Skis Unlimited - Bearkshire East..A New Chapter for Bob 2-15

You are here: Home

Skis Unlimited Calendar

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
29	30	31	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	1	2

The 2009/10 Season Begins

The 2009/10 Ski Season Begins

The ski season will begin locally on Saturday 12/19 when Berkshire East opens. Some of the bigger mountains up north have been open for a week or more with pretty good conditions reported by skiers who have stopped at the shop. I hope to be able to ski on opening day but that depends on how busy the shop is. I am looking forward to another great seaon this year...and I hope to improve enough so as to not embarrass or hurt myself!!!

Bearkshire East..A New Chapter for Bob 2-15

Written by Bob Perry

Monday, 16 February 2009

It was a bright, sunny day and MaryEllen and I got up early to go to breakfast with Kate and Sophie (Stupid was sleeping in). I had planned on going up the Berkshire East to do a couple hours of skiing before the scheduled bike ride. We had a nice breakfast at Denny’s and then I drove up to the mountain.

I brought up two pairs of skis today because I wanted to try to use my Elan Magfire 78’s again. I have been using the Rossi S3 twin tips for the last few outings and they have allowed me to become more confidant on the snow. I really was struggling to get comfortable on skis and I could not even ski down the Exibition hill at BE without some fear, but with the twin tips I was able to get down the hill (skidding and sliding mostly) without falling or feeling like I was going to crash. Once I felt good enough to ski (or call it what you will) down the hill, I then started to get an understanding of what I needed to do to get more proficient at the sport. Instead of just looking at my feet for most of the time, I am now able to look down the hill and see where it is I want to go. I used the twin tips to get to the next level and that was a deal maker for me, because if not for the twin tips, I might have been stuck in that hunched over, feeling out of control and scared to death mode for the rest of this season. So…I get to the mountain and the first thing I hear is that “conditions are fast and the snow is hard”. Great, I am now thinking that today was going to be a very brief day of skiing because I am not going to be able to ski on really hard fast snow. I told MaryEllen that I would probably only do a couple of runs and then we would go home. I booted up and got the now favorite twin tips on and headed up the hill on the triple chair lift. I enjoyed the ride up the hill in the bright sunshine and once on top I skied over to the Outback Trail. I skied down the trail and found that the snow was in fact hard and fast but it was nicely groomed so I was able to turn and stop with no troubles. I soon was at the top of Exibitition and I screwed up my courage and slowly headed down the hill. Not so bad, I thought, so I decided to give it another shot. I stopped at West Lodge and told MaryEllen that I was going to do a few more runs. I then got onto the quad lift and rode to the top of the hill where I met up with Al Mason and a few other ski patrollers. Al offered to ski with me and off we went. Al gave me a few pointers as I skidded down the hill and I began to feel better and better each time we did. After a couple of runs, I decided to head back to the patrol shack and get my Magfire skis and try them. I met up with Al at the triple lift and we rode to the top where we met up with Liam and several more patrollers. Al gave me some help with learning to “carve the skis” as Liam and his crew skied off ahead of us.

carving skis” he said. Rather than just skidding through the turns, Al said that carving is when you get the skis up on edge and allow the skis to do the work for you. He told me that I would know when I was on edge because there would be a nice groove in the snow behind me and not just skids. I tried to do this and I was able to carve some of the time but I still was mostly skidding. I did learn one thing though…I can now tell when I am skidding. You see, when you are skidding down the hill you can hear the skis scraping the snow and when you carve you don’t hear that scraping sound as much. Well, I practiced that along with getting a good position on the skis for the next hour or so and I must admit that I had a great time. Al and I made about 6 or so runs down the Exibition before it was time for me to go. I really wanted to stay and practice some more but I had to get back to the shop to get ready for the bike ride. I want to say that having the wonderful group of talented men and women at Berkshire East is an asset that we should be proud and supportive of. I will tell you that this was one of the best days that I have had on skis. I am going to try to get a few more days of skiing in each week and I predict that I will be an adequate novice by the end of this season. Again I want to thank Al Mason for his help and support today.

Add as favourites (0) | Views: 1122

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Who we are-Skis Unlimited

Our shop has the latest in ski tuning equipment including the Grindrite 2100, the Wintersteiger Trim 71 ceramic edger, Wintersteiger Skitronic binding calibration machine and a Wintersteiger Waxjet 91. This equipment along with Phil’s 25 years of skiing and tuning will provide the best skiing experience possible.