Title : All-Mountain Skier : The Way to Expert Skiing
Author : R. Mark Elling
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Written for the intermediate skier
Elling wrote this for an intermediate to advanced skier looking to take their skiing to a higher level. Although it does have a good, large section on basic ski skills, it doesn't pretend to coddle a novice through pizza and french fries.
If the next day is a powder day, I'll review the sections on powder and crud. If it hasn't snowed in a while, I'll read the sections on carving and bumps. You can jump around and get exactly what you need out of it, and it's written very well for that purpose.
I highly recommend this book.
Title : Allen Mike's Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book (Falcon Guides Backcountry Skiing)
Author : Allen O'Bannon
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Cool book on cool weather camping
Well, I just panned a different book and said don't waste your money so now its time to even the score.
This book is great fun. I have lots of winter camping books and do a fair amount of winter camping. Other books may have more information, but none covers all of the basics with as much humor as this one. I do alpine skiing and snowshoeing so the coverage of tele skiing wasn't of particular interest...but I still really enjoyed reading those sections, too.
It is hard to describe the authors' irreverent approach while dealing with serious (life and death) topics, but they somehow pull it off. This is really a great book to engage someone who isn't already a hard-core winter camper...so if you are, buy it for your significant other (assuming you haven't been able to get them enthused about spending a winter weekend outdoors.) If they don't enjoy this book, you may officially give up on them.
Title : Snow Sense: A Guide to Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard
Author : Jill A. Fredston
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : A "big little book"
As a longtime Alaskan, I feel fortunate to have had both Doug and Jill in many courses. The book Snow sense is now the required reading material for all Nat'l Ski Patrol avalanche courses, and rightly so. I read it at the begining of every season. True avalanche professionals. If you ever have the chance, come to Alaska and take one of their courses.
Title : All-Mountain Skier : The Way to Expert Skiing
Author : R. Mark Elling
Rating : 3 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Pretty good book on skiing
I started out really liking this book, but was less impressed by the end. What I liked about the book is the writing style. Its well written, in an engaging way that makes it easy to keep turning the pages. However, I felt that much of the content was a bit disorganized, like a brain-dump of a terrific skier, but not presented in a way to nurture a skier along from one skill to the next. A good skier will be easily bored with this book in my opinion, I learned very little from it.
I offered the book to an intermediate friend of mine, thinking it would be ideal for him. He started out being enchanted by the writing style also, but after a few chapters gave up because the content was too scattered and random in the way its presented. In my opinion this is like a a brain dump from a ski instructor that has learned a lot of "tips" over the years and tried to find an engaging way to publish a bunch of those tips into a book form. I didn't entirely agree with a few points, but overall, I thought most of the tips and technique ideas were accurate and well presented with great drawings to illustrate them. Just kind of random order and so much information that an intermediate would be quickly overwhelmed and not know what to try next to apply any of this. My intermediate friend put the book down after a few chapters and just said it was "too much to think about". Each chapter did provide exercises at the end of the chapter for applying what that chapter talks about. So a committed skier could take them one chapter at a time and go work on it perhaps. However, I thought many of the exercises were just the typical exercises that every PSIA instructor uses to emphasize skills. What if the reader performs the exercises wrong? There were very few if any photos illustrating proper way to do the exercises. And the order of the chapters is not a step ladder of growth..its just random different topics.
I think the book could be useful for an intermediate that doesn't plan to read the whole book and follow it from start to end, but rather keep it as a reference. As they decide they need to work on one particular skill (Let's say after taking a lesson and finding out they are weak in an area), they could read the chapter covering that skill and try the exercises, perhaps remembering that these exercises are very similar to the ones they get in their lesson, and also read the in depth explanations about it..to help sink the ideas into their brain a little better. I see the book as more of a reference tool to come back to, little bits at a time.
I think a ski instructor could benefit from this book also because it provides a lot of examples of how to give a lesson.. It basically *IS* a series of PSIA lessons in a book. An instructor can learn verbalogy to use, exercises to a apply towards specific skills, etc. Of course all of that is also available through standard PSIA literature, but hey...another source doesn't hurt.
For me and my own skiing, there was nothing revolutionary in it. I much prefer "The Skiers Edge" by Ron LeMaster which did indeed teach me some things I didn't know. Its even more technical though...truly a book for experts.
Title : Ollie's Ski Trip
Author : Elsa Maartman Beskow
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Awesome story my son loves it!
We love all of her books and buy them 1 at a time as we can afford them. In an age of big in your face pop up books and childrens books that make your eyes hurt these books are a wonderful find. As always the illustrations are beautiful - I read all the reviews first but few had actual specifics about the actual invdividual stories of her books, so that's what I've done here. I hope it helps others know what wonderful books they are. I wish they were easier to find in Canada.
This story is about Ollie - his father gets him a pair of skis for his 6th birthday. He waited longingly for winter to come. He was so excited when it did that he wanted to go use his skis. His mum made sure he ate his porridge and was dressed warmly before he headed out. He came across Jack Frost who takes him to King Winters castle. They come across Mrs. Thaw who is trying to melt the snow but Jack Frost chases her off and breathes on everything to make it all frozen again. They go off to king winters castle which is beautiful and built of polished ice. He meets king winter and gets to see people sitting around the fire working away happily making ski boots and women knitting thick socks. In another room he sees girls knitting ski mitts and embroidering and in a big workshop some boys were building skis and tobggans and sledges and skate blades. They were trying to finish them all for everyone before Christmas. When they all took a break, Ollie gets to go outside and ski, skate and built snowmen and big snowcastles and have a huge snowball fight. When the break was over the children went back inside and Jack Frost offered to take Ollie home, so they harnessed a reindeer and had him pull them on Ollie's skis. Jack Frost said goodbye at the edge of the forest. Come Christmas morning Ollie was so excited to find a pair of magnificent skates for himself and a toboggan for his little brother. He knew at once Jack Frost had paid him a visit! He used his skates nearly every day that winter and they tried to get Mrs. Thaw to not come in the spring but she came and melted all the snow. Then spring came driving up in her airy carriage, and curtsied to Mrs. Thaw and Ollie decided he really liked Mrs. Thaw after all. Wonderful story!
