My usual column on New Year’s resolutions got hijacked this year by a skier most of us have seen in a film at one time or another.
After carefully watching the weather forecasts, I chose Wednesday to travel to Wildcat and check out Dan Egan’s All Terrain Clinic.
Dan has skied in a dozen Warren Miller films, produced his own films, and in 1996 wrote his book, “All-Terrain Skiing.” One of the most notable sequences of any film is the one showing Dan followed by his brother John along a steep ridge with a cornice on their left. Dan makes a sweeping turn and John follows. Dan makes it comfortably back to solid snow, but as John carves his turn, a crack appears in the cornice and falls away just as John clears it. The shot of a skier just making it to safety as a huge cornice falls away behind him one of the most dramatic moments ever caught on film. Skiers attending Egan’s clinics have that image in mind.
After a few warm-up runs, I caught up with Dan at the Wildcat base lodge, and we went out to the ski school area to meet the rest of his group. There were a dozen mostly solid advanced skiers. I asked how he handled so many skiers of differing abilities.
“Normally, managing multiple levels is difficult, but if they’re coming to a specialty clinic they’re willing. The good skiers step up and do it, and I can give a little extra time to lower levels,” he explained.
I saw that on this day. After a brief discussion of equipment and body position, we headed up the quad to the summit. A short ways down Polecat we turned onto Lynx, one of Wildcat’s favorite trails. Groomed in midwinter, this is an intermediate run, narrow with rolling pitches, winding its way to the base. I have skied this run in a foot of fresh powder and groomed cruising snow. On this day, the best description was variable. In places, the surface was natural snow pushed into bumps and in others the snowmakers had left huge whales. It was perfect for all-terrain skiing.
At the top of the run, Egan had us all adjust our power straps, making sure we had good contact with the shin and the tongue of the boot. He explained that we would begin by working on our position, getting our weight forward and injecting more motion into our skiing. He demonstrated what he was looking for, carving quick precise turns down the edge of the run before catching air and disappearing off a big drop. Reappearing on the flat below he motioned for us to follow.
After that display, what skier wouldn’t want to emulate that run?
This is part of the clinic’s appeal. Instead of a ski instructor demonstrating pretty turns on a groomed carpet, we watched Dan ski in exciting fashion. We skied some hard snow, (polished as Dan said by skiers and boarders braking instead of skiing), some loose now and always bumps of varying size.
While few of us looked as good as Dan, most of us handled the terrain competently and a few extremely well. One, however, was a lower intermediate, and soon Dan was working with him individually. Somehow, he kept the rest of the group moving and happy with the tips he was giving and the encouragement when he spotted good results. This is a special skill, and although I had to skip the second run, I learned from Egan that this skier had “stepped up and skied well.”
“He was game all the way,” said Dan
I have an idea that this skier got more out of the clinic than anyone, and when he got back on groomed slopes, his skiing really improved. The response I observed was that all the skiers felt they got their money’s worth ($49 for the two-hour clinic).
It would be impossible to relate all of the different techniques displayed to get our group of skiers to inject more motion into their skiing. The 41-year-old has been running these clinics for 15 years and working a professional skier since 1985. During that time, he has skied with some of the world’s finest and made tracks in places most of us simply dream of.
You can get a sample of this on his TV show, Dan Egan’s “Wild World of Winter.” Look for it on WB at 8 p.m. Saturday nights. If you’re interested in his clinics, there will be a three-day camp at Sugarbush, Feb. 9-12. More are scheduled for Wildcat on Jan. 7, MLK weekend and February vacation. After our clinic Wednesday, Dan headed for Shawnee Peak where he filmed part of the Ullr Fest for his show and was back there Saturday to film kids in a terrain park competition. For more information, check www.skiclinics.com or call 1-800-983-2670.
By now you may be wondering how this experience led to my New Year’s resolution. I have to admit that in recent years I’ve gotten a bit lazy. The grooming and equipment is so good that it’s easy to just explore the mountain without challenging yourself. I didn’t ski those bumps in the fluid fashion of my ski patrol days. I’m going to follow Dan’s advice and ski a single trail several times to get that challenge and work on my technique. I know I will do this because I told Dan about it, and I know he’ll ask me when I see him for some ski testing in just over a month. Can you join me in a resolution to not only ski more, but to ski better?
Happy New Year.
Dave Irons is a freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.
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