A suprisingly great day at the Basin today. Usually, I kind of dread opening day because I figure I'll only get three runs in and my skiing won't be back together by the time I leave. Today was the usual junk show, but unless I'm imagining things, it seemed like more people were on on conditions-appropriate gear than ever before. I only noticed one knucklehead on a full rockered setup. It also seemed like there were fewer out of control riders than usual. The snow was pretty super--generally grippy, with just a few slick spots to remind you which ski you needed to be standing on. Weather was sunny and warm, visibility was good. The lines were only barely out of the corral and didn't seem to take too long (or maybe it was just because I was enjoying the good company of JMD, CO_Steve and his wife). All told we got 6 runs in in two hours of skiing--which for A-Basin on opening day is fantastic!
The best part though, was that for the first time ever, my skiing just worked from the moment I clicked into my bindings. I started out slow; a few railroad tracks in the flat at the top, then quickly transitioned to brushed turns, just focusing on my movements. Amazingly, balance was there from the get go. Tipping and flexion were there too, as was (unbelievably) fore-aft. So I just focused on my CB and CB. As the slope got a little steeper, and the crowds a little thicker, I dusted off my bullet-proof short turn. Oddly enough, it seemed to be in about the same condition as I left it last season. Subsequent runs were similar except that I took advantage of some big gaps in the traffic to lay them over. Once again, rather suprisingly, things just seemed to work. On the first few attempts I focused on tipping and just building some good angles, but by the end of the morning I was focused on inside-leg flexion and getting some good vertical seperation.
Even by my own standards I skied well today and I can't even tell you how awesome that feels. I knew exactly what I wanted to do on every turn, and whatever it was, the movements were just there. There was no stiffness, no tension, and best of all, no sense of being tentative. I felt pretty "let go" from the start. It is unbelievable what slightly more than two seasons of dedicated PMTS work has done for my skiing!
I also saw some great turns from JMD and CO_Steve as well (especially once the latter moved the binding mount on his Icon TT-80s forward
). Neither of them looked too far away from where they were at in July. It will be fun to see how our skiing continues to develop this year--particularly after we all get done with our respective camps.