Introduction
While the skiing dream may be skiing waist-deep pow in Alta, perfectly cut groomers in aspen, or amazingly built parks in Park City for many skiers, this is not a reality. A substantial portion of skiers both in America and abroad don't have access to these world-class resorts and mountains. I'm looking at you East Coast, Midwest, and Scandinavia. It's not all bad though. Many of these areas still have great resorts, but almost all of them miss out on that amazing western terrain and snow. The question has always been posed though, mostly from us skiers in these....snow troubled areas. Does skiing bad terrain and cruddy snow make you a better skier?
About me
Let me first put my background as a skier out there to shed light on some of my biases. I've been skiing consistently for over 10 years, spending most of my time in the midwest skiing our small sub 500ft hills. In the past 6 years, I have had the pleasure to head out west at least once or twice a year and have skied as far west as touring Mt. Shasta, as far south as Taos in New Mexico, and as far north as Whitefish Montana. I also am an instructor. I've had more than a taste of what some of the best ski areas in the U.S. have to offer, but I always find myself coming back to my midwest roots.
Yours truly skiing pretending to be a park skier
I am a strong believer that growing up skiing in areas with poor terrain and snow actually helps you quite a bit as a skier. There are a few reasons for this that I will get into below.
Location and Price
One of the biggest benefits of living in a place like the midwest or the east coast is that there are resorts and ski hills everywhere. They aren't going to be anywhere near the likes of Jackson Hole or a myriad of other world-class resorts but I believe that one of the most important parts of growing and getting better as a skier is just accessibility. For many people starting out the best skiing is the skiing that is the easiest to get to. I grew up in a very rural part of Michigan and still had 3 great hills within an hour of my house. The other benefit of growing up in one of these snow troubled areas is the fairly low cost of entry. Even with Vail eating up plenty of resorts there are still loads of mom and pop resorts that have cheap tickets and small lines.
Types of snow and climate
Johnny Kozacki skiing slush at the Lake Superior Banked Slalom
Of course, one of the most common complaints from the east coast and midwest skiers is the poor surfaces you are going to be skiing on the hill. There is no denying that smaller hills get skied out quicker than resorts out west and have much greater fluctuations in temperature. You could be skiing some lake effect pow one day, solid ice the next, and then corn the day after.
I actually find this to be an important part of improving as a skier. It's not that out west doesn't get those conditions, they just don't get those conditions that often or to the same degree. Skiing on ice really teaches you edge engagement and edge control. Slushy conditions, besides being fun as hell, is a great way to learn how to rail your turns. It's also great for those days where you want to try new tricks. What I'm getting at here is that conditions that are considered subpar are some of the best conditions to diversify yourself as a skier. You gotta ask yourself, would you rather be adept at skiing only in good conditions, or would you rather be able to rip any sort of snow?
Rails, rails, rails, and tow ropes
Okay, let's talk about the biggest benefit of skiing in these areas. The tow ropes. Unlike out west, the midwest and east coast is full of tow ropes. What does that mean for you? Laps on laps on laps. What do lots of laps mean? Lots of improvements. There's no doubt that the ability to get 30-40 laps in an hour is going to make you a better skier. This in combination with all of the great parks on the east coast and midwest can exponentially increase the skill of riders from beginners to the ski bums. The fast laps really do a lot to make up for the lack of terrain you might have out west.
Learning how to ski-The right way
This may not apply to a lot of the NS crowd, but it does apply to many new skiers. I think many new skiers fall prey to a similar problem. They get on skis and after they get skiing sorta figured out they head right to some blacks. Before they know it they have already developed negative habitats from trying to just survive these runs out west. It's hard to practice good form when your just trying to make it down the hill. Good form is important by the way, I'm not being elitist but I interact with students all the time who think that just because they skied aspen they are hot shit, as they go down the hill so backseat it almost looks like they are sitting on their skis. I think that the mellow nature of places east of colorado allows for newbies to progress in a more linear fashion. Hopefully learning the proper techniques along the way,
This may not apply to a lot of the NS crowd, but it does apply to many new skiers. I think many new skiers fall prey to a similar problem. They get on skis and after they get skiing sorta figured out they head right to some blacks. Before they know it they have already developed negative habitats from trying to just survive these runs out west. It's hard to practice good form when your just trying to make it down the hill. Good form is important by the way, I'm not being elitist but I interact with students all the time who think that just because they skied aspen they are hot shit, as they go down the hill so backseat it almost looks like they are sitting on their skis. I think that the mellow nature of places east of colorado allows for newbies to progress in a more linear fashion. Hopefully learning the proper techniques along the way,
