Thursday, December 31, 2009

12-31-09: Night Skiing at Mohawk

I'd never been night skiing before, and, seeing that I need a lot work since I'm very much a novice skier, I headed up to Mohawk Mountain in West Cornwall last night with the lady and our friend Ken. They have a two-for-one deal on night lift tickets, and we have the time off of work.

Overall it was quite successful, and quite fun. I got a little too aggressive at the beginning by starting with the blue square runs "Mohawk" and "Arrow Head." That wore my legs down a little bit because I had trouble getting my mechanics down and got too scared with the steepness, which caused me to "wedge" my legs to slow down. So, after dinner, I did a bunch of runs on the green trail "Pine," which really helped to build up my confidence, while the lady and Ken went on their black diamond runs. After four or five runs down Pine on my own and once with them, we hit Mohawk again.

One thing I found out, thanks in large part to my very patient instructors, was that my arms were throwing off my balance during my turns. So, the lady suggested I hold my poles in front of me, horizontally. This would help me know when my shoulders were flying open. At first I was very weary of this drill, but I tried it out, and skied better than ever. I've begun to connect my turns better, but still find that I do a "hockey stop" when turning left, which slows me down too much. But, I was able to build up more speed, which helped me to turn much more easily.

Next ski trip might be just a couple days away. There's a "CSC Awareness" weekend at Mount Snow; $45 lift tickets. Should be fun.

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