10th Mountain Division

I started skiing in the Army in 1977. Even before I was released from active duty I was working part-time as a ski instructor at Monarch in '78. I had never skied before in my life having grown up in Connecticut where the snow is icy and, in my opinion back then, dangerous. Soon after I entered the service and transfered to Fort Carson, Colorado, I volunteered for special duty to be a member of the Moutain Skills and Survival Training Committee. We taught summer and winter mountain survival skills, which of course included rock climbing in the summer and skiing in the winter. It was a wonderful time, it changed my life dramatically, and I'd love to tell you more about it sometime. The main reason for this post is that the MSSTC was actually a decendent of the 10th Mountain Division. The 10th was inactive at that time. There is an interesting series on NPR all about the 10th Mountain Division. See/hear it here http://media.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14594652 . The men from the 10th had a huge part of establishing the ski industry. From my own personal experience, it is easy for me to understand why these men would do what ever they could to continue skiing after their release from the military. Some of them are still skiing today in their 80's and 90's. That means some of them have been skiing for over 70 years!

Opening Day at Monarch

Opening day at Monarch is the day before Thanksgiving, the 21 of November. I think that's 56 days from today. It's been so windy here in Salida lately that I haven't been riding my bicycle for a few days. I'm gonna have to get my butt out there regardless of the wind and chilly temperatures. I'm not about to start loosing all the fitness that I've gained over the summer just before the season starts.

Rikki, my daughter, is living up at Crested Butte these days. She says she's going to try for a small job at the ski area so that she can get a pass. I'm trying to encourage her to apply as an instructor. She thinks she's not good enough to teach, but I think she's much better than she realizes. Rikki worked at Monarch for two years on the Farm Team (that's our instructor apprentice program) and then two more years as a part-time ski instructor. She has more experience than she realizes. I really believe that her time spent learning the trade has helped her in many ways in her life. She learned to talk to people, how to be responsible, how to be in charge, the importance of figuring out what motivates people, and much more. Snow sports instruction is hard but very gratifying and rewarding work. I am very thankful she had the opportunity and I hope she tries for it again at Crested Butte.

Stop In and Ski Monarch

Crested Butte is giving out free lift tickets between Nov. 25 through Dec. 15. It's also a four hour drive from Denver. Why not just stop at Monarch instead? Early season passes are only $27.00. And we always have better snow and no crowds.

My Business Cards

Here is an image of business cards that I used most of last winter. The phone numbers are the ski school sales office. I'm thinking of adding my own mobile number, email address, and this blog URL to the card.

Normally I have not involved myself in booking lessons for guests. I leave that all up to the sales staff. I'm wondering if I can offer better service by becoming very involved with helping my guests choose the best product (which will require me to really know all the many available products) and assist in their scheduling of our times together. My thought is that it will facilitate better relationships with my guests which is better for Monarch and for my guests.

Out About Town and Pressure Control

We were out in town last night enjoying the many friends we have here in Salida at our favorite watering hole, Benson's Tavern. I got into a discussion with Boyd about pressure control. He and I go back and forth on this every once in a while. I mentioned that I believed ski racers actually loose time when they become airborn. It was kind of funny because he said yeah, but that's because they are sailing sometimes for 2 to 3 hundred feet! He's got a point there. In normal everyday skiing where we're regulating pressure between the snow and skis, decreasing pressure does not seem to slow you down. In fact it probably causes you to go faster. Increasing pressure would seem to cause you to slow down. I have to give this some thought so that I can go back to Boyd and somehow explain that I'm talking about a more even distribution of pressure through out turns equals more efficient, better balanced skiing. I'm thinking the opposite of someone that is braced and braking and trying hard to increase presssure under their skis to create friction to slow down.

Fixed Gear Bicycles and Pressure Control

I've been riding my fixie quite a bit lately. I'm reminded of an idea I had a few years ago about how presure control is used in riding a fixie and how it is used in ski turns. If you could hook up a machine that could measure the pressure under your feet as you ski or as you ride a bicycle I think you would find some interesting comparisons between the two, especially if your bicycle is a fixed-gear. They say the most efficient peddlers are those that can pedal in circles, that is apply a more equal amount of pressure to the pedals throughout the peddling stroke. This is especially evident on a fixed-gear because you can be thrown off the bike if you forget you're on a fixie and try to coast. In other words, if you try to stop peddling you will be surprised at how much force your momentum has when one of the pedals comes up the back side and literally lifts you off the bike. My thought a few years ago was that if the most efficient peddlers are those with the most consistent pressure, that same idea be applied to skiers. The idea is that if a skier could maintain the most consistent pressure under foot he would be most efficient in descending a slope. In races he would be the fastest, in bumps he would be the smoothest, he would have an eaiser time staying in balance throughout the run and throughout all his changes of direction.

More on this later.

Using This Technology

I ran across another site that seems to be dedicated to a similar concept as I have here. Actually it is probably more thought out and seems to be developed more as a business model. It's called MySnowPro.com. According to the site it's been set up for snow pros who want to have web sites to enhance their relationships with their clients. The main writers on MySnowPro seem to be Jonathan Lawson and Greg Davis from Breckenridge. It looks like a great site and the content on it seems to be quality. However the last entry seems to be from March 2007 from Greg. Jonathan seems to have added an entry in August. This is interesting in light of my own efforts to feed my own blog. Are they running out of steam? Is there not enough interest? My own efforts are not nearly as grand. I have no desire to sign up other instructors. I am not trying to set up a web site dedicated to helping other instructors stay connected. I applaud Jon and Greg's efforts, but I think they tried to create something bigger than which they have time and resources. I'm sure as professional snow sport instructors/trainers they are very busy as it is. The reasons they give to join MySnowPro website as an instructor are all very good. The last sentence in their reasons for joining MSP is, "MySnowPro.com is the best customer service tool for instructors that you can get! And it's an incredible thank you to your students." The idea of thanking my students and customer service are a couple of the main reasons I created this blog. As a matter of fact, if I had seen more current entries on their site, I probably would have joined immediately. I'm usually not one to try and re-invent the wheel. Oh well I did sign-up for their newsletter, I read through their whole site, watched their videos, and got some cool ideas for my own site. They've done a great job. I hope they get more entries for themselves and even other instructors to sign up for their service. I'm considering signing up for their service for my own promotional efforts.

Nice to see I'm not alone and the more interconnected we are the better. Here's another site, Ski-Blog.com with similar purpose and seems very current. Are we seeing a trend here? Maybe someday you'll need to have your own website or blog to become fully certified with PSIA!

Only 74 days until Monarch opens on November 17th!