Ski Utah

Today I was assigned to "Ski Utah", which is a kind of “field trip” for children from elementary schools in Utah, to learn to ski. None of the kids had ever skied before, except for 5 who went with an experienced instructor named Ali. Most of the instructors on that work were new hires, and they were as confused as I was, or more. We were told to just grab 7 kids each out of the mob that eventually showed up at the base, and go. I picked some of mine out myself, so I wouldn’t get assigned 1 boy and 6 girls. I had 4 girls and 3 boys, and all of them were 10 years old or turning 10 soon. They were really fun kids, well-behaved and enthusiastic. I had fun teaching them.

We only had the kids for about two and a half hours counting the time to get up the gondola, collect their gear, and help them put it on and take it off afterwards. Some of them were wearing up to four pairs of fluffy socks. Insanity! It was a hot sunny day today, the “bluebird day” after the storm. I had to take off and chuck aside some socks so they’d fit in their boots. Today I felt like I was really “on my game” teaching-wise. I hurried to teach them everything they needed to know about how to get their skis on, get up if they fall, move around in boots and skis, and anything like that which would make a future instructor’s job easier, including of course the core stance and how to make a small wedge. Once I got them gliding on two skis, they didn’t want to listen to anything else I said.

I knew they wouldn’t get many runs in, so I had them just ski down the learning area a few times before I even tried to teach them how to turn. They also had to stop for a drink since they were all thirsty at the higher altitude. I got them into the lunch room and served them all juice, and being in there made them hungry: they asked if all that food was for them. I didn’t get any lunch today either. After their drinks they only got one run down the learning area and then I shooed them inside to put their gear back, because it was noon already. I thought I was late, but I was actually the first one finished because they only expected us at the gondola at 12:30, not 12:15. The kids had fun: although I tired them out in a short time, when I walked them to the gondola they said "best field-trip ever!" and "I wish we could come here every week!"

I was checked out and changed into my own jacket by 12:30, and I went to buy some trail mix for lunch. I had just time to ski one run on The Aspens and then I returned to join an “off-piste clinic” that was going out today. It was pretty fun and I already knew the coach who taught it. He didn’t bother to teach much, mostly just looked around for good powder runs to play in. Most of us were in slalom skis so skiing the powder gracefully was nearly impossible for all but an experienced few.

We started with one run in The Pines and skied in trees off Peak 5 a few times. The snow today was windswept, and had developed a harder crust on top of the soft heavy powder, so it wasn’t as effortless as yesterday but it was still a great day to ski. It’s good practice for me to find the different kinds of snow around the mountain and see how they challenge my balance and movement. 9990 only opened at about 2:30PM so we jumped up there as soon as it did. Big tracts of snow there were untouched and it was a joy to cut tracks in them, though the snow sucked my skis right under so that I could hardly move them. To finish the day most of the class decided to split off into the groomed runs to ski back. We had a very large class and I guess many of them got tired from working hard in the deep snow. Only four of us and the coach went down Grande for a last run. That was a mistake. Grande still had thin cover, and we found a nasty patch of rocks that bit ugly holes into my skis. I wanted to patch them at the end of the day but nobody had a lighter, not even my roommate Mike who happened to be in The Canyons for some reason.

I jumped off the crowded bus at Redstone (a big central shopping center at Kimball Junction, near where I live) and I looked for the headphones I’d been told about but the store didn’t have anything like them, so I’ll have to look elsewhere. Since I was there anyway and had to wait for the bus, I went to the state liquor store to buy an expensive bottle of Chimay, a Belgian monastery beer that I’ve been fantasizing about ever since I got here.