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So..... (looking for advice on a 6 week trip)

Tony Storaro

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Not sure how I would go about "bombing" terrain like these. Care to enlighten me with some helpful technique and/or tactic? TIA.

You cant. This is not terrain you can ski fast and furious. Well I cant, dunno about you.

Here, this is what i meant:


No one (no one I know) can ski like this bell to bell for more than 5 days in a row. It is impossible.
 

KingGrump

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You cant. This is not terrain you can ski fast and furious. Well I cant, dunno about you.

Here, this is what i meant:


No one (no one I know) can ski like this bell to bell for more than 5 days in a row. It is impossible.

That's a groomer. I think. :ogbiggrin:
Haven't seen one of those in a while.

That's pretty mellow terrain and skiing. :duck::ogbiggrin:
 

Tony Storaro

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That's pretty mellow terrain and skiing. :duck::ogbiggrin:

:doh::nono:

1619546390533.png
 

geepers

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Nah, for this type of adventure, I agree with you that lighter will probably be better at the beginning. They will build up muscle weight anyway, it will all come down to endurance rather than brute force.

Your 5 day wipe-out reads like my skiing in Oz. Gets done in 5 day blocks, frantic pace 'cause times limited, totally trashed by Friday. Then moping around the house for 9 days, everything hurts.... Rinse, repeat....

OTOH longer ski stretches in Canada means more time to ease into it. Get more skiing in any week than do in Oz, just not the 1st week.

I have noticed the word "endurance" being used on multiple occasions in this thread. I really do not like that word. It conveys the feelings of much pain and suffering.
Skiing is supposed to be fun. I much preferred "sustainability." A goal much less painful to achieve.

Enjoyrance.
 
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Saintsman

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Your 5 day wipe-out reads like my skiing in Oz. Gets done in 5 day blocks, frantic pace 'cause times limited, totally trashed by Friday. Then moping around the house for 9 days, everything hurts.... Rinse, repeat....

OTOH longer ski stretches in Canada means more time to ease into it. Get more skiing in any week than do in Oz, just not the 1st week.



Enjoyrance.

:mask:
 

Fuller

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It really is liberating to have the freedom to ski for as many days and as long as you want to. Next year will be year 8 at Whitefish for the wife and I - we started at 4 weeks and now we do 8 weeks. I'm pretty tired by then but if the snow is good I could easily go another 2. As @Sibhusky mentioned I did back off a bit last season due to foot issues and the lack of rest time in the lodge. I didn't expect the covid rules to cramp my style but most days we were done by 2:00. I'm 68 this year and I usually take about 5-8 days off during my 8 week stay. I've done 21 days in a row when conditions are good.

I'm pretty focused on being out there on the mountain as much as I can so I try to plan my days off when I think the crowds will be a factor or perhaps the weather. I'm not too easily dissuaded due to fog, that's just a fact of life at WMR. If it's really cold and windy and the lifts are on hold that's a good time to hang out at the house. Even then I'm agitated because I'm not skiing.

Your ski equipment needs to be spot on. I'm springing for an entirely new boot setup next year because although my current boots fit, my feet are getting too cold. I'm usually quite frugal but if I have to spend additional dollars to stay out there comfortably then that's what I'll do. The same with your lesson plan, 6 weeks is a long enough time to learn new skills and embed them into your daily skiing - that doesn't happen for weekenders to often.

Know in advance that you and your wife will have differing ideas as when it's time to head back to the house. My wife is not as fond of overdoing it as I am so it helps to have alternate ways to get back home. We drive out to Montana so we have our own car but occasionally she'll go home early and I'll take the Snowbus back into town. Have a plan in place for that situation.

My overall advice is to ski as hard and long as your body will let you. It's a golden opportunity to challenge your skill set and your fitness. Report back.
 

CaliFi

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I just skied almost every day for 6 weeks at Mammoth, here is my quick advice:
* HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) 1 hour 3x a week (mine was with some boxing moves and some yoga) was incredible for conditioning and flexibility
* Listen to your body, if your knees or legs are sore, take a day off (or just a few runs) - it really helps to be fresh and energetic on the great conditions days
* Dry your boots, skis, and gear every night
* Wax your skis often
* I personally feel a hot tub with jets is very helpful to reduce inflammation (very recent studies on mice cast doubt on icing, btw). I also often take 600 or 800 mg of Ibuprofen right before skiing (less has no anti-inflammatory effect) to knock out inflammation on my bad ankle.
* Find something beautiful and soak it in everyday and let those feelings balance with the feelings of excitement and joy while skiing
 

DanoT

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I also often take 600 or 800 mg of Ibuprofen right before skiing (less has no anti-inflammatory effect) to knock out inflammation on my bad ankle.
I would think that a ski boot would take care of ankle swelling, so Ibuprofen for pain relief, I guess. AFAIK too much Ibuprofen can cause problems.
 
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Saintsman

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Thanks everyone - lots of good advice there, some I had thought of and much I hadn't. Will be sure to post a full on trip report, including the absolute hassle of getting all the gear needed through LHR in a hopefully near-post-Covid world. Which reminds me, my Canadian ETA needs updating......
 

markojp

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Not 6 weeks, but I used to spend the month of March in Hokkaido. 30 day stay, generally skied 28'ish days. One year, day 18'ish, I just ran out of gas at lunch, and around day 24 the areas closed because of a wind event, so I guess I made it 28.5 days out of 30. Felt pretty good the whole time , and was on telemark gear for the duration for both lift served and touring. I ate well. Very well. Drank some, not too much, but enough. Also had a hot bath every morning and evening. The bath thing was key IMHO. Previous to March, I'd typically ski 3 days a week from about mid December on, so had pretty good base ski fitness, and did a good deal of gym work, road cycling, and some squash in the off season.
 

jseeski

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I know the OP is committed to Whistler, but I have to say that, with 6 weeks at your disposal, you'll be missing some legendary skiing if you don't try some of the areas in the southern BC interior. Plus there is cat skiing. And heli skiing. You're in British Columbia, for Pete's sake!

Lessons at the beginning of the trip can allow you to come up to speed more progressively and give you some skill enhancement to work on if you take the information provided seriously. If your wife tends to ski more slowly and cautiously than you do, skiing with her is an excellent time to work on drills, technique and discipline. If she skis faster than you, well, you'll just have to try to keep up!
 

DanoT

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To further what @jseeski said above, skiers who come from coastal B.C. to ski the B.C. Interior for the first time will almost without exception, comment on how dry the snow feels and how much easier it is to ski (turn in).

At Sun Peaks which has THE driest snow, we call it Ego Snow. One time I shared a chairlift ride with a guy from Seattle who told me that until he discovered Sun Peaks he never dreamed that he could find dry, Utah quality snow within driving distance of Seattle; so he bought a place at SP.
 
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Saintsman

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I've tried making that argument to the wife, but I can only go so far. She's far less adventurous than I am; and unlike me she's had to argue quite hard with her management to get the time off to mirror my sabbatical (she's having to take 2 weeks unpaid, and has needed to go 3 levels up in line management to get support for NHS HR to approve this). So to a very large extent she's calling the shots, and she has a level of comfortable with Whistler. Anyway, we're all booked now so it;s just crossing fingers that the vax rollout happens and caseloads drop - the new UK travel approval system looks pretty draconian at the moment

****Yes I am a wimp****
 

Tony Storaro

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Well he’s not wrong. Strong and proficient skiers can groomer ski really fast all day long without expending too much energy.

No.
Try to do 20-30 runs a day, 3-4 km long, red/black, every single time trying to beat your best time.
Repeat 5 days. On day numero 6 the mere thought of skiing will make you sick.
 

raisingarizona

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No.
Try to do 20-30 runs a day, 3-4 km long, red/black, every single time trying to beat your best time.
Repeat 5 days. On day numero 6 the mere thought of skiing will make you sick.

Are you trolling me? Because now you sound funny to me.

Dude, I’ve skied 40k plus vert days doing tram laps on natural snow terrain in Jackson doing back to back days for weeks at a time. Yeah, I was in my 20’s sure but it’s not that hard if you’re dedicated. Groomer laps are easy. At 45 I can get off the couch and ski like that all day long for weeks but to be honest, it’s not the fatigue that stops me it would be the boredom of that much groomer skiing.

This isn’t bragging btw, I’m just trying to point out that you are greatly underestimating other people’s abilities. There’s plenty of skiers out there that can drop me like a sack of potatoes and I think that’s fantastic.

I do like racing myself tho.....

 
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Tony Storaro

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Are you trolling me? Because now you sound funny to me.

No, I just do not think you understand what I mean. I am not talking here about who is better or best. That's not the point.
Point is, skiing at the top of one's abilities-no matter how great/average these abilities are, but skiing at your 95-100% or thereabouts for 7-8 hours a day, 5 days in a row is damn exhausting. That's what I mean.

P.S. Awesome vid!
 

Sibhusky

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No.
Try to do 20-30 runs a day, 3-4 km long, red/black, every single time trying to beat your best time.
Repeat 5 days. On day numero 6 the mere thought of skiing will make you sick.
There's a whole bunch of vert heads here who would beg to differ. This was an off year, but there's a guy here who has averaged 4 million vertical feet for 18 years. That's not length, that's drop. He had a "low" year this year at 3.1 mill, but he's 78.
 

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