Ski Tips from the Devil

By Jonathan Lawson on December 29, 2009 8:18 PM | No Comments

Ski Lessons from the hot house. Some say, "No snowballs in Hades!" I beg to differ. I will sit upon your shoulder and tell you a few of my favorite shortcuts for skiing better. But first, allow me to share where I received my idea for this topic.

I was listening to Scott Fox's podcast with Jack Humphrey. Jack wrote a post "Blog Promotion Tips from the Devil". I found it to be an interesting approach to the subject.

Basically the opposite approach of many writers in getting a point across. What about the random ski tip in leu of ski lesson given by well meaning friends or family members?

Those who ski often may have heard of "The Intermediate Rut". This is a point in which the skier's current technique prevents them from skiing Advanced to Expert terrain without the "skill or grace" enjoyed on the blue terrain

As I listened to the podcast, it struck me that Ski Tips from the Devil would fit well in the realm of the ski & ride instructor. So often, well meaning friends give advice of which they know very little. Specifically, how to ski well. Usually these ski tips get passed down from person to person with their own little spin.

Prior to writing, I decided I should do some leg work and research the subject. Where to go to find those knowledgeable about the subject at 5:30pm? A local ski/ride instructor watering hole Quandary Grille in Breckenridge!

There were quite a few "devils" willing to share their stories. It was fun to knock one back and talk about a few war stories on the hill.

When reading over these, realize in many cases they are band-aids to a real underlying skill deficiency in one's skiing. In the case of equipment choices or off snow choices it is just listening what others have told them. Ignorance in it's most innocent sense.

Here are a few of our choice tips (6+6+6=18)

1) Push your shins into the front of the boot, and edge more to slow down

2) Just "duck the rope". The snow is better on the other side.

3) Turn your head and/or shoulders in the direction you want to go

4) Always lean back in powder, and lean forward when you ski

5) Use your poles to push away from the lift

6) Wear two pairs of socks to keep your feet warmer, and stuff your jeans into your boots

7) Place the metal snap on your snow cuff between your boot and shin as a positive reinforcement device.

8) Use the "Texas Tuck" to help you go faster across the flats

9) Impress your friends with jump tricks whenever possible

10) The "Texas Suitcase" or the "Houston Handbag" are the best methods to walk around with your skis and poles

11) Turn with your knees, and keep your feet close by attaching the boot's velcro straps together.

12) Let your friends "teach" you how to ski, and teach spouses and significant others whenever possible.

13) Once you "learn" how to turn and stop, you are ready to go to the top!

14) If one beer at lunch makes you ski better, two will make you ski GREAT!

15) Your instructor doesn't want a tip. "Cheers!" is reward enough

16) 1990's (faded) Neon will make you more attractive to the opposite sex.

17) Surprise your fellow chairlift riders by immediately pulling down the safety bar as the chair leaves the station.

18) If your legs are tired at the end of the day, lean against the rear boot cuff and take an extra run.

Are ski lifts dangerous for kids?

Recreation » Two recent falls prod safety reminders.

By Ben Fulton

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 01/03/2010 08:51:43 PM MST

Little Cottonwood Canyon » Greg Holmes, a Phoenix business owner on ski vacation in Utah with his family, said he remembers first using chairlifts when he skied as a boy.

In those days, few resort chairlifts came with restraint bars.

Now that he's a parent, and now that most ski runs offer them, Holmes said he makes a point of using the restraint for his son.

Standing at the base of Snowbird Ski & Summer resort's "Mid-Gad" lift while his 5-year-old son Dylan fidgets, Holmes said he would have no qualms about taking his son on a chairlift without a restraint bar. As long as he kept one eye extra on his son.

"The trick is always making certain you know what your child is up to," Holmes said. "Most of the time he sits pretty still. He knows he's up high."

As in 30 to 40 feet, the distance most resorts and ski areas put between their patrons and the ground below.

That was the distance a 4-year-old girl fell while riding the Sunnyside chairlift Dec. 19 at Alta Ski Area, according to Unified Fire Authority Capt. Clint Smith. The girl was face down in the snow and not breathing after the fall. She was revived by CPR and flown to Primary Children's Medical Center, and suffered a minor concussion. She was released the day after she fell, authorities said.

Twelve days later, at Snow King Resort in Jackson, Wyo., a 7-year-old boy fell 30 feet. He suffered a

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minor head injury and ruptured lung, according to The Associated Press . The boy was taken to a Salt Lake City hospital were his condition was declared stable.

Falls by two children in such close succession may lead some to question safety protocol at ski resorts, and if children are being short-changed. Industry groups and at least one long-time veteran of lift-operations management insist, however, that resorts do all they can to ensure the safety of children who ski their slopes.

Tom Patton, lift operations manager for Snowbird, said that during his 30 years in the business of overseeing lifts for five resorts and ski areas he has only known of two incidents among perhaps 20 million lift rides in which people of any age have fallen from their lift chairs. Last month's falls, Patton said, represent "an extreme anomaly."

"In all honesty, transportation by aerial cable ways is one of the safest modes of transportation there is," he said.

On its Web site, nsaa.org, the National Ski Areas Association notes that less than 10 percent of all fatal skiing injuries befall skiers and snowboarders "under 10 or over 50 years of age." The majority of fatalities in skiing fall roughly in line with the same population of people who die or suffer injuries in other high-risk ski behaviors, typically men in their late teens on up to their early 30s.

As frequent visitors to Utah resorts and ski areas know, warnings and other postings dot trails and the inside of lodges. Industrywide recommendations for responsible behavior admonishes skiers and snowboarders to stay in control, among other tips. Specific to chairlifts, skiers are given posted warnings on lift polls to never swing or sway the chair, and check for any clothing or equipment that may have become attached to the chair before getting off the lift.

"We have no way of monitoring what patrons do when they leave the lift station," Patton said. "All we can do is advise our patrons on safety measures."

The age at which a child may ski a resort or area is often left to parental discretion, but many resorts set the age-limit for lessons at age 3, as is the practice at Snowbasin resort, said Jodi Holmgren, director of marketing and public relations.

"Abilities just vary so much," Holmgren said. "You could have a 24-year-old adult that may not be as agile as a 3-year-old in terms of loading the lift."

Holmgren said Snowbasin has upgraded two of its lifts from a "fixed grip chair" to "detachable grip lifts." The detachable lifts allow for more speed up the hill, yet slower loading and unloading times for enhanced safety.

All of Snowbasin's chair-lifts feature restraint bars, said Holmgren. Patton said all of Snowbird's chairlifts feature them as well.

Even so, Patton said, studies have failed to show that using restraints reduces the number of people who may fall out of a chair. Only New York and Vermont require patrons to use restraint bars. Every other state, including Utah, operates on the volunteer system.

Alta Ski Area does not have restraint bars on any of its lifts. Dustin Thompson, a Salt Lake City Internet developer skiing the resort with his 4- and 6-year-old sons Saturday, said Alta's chairlifts don't bother him one bit.

"I'm their restraint monitor," Thompson said. "They know the rules: Sit all the way back, no dangling, no leaning forward and if a ski falls off your foot, let it fall off."

bfulton@sltrib.com

Fucking snow on my car

I hate waking up in the morning and finding

fucking snow on my car.

Brighton Resort snow report

1" new 24 hours
58" Base
27 degrees with snow flurries

www.twitter.com/brighton_resort
Webcams: http://www.brightonresort.com/The-Mountain/Webcams

1/1/2010 Snowbird Snow Report

1" new 24 hours
54" Base
27 degrees and light snow falling

www.twitter.com/snowbirdski

Olympic Snowboarding Hopeful Critically Injured

Olympic Snowboarding Hopeful Critically Injured


By JOHN BRANCH
Published: December 31, 2009

The Olympic snowboarding hopeful Kevin Pearce was in critical condition Thursday after sustaining a head injury during training in the halfpipe in Park City, Utah.
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The snowboarder Kevin Pearce last month. Pearce sustained a critical head injury Thursday in training at Park City, Utah.


Pearce hit his head against the edge of the halfpipe and was knocked unconscious. He was flown to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, where doctors planned external ventricular drainage to relieve fluid buildup in the brain, according to Pearce’s mother, Pia.

Pearce, a 22-year-old from Norwich, Vt., was among many of the world’s top halfpipe riders in Park City preparing to compete next week in a competition at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., an event that will serve as part of the Olympic trials.

Pearce, a favorite to make the United States Olympic team, is the rare rider who has beaten the 2006 Olympic gold medalist Shaun White in head-to-head competitions the past couple of years.

Mike Jankowski, the Olympic halfpipe coach for the United States, said that Pearce was injured while trying a double cork, a supremely difficult trick — essentially a twisting double back flip — that most of the top men are trying to add to their repertory this season.

“He did it a little too hard, put a little too much oomph into it, and over-rotated on his second flip,” Jankowski said.

He said that Pearce seemed to strike the edge of the pipe just above his eye. He said that the preliminary diagnosis was for a “significant concussion.” A team trainer and medical director were with Pearce at the hospital.

Pearce’s father is Simon Pearce, one of the most renowned glass blowers in the world, whose Vermont-based company has retail outlets across the Northeast, including one on Park Avenue.

CANADA BEATS U.S. IN JUNIORS Jordan Eberle, Nazem Kadri and Brandon Kozun scored in a shootout, and Jake Allen made the stop he needed to give Canada a 5-4 win over the United States in the world junior hockey championship in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

After the first five shooters scored, Allen stopped Jordan Schroeder’s attempt, then was mobbed by his teammates. The United States had a 4-2 lead in the third period, but Eberle scored his second goal of the game midway through the period. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo tied the score with a short-handed goal with 4 minutes 15 seconds left.

Canada, the five-time defending champion, and the United States each won their first three games in the tournament. Canada will play in the semifinals Sunday. The United States will face Finland in the quarterfinals Saturday. (AP) CANADA’S BEAT GOES ON Charline Labonte made 40 saves and the Canadian women’s hockey team continued its recent dominance over the United States with a 2-1 exhibition victory Wednesday night in St. Paul.

“History tells us when these two teams have met in previous” exhibition seasons, “the most important game is yet to be determined,” said Mark Johnson, the United States coach, referring to a potential gold medal matchup with the Canadians in Vancouver.

Colleen Sostorics had a goal and an assist, and Haley Irwin also scored for Canada, which has beaten Team USA five times in a row. (AP) NORDIC CHAMPION RETIRES The former Olympic cross-country ski champion Christian Hoffmann, 35, retired after Austria’s national antidoping agency provisionally suspended him because he is suspected of involvement in blood doping. (AP)

Resort offers 30-year ski pass

Real estate » Condo owners can buy a pass for $5,000 and lend it.

By Paul Foy

The Associated Press

Updated: 12/31/2009 11:07:22 PM MST

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(Scott Sommerdorf)

Park City » A Utah ski area is offering a limited number of 30-year ski passes in an unusual deal tied to real-estate development.

Owners and buyers at a condominium hotel at The Canyons resort are being offered the chance to buy two of the passes for $5,000 apiece.

That's a notable and rare deal for any major ski area. It works out to $166 a year -- and condo owners can lend the pass to anybody they authorize, unlike terms of regular season passes.

The condo passes stay with the real estate.

The Canyons, which normally charges $1,099 for one season's pass, won't collect any of the money from the sale of the $5,000 passes and is honoring an agreement made by former owners of the resort, said Philip A. Grant, who is in charge of sales at the 85-unit Escala Lodges.

Talisker Corp. bought The Canyons from American Skiing Co. in July. It was American Skiing that made a deal with the Escala's original developers.

The Canyon's general manager, Mike Goar, said the special offer will promote the resort and accelerate real estate sales at Escala Lodges.

Half of the units are still available, with prices starting at $675,000 and ranging to nearly $2.6 million for a four-bedroom unit. The Escala Lodges is a stone's throw from a chair lift at the base of the resort, which sprawls across eight peaks and 3,500 acres.

Toronto-based Talisker considered The Canyons, once Park City's smallest resort and now its largest, a prized property and had to fight off a competing bid from industry giant Vail Associates Inc.

In October, Broomfield, Colo.-based Vail Resorts dropped a lawsuit contending it had a deal with American Skiing to buy the Utah resort. Vail said it was reserving the right to seek monetary damages.

Talisker bought The Canyons for $123 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Grant said $5,000 for a near-lifetime pass is "a screaming deal" currently unmatched at any other major ski area in North America or possibly the world.

The catch, he said, is The Canyons will make the Escala pass available for a period of time that neither side is specifying. Grant said the opportunity won't close for years.