Rippin Chix Steep Skiing Skills Skiing is a series of linked recoveries – focus on what you did right, not what you did wrong! Firstly, this is a steep skiing camp to build your confidence and learn the new skills listed below. Gals often email that they don't know how to ski rocks, trees, steeps or powder, or they are scared or often ski poorly in scary conditions. Remember, this is a camp to LEARN these skills in the lower levels. If you are more advanced and confident, the upper level will enable you to take those skills to the next level - faster, stronger, steeper, deeper. Most importantly,  bring a positive attitude and some descent fitness. Lower level must be able to link 10 turns on a single black diamond groomed trail. For the upper level gals, one must be able to link 10 turns on a double-black diamond ungroomed terrain. For the Silverton Camp, gals do not need backcountry experience, but need to be fit enough to hike 5-30 minutes for 4-5 hour-long runs for 4-5 runs, and have some experience in powder, trees and crud as there are no "trails" and certainly no grooming. Not sure? Email [email protected]. Gear: the #1 most important thing: •Have a boot fitter check to see that your boots are the right size and flex. •Get custom footbeds – even the cheap ones really help. •Do not put long john’s inside your boot, nothing but a sock. •Skis – use fat skis for the Rippin Chix western camps (100-110mm under foot or more). •Less shape (radius, sidecut) is easier on steep terrain, powder, trees and moguls. •Skis – Skis with rocker can be sized longer than without rocker. At least a tip rocker is HIGHLY recommended. Rocker=easier skiing=more playful=more fun. •Wear a helmet (required) Tips for a Warm-Up Run: •Athletic “take charge” position – hand position – hugging the big guy, lift tower, ballerina, hug the ball. •Athletic position: use other sports for visualization – receiving a tennis serve, getting ready to be tackled, soccer, horseback riding, etc. •Feet position – wider legs – fit a grapefruit or two between knees – avoid “the virgin clutch”, visualize a large (and full) adult “Depends” diaper. •Ankle position – bend ankles forward on each turn, - squish a dime between the shin and the boot, squish a grape under your toes, pressure on ball of foot, pressure “knee to ski.” •Stacking ankle, knee and hip along with squeezing the thong +pushing the bush. •Do not just bend the knee –avoid ‘sitting on the toilet”, bend the ANKLE instead.

Hand Techniques and Skills: •Pole plant downhill, 45 degree angle, reach away from body. •“Position of Readiness”, back of shoulder should be tight and flexed at all times. •“Spear the frog, shine the flashlight” – uphill arm - pull pinky towards elbow, downhill pole plant anticipation. Moving wrists not arms. •“Serve martinis” - plant pole then serve your cafeteria tray down the hill on every turn – especially effective on steep gnarly terrain to remain in the drivers seat. •“Read the newspaper” – top of paper must match horizon or focal point. •Hands must always face the fall line - therefore -uphill hand to downhill ski tip. •Practice dragging downhill pole to help press lats and downhill shoulder down. Hand Techniques to Avoid: •Plant to “Velcro butt.” •Plant to outrigger/rudder - pole stays in snow too long, causing the upper body to turn uphill and away from moving down the hill and commitment to fall line, also moves the weight onto the uphill ski too much. •long pole plants – fear based “hanging on.” •Double pole plant “stabbing rats.” •“Tyrannosaurus rex” - holding poles w/bent arms close to body. •The oh shit” - panic upper pole dragging on sketchy traverses – learn to rely on your feet – pole drag does not slow you down, and it makes you lean into the hill. •Frankenstein arms. •Pendulum arm – swinging the arm around to turn like an ice skater. •The Swimmer’s arms - poles go in and out wildly - before and after pole plant. •Avoid shopping at Walmart and Sam’s club (what we nickname for the sides of the trail or the trees on the sides of trail). Eyes, Waist, Upper Body Skills: •Looking ahead – watching TV, focal point, refocusing focal point. •Never push off to ski without having a focal point already decided on focused upon strongly. •Breaking at the waist – how to look ahead to avoid this and use feet/legs/ankles. •“Push the bush” – commit to moving the body down the hill – avoids having the butt stick out and being in the back seat, and breaking at the waist. •Body down the hill “zipper down the hill”. In steep terrain, have the lower zipper of your pants also face down the hill along with your upper jacket zipper. •Squeeze the thong string - keeps waist from bending and pressure to be on the wrong part of the ski. Also keeps core strong and prevent injuries •Body as a “T” facing down the hill. •Play focal point game with person down the hill from you - make sure you can see them and how many poles they are holding in the air. •Stop looking at your bindings, or checking your bindings – looking up and down repeatedly. Feel the snow, don’t look at it. •Learn to use your eyeballs/peripheral vision to see the upcoming terrain, but not move your chin down or look down to gain flow and fun.

Feet/Ankles/Legs/Hip Skills: •All joints are “stacked” - ball of foot, ankle, knee, hip, shoulders, head. •As the terrain steepens, body must remain perpendicular to the hill, so it must move way forward in order for that to happen. •Bending the ankle instead of the knee: •“Make the wine” – image crushing grapes between the shin and the front of the boot. •“Squish the dime” - image a dime on your shin and keep it pressed to the tongue of your boots. • Press your knee to the tip of the ski, “knee to ski”. •Don’t sit on toilet, or use “T and A” position (butt out, upper body forward to compensate). •Wider stance – as terrain gets steeper feet get wider for balance and to keep weight on downhill ski. Easy terrain - one grapefruit spacing btwn knees, Black terrain=2 grapefruits, 55 degrees= feet one meter apart (and note hip section below). •If grapefruits don’t work - feel like you have a loaded adult “depends” diaper – In steep terrain, visualize the diaper being extremely full. •Walk the hips down the hill in steep terrain - upper hip is always leading in steep terrain. The toe of your downhill ski binding should be aligned with the rear binding of your uphill ski. Sometimes thinking of the ski pant zipper “little zipper” facing down hill helps make this happen as well. In easy terrain, hips will be more parallel and feet will be more even (bindings matched). •Speaking of grapefruits and diapers - avoid the “virgin clutch” (one knee tucking in). •Working uphill knee – uphill pinky toe, roll uphill knee uphill so that both skis are on edge evenly. •Knee to ski or shin to boot – ankle flexion – front of boot – rear of ball of foot -toes relaxed not scrunched. •Tipping skis early. •Tip your head to initiate in steeps. •Do not STEP to initiate your new turn. Learn to press into the snow to get the ski to do the work for you. Stepping usually results in the below issue, not to mention its bad looks and lack of flow feeling. •“Stiff fear leg” avoid the stiff downhill leg that comes with fear –use bumpy traverses to demonstrate/practice using ankles to absorb bumps and not the upper body or butt – have skis follow terrain – up and down, using ankles Embracing Rocks, Stumps, and other fun treats to learn: •many ways catching air and/or negotiating obstacles – start on ground with no obstacles and progress to obstacles and actual air. ALWAYS look ahead and not down, for the landing. SQUEEZE THE THONG and don’t let go upon landing. •Straight pole air – “stabbing rats” - using two poles to initiate momentum over an object •Pedal pole air -  poles touch, then one foot rises first then the other, landing on 2 feet •Straight air – no poles – look ahead - have skis/feet parallel to the ground. •Flag air – no change of direction - tilt head, straight upper leg, relax, don’t use poles, land on two feet.

•Airplane turn/air. •Stationary to straight air. •Four-point landings. Alison’s Super Cool High-Speed Sideslip - fall line - imaginary couloir to real couloir: •favorite tip of all time, saves energy, allows the eyes to pick a line, keeps one shopping downhill instead of side to side and traversing, especially useful in trees/steeps •done right, it should be more like a schmear/turn and not look like a sideslip. Tactical Skills: •Line choice - pick your next three turns, but be flexible if something goes wrong. •Always have your next three turn areas planned out in your head. Have the next three ready to go asap. •Turn shape – varied shapes for varied terrain. •Turn shape - “C” turns versus “S” turns. •Schmears and schmear turns •Putting techniques together to manage difficult terrain. •Looking ahead. Looking further ahead. Looking way ahead. At least three turns ahead if not the whole slope (see focal point) •Breathing - holding your breath leads to stiff leg, chin down, lack of flow. •Thinking positive – “I think I can” – muscle response actually follows brain thought. cellular impacts - chemical changes when you believe that “you can’. Visualizing good turns, good landing, etc. •Visualization – if you can see it and believe it, it will happen. •Line choice - let your plan adapt as you go - Plan A, B, C etc. •Turning on the Dark side of mogul - turning on the back side of the mogul not in trough (best snow location) •Turning on top of the tree, not below it (best snow location) •plant your pole on the rock and turn around it or jump over it (best snow location) •do not do the above with logs - use flag air instead or you will rail-slide. •instead of sidestepping, use 1, 2 or 3 flag airs to get into gnarly entrances. •if your confidence disappears, remove weight from your poles, pole baskets behind you, hold onto your martinis, squeeze thong, choose focal point - then FLAG AIR, TURN, TURN, TURN (always try to turn three times before giving up). Tele Specific Considerations (both tele and alpine gals are welcome at Rippin Chix) Equipment: •Boot and Binding interaction play a significant role in Telemark performance. Boots, Bindings and to some extent skis should be matched for performance intention. Most importantly highly active bindings (22 Designs, NTN) need to be matched with high, stiff aggressive boots. Also worth considering: if you pair an aggressive boot/binding combo with a lightweight ski you may find you are not as successful at maximizing ski performance. •Traditional camber skis with huge tips are not really conducive to most tele styles, go for fatter underfoot as a start (90-105).

•If you are considering an early rise tip or rocker ski, consider going a bit longer (from a few cms for early rise tip only to 10-12 cms for full rocker). •Leashes - required for ski area operations, not advised for backcountry travel. •Adjustable poles (pro) are a great tool to use if you are trying to change your skiing as a few cms taller or smaller may create some significant changes in skiing performance so they are nice to have. •Adjustable poles are expensive and heavy (con). •There may be situations where you might play around with skiing your boots in 'walk' mode but generally it is good to make sure your boots are BOTH on ski mode. Telemark Technique Considerations and Skills: •Everything for alpine plus... •Modern telemark technique is converging with alpine technique more so than ever! •Stay tall as much as possible using the least lead change and the least flexing (ankles, hips, knees) that you need for the terrain. •Consider a box around your boots and bindings - try to ski in this box fore/aft and lateral most of the time in order to stay balanced. •Aggressive terrain and terrain features will require more flexing but ideally the lead change will stay within the box! •Use jump turns in steep or narrow terrain for safety and control. •Chase your alpine friends - you can keep up as long as you ski efficiently. •Make sure you always 'turn before you tele. •Special emphasis on 'push the bush'. •Get on your little toe side of the new inside ski asap (early edging). •Focus on functional tension in the core - tele skiers have a much smaller range in which we can truly be balanced. •Play with lead change in different conditions: powder you may find yourself coming back to heels in between turns, bumps you might never feel your heels. •Always keep moving, avoid just cruising in the tele stance even though it may feel stable it is actually the least stable you can be. •All movements should be forward, down the hill. •On groomers (skiing with your kids, friends etc) do shuffles, railroad tracks, ski switch, go really fast, do bumps and jumps on the side - play!! it will change your skiing/life!