The Outer-Layers

Skiing is not just about the snow or technique, it is also about the gear. It goes beyond fashion lines, to compliment that outfit you have to the proper skis, bindings, boots, helmet, goggles and more Luckily you  do not have to sacrifice looks for performance, goodbye rail skis and neon full pieces. Here is the 2012-2013 season review of gear trends and fashion.

We will start with the obvious, the skis, you cannot go skiing without them. There are so many types of skis for every kind of terrain. We will stick to all mountain skis, what majority of visitors will use on their vacation. 

The top pick this last season for all mountain ski is the 4FRNT Madonna Ski. The tapered tail makes edge to edge carving easier than ever before. 

This edition also has shorter "rocker"(the curve)  radius in tip and tail for more control. This ski not only performs perfectly but has an edgier design that brings out the new-age style of skiing.  

Just like skis, boot come in a wide variety of choices for all terrain and performance. Race boots vary greatly from your leisure skiing boot. We will stick to a high performance boot but still well rounded  that most skiers above a novice level could navigate in across all terrain. The Rossignol Electra Pro 110 Boot.

This boots does a great job combining comfort, performance and style. The asymmetrical toe-box and ankle space allow provide comfort, the stiff angle and straps keep you in form. That fur is not just for show but actually will help keep those toes warm.

Goggles are the most under-rated piece of ski equipment. They are vital to style and experience. They not only make up a large part of your ski fashion but they are your eye protection from elements, affect your field of vision, and the visual clarity of the snow. The Smith I/0X Goggle.


The neutral colors will match any outfit and the boxy shape is right on trend with the high fashion or park skiing. The best part about this product though is the lenses. The lenses are interchangeable for lighting conditions which is ideal for flat light days or sunny skies. The lenses have anti-fog protection layer which is perfect when you are working up a sweat.


Gone are the days of ugly helmets and other unsightly pieces of head wear. A helmet is no longer a eye sore for the sake of safety but a stylish, sleek and technological piece that I think every skier or snowboarder alike should wear because it makes all the difference in that downhill crash. This helmet meets comfort, beauty, technology and more. The Pro-Tec Riot Boa Helmet .

This helmet comes in a sleek, matte variety of colors along with a perfect fit for great looks (no big heads). The "Boa" system though is what makes the real difference, the padding inside the helmet with the carbonate outside ensures ultimate protection in a fall. This helmet also has top vents for the days you are breaking a sweat. To top it off this helmet has blue tooth ear buds built in for some tunes on the snow.

Cold hands are the worst, it effects your entire day. It makes everything difficult with thumbing fingers and you are just plain miserable, that is why bad gloves are not option. The Walmart gloves do not make the cut, it is  a worthy investment to go for quality. The Hestra Henrik Windset Pro Model Mitt is in top price range but worth every penny.



These mittens have top hand padding for any impact you may endure, with a cowhide exterior these gloves are made for durability and keep the elements out. It comes in a set of sassy colors that would match any outfit. It has tight fabric with Velcro strap to keep snow with a set of wrist bands so that there is no missing gloves off the lift. The best part of this glove is the interior with the thermal insulation with individual finger compartments that keep you fingers toasty all day long, the fabric wicks moisture so that sweaty hand don't lead to ice cubes.


Now for the true identity if a skier, the jacket and pants! It is the best way to show you on mountain style. It shows what kind of skier you are, how much you ski and terrain choice. The high end lunching skiers that enjoy those groomers and leisure skiing you can always find in Bogner gear, Europe's line of ski wear luxury. The  "park rats" are in their neon over sized jackets but do not be fooled the park skiers know quality also. I could categorize every type of ski wear but I am going to keep in line with a general theme of a all mountain skier, and this brand is personally on of my favorites. The Arc'teryx Sabe Jacket and Arc'teryx Sabe full bib Pant. 


This brand defines excellence combining clean, sporty looks that turns heads and know how to the battle elements while including cool extras on the jacket.  It is made out of Gore-Tex NP80-X material that is so light weight you would forget you have all your gear but do not fear you this jacket will keep you toasty on the most brutal days. The weather sealed zippers keep all your gadgets dry and grab at the ankles keep the snow out. These jackets look great on and off the mountain and the pants fit perfectly, no grab or constraint. 

This whole group of gear is the full-time, highest performance gear.  Each item hit on the latest trends of the 2012-2013 ski season. Next time you decided to come out to the snow, you can do it in style and performance. . Skiing is not just puffy coats and ugly knit hats anymore ski gear has its own high end line of clothing that meet any performance and fashion needs.

  
For this article I referenced  my own knowledge and the editors picks at: http://freeskier.com/gear

Behind The Uniform

 I feel at this point, I have given you all a pretty good idea of ski culture and community. I hope so at least! Before I delved more into my personal spin on skiing I wanted to ensure that y'all had some background. Now that you know the in's and outs of powder days and more, I am going to take you on a personal tour of my ski life, a day in life inside Deer Valley Ski School.  I started working at ski school when I was 14 years old, a freshman in high school and I here I am sophomore in college, 20 years old still wearing that signature green and gold uniform. I went into my first day of work hoping to meet some new people and have a cool job on my resume but that expectation was by far exceeded. Deer Valley Ski Resort became my second home within Park City. Ski school became the place where I found mentors, a passion for children, a source of motivation along with  forming  unprecedented costumer service skills and more. Deer Valley Ski School, is not a day job, it is a lifestyle job. Being responsible for someones child in a high risk sport from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM creates a set stories and relationships between people that go beyond the clock.

My first four seasons were spent as an instructor assistant, since I was under 18 I could not be a full instructor. My job was to ski with a class normally at first time/beginner level and help the instructor. We also made sure all lifts had riders for the children, wore the Deer Valley mascot costumes (imagine me in a reindeer suit, haha) and any indoor tasks. The past two seasons I have been full instructor, meaning the responsibility is all on me now. I received my PSIA level I certification last winter, which is a national ski instructor certification that requires clinic hours, workshops, workbooks and a final two day on-mountain test. This certification allows me to teach up to advance-intermediate classes. Deer Valley takes instructor training very seriously. Being the number one ski resort in North American for the past five seasons and a top-tier ski school, Deer Valley ski instructors have more employee-guest interaction than anyone other employee at the resort. You are expected to perform at the Deer Valley standard. Moving up in the instructor ranks takes time and work. You have to prove your skill on snow, attend endless clinic hours ranging from how to make progression turns to autism spectrum disorders.  Receive continual positive feedback at your 45 day and end of season review and receive the national level certifications. Being a ski instructor is not all goggle tans and powder days.

Ski School 2007-Season one

You start your day greeting families inside and reassuring their last worries. Each age group is in a different meeting area inside. Fun fact, Deer Valley has the largest childcare area out of any other ski resort in the country.  Greeting families includes proper tag checking, doing what is called a verbal split (talking them through their ability level, parents tend to over exaggerate!), ensuring that  they have all their equipment then taking them to the proper instructor. What is not included in the list of this process is that most of these children come in with altitude sickness and tears and a cranky five year old is no fun. Once the clock hits 9:30 your 6 children in your class need to be fully dressed, sun screened and mentally prepared to leave. You have also turned in a yellow slip with all children names, their security code and the days game plan.  You hit the snow, go through initial instruction which changes for every level, even sub-level. You can either then head to the lift or magic carpet. Between then and lunch at 11:45 you objective is to ensure that every child belongs in that group, which sometimes means switching with supervisors and instructors. You all need to cover basic skills of that ability level and start your real work.

 Lunch comes you get every child undressed, serve them all lunch, fill out a pink slip again and start the whole process over. at 2:15 is hot chocolate break, start the whole process again  but this time you are filling out report cards. Now on a normal day some child has been continually crying, you have ran into multiple parents with crazy requests, a child who will not listen for the life of him/her and another little one who wont let go of your hand. The day ends at 3:45PM but don't expect most of these parents to be down till 4:00 PM, you give report card, take their vest, also do a conference with each one and fill out a white slip to turn in.  At this point I have been in my ski boots since 7:45AM, that is almost six hours, the weather has gone from a warm day to freezing blizzard.  After this description you are probably thinking, who would ever want to do this? I do.

See you are always going to have difficult children and parents. There are some days it is so hard to make a effective lesson with all these factors but working through and making that lesson effective is the Deer Valley difference. That despite all these situations, your child will be a better skier, you don't pay the price you do for a ineffective lesson.There are so many moments that occur everyday that you cannot experience anywhere else. Watching a fearful, teary child turn into the little ripper down the mountain, singing songs in the lift line with a bunch of people your age or older, spending every moment outside  talking, not texting, taking that kid who could not do anything at the start day end up yelling to his parents that he is dying to come back tomorrow or having that little girl hug you every season when she returns. Our job is to make family vacations magical, that sounds lame but it true. People spend thousands of dollars on a family vacation like this, it is a lot of work for these families and my job is to make sure it is a good one. I know from my own family vacations, what having a great vacation feels like and the memories you come back with. I honored to be apart of that.

Last Chair, skiing that goes beyond the snow.

            You know you are true ski junkie when you replace your daily social media of Facebook and Pintrest with website like skinet.com or the ski episode channel on vimeo. The other day I was doing my daily browsing of ski media and came across a article off of skinet.com called,“Stuff We Like: Flyin’ Ryan” by Berne Body. This story was written back in 2012 about Ryan Hawks a year after he sustained life-ending injuries at the Freeride World Tour Competition at Kirkwood Resort in California. The article discusses how his family found after his death a list of his core life principles on his computer that Ryan aimed to live by and how they turned that list into a working non-profit called: Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation.

            

The foundation provides “adventure scholarships to deserving adventurers who are: passionate about their pursuit, represent the principles for which Ryan was widely known and admired, and financially disadvantaged.”  As I clicked link after link on the website I was more and more captivated by the mission of this organization because I will admit it is hard for me to defend the idea of giving scholarship money to young people who want to adventure when there are millions of children who cant afford to go to college.

This perspective changed when I read through Ryan’s 14 core life principles:

Live every day, all day

Never stop exploring life

Never lose my adventuresome attitude

Be the best friend I can be

Be the best brother, son, uncle I can

Look out for others

Look out for myself

Look out for our surroundings

Play like I’m thirteen

Be self-sufficient

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Work hard

Live easy

     Live simply

            These principles are so basic but yet so insightful. These qualities also truly reflect a skier. When you dedicate your entire career and life to a sport like skiing, it is unlike any other sport because these athletes have to posses an ability to really push themselves physically, be comfortable directly interacting in the natural environment. The audience of this sport is very small beside coverage on winter Olympics and X-games, you have to have a true passion to continue to dedicate your life without out much payment and recognition. This sport is also very individual, every success or lose is on your sole performance which creates a sisterhood and brotherhood between people because only those who put in those hours with you. They can testify to your true talent. Ryan managed to articulate the ideologies of skiing, which are hard to understand if you don’t spend the day after day battling the elements.

           

            As someone who grew up in a community that placed high value on adventure, breaking the norm I can see how important a foundation like this is. The idea of waiting on college possibly and continuing to ski in hopes of that Olympic gold medal or hiking the Andes in Peru instead of working on a career is extremely hard to imagine. I never considered not going directly to college, that is what I was taught and that is what I wanted. I think that college is in valuable but I can appreciate that for some people that may not be the path for them and the foundation can provide the guidance and aid for them to take a healthy and successful path for those who are true adventurers at heart.

           

            I sat down and thought about what would be some of my core principles would be and decide to create a list of five.

            -Connect to nature

            -Appreciate the quiet moments

            -Be charged with passion

            -Dedicate yourself completely

            -Keep exploring

           

            Creating this list of five I found how enlightening it is to really sit down and think about what doctrines you think/want to live by. It forced me to think about what I was doing with my life now and what I would have done if I choose to go on a grand adventure like Ryan and his recipients did. I would not change anything but I realized that my time for a grand adventure has not been lost, I should aim to make my entire life a grand adventure. Why does a adventure have to only be exploring the far depths of the world, college is a adventure just a different one. Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation maybe provide for the most perilous adventure but I think in end Ryan wanted to instill in others the importance of going beyond the line you set for yourself in what your pursue, you dream, how you treat yourself and others. 

Flyin Ryan Hawk Foundation website: http://www.flyinryanhawks.org/

The Culture of powder days.

            Growing up in a community that depended on how many inches of snowfall it received each winter season can be stressful. That sounds ridiculous but in the ski resort town of Park City, UT that is the case. The economy, employment rates, real estate, schooling and more all depend on four and half months out of the year-the sacred ski season. With a year around population of no more than 8,000 people and having only one high school within a 35 minute radius Park City is an exclusive community. The environment is special, generations of families depend on whether the white stuff flies starting in October. If the first snowfall has not happened by Halloween, panic ensues, there should be a couple solid inches on the upper mountain by Thanksgiving and the base of the resort should be built up by the third week of December between natural snowfall and the snow guns (snow making devices).  The year around preparation for the ski season is seen in every aspect of life back home and I want to take you through parts of that experience.

            Ski season officially ends in April for the Canyons, Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley at the end of April.  That makes May the month of rest, the only month out the year that people are not focusing on the upcoming winter. Starting in June come property evaluations, looking at chairlifts, lodges and the idea of expansion in ski resort property. Did you know that a chairlift can cost anywhere between 1 to 10 million dollars? It depends on size (quad, T-bar, etc.) and if it is high-speed or not. That is a huge investment for a ski resort, that does not included inspection fees and helicopter rental for installment.  As visitors come they have no idea of the behind scenes work it takes for a ski resort of function at it’s peak. That though is the goal, the best resorts in the country want to make it seem as though that everyone is on a vacation at the resort. At major resorts around the country such as Deer Valley (where I work) the behind the scenes is comparable to Disney Land in a sense, there are underground tunnels connecting aspect of the resort, codes and signals and special accommodations and masses of employees each with specific and unique job.

            The skiing spills over even in schooling in the community. The school calendar gives a full week off for Presidents in February because the town becomes so populated and busy, it is easier to gives families the time off and not to coordinate around the chaos of the visitors. In elementary school it is only half day Friday because kids are required to participate in a winter sport the other half of the day ranging from skiing to ice skating, this includes public schools. The community places high value on every child having skills in winter regardless of socio-economic status. You also will find attendance rates in the high school extremely low on a powder day, I have even found myself sitting next to a teacher on a chairlift one time where we were both supposed to be in his classroom at that time. The values of the community are reflected in the significance that we place in skiing.

            You always hear about Texas football, and how Texas life lives for football season. The time, passion, money and future that people place into those high school games.  Park Cities version of Texas football, is ski racing.  The stakes are high, most young athletes aspiring for the winter Olympics. The Olympics is something that every athletic kid dreams of but in Park City that is a reality, a reachable goal. We have a school in Park City called: “The Winter Sports School”, that school year is June-November so that some of the most high performing winter athletes can still receive a high school education but not when the winter season is at is peak.  Every afternoon kids leave school 2 hours early to head to the mountain and stay out long past the sun going down into the frigid night to run iced racecourses. I did it myself, enduring bruises form the gates all down my right side, spending most weekends away from home and when I was not on the snow, I was in the gym doing a workout called: “dry-land.” Dry-land training is the off snow work that puts every skier body into elite shape through grueling run work out and sprints that simulate the 20 second course. You spend your summer traveling the world from Mt. Hood in Oregon to Chile to keep finding now to practice on.   Skiing is the most time consuming sport for any high school student, it requires dedication that cannot be found in any other sport.  Ski racing is so momentary, kids in Park City spend their childhood looking to win based off a 15 second race, no more than that, it all comes down to that. Skiing with the elite is so momentary but the work is worth a lifetime.

A video that gives the vibe of the community, featured at Park City Mountain Resort- http://vimeo.com/35857064

           

It takes a community to run a ski resort, that cliché line actually applies in every way to the ski resort culture. Every person no matter how much they want to be involved has to be, it is what the pay check comes from.  Ski resort’s hire employees from not only the local area but reach even internationally. You need people to work retail, be ski technicians, work helicopters, mechanics, chefs, bakery, cleaning, ski instructors, ambassadors, life operators, communications, the list goes on but this is no small effort.  This builds a international community of people who all share a passion for one single thing-snow. Which is pretty cool, it creates an atmosphere around town that unites and inspires everyone to be apart of a larger picture.  Ski resort culture, the culture that I can leave but it cant leave me. 

Finding snow in Texas, well it is right here.

                        I am thinking to myself right, are people really going to want to read this? Hmm...We will find out. So brace yourselves, this blogging world is all brand new to me and the start may be a little rough. This blog is just like anything though, until you jump in how else are you going to find out if you are good or not?  That same thought crosses many peoples mind when they first come learn how to ski. Now you are wondering how I came to this point in the conversation. Well that is what this blog is all about, the translation between my college life here in the grand state of Texas and my life back home that revolved all around skiing, snow and the  children I taught how to ski.  This is truly where ski meets Greek.

            Who knew that the few of my crafting skills I do have come from sitting around midget size tables consoling melodramatic children for hours on the weekends.  I colored endless suns, rainbows and a variety of animals on butcher paper for 4 years along with battling 5 year olds on the perils of glitter and glue.  Deer Valley Ski School ended up being the best preparation for my upcoming week of big/little crafting for Chi Omega.  Working at ski school though prepared me for than just mediocre crafting skills, it equipped with some of best costumer services skills in the industry, taught me how to deal with high stress situations and some intense ski tuning skills.

            One of the first and most important things I learned form ski school was understanding geography and culture, that seems obvious but if you talk the current 5 year olds of the world you will find that they have a serious lack geographic understanding.  The most common response I receive when I ask kids where they are from is this: “The United States”, thank you small one, how insightful! It is awfully cute how innocent and naïve there are in their answer but it makes me wonder about the education system, sometimes you get their home address “1234 American Saddler Drive, Park City, UT” which brings a lot more to the table for discussion.  

            I also learned how to turn a very complicated topic into a very simplistic one, my ability for accommodating different needs is quite strong.   You cannot describe how to do a basic turn like this to a 6 year old: “A wedge Christy, putting pressure on your downhill ski and slowly progress onto the other ski”- I barley understand what that means. Why would they? It needs to sound a lot more like this: “Make a pizza pie with your ski and point your toes toward me and remember stand up tall”. Within that description though you have to adjust for every child’s individual need, this sounds ridiculous in way, why would I put so much thought into one child’s lesson? Well these parents do not spend $1,000 a day to come off the mountain with the same little skier they dropped off and on a personal level I don’t want to give them anything less, skiing is an amazing sport and I want all those little snow monsters to love it as much as I do.

             I may no longer be a mere five minutes away from the best powder in North America but that does not mean the knowledge I gained from days spent on the mountain for my enjoyment or trying to provide the joy to others did not follow me all the way to the hot and flat state of Texas.  Not only that but it does not mean my newfound love for Texas and what I have here is not following me back to Utah, I am living in the best of both worlds currently.  Taking my experiences back and forth to each place I spend my time in has really broaden my perspective on things and I cannot wait for two and a half more years of this.  Through the next semester y’all will somehow find out how I can continue to connect skiing to SMU.   I have met students who have yet to see the snow yet in their lives, I find that nearly impossible but maybe this blog is the answer.  I guess I am looking at Texas from 8,000 Feet.