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Growing up, Mean Old Mom never gave
us a choice on how to spend our winter weekends.
It was skiing both Saturday and Sunday, leaving the house at
7:00:00am and driving home after the last lift shut down.
While she did this under the pretense of teaching skiing, the
real education was in teaching her offspring how to be Highly Effective
Skiers and forsake all else for the cause.
More than six-pack abs or buns-of-steel, planning and
perseverance are the best ways to improve your skiing and get more
turns.
1) Adventure Begins at Home.
The only thing more fleeting than powder is time, and it’s worth
making the most of both of them. The earlier you can plan a day of
skiing, the more certain it is to happen.
Start days, not hours, ahead of time, make a plan in a single
phone call and stick to it. Pick
a time and place to meet, even if the destination is undecided.
By doing this, skiing becomes a priority and you’ll have
already made plans when you get an invitation to the neighbor’s baby
shower. “Oh!
I’d love to, but we’ve already made plans.”
Easy, eh?
Picking a likeminded
partner who isn’t prone to bailing out or indecision is also critical.
A touring partner should also be a partner in crime when it comes
to backing up each others skiing alibi’s, providing peer pressure to
show up on time, and staying motivated.
2) Eight Days a
Week
The easiest way to get more out of the day is to start earlier and
finish later, with earlier being key.
The hardest part about an early start is just getting out of bed,
so you’ll want to do everything possible to ease the pain.
Pack up the night before, have all your gear ready to go, make a
lunch, and do anything else that helps you run on autopilot in the
morning.
Once you are out,
work on an all day mindset by adjusting your pace for the long haul and
staying well fed. Stash
snack food in your pockets and graze constantly.
3) Packrats
The Law of Luggage states that the amount of gear you carry will expand
to fill whatever pack you have. The
easiest way to reduce your pack weight and bulk is to use a smaller pack
and thus avoid packrat temptations.
Make a point of routinely going through your pack with a critical
eye and culling out items you don’t use.
Every little gram adds up and necessity breeds invention when it
comes to making do in the field.
4) Pack
Strategically
Ideally, you should be able to go through a day without taking your pack
off. Pace yourself to avoid
the sweat/freeze cycle and dress dynamically with layers that you can
vent. Look for outer
garments with large pockets and store often used things like hats,
gloves and skins in them. Organize your pack’s contents into stuff
sacks that are easy to leave out if need be and keep smaller items
grouped together.
5) Choose the
High Ground
When it comes to picking a place to ski, try to find one with multiple
aspects and angles that allows a variety of options.
Think about terrain in terms of thematic circuits, such as
powder, corn, high danger havens, storm day areas or low visibility.
Keeping your options open will ensure that you can stay out
longer.
Using
your grey matter to enjoy more white matter is a no-brainer.
There’s nothing to buy and it works far better than a bee
pollen protein shake for pumping out more vertical.
Not only that, it’s fully endorsed by the mothers of
America
as the best way to get out and stay out for a full day of turning.
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