Ski Sundown Mogul Clinic - 3/18/09

Good stuff today. Met up with our instructor, Ellen Shields around 3 pm. I'm trying to remember how the first few runs started. I think it was Ellen, Grassi, MR. evil and me. We picked up Brian, 180, MogulQueen, MrMagic, mondeo, and eventually johnnypoach towards the end. There were also several tag-alongs that joined in. I would be interested to know how they heard about the clinic. Lurkers perhaps?

Anyway, I'll let the others describe their personal experience, but basically Ellen worked evenly with everybody. You could tell she's done this quite a bit and was very pleasant, helpful and inspiring. The major focus for everyone was getting their vision up which translated into better extension which seemed to be the overall goal for most. However, she worked on some specifics with most everyone. Lots of progress was made by all and we practiced a few duels at the end of the session.

Anyway, I'll have more thoughts later, but I wanted to get the discussion started. Really great to see everyone make noticeable progress in a few short hours. We went right to 8 pm finishing with a few exercises in the lodge.

On an unrelated note, I was shocked at the amount of snow loss in one day. Startling actually. Closing tomorrow is warranted. I think there's enough snow to piece together a good product for Sunday, and perhaps the following weekend, but making April is going to be a little tough. But if anyone can pull it off, the mighty Sundown can; just might be a lot of threading the needle, which I love so I say bring it on!

Great experience today. Nice job everyone!

Great experience. Thanks to Ellen for her time. Lots of great tips. I wish I could apply them all. She did say it should feel weird. And it did at times. Very cool seeing the group grow during the session. Wish I could have stayed for the duration.

Grassi21 said:

She did say it should feel weird. And it did at times.

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Ellen touched on a great approach and that is to almost exaggerate things. Getting us to focus on the reservoir was an example of that. I know it definitely got MR. evil to remove the focus from the bump he was approaching and relax. I think this afternoon was one of the first times he's ever really felt absorption because he wasn't expecting impact. Getting the vision up made Brian look like a totally new skier too.

Greg said:

Ellen touched on a great approach and that is to almost exaggerate things. Getting us to focus on the reservoir was an example of that.

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what's "the reservoir"?

gmcunni said:

what's "the reservoir"?

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The lake in the distance. Lake McDonough/Somerset Reservoir.

Greg said:

The lake in the distance. Lake McDonough/Somerset Reservoir.

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and here I'm thinking it was a part of a bump that i'd never heard of :dunce:

never mind...

Greg said:

I think this afternoon was one of the first times he's ever really felt absorption because he wasn't expecting impact.

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It's amazing if you describe something in a less barbarous matter how much it will help your skiing; such as absorption not impact, pole touch not pole plant, absorption not hit, flow not straight line, absorption not slam, stacked not lean, and many others. :grin:

Any photos or videos of the day?

What a totally awesome experience! Thanks so much to Ellen for coming down and doing this! WE had a very productive session with lots of good things to work on. She covered a lot of ground in a short time, yet it never seemed overwhelming.

I was also really happy to see how impressed she was with Sundown and the mogul product that they put out. This is someone who's been all over the world skiing moguls and she was genuinely impressed with our little local hill. Just goes to show that they get it. Sundown should be very proud of their accomplishments!

I had great fun today, and I hope that we can do it again sometime. Hopefully Ellen comes down to watch the comp on Sunday, it's gonna be a lot of fun.

Creakyknees said:

Any photos or videos of the day?

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Way too busy learning stuff to be shooting any sort of media.

Greg said:

I think there's enough snow to piece together a good product for Sunday,

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i'm having a hard time responding to anything but this piece....

you think?????? it must be more then just the burnt out spots near the top.

come on, chris will figure someway to fill it in. Please tell me it'll happen!!!!


glad to hear it all went off ok. i'm gonna be calling in the next day or so to siphon some of this stuff off you.

2knees said:

i'm having a hard time responding to anything but this piece....

you think?????? it must be more then just the burnt out spots near the top.

come on, chris will figure someway to fill it in. Please tell me it'll happen!!!!


glad to hear it all went off ok. i'm gonna be calling in the next day or so to siphon some of this stuff off you.

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Turn on the guns. It will be cold enough.

180 said:

Turn on the guns. It will be cold enough.

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low 20's for friday and saturday night........

bvibert said:

I was also really happy to see how impressed she was with Sundown and the mogul product that they put out. This is someone who's been all over the world skiing moguls and she was genuinely impressed with our little local hill. Just goes to show that they get it. Sundown should be very proud of their accomplishments!

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It's becoming very apparent to me that any skier worth their salt is impressed with our little hill. And agreed, Sundown should be proud this season. What a 40th!

2knees said:

i'm having a hard time responding to anything but this piece....

you think?????? it must be more then just the burnt out spots near the top.

come on, chris will figure someway to fill it in. Please tell me it'll happen!!!!


glad to hear it all went off ok. i'm gonna be calling in the next day or so to siphon some of this stuff off you.

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Okay. The "piece" part is a bit of an overreaction, but honestly, the snow loss in one day was staggering. I have no doubt that the mountain overall and the bumps will be in good shape for Sunday. Reopening next Friday, the 27th should be no problem especially with the snow from the big air to work with at the base. Making April 4/5? That is going to be tough, I think, but I'm still hopeful, and I'll be there for closing day, come hell or high water.

Sounds like everyone got something out of the clinic. I knew I should of worked harder to get out of my evening plans.

So which one of you are going to win the comp now? Sounds like Greg wants to win more for the trophy than the bragging rights!

o3jeff said:

So which one of you are going to win the comp now? Sounds like Greg wants to win more for the trophy than the bragging rights!

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Goal is to simply qualify at this point. After that, we'll see what happens. I'm pretty happy with how my skiing has come together lately so I'm going in more confident. Don't get me wrong, I don't have any misconceptions about placing all that high, but I hope to get in a duel; two would be nice. I think that depends on whether there are 32 qualifiers. But really, who knows what rippers are going to show up and totally own us...

180 said:

Turn on the guns. It will be cold enough.

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+1....

What an amazing night. I am still buzzing. Ellen is an amazing coach who can find and fix your issues regardless of ability. I am working on getting her down on Sunday, but a better time would be when we can all just ski and hang out like the following weekend.

The mountain is not open at all next week? The bumps will melt away.....

180 said:

The mountain is not open at all next week? The bumps will melt away.....

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Closing Monday through Thursday. Gotta ski them back in on Friday!

Greg said:

Closing Monday through Thursday. Gotta ski them back in on Friday!

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i understand the need to close it just really depresses me.

We are just getting going. I need another afternoon session during the week.