Going Big, Safely
Posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
For a few years, I have had an idea about getting together some of the top pro skiers who live in Salt Lake City to share their knowledge and training plan with young skiers who fit more in the freeskiing genre. Young ski racers and freestylists have plenty of opportunity for coaching, but the skiers whose eyes get big at the Powder magazine “Shooting Gallery” or the latest Teton Gravity Research film seem to miss out on some of that instruction and encouragement.
As I have gotten to meet some of the local ski pros in my orthopedic practice, I have found them invariably to be both great and genuine people as well as dedicated athletes. At the highest level, the skiers featured in magazines and on film have detailed preparation and follow strict safety routines that get left in the background when the goal is to show an image that looks effortless. The result is beautiful, but for young skiers who might want to emulate it, I wanted to pull back the curtain and educate about all the strength and conditioning, all the snow safety considerations, all the slow progression and evolution of a skier’s ability that have led up to ripping a big AK line for a movie or hucking a 150-foot air to paste on the cover of Skiing magazine.
For us here in Salt Lake City, it seemed particularly pertinent, as there is hardly a ski magazine published that doesn’t have some photo taken at a location within 40 minutes of where I’m sitting right now. With that kind of access, and the fact that lots of young skiers have digital cameras or videocams, when the YouTube generation says “I want to try that!” they really can. What I want to do is help those young skiers figure out if they are ready, and if not, how they can strengthen their skiing to grow into the skier they want to be.
I first met Julian Carr about two or three years ago at my clinic, so when I saw him in the preseason dry-land conditioning class we were both taking, I started talking with him about the idea. Right away, he was interested in helping and quickly listed a handful of skiers with amazing resumes who live locally and also would help out. So within a couple weeks, what I had expected to be the hardest part — recruiting the athletes — was taken care of and now I just had to figure out how to put the whole thing together in my spare time. I started by taking a deep breath.
I next contacted the Utah Avalanche Center, which already has a strong skier education program for backcountry travel. Any skier with big mountain aspirations will be entering into the sidecountry and backcountry at some point. I wanted to encourage anybody coming to the program to seek out an avy course and start the process of backcountry education. Drew Hardesty, one of the UAC forecasters, responded and liked the concept we were working on, so he signed on to bring the “Know Before You Go” program, part of the center’s education syllabus.
As I thought about what else would bring in the young rippers to hear this program, aside from the opportunity to listen to some of their heroes talking about what they love, I knew I had to get some free stuff. Gear giveaway always provides a nice carrot! I sent e-mails to sponsors of the skiers on the panel, and because this was a new program that was still more vision than solid and the timetable was getting pretty narrow, our initial response was crickets and tumbleweeds. I started thinking I would have to go purchase gear myself for the giveaway we had already advertised!
Then I sent an e-mail to Cloudveil, figuring I could try my own connections as well as the pro skiers’. Sure enough, Cloudveil came through big time! They sent four high-end jackets for the giveaway and two of them fit me perfectly, so I had to fight my urges (“We have these four … uh, three yeah, three jackets to give away!). As soon as we got that first commitment, it seemed like the logjam broke and we heard back from lots of generous companies. We ended up having gear from Cloudveil, Smith, Discrete Headwear, Skullcandy, Under Armour and Surface Skis.
With the program starting to take shape, there were many e-mails and a dinner meeting with the panel to figure out what messages we wanted to get across to the younger skiing generation. It was interesting for me as a physician because I initially thought about the program as a way to promote safety. I kept using the term “safety” because it was the most fitting in my head, but the more I talked with the athletes, the more we started using the term “preparation.”
This was kind of an epiphany for me one night when I was talking with Jaime Myers about her portion of the program. I realized that the athletes’ safety is dependent on preparation, and this is a more positive and proactive term, so we began to focus on the athletes sharing their preparation strategies. Athletes don’t always know how to tell you to be safe, but they do know, in great detail, how they prepare.
We ended up with a great program on the first Thursday night of January. After the intro, Drew Hardesty started out with the Know Before You Go video and gave some backcountry information. Then I showed an interview I had done that week with Julian Carr before he had to leave town for a last-minute photo shoot. Julian does it all, but is known for holding world records in cliff jumps and throwing front and back flips off ridiculous drops. His interview ranged from backcountry safety and group decision making in the backcountry to the importance of listening to your instincts and knowing when you feel confident in what you are about to ski. He related a story of one shoot where he and a film crew had hiked for hours to a location; while skiing his line, he reached an air he had scouted but just didn’t feel comfortable about as he approached.
After many minutes of trying to calm down for this trick, he skied around and didn’t attempt it. He said that at the end of the day, instead of getting a hard time about not performing, having the strength to listen to his instincts earned him as much respect from the crew as anything he has done. He also gave away a spot in the Alta sidecountry where there were some good “user friendly” 15- to 30-foot jumps that, in deep conditions, a skier who felt confident in their ability could try some “starter airs!”
Then, Winter X Games silver medalist Jen Hudak talked about her path to becoming one of the top skiers in the world. She saw quite a difference in her career after putting an emphasis on strength and conditioning. With a thorough program of off-season work and in-season maintenance, she has had far fewer injuries and recovered faster from problems. We watched a couple of her halfpipe runs and saw what her development and commitment has achieved.
Next up was Dash Longe, an amazing pro who has skied in TGR films for about six seasons, among a laundry list of other credits. Dash talked about his start, from skiing on a team in Squaw Valley to breaking away to do more of his own thing. He gave some great pearls about building backcountry kickers, including consideration of location, conditions and the importance of speed checks and dry runs before you hit the jump for real. He told the audience that it’s critical to fully commit to your trick or run and that injuries happen from not being in a confident place and holding back. He also uses visualization techniques to “see” how a run will go before skiing it.
Then Cody Barnhill, who also skis with TGR and The Levitation Project and has bunches of photo credits to his name, shared his experience with avalanche safety (he’s had six formal courses and is still learning) and talked about scouting lines in the backcountry. Cody talked about the importance of knowing the weather because the best-scouted line is much harder if you get socked in and can’t see. He often uses digital photos on the hike up and takes shots from different perspectives to review before skiing. Even with all that preparation, sometimes he’s still surprised that what looked like a big air is just a small blip or occasionally the other way around, where the ground is nowhere near where he thought it would be!
The final speaker was Jaime Myers from the U.S. Ski Team, who competes in freestyle aerials. Jaime talked about going from hucking 90-foot gaps for Powder magazine as an 18-year-old to making the U.S. team. She uses rigorous strength training and meticulous preparation to stay at the top of her field and avoid injury. She also spends time focusing on mental preparation. Constantly reading the snow and wind, making fine adjustments and visualizing all keep Jaime dialed-in to be a top aerialist and skier.
Following Jaime, I gave a quick medical perspective on ski injury, including some tips on how to avoid pitfalls in equipment and technique that often lead to injury. After the speakers did individual talks, the panel answered questions about various topics and a good conversation evolved. It was a great finish to the night to hear these amazing skiers share stories about things they had done right or wrong and how those experiences have shaped how they ski. Finally, the night ended with the audience pulling out their raffle tickets and a couple dozen people walking away with some great new gear.
Many thanks go out to all the people who made this night work. I’m eager for the second annual!
Mark Scholl, M.D., is a Cloudveil Inspired Mountain Ambassador and an orthopedic surgeon. He is a team physician to ReAL Salt Lake of the MLS, the U.S. Ski Team and Solitude Mountain Resort. He is an ultrarunner, backcountry skier and amateur snow science geek.
very cool Mark. Looks like a good formula for similar events in the future and other cities.
Going Big! Safely. « Scholl Sports Orthopedics says: July 1st, 2010 at 5:31 pm
[...] Read more on Dr. Scholl’s blog as a Cloudveil Inspired Mountain Ambassador for The Mountain Murmur. [...]