Skiing & Snowboarding

Alan Barthelmess
Over our last break Discover Ski Resort opened up and started the lifts up. I personally experienced the beginning of this upcoming season’s first days of skiing and boarding. It looks promising so far but we still need much more snowfall for the mountain to be completely open. Over the years I have learned to ski and snowboard at a respectable level, been offered a couple chances to give ski or snowboard lessons at discovery but never took the staff position.

Some people are just now learning to ski or snowboard and many ask “which is easier to learn”? In my experience, and keep in mind that this article reflects my own personal opinion and experience. That I have found snowboarding to be less difficult to learn as a newcomer. With skiing it seemed that there were many more steps to learn and master before being able to go down a double black diamond run. For those that are unfamiliar with difficulty settings of the trails on the mountain here they are. Green circle is and indicator that the run is easy and great for beginners, A blue square is the symbol for a moderate difficulty trail. A black diamond is a rough trail that is most likely left ungroomed and should not be taken by anyone that is unconfident in their abilities. A double black diamond is an expert only run and normally has a sign attached explaining the rules of the mountain for that run. At Discovery it is made pretty clear that if you lack the ability and experience to go down those runs and are caught down one of the double black diamond’s you’ll lose your ski pass for the day. The biggest danger about a double black diamond run is usually if you can’t recover from a fall immediately you are going to be tumbling downhill for great distance, plus the hazards of trees and boulders are likely.
I mentioned in a previous article that there is a downhill ski class that is offered at tech next semester so for those eager to learn or get credit for a class I highly encourage signing up. Until then everyone keep your tips up.