realskiers

Waking up a pre-season thread here, which I thought would be a fun and interesting thing to do.  Which is to find out if all of us have achieved what we wanted to when in last autumn we set our eyes on the coming ski season (now past, for most of us).

Me first....  Here's what I said last October, that I wanted to work on technically:

......I would like to work on five things:

1) Getting comfortable in chop, heavy crud, pushed around snow on steep slopes.  I'm fine in that stuff if it's not too steep, and conversely I'm comfortable on steeps if it's groomed, but the combination of the two clenches the sphincters and makes me regress into stiff, non-fluid motions and indecision as to the best line to take for the next turns.  Not good 

2) Looking way farther ahead...or skiing more in the future, as Gary calls it.

3) Working on refining my pole plants, and using them as an integral part of smooth turns and as a major tool for bumps, crud, etc..

4) More fluid, fully-completed turns when I ski on hard snow on my Progressors.  For some reason I don't have this problem when I ski my Mythics, and my turns are more measured, deliberate, fluid.  But on my Progressors I seem to rush the turn completion and transitions too much, and the result is somewhat jerky motions.  Time to slow things down and work on patience.

5) Relax! All the time.  Under all conditions (see nos. 1 and 4, above).  This will help me get more fluid. 

Helpful tips or advice on any of the above always gratefully accepted.   

Here's the result:

No. 1) Achieved! I skied some terrain in Banff this year that I never would have attempted last season.  And, I couldn't wait to go back up the chair for more.  Mind over mountain.  Love it!

No. 2) Achieved....most of the time.  Still needs a bit of work....

No. 3) Still needs work, but lots of improvement.  Need more solid pole plants in bumps.  Gotta stop dropping that one arm down and keep it up and out.

No. 4) Done.  See my post from tonight on the "Raising the front binding thread"

No. 5) Much better.  But still not quite mellow enough for a loose body and fluid movements all the time.

Not bad....three out of five, and some solid improvement on the other two.

Most of all, I had a huge amount of fun this year.  Despite the miserable snow we had in Ontario, I still had some great days on the hill.  And the recent trip to Banff was just stellar.  I learned a lot, and had some of the best skiing ever.  Such a great time, skiing with my family and some great friends. 

Anyone else want to chime in here? Did you all get to where you wanted to be by this point?