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#1
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Alpine Downhilling
The other night I headed to a ski hill in the Rockies for some night
skiing. Being not an alpiner at all (haven't gone to a hill in more than 20 years), when I v2 to the lift I felt the snow was funny, it wasn't the kind of snow that I am familiar with when I xc. They were more pellet-like, like those tiny styrofoam dust. I took the quad to the top. What an experience! I actually didn't have to climb first in order to ski downhill. I fell forward in less then 3 feet after I got off the quad. I thought, ok this was different. I looked down, my skis sank and were caught in the snow. I worked my way down, falling many times because of those pellet-like snow. If only they were packed, it might have been better. I was surprised that there were so many snowboarders. I must be behind the time, not realizing this. There were a woman and 2 kids, probably 7 or 8 years old. They were working down near the fence. The woman was instructing the kids how to ski. I made my parallel turn past them. Then I heard, "Mom, can I have those thin skis too?" It didn't click until I was in the middle of the hill. I then ha-ha-ha, and fell. I knew this was going to be a bad night. I was skiing on my Madshus xc skis. I thought to myself how could these people going up and down the same hill again and again and again. I quit soon after. -JP- |
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#3
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Alpine Downhilling
I used to shred Breck on my racing skis. They work OK in spring corn bumps. I even did the highest
bowls. Fun. Show off. Bumpin under the lifts on racing skinny skis gets good response. Touring skis are fine, too. When it's nice, sunny and soft you don't need much ski. But the best fun was just skiing up and down the slopes. Take the greens, blues and cat tracks and you can get LOTS of uphill in with a nice long descent. Great for both skating and classic. I recall going up for 45 minutes straight. -- Jeff Potter **** *Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com publisher of do-it-yourself culture ... bikes, skis, boats & more! ... ... offering Vordenberg's XC ski tales in "Momentum"! ... ... "The Recumbent Bicycle": the only book about these bikes! ... ... Rudloe's "Potluck": true-life story of workingclass smuggling! ... ... with radical novels coming up via LiteraryRevolution.com! ... ... music! ... articles! ... travel forums! ... WOW! 800-763-6923 |
#4
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Alpine Downhilling
I moved to Canmore in '97. The Canmore Nordic Centre was a big reason
why we chose to live in Canmore -- I've XC skied for 30 years and it's my favorite sport. Up to this year, I took 8-10 XC ski lessons every winter from the Canmore Nordic Ski Club. This winter I decided to try something different -- downhill skiing! -- and I've spent quite a lot of time at the alpine resorts (Louise, Norquay, Fortress, Fernie). I'm firmly convinced that what I have learned on alpine boards this winter has done more to improve my XC skiing than another series of XC lessons would have. Evidence of this is that last weekend I finished in the top 3 of my age class (50-59) in the Lake Louise Loppet (20 km classic) -- my first top-3 finish since moving to Alberta in '97. Alpine skiing is all about balance and weight shift -- fundamental skills that definitely transfer to XC. Another big plus is that downhills that used to intimidate me on XC skis now seem quite straightforward (this has probably done more to improve my loppet times than anything else). By the way, don't let anybody tell you that alpine skiing is physically easy, just because you get carried up the hill. Yesterday we skied black diamond and double black diamond runs on the backside of Louise for 7 hours, and last night I was completely used up physically. It's true that this work is essentially all muscular instead of aerobic; but the fact that alpine skiing works different parts of your body than XC makes it a superb complement to XC -- this morning I did a long fairly hard skate at the Canmore Nordic Centre (2-1/4 hours -- excellent spring conditions!). -Everett |
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