Your ski first day on skis this season?

[robertc3]

• What resort and upon what type of slope did you first take your very first runs on? Blue groomer. It was all that was open.
• What about advanced runs say later that day? Never got off piste all day due to very low snow coverage. Nothing harder than an easy blue was open.
• Was it a fun day? Were you happy to be back sliding on snow and now eager for more? Absolutely fun, but I wish there had been something to ski other the groomers littered with rocks.
• How did your body parts feel and change during the day? Legs, knees, back, ankles, shoulders... Body felt great. This was a very mellow day even if I was skiing fast. Groomers really never make my legs tired.
• What about your form, edging, and balance skills? Did that change during the day? First run was rough, after that things were good. Leaned in and got back seat on the third turn. Ended up sliding on my hip towards the trees. After that I realized I needed to be a bit more precise and fundamentally sound.
• What about keeping your balance forward without getting in the backseat? After the first run I was good fore and aft. I don't get in the backseat much typically and after a run I was fine.
• What usual mid season form and skills will take more time to come up to speed with? Angulation and a wider stance.
• Were you on familiar skis/boots or new gear? Newish skis, old boots. I have skied these skis half a dozen days. They are cheater GS race skis, very different than my usual free skis.
• Any soreness by the end of the first day or upon waking the next morning? Body felt great as this was an easy cruiser day.
• How many years/decades have you been skiing and how does this year's start compare to other season starts? 42 years skiing. This was tougher than previous years, but I think that was mostly the equipment being less familiar and exacerbating my rustiness. My 11 year old son was skiing better on the first run than the last run of last season. That doesn't happen for me.

 

[karlo]

Thus asking for some general input on how versus your usual mid season form and style, that went?

Went well. Focused on drills and very precise skiing to activate the right neurons and muscles. Haven’t done quick motions yet. Have boot problems that will get worked on tomorrow.

• What resort and upon what type of slope did you first take your very first runs on?

Whiteface.

https://www.pugski.com/posts/291973/

Blue run that’s curvy.

• What about advanced runs say later that day?

Black mogul. Focused on slow, ski-on-snow turns

• Was it a fun day? Were you happy to be back sliding on snow and now eager for more?

Yup

• How did your body parts feel and change during the day? Legs, knees, back, ankles, shoulders...

Left hip injury. Rotators. Definitely felt fatigued there.

• What about your form, edging, and balance skills? Did that change during the day?

No change. All good.

• What about keeping your balance forward without getting in the backseat?

No backseat

• What usual mid season form and skills will take more time to come up to speed with?

Gradually increase quickness of Edge to edge, and of upper body adjustment to fall line changes.

• Were you on familiar skis/boots or new gear?

New boots. Needs work.

• Any soreness by the end of the first day or upon waking the next morning?

Nope, other than the what the boots caused.

• How many years/decades have you been skiing and how does this year's start compare to other season starts?

48 years. No worse than the best.

Did I pass the test?

 

[Plai]

• What resort and upon what type of slope did you first take your very first runs on?

Daytrip to Kirkwood 12/16/18, first runs on chair 11 Reut... blue groomer, just to warm up and avoid the traverse to other lifts.​

• What about advanced runs say later that day?

Spent most of the day on black bump runs -- Monte Wolfe and Sentinel (both off of chair 6, Cornice). After 5 runs on MW, for the first time, was able to get through without stopping. Yes, progress in technique (line choice) was made.​

• Was it a fun day? Were you happy to be back sliding on snow and now eager for more?

Yes, it was a blast!. As always anticipation was sooo high it was difficult to sleep the night prior. Was happy to find soft snow after hearing about icy conditions around Tahoe for the last week or so. The days had been warm and nights freezing, so was expecting hard conditions early (9-ish), but that wasn't the case.​

• How did your body parts feel and change during the day? Legs, knees, back, ankles, shoulders...

Body held up well. The year-round conditioning is paying off ... just a little fatigue -- no more than my usual workouts -- but of course, these are ski specific muscle areas now.​

• What about your form, edging, and balance skills? Did that change during the day?

Form returned after about 3-4 runs -- groomer form first and then bump/mogul form worked it's way back --- was very surprised here. Thought it would take days, not just a few runs.​

• What about keeping your balance forward without getting in the backseat?

Fore-aft issues worked themselves out in a run or two. Wasn't able to do my normal drills due to crowded slopes. My hope is that would have sped up the returned of balance.​

• What usual mid season form and skills will take more time to come up to speed with?

I think I'm almost there. There's some fine tuning needed: consistent COM movement, getting on higher angle when edging, making turns on both sides symmetric.​

• Were you on familiar skis/boots or new gear?

Same boots & skis as/from last year. Now old friends.​

• Any soreness by the end of the first day or upon waking the next morning?

As mentioned above, muscle fatigue that usually comes from exercise. Nothing chronic enough to take NSAI or do more than minor stretching. May have a minor fit/technique issue with boots -- sore soles and tight forefoot -- might have not pocketed my feet appropriately. Will be testing (at home) this week before next week's multi-day trip.​

• How many years/decades have you been skiing and how does this year's start compare to other season starts?

Started skiing around 6 years ago at age 47. This start is the best so far, with the first in the bump runs and being almost comfortable with higher speed carved runs. Now to work out the lack of sleep (too much anticipation) issue.​

 

[dbostedo]

• What resort and upon what type of slope did you first take your very first runs on?

Sunday River, I think maybe Polaris? Something easy off North Peak.​

• What about advanced runs say later that day?

Did everything groomed, so groomed single blacks... it was all hard frozen mostly, so I stayed out of bumps except for a handful of turns.​

• Was it a fun day? Were you happy to be back sliding on snow and now eager for more?

Abso-freakin-lutely!​

• How did your body parts feel and change during the day? Legs, knees, back, ankles, shoulders...

Quads got very sore, shaky mid-day, but short breaks gave me my "second wind" so in general a I felt great.​

• What about your form, edging, and balance skills? Did that change during the day?

What form, edging, and balance skills? I was terrible. I think I forgot how to ski... at first. It got much better after the first hour or so, and several falls.​

• What about keeping your balance forward without getting in the backseat?

No issue there other than to keep reminding myself where I should be... but that's normal for me.​

• What usual mid season form and skills will take more time to come up to speed with?

All of them? Everything felt kind of forced, and "conscious".​

• Were you on familiar skis/boots or new gear?

New footbeds, new canting, and skis with about 3 days on them... took some getting used to.​

• Any soreness by the end of the first day or upon waking the next morning?

Yes! Not as much in the legs as I'd have thought, but my shoulder is pretty bruised/sore/banged up from a fall on the last run.​

• How many years/decades have you been skiing and how does this year's start compare to other season starts?

I've been skiing for 28 years, but for the first 23, I probably skied 30-40 days total. This year was about like the last couple, though with more falls, but less muscle fatigue.​

 

[noncrazycanuck]

first day whistler
first run taken was down what normally is a single black bump run but was covered with about 18" of fresh so no bumps encountered
balance of day lapped other single blacks and a few roped areas but again all were covered with fresh so bumps were really pretty mellow
no double backs were avy controlled to safely ski on my first day.
fun day of course
body parts felt as sore as i expected for the first day back on skis stiffness wore off next days
balance edging, like riding a bike.
for and aft - no issue I was aware of - pretty sure that fairly heavy powder would have let me know if there was,
I still need a season tumble, I always ski better if I take one. If i don't shatter on impact then can open it up a bit more
certainly will take many more days for mid season stamina - expect by Feb
equipment same as last year - but used the 108's and left the 85's I l started with last season in the roof box
soreness, definately- quads -calves shoulders
been skiing Whistler since 70/71. this year start was later than normal - nothing interesting was open until last week

 

[Shawn]

I skied Windham, NY. First few runs were on green/ blue cruisers like Wraparound. Later on, I skied steeper, double black runs like Wolverine. It was a fun day; I was happy to be back out there after so many months away. Beautiful day; sunny and high 30's/ low 40s. Trail surface was great but coverage was thinnish; you didn't want to hang out too much around the trail margins. Some nasty surprises in spots.

My body felt fine, if not quite totally in peak fitness, endurance wise. I like to ski aggressively and hard. Getting low, feeling the g-forces, muscling through turns. I was able to ski maybe 8 runs at 100%. After that, my form fell off. By the 20th run, my legs were jelly. Edging, balance, keeping forward? Steady drop off. By the end, I was no longer carving; just skidding around. I knew I had to get out of there. I had my fun. It was time to drive home.

Not really sure I was too far off from mid-season form, to be honest. I've been skiing for over three decades. I'm 35 and I feel like I get better every single year. I've been skiing the last few years on the same setup: 2015 Head Rev 85 Pro 163cm skis and Head Vector 100 boots. The combo is nice but it's a bit underpowered for my abilities/ height/ weight. Next year I'll replace them.

 

[river-z]

What resort and upon what type of slope did you first take your very first runs on?
Snow Summit (just east of LA). I skied the main top-to-bottom run 5x in a row. It's blue-black run (there's one sort of steep spot making it black)

• What about advanced runs say later that day? I skied another blue-black run with a "thin cover" sign in front of it. This turned out to be one of my favorite runs and I did it a few times because it required some thought and a mix of skills. Also, I was the only person on it, which was nice.

• Was it a fun day? Were you happy to be back sliding on snow and now eager for more? Definitely fun. Can't wait to go to the Sierra in 2 weeks with my kids.

• How did your body parts feel and change during the day? Legs, knees, back, ankles, shoulders. Cardio was fine (i exercise regularly) but the quads were shot. This was intentional because I want to get them into shape. If they don't hurt the next day I wasn't trying hard enough.

• What about your form, edging, and balance skills? Did that change during the day? I was pretty focused on my technique right from the start and got up to normal speed pretty quickly. I slowed down later on though when my quads started to hurt. I didn't want to risk a bad fall.

• What about keeping your balance forward without getting in the backseat? Nope.

• What usual mid season form and skills will take more time to come up to speed with? Skiing bumps. Not enough of them here in SoCal for good practice.

• Were you on familiar skis/boots or new gear? Using the same gear as the last 5 years.

• Any soreness by the end of the first day or upon waking the next morning? Oh yeah. If I'm not sore, I'm wasn't trying.

• How many years/decades have you been skiing and how does this year's start compare to other season starts? 10 years. It was a good start and I was pleased with the conditions for mid-December.