PSIA-RM Rocky Mountain Academy

Every two years PSIA-Rocky Mountain region hosts a Rocky Mountain Academy. I actually led a Children’s version of this years ago. This year it was 3 days and I had participants from all over the region and U.S. I had one gentleman from Utah who had driven out for the event.

We started at Aspen Highlands, went to Aspen Mountain for a day, and then capped off the event with hiking the iconic Highlands Bowl.

This group was awesome and they challenged me in multiple ways. We had some folks coming off an injury where the mental aspect was critically important. We had others who wanted to ski bumps all day. Basically, they wanted to punish themselves and leave the end of the day without the ability to walk anywhere. I can appreciate that mindset. I, too, am a bell-to-bell type of guy. Ski from the first chair (bell) to the last chair (bell).

What I am starting to learn is that it is okay to slowly work into feedback. What I mean by that is that we can do drills and tasks and I can figure out people’s movement patterns pretty quick. However, if I pause and really think it through, it is so much better for the participants and for me. The reason I am coming to this conclusion is that now that I am on the National Team, people expect big things from me. They expect me to change their skiing, almost instantly. This is a challenge because when people are “doing that thing” that they have done for ever, it can be incredibly difficult to break a movement pattern. I am up for the challenge and this event was a great learning opportunity for me. How do manage a wide spectrum of motivations - return from injury, drill/exercise junkies, mileage maniacs (in a nice way), and those who are here for the “pin polishing?” I am not sure if I nailed it, but I definitely delighted in the opportunity to try.