realskiers

I was particularly struck by your point #2? "2- I didn't trust the skills I had. I needed to stop listening to doubt and fear and ski."? I think this is almost a universal issue for recreational skiers.? Can you elaborate further on this?? How did Egan and co. help you move beyond doubt and fear?? Jim and Lynn will attest that I'm aggressive within my "zone" and a craven coward outside of it.? I've got 3 days of privates lined up with one of my favorite instructors in February, and pushing my terrain limits is one of the main things I want her to help me with.? My barriers to success are less those of technique and more fear/doubt and physical fitness.

-todd

thanks Todd, yeah to me, no fear within your comfort zone is a misnomer. To go beyond and improve your abilities, experiecne skiing at a different level and ski some of the lines we skied, you have to turn off the ouside influences. Its hard at first but if you think about it, when the going gets rough, How many little voices are saying, it's steep it's too gnarly, you can't,- this is my problem, I need to clear it all away and be present with what's in front of me- ski now, stop looking for excuses why I can't or why i shoudn't.  I was on a ridge with Dan, it was about 42-44 degrees (according to Dan) This is the steepest by far I have ever been on. If you haven't been standing on a ledge looking almost straight down, you should!? Making the first turn I realeased the edges and the skis came around but I ended up leaning back towards the mountain stopping. I looked up to Dan and said "what did I do wrong" he just said, "you didn't trust yourself, You told yourself you had to stop."- that was it, nothing else was said, I cleared my mind and made the drop and finished the line without stopping.
TEchnique- We skied with a woman who was fearless, she basically made all turns with a stem, side slipping much of the steeps or making wide parrallel turns legs wide apart with stemming. She had the courage though to get into the line and ski the terrain. So this made me think. Its important to have the skills but how important is to to be perfect, Who am I being perfect for? Me? Others? If I am not perfect in form, does that really make me poor skier? Is it more important to explore the mountain and see what it offers? Isn't it OK to just have to ski thourgh some areas and not make perfect turns? (we did this on one face, its just to narrow and chewed up, we dropped the fce, made and immediately turned the boards sideways and had to slide slip down about 8 feet and then traverse forward, drop again and then out.

To me the answer is; did I enjoy the line, Is my skiing effecient and fluent. I Would like ot ski like Eric Lipton (see video) but until that time, I am pleased with what i have accomplished and? now get more enjoyment out of the mountain, the terain and my fellow skiers. I actaully enjoyed traversing and poling, walking to lines. It became part of the skiing experience. The actaul precision was much less important, (It will improve with time) I guess its the way you look at skiing.