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Horseplay in the high country

March 4, 2008 —  Imagine sticking your head out the car window while driving down the road at 40 mph and grabbing a set of keys dangling off the bottom of a stop sign, then turning quickly left to avoid oncoming traffic, swerving back right go off a jump for 50 feet, landing (hopefully), then swerving back right and grabbing another set of keys off another stop sign.

OK, so now if you’re skier, imagine doing this behind a powerful quarter horse while on your skis and holding onto a rope with your left hand and a wand with your right hand as your spear two sets of three rings dangling from metal posts. This is skijoring - one of the craziest things I’ve ever done.

I’m not sure what to focus on here. In theory it seems easy. But once you see one of these events, or better yet sign up for one, you have no idea how hard it really is. The size of the pro/open jumps is huge, the horses are powerful, and the speed is unreal.

I pitched the idea of doing a skijoring segment to Warren Miller Entertainment sometime back. This year they bit on it, we filmed at the annual skijoring competition in nearby Leadville March 1-2, and I’ll forever have the scars to prove we didn’t fake any of it.

I knew this was going to be a good story, but I did realize exactly how radical the sport is. Right from the start there is so much that takes place. Getting through the course is just a tenth of the battle.

At the start a wrangler hands you a rope with a loop on it. On the other end is a horse and rider. The horse looks like it is ready to explode as the rider does everything she or he can to keep it from not taking off or bucking them off.

The moment you have the rope looped around your hand properly, with no slack, the rider lets the horse go and, bang, you are flying down the course. The first obstacle, you hit the start timer, cut left to a jump that is 6 feet high with a flat landing. Cutting right and going really fast now, try to line up with three small rings dangling for three bars.

In your right hand is a metal wand that you will use to spear all of them. Once on your arm, cut back left around a gate, then right again. Now you are really flying, and here comes the big jump. Ten feet high to another flat landing.

The entire time the horse is running as fast as it can down the center of the track while the rope is flying all over behind it but connected you, so learning how to manage that rope is important. Trying to keep it as tight a possible is key, but knowing when to let slack out is also key.

Then you bang off the second huge jump, fly back to the left across the horse path and land in time to make a gate going back right, holding the wand up again and trying to snag three more rings before cutting back left again for the last jump that will shoot you back right to the finish timer.

Once through the finish, it is hard to really get an idea of what just happened. Between the power of the horse, the debris flying off the ground from the pounding horse hooves, the rings, the jumps, the turns and holding onto the rope, it is a blur that flashes back at you later in your dreams.

Then there is the horse and the rider. My rider was 16-year-old champion Kirstie Eckert and one of her horses, Hollywood. Both of them had the experience and composure of true veterans compared to their rookie skier - that being me, dangling on the rope behind them. Thank you for the pull, you two!

I do not believe I have been involved with a sport where there are so many elements coming at you so fast, and most of them you have no control over. And the margin of error is so small. I had to cowboy up! Or at least give it my best shot. I just hope that we are able to bring a quarter of the feeling to the big screen next fall in the annual Warren Miller movie.

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China: the sleeping snow-sports giant

February 9, 2008 —  They come by the thousands.

First-time skiers willing to strap on rental skis and don rental clothing in a rental shop perfectly designed for moving large numbers of people. They then attempt to ride, drag or climb their way to the top of the beginner slope, drop into a low position as demonstrated by those before them, and just point it straight down the mountain. They hit speeds upwards of 30 mph on their first attempt. They do this with the enthusiasm of children on a sledding hill.

While in the U.S. we do everything possible to make the sport of skiing as approachable, comfortable and safe as possible, here in China they add the safety after the fact. Mainly because huge numbers of people just keep coming to try it out.

Rather than requiring the newcomers have the ability to turn or stop before they head up onto the hill, resort operators just pad everything up that they might hit and give the beginners the tools to just do it. Their athletic heritage saves them from too much damage.

The resort developers have designed the slopes to embrace the no-holds-barred attitude of the Chinese culture. In other words, they have designed the beginner slopes as you would a sledding hill for children who do not have fear and are very pliable. They design them with long run-outs bordered at the bottom with safety nets to catch those that may overshoot a bit. At least this is how they do it in the resort of Jundushan, China.

Jundushan is located just outside Beijing by less than an hour of drive time (60 million in population surrounding this little ski area), and is comprised of man-made snow strategically carved into an arid mountainside. It’s a real genius resort by design.

This little area with its amazing snowmaking, rental program and lift system has the potential to introduce more people into the sport than anywhere on the planet. Designed from the vision of a sports enthusiast, with limited knowledge of the sport of skiing itself, Mr. He Ping has done an amazing job putting this puzzle together.

Ping has put together a business plan unique to any ski area I’ve ever been to, but with some amazing similarities. There are things he has thought of that I wonder why more experienced resort operators have not come up with by now. Still, there are fundamental elements missing that he has danced around that if he was introduced to might blow the little resort owner’s mind.

We can learn a lot from what is taking place here in Jundushan, while they can learn a lot from our visit. This trip was made possible by two entities helping to not only increase the communication between our western resorts but also helping increase travel and trade of skiers between the two continents. Just as one day I would like to bring some North Americans to China, I hope the Chinese come visit us in Colorado.

As I arrived at the resort, the entire scene fascinated me.

Men and women show up in street clothes, rent boots, skis and perhaps ski clothing by the thousands. In some cases, they won’t even rent the clothes. They will just go with what they have on and give this snow-riding thing a shot with no guidance. They will just head to the top of the hill either by being dragged up by a surface lift unsuccessfully or they will walk up if they fail to hold onto the lift.

Without a second thought, these same men and women will then just assume the position and drop in. It would be like me paddling out in North Shore Oahu (on a small day) thinking that I can do this, why not? It looks easy and it is only water, right? I mean, who needs instruction? I’ve been in a full bathtub before.

I wonder what they think as they place these foreign objects on their feet, assuming the tuck position and just point it straight down the hill covered in white stuff. All they know so far is that it is cold and things slide on it. In a few seconds they will try it, most likely crashing if not into one another than into the ground with a force that would break most of the bones in my body and for sure blow some ligaments.

Then without question they get up and do it again and again until eventually they have enough balance to go straight from the top to the bottom. Who knows how many will actually take to the sport doing it this way by the end of the day? But right now they have the thousands coming and trying it this way.

That’s thanks to the resort operators who have had the foresight to introduce the sport so close to a massive and very enthusiastic population that is starting to grow economically. Can you imagine if we could harness this energy and introduce them to the sport in a slightly less destructive way?

Each of the five beginner slopes at Jundushan is designed ingeniously - every one of them slightly increasing in angle and allowing very little chance of hitting or running into anything truly solid. So there really is no reason to learn to turn. Yet turning is safer in the long run and will help these skiers improve their ability as to be able to visit more complex resorts.

I just wish I had the Warren Miller Film crew here to document the progression from parking lot to hill, and then the antics that take place in between the two spots. It is an amazing sight.
At one point I watched a lift operator leave his position to run over and help a cute young lady get off the ground while her skis were pointed straight down the slope. Getting her back on her feet was not working, as her skis were running away from her. But this did not stop them from trying, or blowing out her knees. My knees were in pain just watching it.

He had her halfway up when another skier who was pointing it straight down the hill took them both out. The collision made me cringe. As they were untangling, another skier took all of them out again. They were laughing their asses off in the end.

They are tough, flexible and beyond passionate. Plus, I have this theory that Chinese must have better built ligaments than westerners. Which brings up a question: do they have ACL injuries here? Because what I saw bodies doing here would take Vail’s Steadman-Hawkins Clinic to a Microsoft level of medical application.

This turns out to be why I’m here in China along with two other instructors from Aspen. I think we are meant to demonstrate that with a little instruction and guidance of operations we could help them not only make things a little safer but also perhaps make the sport even more attainable and fun. Perhaps lowering the attrition rate.

One of their ideas of safety measures at this point is a guy at the bottom of the hill on a bullhorn yelling at the first-timers to clear the run-out area. In their minds, if that area is clear enough when runaway beginners dart into it, things will be fine.

This is broken up by announcements on the PA system repeating their version of the skier responsibility code, which I wish we would actually inherit for the I-70 corridor. It is straight and to the point, basically telling people to get out of the way, or push all accidents to the side immediately as not to hold up traffic. And finally, do not ski intoxicated.

Basically, we hope to alter their culture of the sport a bit through some influence by example. In doing so we hope to have more skiers enter the worldwide system of ski fanatics, only safer and with the proper technique to go anywhere.

In doing so, the ski school will be utilized more (driving more revenue to the resort), the hill will become safer and the attrition of the thousands of skiers showing up will be less. Ultimately, meaning in the case of this ski area, designing more entertainment for the intermediate and advanced skier. As of right now they have beginner terrain and one expert funnel.

Ultimately, if you can move skiers, especially ones this tenacious, out of the beginner market and into the more advanced levels, then our industry will really benefit.

While the two Aspen instructors (Jeanne Buck and Bjorn Sutton) took on the task of teaching the local instructors some teaching progression models after observing their current strategies, I was given a group of never-ever kids ranging from 4 to 15 in age. I had observers from the ski school and an interpreter.

This group of kids was dropped off at the resort by their parents and left in our hands for four days - their regimented schedules packed with activities that included writing in their daily journals, naps, meal times and ski instruction time with me as the teacher. And let me tell you, they were on the minute with this schedule. As employees are plentiful in China, a specialist to that task supervised each element of the children’s day.

I wanted to show that I could take these fresh young minds and teach them with a technique that would not only have a few of them on the one expert slope in four days but also have them skiing safer and in more control.

The language barrier did not present much of a problem. It might have even helped. Teach by good example, simplify the instruction and use hand signals rather than too much talking. It worked with the kids. The one difficulty was overcoming the employees.

Obviously, wages are not too much of an issue in China at this point. The amount of workers for each and every task was amazing. But since they have been hired and perhaps given one task to accomplish, they will only focus on that one task, with no variation.

So here comes this group of freethinking Americans with their ideas throwing everything into chaos. For example, all of a sudden we had kids turning across the hill instead of going straight down. Even worse was when I took the poles away from the kids and set them up as control gates to give the kids something to turn around.

Boy, oh boy, did this mess with all the employees on the hill, including the security guards. You would have thought I was jumping behind a bank counter with a mask on my head to rob the place.
My battles would end when I would conference with the resort boss via in interpreter and explain the function behind the practice and the future benefit. Next day I would have an overwhelming amount of people not only embracing the technique but also helping to perfect it. It was like a light switch had been flipped.

But every change came with this obstacle, especially when Bjorn and Jeanne introduced moguls at the top of the expert slope. This about killed the men hired to groom this part of the hill with shovels. Now they know how to maintain them.

The kids seemed to be picking up on signals with little resistance, which brings up another point. The kids, each coming from a one-child home (as that is the law), are resilient despite the cold and pain and do not complain. I had yet to see a crying child in the population so far. If I did, it only lasted for a moment, as everyone just said get over it and move on. If not, you are going to be left behind. And they would (get over it).

This group of kids was more competitive than any I have ever witnessed, but in a healthy way. Not sure how to describe it, but I used it to my advantage. The leadership of my little grommets was constantly changing, since the front-runner might get a bit too comfortable with being there, and his peers would progress and knock them out of the position until they made another leap of improvement.

It increased the learning curve by days. Rather than slowing down for the weak we turned it up for the strong. I find that sometimes in our culture the squeaky wheel gets most of the attention, slowing development of the group. Not here.

The progress was amazing, and along the way I think I was able to explain to the boss, Mr. He Ping, that the introduction of a race hill and club might be a very good option for him to add to this cool little resort.

Not only would it help to improve ski technique, it would help people to learn to turn and ski safer. Then he could start having night races or club races, thus having something entertaining for his growing advanced and expert skiers to do. I think he was getting it, at least from what I was told, as he was researching it on the web.
I mean, this place could be the ultimate little slalom training facility, and if we can convince him to get a winch for his cat, he could groom the steep expert slope into an amazing GS hill. These are all dreams I had when I looked at the place … and then passed them on.

As the week progressed, we did start to notice some changes in culture. The instructors were teaching turns. Less people were going straight, and the top skiers were super excited about the moguls that had been introduced by Jeanne and Bjorn. In fact, at one point all the best skiers on the mountain, including Mr. He Ping himself, were up doing laps through the mogul field looking for guidance. It was exciting to see.

We would end every day in the bar with some tea - very good tea, I might add - and conference with Mr. He Ping while workers made sure we glasses were always topped off. Some of the conversation went astray, but most focused around the operations of a ski area.

By the end we were told that Ping was now going to rip out the bar area and make it more user friendly for the ski fanatic. I have a feeling if I get to return the bar will be faced toward the slope with big windows and races will be going on at night.

The entire experience, including the food, was amazing - discovering a culture that has embraced the sport I grew up with and really wants to make the most of it for everyone In the end, my 12 kids all graduated and received plaques of honor. I met several of the instructors and worked with them and spent a lot of time on the hill with the club members. I just hope that when I leave they all keep turning.

I hope we taught them a lot, because I certainly walked away from the experience more enriched.

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Sending out an SOS: Chinese ski resort a wild ride for beginners

January 30, 2008 —  We arrived at the Jundushan Resort outside Beijing following an intense day of being tourists.

We woke up to an overcast, polluted Beijing day, which turns out to be very normal here, then headed to the restaurant on the hotel level and had one of the best breakfast buffets I have ever come across. I highly recommend Xinhai Jinjiang Hotel (www.hotelxinhaijinjiang.com) should you ever head to Beijing.

Our guide gathered us and took us to the Forbidden City. Unreal! It was built more than 600 years ago during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The history is far too detailed to even begin to go into it, so I’ll leave that part up you, but when I get home I’m renting the movie “The Last Emperor.”

The tour was detailed and very cold. Considering we only had two hours to see the city, I would say we did very well. Then we grabbed some lunch and headed to one of the Seven Wonders of the World: the Great Wall of China (see photo).

This portion of the wall is just off a major highway and hit by a ton of tourists judging from the parking area. But on this day no one was there except for a few hardcore Chinese willing to climb the steep wall on this bitterly cold day.

Let me tell you, hiking the wall makes running stadium steps look easy. It was a workout, and the Chinese women were doing it in heels and tight jeans. I mean, this was extreme, as every step was uneven and a slip would mean a fatal fall down several hundred feet of the ancient rock staircase.

We climbed to the highest portion of this section of the wall, and it was amazing! To think about this structure being built, why it was built and when it was built is mind-boggling.

After our tour of the Great Wall we jumped back in the van and headed to the resort of Jundushan. From the haze and just beyond the thousands of utility lines carved into the arid mountains arose a manmade strip of snow that descended steeply from a ridge down to a base area surrounded by perfectly designed beginner terrain.

It is a day resort with a few cabins but mainly designed for beginners, or, for that matter, anyone willing to strap something to their feet and just go for a slide.

The way they run the place is like and amusement park. You pay to come in the main gate, and once you are in you can get all the gear you need to go up one of the lifts and tempt fate. When you leave the gate, the time clock stops and you pay your bill.

We were greeted by the owner and operator, Ping He, and his 20-year-old English-speaking daughter (families in China are strongly encouraged to have only one child). Neither one of them has ever been to another ski area in their lives. Yet Mr. He managed to build and design a small beginner ski area with one expert slope out of his pure passion for the sport.

Even more fascinating about this snow oasis was the fact it is located less than an hour away from a population of 60 million people. The area is smaller than Loveland Valley in Colorado and can host more than 5,000 skiers a day if needed. And it has been known to do so several times a week.

Most customers rent all of their equipment from head to toe then go up the lift without a bit of instruction other than from one of the many employees yelling orders on a bullhorn at the bottom of the hill - mainly telling people to just get out of the way.

Just beyond them is a series of nets to catch out-of-control beginners that overshoot the run-out and would otherwise fly into the moat just beyond the base lodge.

But it rarely happens that they hit this net, as the runs are designed like a sledding hill in that you run out of momentum before you reach the series of nets. So the excitement is in watching the beginner’s stripe on the equipment head to the top, straight run the slope and collide with another striped beginner.

You can watch this happen every few minutes from the safety of the bar, or behind one of the nets. This is exciting stuff, let me tell you, and the best part is that if an injury should happen (which amazingly enough does not happen all that often), it is not the ski patrol that you call. The men to the rescue in this case are the SOS.

On that note, everyone pitches in on clearing traffic. Better than I-70, if a pileup occurs, employees come running from all directions to clear the skier and the route instead of waving the yellow flag. In the case of the one expert run that is too steep to be groomed but consists purely of manmade snow, if a skier falls or does not show the skill to get to the bottom, the men of the SOS just take their equipment away and make them walk or slide down to the base on their butts.

This is survival of the fittest, and the best part is they are all watching and loving it. The entire time I’m surveying this scene I’m thinking about the escalators we have to the base of Beaver Creek, and the slow zone we have designed.

Another absolutely amazing part of the base area is its design of the rental system. Again, without ever even visiting another ski resort, Mr. He managed to build one of the best ski and clothing rental systems I have ever seen at any ski area. Ironically, at this level there are several things the world’s more established ski areas could learn from the rawness of the Jundushan resort.

This is passion to the core, and it could someday be the largest feeder program into the ski industry on our planet right now – as I learned today watching from the base.

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Dispatches from China

January 23, 2008 —  With a 24-hour layover in Vail after spending an amazing time in Cortina, Italy, I had to unpack, do some laundry, ski with a group and repack to head out again - this time China.

The facts are not hidden about China and its economic explosion and massive population of more than 1.3 billion people (2007 census). If only 3 percent of the population would ski or snowboard, that would be 43.3 million people. Colorado ski executives only saw about a 12-million skier day level of participation in skiing and snowboarding each season (see David O. Williams’ article, Former Vail execs, managers lead Asian ski boom by clicking on www.realvail.com/articles.php?artid=154.

This bit of information is partially responsible for me being on a Boeing 747 headed to Beijing, China, with five Aspen ski instructors to meet up with representatives of SNO International. After a quick visit to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall, our group will be split up into two groups visiting two ski resorts outside the city. I will be visiting the Jundushan Resort, escorted by Lei Yu from SNO International.

I’m hoping that this will lead to other opportunities here in China, as some of the world’s largest mountains are here and still need to be tapped. In fact, that process is starting to take place.

Night one: I arrived in the city of Beijing - current population, 60 million. Three million of them have cars, and that number’s growing. The public transportation systems rocks, but like everything else here is very crowded. But this culture is used to crowds.

This is supposed to be a communist country, but one cannot tell, as it seems to be operating on a free market system. It is sort of a hybrid in the middle of an economic boom.

Our guide, Beijing-born, Harvard-educated Roger Cheng, gives me the lowdown on what’s up with the city, particularly the real estate. It has become New York City. One thing, though: the rich are going to separate themselves further from the poor, and the middle class may suffer. It will be interesting to see how all this all pans out economically.

Bottom line, this place is exploding, and the young population is interested in travel and recreation. They enjoy the outdoors and are infatuated with America, where the dollar just happens to be weakening. On several televisions playing throughout the city, the X-Games are being broadcasted from Aspen.

Our mission is to help create an avenue for the young populations interested in skiing. Not only to learn the sport in China, but then to get them to travel abroad to participate in snow sports. My selfish plan would be to get them to Colorado and hopefully Vail. Aspen was a little more aggressive about it by setting up a package ready to go and mixed with a bit of western culture.

The Chinese are eager to learn to ski and snowboard, but do not have a formal teaching system, from what I have been told. For example, the small resort just outside the city where I will be visiting and hosting a clinic sees 5,000 beginner skiers a day, barely any of whom are taking lessons. They are just going at it on their own, or because the company they work for has a wellness program in place to get them out doing something that’s good for them. So let’s hook ’em.

The first night we are staying in central Beijing at a very nice five-star hotel: Xinhai Jinjiang Hotel at www.hotelxinhaijinjiang.com.

More to come. Until then, cheers from China.

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