Garnet Hill Lodge Ski Center, NY

Garnet Hill and I go way back. In 1988, I did some of my first “downhill skiing” on some very skinny skis on the hill.  On my very first run in the Adirondacks, I skied down from the Lodge to the Ski Shop on “The Cut Off Trail” — a short and fairly steep run with a 90 degree left hand turn at the bottom of the steepest part.

View from Garnet Hill Lodge

The hill had just been through a thaw/freeze cycle and it was actually pretty sporty. Yes it’s true — I crashed in the first corner and thought… “this is going to be a long day.”

It snowed overnight and conditions really improved. In fact on each of my first trips to Garnet Hill conditions were excellent. At the time I had no idea how special it was to score new snow on trips planned weeks in advance.

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Skiing Geometry for Intermediates

Last month I used the ABC’s to teach children how to shape their turns for speed control. This month I’ll try to help intermediates get out of the rut and make better turns. To suit the higher ability level, I’ve moved the analogy from grade school ABC’s to high school Geometry.

skiing geometry

When I work with intermediates, I try to get them to think of their boots as being square instead rounded. In past we’d tell students move your shins directly forward into the front of the boot. Now, with modern technique we want to move those shins diagonally into the corner of our imaginary square boot tops.

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Ski Day 16: Like a Local

Ski Day 16: Saturday started normally. We woke at our usual time, me at 6am, and the girls at 6:45. We played it like a Sunday with Zelda sitting it out. Neve and I were at Gore by 7:45, and we got in one of the first Gondi cars to load.  Same as it ever was.

Sunrise in North River

We skied a mix of pure corduroy and ungroomed manmade snow on the lower mountain. The cord was decent, and the little drifts of windblown manmade were a total blast. The bottom mountain was cold, but calm.

Neve was pushing to go to the top. On our second run, the rope was down and we dropped into Pine Knot. A slight breeze and colder temps made it very chilly at the summit.

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