Title : Hermann Maier: The Race of My Life
Author : Hermann Maier
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Skiingwith the best of the best!
I thought that Hermann Maier wrote a very candid and authentic book about his victories and struggles in the world of expert skiing...a help to the layman and an inspiration to the professionals about not giving up and how to reach for those goals/dreams!
This book is a realistic perspective of a true hero and athlete and it's a great read for young and old!
I enjoyed it very much and I applaud Hermann for his perspective on life and on skiing.
Title : Dawson's Guide to Colorado's Fourteeners, Vol. 1: The Northern Peaks
Author :
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : a great guide for year round climbing
Lou Dawson is incredible, not only does he describe summer routes in this guide but makes one want to get out of their "warm" recliner and conquer some winter and spring routes as well. a must have book for Colorado's 14'ers. While you at it, get Vol 2 as well!
Title : The New Guide to Skiing: A Step-by-Step Guide in Color, Revised Edition
Author : Martin Heckelman
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Clear advice on skiing
I found this book, with many fine pictures and clear instructions to be very useful, at least for an intermediate skier who wants to improve. I particularly liked the recognition that there is more than one "right way" to ski. I question whether a complete novice could learn without instruction using this book, but the beginners section would probably be a good guide for instructors on useful beginners exercises.
Title : Harald Harb's Essentials of Skiing (Includes Free DVD)
Author : Harald Harb
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Essential reading for ski improvement!
This book is a masterpiece of ski instruction and deserves to be appreciated on many levels.
At the simplest level, the book has drills, which, when practiced, will bring effective movements into your skiing. These movements give much greater control, with less effort.
For a more focused skier, cues are provided for self-coaching, to be sure you are performing the drills accurately. Review of video of your skiing, in slow motion, will disclose any movements, like stemming, steering, and skidding, that are clues that execution of the movements could be improved.
If you already ski well, but want to bump your performance up a few notches, then Harb's conceptual and technical explanations and diagrams can trigger an understanding of how even subtle movements can have a big impact. Each of the essentials has a significant interaction with the other essentials. Greater finesse in performing one essential will enhance the effectiveness of other movements. In its explanations of these reinforcing actions, the book demonstrates its greatest level of insight.
All of the above observations are based on serial readings of the book, dryland and on-snow practice of the drills, video analysis, and PMTS coaching. When the movements are done correctly, the skis just behave better!
Throughout the book, the writing is clear and the pictures and diagrams clarify the text. The included DVD complements the stop-action photos.
If you are serious about improving your skiing, look no further for a book to aid your development. Some suggestions about how to get the most benefit:
1. read it through cover to cover to get a good understanding of the concepts
2. practice the drills and pay careful attention to the cues that indicate whether you are performing the tasks correctly
3. spend time repeating the drills until you can easily do them accurately
4. verify your performance by analysis of your tracks, video, or a knowledgeable observer or coach, preferably Harb trained
5. alternate between drills and free skiing, but pay attention while free skiing to be sure you incorporate the movement patterns from the drills
6. consider participating in the PMTS on-line forum [...]
While still technically consistent with the Anyone Can be An Expert Skier volumes I and II, the style of presentation is very different and the explanations and diagrams approach the concepts from a different angle than the earlier books.. Those who have studied volumes I and II in detail will still find new material, like dryland and on-the-snow drills. In short, Essentials is completely complementary to Harb's earlier works.
Title : Allen Mike's Really Cool Telemark Tips
Author : Allen O'Bannon
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : This book Rocks
I rented telemark gear and bought this book at the same time. It was fabulous. I had never tried telemarking before and had no clue what I was doing. I have skied for 20 year, switch to snowboarding 6 years ago, but the itch to learn something new sprang up again. I wanted to be able to go backcountry, but first I need a mode of transportation. Telemarking I thought, but how in the world do I do that?? It looked so difficult.
This book was the answer! I read it cover to cover, that isn't saying much seeing how most of it is drawing and diagrams, but it taught me so much. The picture are worth a thousand words. Every drawing gives you so much information, a visual on what you are supposed to look like. I still have no idea if I look like that, but at least I believe I do.
I had actually taken a lesson first, no offense to the instructor, but I got so much more out of the book. It wasn't an hour of information, it was day after day of information, I could read something and try it out. Ahhh that is what I was doing wrong!
If you want to learn how to telemark buy this book, if you have been telemarking and still aren't sure what you are doing wrong, buy this book. It is funny and entertaining as well as extremely helpful in learning how to telemark. Good luck and enjoy!!
Title : The Complete Snowboarder
Author : Jeff Bennett
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : The book was great.
I really liked the book The Complete Snowboarder. It is full of a lot of useful information on how to get started snowboarding. It explains not only the basics but also how to do tricks. I would recommend this book to anyone who has even the slightest interest in snowboarding because once they read it they won't be able to wait for the snow to fall.
Title : Anyone Can Be an Expert Skier 2: Powder, Bumps, and Carving (Includes Bonus DVD)
Author : Harald Harb
Rating : 3 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Great method-- but HH could use an Editor.
I read Anyone Can Be An Expert Skier 1 and also had the DVD. There was no question as to whether I should get this second volume. I have to say, this season I've decided to stick with one learning method and PMTS is it. And this season, I'm skiing better than ever. I've even had the opportunity to ski with one of Mr. Harb's colleagues and be taught the method firsthand as well. I can say, it's even simpler than it looks in the books.
I found the more I perfect Harb's PMTS method, the more effortless, efficient, and confident my skiing. With much less muscle strain and more control.
This is my one gripe about both books, however (and their DVDs). For a teaching method that is supposed to target and improve the beginner-intermediate and advanced-intermediate alike, Mr. Harb's presenation is highly academic and wordy. I understand that he wants to be comprehensive about the method. Understood. However, reading through both books (ACES II is less of an offender) sometimes feels like reading through a Boeing 767 Engineering manual.
The way the chapters are presented and the sections titled hardly differentiates one from the other. Even in the first book, the names of some sections were only different by one word out of four. Then very simple moves would be described repeatedly, redundantly, and ad nauseum, proving him the King of Overstatement. I often wondered while reading, "Couldn't HH have devised more memorable lesson names for the lessons than (e.g.) 'Inside Foot to Little Toe Edge'?"
These are all very simple moves. They shouldn't have been so complicated and confusing to comprehend. I wonder if I would have been able to grasp it at all had I not had some live (albeit informal) instruction from a PMTS pro.
I don't think Mr. Harb should worry that his PMTS method is so simple it would make too short of a book otherwise-- he includes so much other fantastic information on gear and conditioning that he could have cut the PMTS lessons copy to be more reader-friendly.
I think Mr. Harb once nailed simplicity in his initial DVD, when he simply professed, "Release, Transfer, Engage." Other than that, he succeeded in confusing the heck out me many times by overstating principles and jumping topic instead of focusing on simplifying RTE movements one at a time.
One thing I do love is the cheat sheets you can tear out and bring with you on the slopes. These are ingenius, and shows how much HH wants to teach us great skiing. In fact, I don't know how any other ski book or video has gotten along without something similar. HH answered a common dilemma for me, who looks at many skiing videos: How do you remember the lessons from a book or video to actually practicing on-slope?
Perhaps HH should have used the cheat sheets as a starting point for the book chapters-- they're much simpler and broken down much more logically.
I think once you read and re-read the book and live with it for a while, get used to HH's lengthy method of presentation and simplify it yourself, this is the only ski instruction you may ever need. Unfortunately I wish Mr. Harb did the simplifying for us in advance.
I still highly recommend for anyone who wants to get out of the Intermediate Rut.
Title : Everything the Instructors Never Told You About Mogul Skiing
Author : Dan Dipiro
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : At last, a practical book on mogul skiing.
First, I am 63 and have been skiing for 40+ years. I now live in Southern California but generally ski at either Mammoth or Snowbird. I can turn my skis right and left and can usually get down most of the in-bounds trails at most resorts including the mogul runs. I like it all, but I really like bump skiing.
To that end, I want to give Dan DiPiro a big THANK YOU for writing Everything... . Frankly, my experience suggests he's absolutely right when he says that most ski instructors do not know how to ski bumps and try to teach people to ski bumps using racing technique. So while I do OK in the bumps, I have never quite mastered skiing the zipper line the bump skiers use.
Of course, it never dawned on my until read Dan's book, that the problem was not me, but my not knowing the techniques that the pro bump skiers used. I found the way in which he broke down the differences between trail and mogul skiing to make a lot of sense and I am looking forward to using the exercises he includes in his book to develop an alternate skill set that I can use to improve my bump skiing. So here's to Dan - for making a major contribution to skiing in general and my bump skiing in particular.
