I will just chime in on two things. First conditioning. For me at age 49, now conditioning is more important than ever!! Becsue I do large amounts of aerobic conditioning (7-9k miles on the bike each year) I find that fast twitch work is the most important for me. Plyometrics is the only way to go and you can do them most anywhere. 2 months of solid work 1-2 times per week and everyone will be strong and ready for ski season.
As for fear and perfect skiing, for me the better my form is the less I am scared!! I agree that one does not need to ski everything in perfect form (although that would be the goall for me), but form helps the mental side so much. The sense that I will hold my form, and not start wailing around, not needing to power a turn by rotating my upper body, all of this gives me more confdence and fights the fear. For me it is impossible to separate fear from technique and form.
The guy you posted Ron who skied that short section so nicely, I feel confident that when he gets into difficlut terrain all he foscuses on is holding his form. In fact if you listen to the best skiers talk about skiing hairy stuff they usually all say the same thing, that were focuded on one technique key that helps them hold their form (it might be some counter and not rotating, it might be a forward pole plant to keeps their weight forward or it might just be pressuring their tips).
I made huge progrees with my off piste skiing last year. It was really two things. The first was pushing myself into terrain and situations that were difficult for me. Some amount of de-sensitizing to the fear is necessary. Buit as the seaosn went on, I found that skiing hard stuff with poor form was not getting me the result and I needed to go back to really focusing on technique in the the double black terrain. When I really worked this, I fellt like I was skking rather than surviving, in control vs. holding on and truly enjoying the terrain vs. wanting to get to the bottom.
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