Skiing Week: The Ultimate Ski Camp

The idea of ski week is that you take an entire week off of work, you leave all your troubles and worries behind at home and focus on one thing: getting really good at skiing. You eat, live, breath, sleep skiing. Every morning you meet at 10:45am with the same instructor and same fellow students and pick up where you left off the day before, always building more. Being a guest at the St. Bernard, ski weeks is all they do. There is no staying 1 night at the St.B. It is ski week every week for them.

For the first day of skiing, after our enormous breakfast, we met at the top of chair 5 for a ski off. All the students are at the top and all the instructors are at the bottom of the small hill before you make it to the main run. The hill is separated into two groups, aggressive and laid back, depending on you skiing preference. Then one by one people ski down and like an airport traffic director they wave you off into groups based on your turns. There are 11 levels. 1-10 and Jean's group. 1 is never been on the skis and 10 is superstars. Jean's group would be the special VIP guests/friends/ski legends - they have the privilege of skiing with the master himself.

I got put in an 8, I asked the others in the group if they wanted to hike (the mountain back-country), they said no and that I needed to be put in a 9 to do that. So then I was put with my first instructor, Miles.

Miles was awesome. He is a tall german looking guy with bright blue eyes. He is had a very straight forward way about explaining things. Being an engineer, that confused me. (We engineers like to make things as sufficiently complicated as possible) So I then had to ask philosophical ski questions to clarify. I think I then confused Miles.

We did a few intermediate blue runs and talked about edging and then did some mogul runs. Miles kept trying to tell me something about my turns for the bumps, but I was confused since I thought I was already doing what he was asking. He then did a demonstration, where it was very clear, I was not using my inside ski to turn. He (and some the others in the class and at the St. B) also said my skis were old. And that I was hopping the old school way on my bumps because of that. (Which is how back in the day I was taught to do) No more, the super sidecut skis do all the work for you. No hopping required. This concept blew my mind. I also decided the next I definitely.

The next day, there was a second ski off for new people who came to ski week a day late. We picked up a few more people and the group became too large and we had to split. I was moved to another group with another instructor named Teri Koss. She too is awesome! However I think this class may have been an aggressive 8 or a mellow 9 (which is a step down, but these people wanted to hike, so I was cool with that) I was there to learn and I wasn't about to let pride make me feel I was too good to be with anyone. So it was alright.

All the ski instructors are there to help you work on whatever your goals are. After skiing with Miles, I saw I had a lot of work to do on learning the new way to ski bumps. Athletically I can kicker-down and master any bump run with my hippity-hop jumping, which is exhausting, but after seeing Miles and Teri move their skis over the mounds of snow like a person spreading butter, I too wanted that smoothness. I want to ski like Buttah.

So that is what I have been working on the last few days. We have been doing a few warm-up runs then hitting the bumps! I feel like have been getting so much out of the class. It also helps that I have been using better skis. (more on that topic later). (me, instructor Terri, and classmate Dev)

On the smaller bumps, I have developed a wonderful smoothness, on the big ones, there is still work to be done. The class too has been getting better. Everyone can see major developments in everyone else's skiing. Everyone is very encouraging as well. As you go down a run people shout things like, "Great form", "Nice upper body", "So smooth!" There is a real feeling of ski fellowship and positiveness that makes the group work so well together. We even dork out together by taking group shots at the top of the hike we did together. (We've progressed to the back-country, oh yeah!)

4 words sum it up: Ski week is awesome!