Ski Cooper On-Goings

As I spend the majority of my waking hours at Ski Cooper instructing, I thought that would be a more fitting topic for this week's blog, compared to classes (of which I currently have one- which reminds me, I should probably do my homework for that class tonight) and school-sponsored activities, which I have done a poor job of attending lately.

About a week and a half ago, six Australians came to visit Ski Cooper. Three of them took lessons and since there was a "split" (meaning that there were different ability levels within the group), Dominic took the two girls who were both about the same level and I took Cameron who was more advanced. We started out on the beginner slope, which is serviced by a Poma (aka Platter) lift (if you are a snowboarder desiring to ride a Poma lift, take a lesson unless you wish to entertain everyone in line behind you). To read more about Poma lifts you can look at this wikipedia article. We then progressed to the double chair and went down the backside of the mountain (oh how I love the lessons involving the chairlift and snowboarding as opposed to walking up the hill repeatedly). While on the chairlift I asked him why he chose to come to the USA and he said that originally they were planning on going to Japan, but the Australian Dollar to American Dollar exchange rate was so good they decided that they would come to the USA instead. They had purchased 8-day tickets for the Vail Resorts but came to Ski Cooper as a warm-up day. While warming up in the Ski Patrol hut, Cameron and one of the ski patrollers had a rather interesting conversation that started out as where a good bar was but very quickly turned into a discussion about Red Heelers (a breed of dog) and their breeding.



A couple days ago I had a very interesting group of young men who informed me that they had snowboarded before. I then asked them if they knew how to skate (Skating is how you move around in lift lines) and they all said "yes", however, when asked to demonstrate the skill, they required an explanation as to what they were to do. Luckily they seemed to remember things rather quickly. When we moved onto the Poma lift, only one of them caught onto it. Towards the end of the lesson, one of them wanted to just walk up the hill because "The Poma isn't real snowboarding. You have to be able to snowboard before you can ride the Poma.", another said "I already know how to walk. I want to get this Poma thing down.", and another was indifferent. Oh the joys of teaching some days.

Last Friday afternoon I went skiing when there were no lessons at 1:30. It worked out for awhile, but for the last run of the day I decided to go down a run called "Last Chance" which is sort of out of the way. My ski then proceeded to fall off and refuse to go back on for the next 30 minutes. However, as soon as the ski patroller came along, it magically snapped on... and then fell off 10 feet later.


Yesterday I had a group lesson in the morning with 2 women who were on their 3rd lesson in order to get a free season pass to Ski Cooper. For the Free Pass program, you take either 3 ski or 3 snowboard lessons. Whichever sport you choose, you must have never done it before. The idea behind it is that you don't take 1 lesson and immediately decide you hate the sport simply because you did not immediately catch on to it. Plus, by the end of the 3rd lesson (in my experience) you are up on the mountain, which is a whole lot more exciting than forever being on the Poma lift. From teaching this lesson, I learned that "I'm slightly afraid of heights" can translate into "I am deathly afraid of heights and intend to scream for a portion of the chairlift ride". Apparently the view from Trail's End was worth it though because they informed me that they would be going up the chairlift again, even if it meant that Beth would spend the ride up screaming.

This weekend is the X-Games in Aspen. Four of the Colorado Mountain College student bloggers will be there (Dylan, Bobbie, Ali, and myself). We will be handing out flyers with clues for a scavenger hunt and handing out swag (stickers, pens, decals, and caribeaners). The four of us will be in 2 teams. One team will have pink stickers on our jackets and the other team will have blue stickers. When you find a team, we give you a clue.

After A Week In The Dorms

Considering that I haven't had any classes, I don't have much to write on that front. I did however find out a couple days ago that I have an online class this semester, which I was completely unaware of. My books arrived in the mail today, which was a complete surprise to me because I thought Martin Luther King Day was a federal holiday. Perhaps UPS does not observe federal holidays.

As far as Martin Luther King Day goes, on my way to work this morning I noticed an American flag. Then I noticed another. And another. Then I started really wondering why every lightpost in Leadville had an American flag attached to it. After a brief moment of thought I decided that it must be Martin Luther King Day, which meant it was a Monday. I've begun to notice a trend of the days all sort of blending together. I go to work, I come home from work, I go to work again the next day. I'm not the only one experiencing this phenomena either... Yesterday at work some people thought it was Saturday and others thought it was Monday. It was in fact Sunday.

Last week at work was not exactly busy. I went from Sunday to Friday without teaching a single lesson. Luckily business picked up a bit over the holiday weekend.
Saturday, the Piney Basin Triple Chair was not functioning, which meant that the entire skiing public was either on the Buckeye Platter which was only operating to midway and therefore servicing only the bottom half of a green run and the bottom half of a blue run, the 10th Mountain Double, or the Printer Boy Platter (aka the beginner hill). To add to the excitement, the Cooper Cup race was taking place, which meant that Black Powder was closed to the public.

Sunday, I taught a mother and daughter who had previously taken a snowboard lesson and were wishing to improve, while Jane, another snowboard instructor, shadowed me since all she had ever taught were "never-ever" lessons. Also on Sunday, some instructors participated in the NASTAR race which took place between the morning and afternoon runs of the Cooper Cup.

Today, when there weren't any students taking lessons at 1:30, a group of us went out for a couple runs. After going down a green run we all ended up following our bold leader down a black and off into a tree run. I don't really do tree runs because I don't trust myself to not slide full-force into a tree. Yes, I have gone on both Powder Keg and Timber Bash this year which could be considered tree runs, but the trees are much farther apart. The skier following me was on skis for his 9th day ever and I'm not sure he appreciated the trail choice much more. It was fun though once I was no longer in the midst of the corkscrew (The trail is named Corkscrew. I believe the main path through it makes a corkscrew pattern, but studying the pattern was not quite at the top of my list of priorities).

In the past couple weeks I have discovered that if I am ever running into the lodge at Ski Cooper to do something real quick, I should not wear my instructor jacket. Sometimes I feel as if guests have a radar that zones in the on busiest employee.

You have 30 seconds before you're supposed to be at line-up and you want to use the restroom first? Someone will want an explanation of how to put their boots on.

There are also the times where a guest asks me a question that just truly amazes me.

"What's the best beer to order in the bar?". I'm 19 and do not even know what alcohol they serve in the bar. Perhaps you should ask the person running the bar.

During Christmas break, two women were at the bottom of the triple (on the backside of Ski Cooper). One woman told the other "We should just take this cat track so that we don't have to wait in line.". The "cat track" they were referring to is Piney Ditch Road, which is over a mile long (I believe it is 1 3/4 miles... Don't quote me on that though.) and not the best way to get to the frontside. They might have had to wait in the lift line for 2 minutes. I'm not sure on the ride time of the triple, but Jane and I made it from the bottom of the triple, to the top of the hill, back down the frontside in 16 minutes.

A few days ago I stopped to help out a skier who couldn't get her boot into the binding because it was still clicked down. After I told her how to get her ski back on she told me "I knew that. I haven't fallen while skiing in over 5 years. It's just these new boots.". In the lodge she told me she couldn't unbuckle her ski boot. Once I unbuckled it for her she informed me that she was going to her car to get her old boots because they didn't make her fall down.

A binding like this is
not going to accept
your boot no matter
how hard you slam
your boot down into
it.

A binding that looks like this is ready for you to put your boot into it.

In other news, the X-Games come to Aspen the last weekend of January.

CMC Rec Nights are in full force. Monday and Wednesday night are open gym. Thursday and Friday are swimming. Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday are ice skating. All activities are free to students presenting a valid ID.

Until next time, that's it. Please hope for snow- Colorado could really use it.

Dew Tour Wrap-Up

I unfortunately got distracted and neglected to write about the 5th day of the Winter Dew Tour. So we shall now test my memory as to what exactly happened that day.

The day started rather early for me as I was aiming to get to Breckenridge around 9AM in order to have time to park, put my gear on, take the bus from the free parking lot to the gondola, take the gondola up to Peak 8, stash my backpack at the CMC booth, and take the chairlift up to the competition area to photograph a competition that started at 10:30. Later in the day I went back down to the CMC booth and then back up to photograph another competition. If I remember correctly, both competitions that day were slopestyle snowboarding- women's in the morning and men's in the afternoon.

Close-up of the CMC booth

My excellent bull riding skills
(there is a video at the bottom of the page of my bull riding)

Me in front of the CMC booth with my photo pass and media credentials

Far-away shot of the Colorado Mountain College booth

Me with the High Cascade Snowboard Camp marshmallow

The past two weeks I have been instructing every day at Ski Cooper. A lot of it is work, but there are also the fun moments. There are the "Never Ever" lessons where they catch on so incredibly fast that it's awfully hard to believe that they have never snowboarded and there are the lessons where the fact that they can get up and not run into anyone is amazing. In the afternoon a group of instructors usually goes out for a couple runs. One day I went out with 5 ski instructors and boy was that entertaining. I apparently hit one of the guys with my arm and I then fell down while getting off the triple chair. The next run another instructor decided he was going to practice his eyes-closed skiing. Let's just say that he should keep his eyes open when unloading from the chair. The rest of the run he did a good job of following his guide's instructions. Yesterday I spent a couple hours in the afternoon refreshing my skiing skills. All I have to say about that is "Just because you went down a green run without falling, doesn't mean you should take off for a blue run". I very much thought I might fall on my face. Lately there has also been a "Let's try out tele-marking" craze. I think I'll work on feeling comfortable on alpine skis first.

Currently I am sitting in Proving Grounds enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and their wireless internet. When classes are in session, students like to hang out here. Last year I know there were several people that would play Dominos. It's also just a nice place to hang out with friends or a way to get away from the dorms and still have the possibility of completing homework or studying.

The dorms open for the semester at 9AM Wednesday morning. My roommate and I are both moving in on Thursday since she has a out-of-state friend visiting and, as of right now, I work Wednesday.

Other than that, I haven't heard of much going on around Leadville lately.

As far as classes go for next semester, I am currently taking an online business class, a 5-credit internship, a Ski Area Seminar class, and a Ski Area Planning class. I'm think I'm also going to see if I can still get into some of the labs (they tend to fill up quickly) since I enjoyed the Snowmaking lab so much last semester. And/or I might take a couple of "general" classes that are requirements for graduation at a school that my parents are wishing I continue on to.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'll try to write about how move-in went either Thursday or Friday sometime.