After I traded in my skate skis for striding skis after lunch on Saturday I attended a clinic given by expert cross country skier Paul Petersen. He watched each of us individually and offered his advice for improving. For me, it was to put my weight straight down on each foot and not to move my foot as far forward as I was.

What an improvement! I immediately started getting the swing of things and actually getting more distance with each stride. Not only do I now put each foot forward the right distance but I am also getting some glide forward each time I do.

Again we slept in the loft area over the rental office and I skied on Sunday before coming home. The new technique gave me great confidence and I decided to take on some medium difficulty slopes. I headed for one named Granite Roller (click the map to enlarge).

Off I went from the trail head along the Stables Cruise trail. Then I got on Granite Roller, or thought I did. This trail isn’t so bad I thought as I went along. Then I came to a warming hut. Wait a minute, there’s no warming hut on this trail. Oops, this is the Equippe trail (pronounced “E-keep”) and rated as Most Difficult! Indeed, down the trail and around the bend was a very steep downhill (at least for me).

My shoulder still hurt from a crash last week. Rather than risk life and limb, I removed my skis and walked down. How humiliating! I’ll definitely be working on my downhill skills next weekend.

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