Alrighty, I have a ton of video that I have not shown for this trip. Since I'm home now and I've completed some of my other tasks, now I have a little more time to post some of the footage from the session 1 trip.....
August 13th - skiing above the Pirigallo Valley. This was normally a 25 minute skin but we worked on skinning technique on the way (some of the group had not skinned before) so we went through a complete progression (gliding, round turns, VAV/AVA turns, kick turns, using the risers, downhilling with the skins on) using terrain features on the way up to our line. There's some great terrain for teaching all the skills and guests really get to learn and progress. It's fun teaching it all but it does take a little bit of time.
Pitch 1 - this was a shorter pitch with a blind roll on it, to a longer pitch. When you are comfortable in the terrain, you can ski it all in one go, but we were working on our skills and confidence, so the group chose to break it up into two parts and regroup above the rollover. The first pitch is tighter, so we did some short turns and spooned the tracks.
Pitch 2 - the longer pitch. I stayed high to the skier's right where it's steeper and potentially more wind-loaded. I wanted to test the potentially more dangerous part of the slope to make sure it was ok for the others who were going to ski further left. It's a double fall-line to the right as well, the better skiing is further to the left. I skied it fast and the snow was decent, but most importantly, nothing was moving. Then the guys skied their line to the left (later video).
Pitch 3 - we are almost down into the Pirigallo Valley and the start of all of the ski tracks. I wanted to find soft snow and ski a nice face. I went quite far left where it's open and catches a lot more sun. I could see some rock patches and a few blades of grass sticking out. It was very steep. As I made my turns, a lot of snow started moving with me, a little bit more than I would have liked. I didn't want to put the rest of the group on that slope so I got through as quickly as I could and then radioed back to the group and told them to stay further to the skier's right on a slightly more shaded and colder aspect. They skied that one at a time and the snow was fine.
More video's to come....
Matt