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rlshattuck wrote:BUT YOU LIVE IN COLORADO!!!! . . .

Half of Colorado is flat.

Hi Chase, you will enter into a whole new world of fun exploring the mountains on skis.
My experience as a newbie:
I learned to ski 3 years ago (ok, started learning, still am) knowing I wanted an AT setup from the start. I bought boots, skis, helmet, poles, all at sale prices but still top quality - I was fortunate to have the $$$ although it cleaned me out. I still use all that gear so it was a good investment.

I used resorts for learning, realizing that hiking for every turn in the back country would make for a slooooow process. My BF taught me and I also got a lesson at the resort (not cheap but it was a good investment). By late winter/early spring of that first season I was doing BC tours, skinning up mountains in VT and NH and survival-skiing down 40-degree slopes

If you practise practise practise you will become competent enough to leave the lifts and head into the BC. It is fun to tour on XC trails to get into semi-back country conditions - you can use ski wax instead of skins for traction and you are earning your turns away from the lifts.

Let us know how it goes.

I’ve gotta agree with Dingus on this, although my progression was different I ended up in a similar place.

In 1979, at 19 years of age I moved to a resort town in New Hampshire and skied about 75 days, all on downhill gear.

The three winters that followed saw me in Taos, NM where I averaged about 75 days per season, all with downhill gear.

In 1982 I moved to Yosemite Valley and took up telemarking on wooden, fish-scale, edgeless skis with troll three pin bindings and leather lace up boots.

Next were Rossignol Randonee skis with three pin bindings used at Badger Pass Ski Area, maybe 50 days that one season.

In the spring I made a three-day trip out to Mount Hoffman and skied parallel turns the whole way. I never felt solid.

In 1984 I moved Mammoth Lakes where I spent the next 10 seasons working for the resort, half of that time on Ski Patrol.

In 1986 I used a Ramer AT binding setup on some downhill skis for a six day trip across the High Route. We were a group of six skiers and everyone else used tele gear. I was always the first to reach the passes and blew the doors off everyone when it came to skiing. I finally felt solid and could free the heels and climb with skins – it was a revelation.

There was a time when the only employees at Mammoth Mountain able to work on tele gear we two instructors. I worked with the resort administration to allow employees in other departments, like lift crew, hosts, race department and ski patrol, the option of skiing on tele gear. I was a host at the time and was the first non-instructor employee to make tele turns in uniform. In the early 90’s I telemarked about 50+ days per season on the mountain.

After upgrading my AT gear to a modern, lightweight rig I rarely used the tele gear in the backcountry on anything that would rate harder than an intermediate run at a resort. I would still tele at the resort on powder days – there’s nothing quite like a tele turn in powder, it’s one of the coolest sensations ever.

For what it’s worth I have never taken a formal lesson, not that there's anything wrong with that!

For what it’s worth I have never taken a formal lesson,

Lessons aren't worth the money. My first ski lesson was a tremendous waste of cash. I paid $40 to stand around and wait for a bunch of middle aged housewives to get their fat asses up after falling. Seriously though, regardless of the resort, a first time ski lesson will teach you three things, how to get on a lift, how to snowplow, and that you should never cross your skis. Two of those three things can be learned just as well by watching this video.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/103955
(at around 3:45)


Tele skiing or snowboarding might be a different story, but for alpine skiing, lessons are a waste of money.

Another thing, if you want to get good as quickly as possible, head for the less crowded resorts, even if they don't have as much terrain. At the more crowded resorts you'll spend more time waiting in line for the lifts than skiing. For example the last time I skied at Mt. Ashland I got in 54 runs with 1200 vertical each. Last Time I skied at Mt Bachelor I got 8 runs of about the same vertical and spent most of the day in line.

welle wrote:Teaching yourself to ski is a recipe for disaster.

I learned to ski in my backyard in Colorado. Never had a lesson except from my father who never skied. As for the "disaster", in 40 years of skiing, I broke my thumb once. My brother, who also never had a lesson, was a strong contender for the Olympic ski team but wasn't so lucky avoiding disasters.

Mmmm lots of great advice in here. I'm a medical student in Aurora, so I can't just move to Breck or Alma unfortunately, although I'd like to.

I think I like thelisa's plan the best. I know I eventually want an AT setup, so I would probably save money in the long run just getting one now, instead of buying a tele setup now and an AT setup later.

I'll take a lesson or two, and hit the resorts for 2 or 3 weekends before hitting some gentle backcountry slopes.

In most sports, I like going up more than going down anyway (mountain biking, climbing, road biking, running), so I figure I'll like going up just as much as going down w/ skiing too.

catullus wrote:
In most sports, I like going up more than going down anyway (mountain biking, climbing, road biking, running), so I figure I'll like going up just as much as going down w/ skiing too.

Hmm... Skiing has a way to make you look at this differently. It's all about the DOWN!

Would be like learning to play tennis by yourself with one ball in a vacant lot.

Hi, Skiing is easy to learn but tough to master.

You really need a few days of good quality instruction at one of the good resorts available. Choose one in your price range and location with a decent school. You dont need nothing fancy.

First learn how to stop and turn. It takes a while to be fully comfortable with the heavy plastic boots and skis.

I would say that after 30 full days of skiing (not consecutive obviously but try to get a few consecutive days from time to time) you will be quite able to deal with most smooth slopes quite well and have fun in a wider variety of terrain. Handling bumps on steep terrain will take a bit more. Practice makes perfect. Take a class from time to time as you advance.

In the backcountry you can get in trouble real fast while skiing so its best to be quite a good skier before you adventure into tricky unmantained terrain.

sneakyracer wrote:Hi, Skiing is easy to learn but tough to master.

You really need a few days of good quality instruction at one of the good resorts available. Choose one in your price range and location with a decent school. You dont need nothing fancy.

First learn how to stop and turn. It takes a while to be fully comfortable with the heavy plastic boots and skis.

I would say that after 30 full days of skiing (not consecutive obviously but try to get a few consecutive days from time to time) you will be quite able to deal with most smooth slopes quite well and have fun in a wider variety of terrain. Handling bumps on steep terrain will take a bit more. Practice makes perfect. Take a class from time to time as you advance.

In the backcountry you can get in trouble real fast while skiing so its best to be quite a good skier before you adventure into tricky unmantained terrain.

very well said. and don't listen to the DIY video proponents, I already know two people this season alone who tore their ACL and meniscus trying to teach themselves how to ski. Nothing worse than wasting not only your snow season, but also a climbing season ahead. Yes, you may be a rare prodigy and gifted with excellent memory and brain-muscle coordination, but I don't think you want to chance the opposite...

don't listen to the DIY video proponents, I already know two people this season alone who tore their ACL and meniscus trying to teach themselves how to ski. Nothing worse than wasting not only your snow season, but also a climbing season ahead. Yes, you may be a rare prodigy and gifted with excellent memory and brain-muscle coordination, but I don't think you want to chance the opposite

I'm sorry but I just have a hard time believing someone with avalanche certification, winter mountaineering experience and knowledge of self arresting would seriously injure themselves trying to snowplow on the bunny slope. Some of the best skiers that chimed in were self taught.

Again, regardless of resort a first time ski lesson will teach you three things, that you should never cross your skis, how to load a lift and how to snowplow. Most first time lessons will be in a group of around 10 people. Of those 10 about 3 figure out pretty fast that the sport the not for them, and most of instruction will be spent waiting for them to catch up with the rest. I've observed the same thing at five different resorts; Mt. Ashland, Mt. Shasta, Donner Ski Ranch, Boreal and Sugarbowl.

A “turn seminar” type intermediate lesson, where a ski instructor gives you individual feed back like, “put more weight on the downhill ski”, or something like that is probably worth it, but learning how to snowplow should take around 20 minutes on your own, and that's the extent of whats covered for a first time lesson.

Snowboarding might be a completely different story, I don't know because I've never done it and I never will, so I don't feel qualified to give advice on that.

I'm just trying to save you some cash here, as one pennyless bastard to another, don't waste your time or money on a first time lesson. I guess at the end of the day you'll decide for yourself which random internet people are worth listening to, if any, but if you do shell out 50 bucks for an introductory ski lesson could you do me a favor? Just as a personal reference could you watch the video I put up in my last post and let me know if it does an accurate job capturing the overall gayness of your first lesson. - Thanks!

welle wrote:Get a part-time job at a ski resort. Teaching yourself to ski is a recipe for disaster. On East Coast, they have all sorts of beginner packages that include lift tix, rentals and lessons that are just over $100 for 3 days, some even throw in season passes at the end. Would you rather pay that or medical bills and impede your climbing? Usually, lower mountain (bunny slope) lift tix are cheaper or free if you want to hike up. I would still pay for lessons unless you have a friend that is willing to teach you, even then it does not compare to qualified instruction.

Great advice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You an learn a lot about sking by going out into the backcountry and skiing around.

But if you are trying to learn how to rip turns on the downhill, it will be 1,000 times harder and take 100 times longer trying to learn by climbing up and skiing down an ungroomed hill.

OJ Loenneker wrote:But what do I know, I prefer to ride a Splitboard...

u r very wise

OOG wrote:

Snowboarding might be a completely different story, I don't know because I've never done it and I never will, so I don't feel qualified to give advice on that.

I tried it about 10 years ago. I already knew how to ski quite well and though humm that looks like fun so a 2 friends and I went to a rental store and got us boots and boards. And up we went. We watched people get on and on the lift and basically did what they did. We managed to do that no problem. Then down we went. We caught a LOT of edges and fell quite a bit but had a lot of moments of good carving with some sliding mixed in. We decided since we were in an expensive resort and only skied 10-12 days a year that that was enough for us and went back to skis the day after so as not to waste any more time learning a new sport from zero.

One thing I hated about snowboarding is being tied to the board with fixed bindings that dont release the board. Also, faceplants suck!, they are much more common on a snowboard!

When I was in the Army, I went to Kleine Scheidegg with some friends for Christmas. They continued to party while I went and crashed. First thing in the morning, I took my very first ski run down from the hotel. The Artillery Sergeant with me, packed it in right there. Around lunch time I reached the gondola. I'd had misadventures that were unbelievable. Sailing off cliffs etc. The lift took me up above the hotel. Sometime in the late afternoon, I got back to the hotel. I'd spent the day being pulled out of snowbanks by Swiss children who gave me little pointers on how to ski. Interesting, but not sure I'd recommend it.