Rachel Gray, our Executive Director, loves to ski. Read part five of this skiing series below.

If you’ve been following along with my winter series, you know this whole skiing thing has been a desire of mine for a while. Consequently, I’ve been lurking in the skiing space for a while.  

When I first expressed an interest in learning to ski, a colleague who skied avidly shared the Discover Ski Michigan program with me. Several ski hills around Michigan offer deeply discounted packages on equipment rental, beginner area access, and a 1-hour lesson for downhill skiing, snowboarding, and cross country skiing. I promoted the program on our social channels for Hello West Michigan.  Every year when January rolled around, I wondered why I wasn’t participating in the program.  

This year, after much preparation (I purchased my gear and found some ski friends), it was time to set some dates on the calendar. I planned to do the Discover Ski Michigan program, but discovered Caberfae Peaks offered an alternative event. Caberfae was the closest location to my house offering a program, so we picked it for convenience. It turned out to be the best choice.  

Caberfae partners with Bill and Paul’s Sporthaus for their Meet the Slopes event. The intent is similar to the Discover Ski Michigan program, but much more robust and thorough. By partnering with an outfitter, we had a longer and more fulfilling experience. Read on for a breakdown of an amazing winter day on the slopes. 

We started out the day by gathering at MacKenzie Lodge, the bar/restaurant on the first floor of Caberfae’s overnight accommodations. A hot buffet breakfast was included in the event. We were welcomed by Jon of Bill and Paul’s Sporthaus, whom I recognized from the company’s videos on Instagram. We received a pair of hand and toe warmers from Grabber and a pair of ski socks from SmartWool (a $30 value!), both brand partners of the event.   

Once everyone was assembled and fed, Jon started with an overview of the day and introductions. Pete, co-owner of Caberfae, was also on hand to welcome us and shared some history of the resort. Did you know Caberfae is the oldest ski area in Michigan and the 4th oldest in the country? It was established in 1937. Pete introduced our ski and snowboard instructors for the day. The event is held on Friday so the top instructors were available to us.  

Another fun guest during introductions was #BatmanoftheSlopes. This is a local character I had discovered during my online lurking of the Michigan ski communities. He is an unofficial mascot of sorts that skis all over Michigan in a full Batman costume. People take selfies and tag where he’s been spotted. Between Jon, Pete, and Batman, the excitement for the day and love of skiing was palpable. I was pumped to get started.  

Jon gave an overview of how to outfit yourself for a day on the ski hill. He said if you already do anything outdoorsy, the best place to look first is in your closet because you probably have gear that would work. Then, if you like the sport, you may want to invest in specific pieces for skiing. After this, we suited up in our jackets, split into our groups for the day, and headed to the rental building to pick up equipment.  

Although I had my own equipment, my group’s instructor, Dennis, helped me bind up my new ski boots correctly.  

We started with learning the parts of the ski, how to step our boots into the binding, and how to maneuver around without poles. Then we took turns going down beginner “Hot Dog” run with Dennis, practicing our pizza action to stop. It was fun to chat with the other group members while waiting for our turn down the hill. Throughout the day, Jon skied from group to group, checking in, taking pictures, and making sure fun was the priority for the day.  

At noon, we broke for lunch. As we headed to the Blackmer Day Lodge Dennis pointed out other parts of the resort. The Blackmer Lodge has a cafeteria with a selection of food for purchase. They have the best French fries in Michigan according to MLive. I sampled them and can attest they are amazing. The other option is the Skyview Day Lodge. Here, they have cubbies for your pre-hill gear, and a ring of outlets surrounds the room for plugging in croc pots if you want to bring your own lunch.  

After lunch, most of the group headed back to the beginner hill to practice turns.  Dennis took me up the chair lift to try a green run. While Dennis skied backward, he coached me through turns all the way down the hill. When I fell on a steep section mid-run, Dennis talked me through rolling out of the fall, and orienting my skis to get back up. At the bottom, he high fived me and headed back to the rest of my group. I continued skiing the green run on my own.  

My next 4 runs down the green run solo were not as smooth as with Dennis. But the air was fresh, the views were great, and I was outside having fun! The hardest part for me was conquering my fear of falling and the daunting challenge of the steep sections. At the end of each run I had to take a break, not so much for my legs, but so my heart could slow down. The experience made me realize booking a lesson/coach for my next trip would be a good idea.  

At the end of the day, the whole group gathered back at MacKenzie’s Lodge for après ski—French for “after ski” and a ritual that usually includes drinks, food, and friends. Jon invited some of his personal friends, all part of the ski community, and the instructors were on hand to celebrate the successes of the day. He also had a slideshow of photos taken throughout the day, so we could see ourselves in action. Jon raffled off even more great gear from Bill and Paul’s.  

If you’ve ever tried something new, you quickly realize there’s the surface things to learn, then there’s the unspoken rules, things that natives or long-time members of the community seem to inherently know. It can feel very “othering” when you’re new to a community, whether it be the skiing community or the West Michigan community. This is something we address in our Rapid Roots program. The Meet the Slopes event was the perfect entre into the skiing community because it also addressed this. From the warm welcome and square 1 approach, to inclusion in traditions like après ski and introductions to people in the ski community, Meet the Slopes should be on any new Michigander’s winter bucket list. 

 

Tips I learned at Meet the Slopes 

• Don’t wear your ski socks to the hill. If you have a long car ride, or are wearing boots, you’ll likely make them sweaty before you get outside, which means you’ll get a chill right away.  

• Generally, don’t bring your skis or poles into buildings. It can be really easy to whack someone. There are usually racks outside to leave your skis and poles in.  

• When skiing, it’s your responsibility to know what’s in front of you. Don’t come up on someone too closely. Always ski in control.  

• If you stop on the run, try to stop to the side of the run, and make sure you’re visible to people coming from uphill.  

• The 3 foods of skiing are french fries (skis parallel to go forward), pizza (the wedge shape you make to brake), and snow cone (the inverted wedge shape you make to walk up a hill).  

• If you get nervous, just wiggle your fingers. It helps you release the tension and probably ski better.  

• Skiing is easier to learn than snowboarding, but snowboarding is easier to perfect.