There was no natural snow anywhere, and it rained the day before, but the NH AMC pulled off a good clinic at Loon for the ski leaders. A few folks bailed the night before, forecasting solid ice and a Webcam image showing more grass than snow.
Most of us had skied only one other day this season. Even Paul, who usually starts skiing in late October, had only skied 6 days. We started on a slope accessible from a lower chairlift and almost got run over by a horde of school ski teams. Then we tried another slope with fresh snow making at the top and a mix of grass and snow farther down. Next we tried the gondola to the top of the mountain and found consistent snow and fewer people. The snow guns were all blowing full tilt up top.
In the morning, Jim Tasse focused our lesson on drills and skill refreshers. Tyson and I both did reasonably. I still need to work on the same components as last year — angulation and engaging at the top of the turn. Tyson’s knees made it most of the day, and then he parallel skied the rest.
After lunch, several people declared themselves done and the rest of us headed back to the top of the mountain. In the afternoon, we did more free skiing and individually practiced the skills learned in the morning. We found one fun black run with few people and good snow. On another blue run, we watched a kid ski down bare grass.
Finally, at the end of the day, we had to descend from the fresh man made snow up top down onto scraped off ice.
[Edit 2019] In subsequent years, I documented more of the drills.
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