Author: Ski NASTC

http://thetahoeweekly.com/2016/03/taking-skiers-next-level-chris-jenny-fellows/

Thank you Priya!

There’s no better place for summer skiing than Portillo.

Portillo is South America’s premiere ski resort, famous for its majestic setting and deep snow. Once you go, you’ll never want to leave. NASTC will be celebrating its 20th season at Portillo. There is a reason we keep going back to this friendly, exclusive and exhilarating resort. Ski down to the glacier-blue Inca Lake or traverse into huge bowls amidst 15,000ft Andean peaks. With 14 lifts, 23 runs and all the snow of a maritime range, Portillo is home to big mountain extremists, world-class racers and everyday carvers; but amidst the social atmosphere of the living room and the late night disco, everyone is equal.

This is one of our favorite courses as Portillo is unlike any other resort in the world. Its majestic Andean setting is weaved amongst Incan folklore and the ultimate in skiing culture and history. The incredible setting and atmosphere of Portillo will lift your soul and capture your heart. Portillo offers its guests world class skiing, dining and lodging. Gastronomy and hospitality are held to the highest standards and the terrain is legendary. Portillo has its own gymnasium, fitness gym, swimming pool, spa, movie theatre and nightclub. You don’t have to leave this Andean paradise for anything; Portillo has it all, in fact you may never want to leave. At Portillo, you become part of the family. You will encounter great camaraderie during your stay and can expect to make lifelong friends as you live, laugh and ski side by side in this Andean treasure.

The NASTC ski training camp addresses the three major components to successful skiing performance: technique, fitness, and equipment. By addressing all 3 components in a full immersion multi-day ski training program you will make substantial improvements to your skiing. The NASTC staff is comprised of the top ski instructors in the United States, members of the PSIA National Alpine Team and the teachers of teachers. Your skiing will improve in a safe, fun, and highly professional way under their watchful eyes. You will ski in small groups with the same instructor all day, all week. Backcountry tour options exist, as does group helicopter skiing. This is the ultimate ski vacation: a superb mountain, fun-loving people, delicious food, fine wine and a beautiful hotel. You are sure to improve, make new friends, and enjoy yourself. Portillo is everyone’s paradise!

Below is a general itinerary for our trip. This schedule may change slightly based on the group, the weather, etc. We will send you an updated itinerary prior to departure. Additionally you will find below suggested equipment and clothing lists. You do not need a visa with an American passport, but you must have a valid passport to travel to Chile – your passport cannot expire within 6 months after your trip. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us anytime.

ITINERARY

Friday, Aug 14 – Depart from the US (we are able to get relatively inexpensive tickets, let us know if you would like us to book your airfare for you), connections are usually out of Dallas, Atlanta and Miami.

Saturday , Aug 15 – Arrive Santiago approx. 7:30am-8:00am, clear immigration and customs, van departure for Portillo approx. 8:45am. Arrive at Portillo 11:00am-12:00pm, have lunch (optional), pick up lift passes & ski in the afternoon. (this is an easy afternoon as we know you’ll be a bit tired!)

(August 13-20, 2016) Ski Portillo all day every day. Lodging and meals at the beautiful Hotel Portillo, “Onces” Chilean afternoon tea hour, afternoon clinics, video reviews and enjoying the hotel activities and ameniities: Gym, ping pong, aerobics, swimming pool, sauna, massage, bar & disco at the hotel

Sunday, August 16 – Orientation to the mountain/Warm into skiing. Basic skills: stance and balance, drills & exercises. Fundamentals of good skiing. Baseline Video & video review. Pisco Sour welcome reception

Monday, August 17 – Explore the mountain, skill development. Anatomy of the turn, components of adv. skiing, video. Individual feedback. Evening Tech Talk & Video Review

Tuesday, August 18 – Situational skiing (bumps, crud, steeps, powder, etc.) Focus on short turn topics: rotary, edge, pressure as they apply to the short turn. Exploring the mountain for challenging conditions. Individual feedback

Wenesday, August 19 – Free ski day on your own, helicopter skiing or backcountry option (book early).

Thursday, August 20 – Exploring the off-piste: Tactical skiing in the bumps/steeps/crud, drills and exercises for developing off-piste tactics. Video in the off-piste. Personal coaching feedback on free skiing. Video review.

Friday, August 21 – Consolidating your improvement: Feedback on and off-piste and personal drills to use. Free skiing/personal coaching. Wrap-up

Saturday, August 22 – 1/2 day skiing: group’s choice for topic/free-ski option. Depart Portillo for Airport after skiing & lunch. Flights usually depart Santiago airport between 8:30-10:00pm.

Sunday, August 23 – Arrive back in the U.S

*Helicopter skiing is available on Wed (not incl).

NASTC Nation – Want to Ski Well?
Come to a NASTC clinic of course but you can also take some tips from the great ones.
Here’s “5 keys to skiing your fastest on race day”
Check it out:

http://www.skiracing.com/stories/5-keys-to-skiing-your-fastest-on-race-day

Tahoe Storms Delivering Big Snow! 12/15/15

Wow did it snow hard here in the Sierras this past Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, and there’s more on the way Christmas week! Skiers flocked to the slopes, schools were closed, the sound of plows and avi blasts filled the air, and the trees are heavy with pillows of white stuff. Its gorgeous! Come on up! Every resort is open, the skiing is phenomenal. And there’s more storms on the way!
Come on up to Tahoe and go skiing with NASTC!

Feb 7-9, 2016 Squaw/Alpine All Conditions All Terrain Clinic!
https://skinastc.com/all-conditionsall-terrain-alpine-meadows-ca/

Avy Savvy

New snow means avalanche hazards. If this turns out to be the first big snow year in 4 years, there are many skiers and riders who need to refresh how to ski and ride safely when there are avi hazards.
NASTC has two Level 1 Avalanche Courses: January 16-18 and February 19-21. These are held in Truckee/Donner Summit. We are proud to be an AIARE school.
AIARE (The American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) develops and disseminates avalanche course materials to avalanche educators in the United States, South America and Europe.
There are over 90 course providers and 300 instructors representing AIARE internationally.
AIARE gathers the latest knowledge, research and ideas in avalanche safety and create avalanche training courses that reflect the needs of today’s backcountry travelers.
AIARE provides ongoing continuing education to our instructor group and instructors maintain currency by attending requisite continuing professional development cou! rses on a regular basis.
AIARE is a nonprofit educational organization operating as such since 1998. Their mission statement is to “Save lives through avalanche education.”

Jan 16-18 and Feb 19-21: NASTC’s AIARE Level 1

International Ski Adventures

SKI JAPAN OR AUSTRIA!
NISEKO, JAPAN
You have got to try the epic, snowy, powdery island of Hokkaido, Japan. This is an internationally ski adventure at its best: stay in a locals’ favorite hotel, eat at carefully chosen restaurants to sample a variety of cuisine and experiences, and ski with instructors who know the mountains super well! This won’t be a secret much longer: when there’s little snow and no pow elsewhere, there always is at Niseko’s four well-developed resorts!
ST ANTON
St Anton is skiers’ paradise! Enjoy stepping out your hotel door in this picturesque village, being swept up to the top of a lift you can’t actually believe they were able to build, and skiing all day from one resort to the next, breaking for delicious lunch and libations along the way! We’ve been taking groups to St Anton for 20 years.

Jan 12-20: Niseko and Feb 20-27: St Anton

Photo of the Week

This week’s photo comes from Chris Fellows who is up in Big Sky, MT for the NASTC Early Season Jumpstart clinic, and the PSIA-NRM event there!
They got snow too!

Big Sky Powder Blast

SkiA Sweetspot Ski Trainer – A MUST HAVE under the Christmas tree!

What does the SkiA Ski Trainer do?
The SkiA Sweetspot Ski Trainer will activate your whole body, and will enhance your balance skills and movement patterns in a unique and highly skiing-specific way.
The trainers are designed to be used with ski boots, which limit free movement of the ankle joints.
Wobble-boards, for example, allow the work of balancing to be carried out by the ankles. On these it’s possible to compensate for almost any position just by movements of the feet and ankles. This isn’t what happens when you stand on solid ground, and it’s certainly not what happens when you ski.
In limiting free movement of the ankle joints, SkiA Ski Trainers closely simulate the balance challenge of skiing. You have to use your whole body to balance. Using them, you will become far more aware of the balance signals coming from your feet – activating and training your sense of proprioception. You will engage your knees and hips; the core muscles of your pelvis, ab! domen and back; and your shoulders and arms. You will even engage your head to remain stable and centred. Your sense of balance can be so finely tuned that even movements of your fingers work to keep you in balance.
Train Balance & Movement Skills
Accurate balance requires highly co-ordinated movement patterns. The SkiA Ski Trainer is the only device that trains your balance and movement skills in this way. To stand on the blocks you have to be in centred balance. You automatically adopt a dynamic centred posture – the posture of a dynamic, centred skier.
The challenge is to remain exactly on target as you flex and extend dynamically. It’s usual for skiers to tip out of balance when flexing downwards or extending back up. The Trainer is unique in enabling you to train both a sophisticated and reproducible sequence of movements, and to stay exactly centred through a full, dynamic range of flexion and extension.
As well as training skills, the Trainer unmistak! eably shows you where to balance. Using it, you will know exac! tly where your target point is, and you will be able to feel this and be aware of it every moment that you ski. Using progressively smaller and smaller blocks, you will be able to refine your sensitivity, and find this target and balance on it with more and more accuracy every time.
How do you use it?
You can use the trainer on any firm surface – such as tiles, wooden floors, carpet, and even firm snow. Simply clip it onto your ski boots and push in your chosen blocks from four levels of difficulty!
Take a look at the video!
You can order these from NASTC or on the SkiA website.

How to Use This Awesome Training Tool – Video

People Do Amazing Things

From the feel-good corner, here is a nice story from New England snow country, Whaleback Mountain in NH, where locals saved a mountain! Now more than 400 youths from nine towns are participating in affordable after-school programs. Most would never ski or snowboard otherwise. Some come from hardscrabble towns; others from single-parent families with no disposable income. No one is turned away. If they need financial assistance, they get it. Nearly 200 more student-athletes train there weekly with clubs or teams.

Whaleback Mountain Club – Feel Good Story

Rossignol Experience 100TI – A Great Ski!!

Elevate your EXPERIENCE with the new benchmark in all-mountain performance. Award-winning Air Tip technology, new waist widths, and a longer, more progressive tip profile deliver elevated performance and uncompromising on and off-trail versatility. Auto Turn Rocker blends powerful edge grip with effortless maneuverability and speed control, while patented Air Tip technology enhances floatation and control even further, keeping tips afloat in variable snow and providing instant turn initiation. No matter where you ski – from the back bowls to frontside bumps and the hardpack in-between, the entire mountain awaits. EXPERIENCE MORE – See more at: http://www.rossignol.com/US/US/alpine-men-skis.html#sthash.X1SlVALh.dpuf

Shop Rossignol Here

Two Colorado trips this year: Aspen and Silverton

JANUARY 21-24, 2016
Silverton, CO is big mountain skiing at its best. This course is for serious powder skiers, no groomed terrain is available. You ski helicopter skiing type of terrain here in the Colorado backcountry without the expense and take your off-piste/side-country skiing skills to the next level without a doubt. Silverton is not your typical resort: you leave all the glitz and hustle of resort-skiing behind. What you get is fresh, untracked powder in a quiet and beautiful setting. While Silverton is a lift-accessed mountain (count it: one lift), there is some hking involved, especially to get to the really good stashes.
Do not be intimidated. Silverton Mountain is for advanced AND expert skiers. You must be comfortable on black diamond slopes, in variable snow conditions and hiking 5-20 minutes along ridgelines. All guests need an avalanche beacon, shovel, and probe in order to ski/snowboard. We can rent those to you, or you can rent at the mt. No avalanche! training is required. If you’ve skied some powder before, are in fairly good shape, and are excited to learn, you will enjoy Silverton. Its an amazing experience.
We stay in downtown Silverton, a 15 minute drive from the mountain (did we mention the “resort” is at the end of a dirt road, after a curvy mt drive up to it?) You will enjoy lovely accommodations and gourmet meals after a full day of shredding around the huge expanse that is Silverton Mountain.
You’ll be in a skill/fitness-appropriate group, no more than 5 in your group with your personal trainer and guide. You will get top-notch guiding and personal instruction. On this NASTC course – perhaps more than any other – the terrain AND the staff both teach you. You will improve, its an amazing experience.
FEBRUARY 26-29, 2016
Aspen Extreme! Not really, this course is for advanced intermediates through experts. It was a huge hit last year, we had a blast. And the snow gods graced us daily! Wit! h Staff like Victor Gerdin, Chris Fellows, Jenny Macarthy, and! Kurt Fehrenbach, you will learn so much! We ski all of Aspen’s famous mountains and stay in deluxe lodging. Come!

 

 

And Now For Something Completely Different…

Ski from your apartment to work?! Beats taking the stairs!

 

The storm door is O-P-E-N in Tahoe! Its coming folks! Thursday, Sunday, next week! Bring it on!
Chris is off to Big Sky, we’re here booking Silverton, Squaw, Niseko, St Anton, Aspen….where do you want to ski this year with NASTC?!

The Tahoe area got blanketed with a hefty layer of barely-November snow today! And with an overnight low of 18 in Truckee (much colder up at higher elevations we’re sure), its going to stay!

Friends and colleagues enjoyed turns on Mt Rose, kids made snowballs crusted with dirt, and we all drove s-l-o-w-e-r!

This bodes VERY well for our ski season!

Montana is also getting covered, and that’s the site of our FIRST COURSE! Big Sky Dec 14-17!

And at the risk of being morose, here is a fun chart by our friends at Teton Gravity Research:
Sports Ranked by Chances of Dying

And have you checked out our Silverton course?