheduled for the next day.

Want to become an expert skier? Use your pole swings all the time.

The motion of your poles can provide a significant boost to your skiing skills on diamond terrain. The ability to swing your outside pole to establish the beginning on a new turn will add timing and flow to your skiing and produce steadier balance and movements in higher-gravity areas. Focus on swinging the pole evenly out and back and let that swing be the result of wrist movements as opposed to a reaching motion by the arm. Skiing without a pole swing is like The Lone Ranger without Tonto: it’s really noticeable that something’s missing.