YOUR SPACE Instructors who committed to a
resort for the season were left out at a soggy lineup like laundry left on the line during a rain storm.One instructor, true story, said to his students, “I’m not sure what you expect to learn today, the skiing is terrible and it’s due to global warming!” T ere is a real sense among our ski and snowboard instructor ground troops that we are losing our battle against climate change. A mother who raised her children skiing on slopes near Reno told me she feels like she’s been trying to “out-ski climate change.” But, climate change is gaining on her. “I think I could get into another sport,” she said, “but I keep thinking that when the snow goes, the water goes, too, so how long will it be possible to have a life here in the Truckee Meadows that resembles what it was like in the ’70s, ’80s or even ’90s?”
California’s mountain snowpack offi cially hit zero percent of normal on May 29, and signs like this along the I-5 in Central Valley tell the story.
T e snowsports industry is trying its best to put on a happy face with promises of bigger, better expansions of facilities and never-before-off ered services, but until we see a drastic shift in the weather patterns, we will be funneled into smaller patches of a thinner layer of snow, higher and higher toward the mountain summit until we eventually fi nd ourselves skiing at the edge of the earth. Right?
A former two-term member of the PSIA Alpine Team, Chris Fellows is the author of Total Skiing and Tactics for All Mountain Skiing, has worked closely with the Center for Health and Sports Performance, and is an adviser for several snowsports industry companies. He wishes to thank Melanie Ann Peck, of CommuniClarity, for insights shared during the development of this essay. Email:
chrisnastc@gmail.com;
facebook.com/chris.fellows.3994;
http://skinastc.com/
Facebook: www. website:
FOR MORE PERSPECTIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE, SEE PAGE 50.
WHAT PSIA-AASI HAS DONE FOR ME By “Last Chair Dave” Iskowitz
PSIA-AASI has given me countless hours of fun riding, learning, and meeting other instruc- tors across the U.S. I’ve got a great network of instructors at my home mountain, Camel- back, Pennsylvania, some of whom have helped me expand my network at other moun- tains I’ve visited. An examiner from my division introduced me to a former AASI Snowboard Team member I was able to ride and train with a couple of times in Colorado. Another time a fellow instructor from Camelback put me in touch with certifi ed instructor friends at But- termilk, Colorado; when I went there, I was able to rip some runs with them and meet other PSIA-AASI members. Alternatively, a few times visiting instructors have showed up at our mountain, and if I’m able, I get out there and make some runs with them. After all, that’s why we are here – to ride ‘n slide. This unique organization has challenged my riding and allowed me to improve, made me
Dave Iskowitz
a better and more eff ective teacher, and introduced me to a wonderful group of friends along the way. It’s great fun to train and help out fellow instructors, pushing each other for the next level of certifi cation and making lifelong friendships in the process. It’s so cool to see the PSIA or AASI pin on the jacket of a stranger and instantly be able to connect and share life-changing stories about what this organization has done for us. I wou ldn’t trade it for anything.
Dave Iskowitz is a Level III snowboard instructor at Pennsylvania’s Camelback Resort, in Eastern Division. 10 | 32 DEGREES • FALL 2015
CHRIS FELLOWS
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