The Skiing ABCs M

The Skiing ABCs M -- a cube with M on its faces
The Letter M!
This entry is part [part not set] of 16 in the series Skiing ABCs

Happy New Year everyone.I am resolving to create more ski content. To be quite honest I am in preparation for my ski trip to Whitefish and the 2018 bike racing season. This means instead of grabbing my laptop when I get home or awake in the morning it means I jump on my bike-trainer setup and produce power. Anyway on this first day of 2018 I present to you the Skiing ABCs M!

The Skiing ABCs M — Monarch

The Skiiing ABCs -- Brian snapping a photo of the Majestic Colorado Rockies on top of Monarch Mountan
Brian snappinng a photo at the top of Monarch Mountain
Monarch Ski Resort is a ski resort in Central Colorado (a bit south and west of Colorado’s center). I have had the privilege of skiing there back in February of 2005. My brother, father, wife, aunt, and I got into my brother’s suburban and we drove to CAnon City where my cousin was living at the time. We hung out and took the drive to Salida and up the pass to the ski resort. We skied two days. I found the easy to moderate blues to be within my abilities and had a blast. I never did get off of those easy/moderate blue runs onto more advanced blues or blacks but it was still fun.

I found the pitches to be steeper and more sustained to what I was used to and the runs were wide. Best of all they were generally unpopulated with other skiers. I had a bad time the first day due to poor nutrition but the second day was great but the legs were feeling at the end of the day.

Monarch also features more vertical than what I was used to, but not all that much more. Monarch starts up way high and at the top of the resort you are above the treeline with the majestic views one expects when they are on top of a mountain. Best of all Monarch photos I feature on this site and on facebook are MINE.

The Skiing ABCs M — Mogul

The Skiing ABCs --- M -- a mogul field under a chairlift
Moguls at Monarch under the chairlift
Moguls — aka big bumps. Moguls form when people ski through powder snow. After enough people and time pass through that powder moguls form. I find there are hard moguls and soft ones. I am okay with the soft ones, as long as I can carve through the bump/pile I am good. However, I need to learn the tricks to deal with the hard moguls. Being a denizen of the midwest most of the moguls at the ski resorts I frequent are hard and often times formed by the resort. I think I am getting close to that day I can ski a mogul field.

Do you have any tips or pointers to share with respect to mastering moguls?

The Skiing ABCs M — MCL

The MCL is an acronym for Medial Collateral Ligament ACL’s partner. While it is very possible to injure the MCL while skiing, MCL injuries seem to more rare and less serious than ACL injuries.

The Skiing ABCs M — Mahre

Phil and Steve Mahre are twins who were on the US SKi team through the 70s and the 80s. Phil won a number of Olympic medals and won the 1982 overall cup in FIS world cup ski race series.

Phil’s twin Also won Olympic medals but was not as dominant as his brother.

The Skiing ABCs M — Montana

The Skiing ABCs M -- M is for skiing in Montana
I pine for this!
When it comes to skiing states we all typically think of Colorado and Utah first (with tons of justice in that thought). However, I think of Montana first. Montana is a great skiiing state. They have two major ski resorts and a number of other respectable ski resorts. However, it does not stop there — with all of the public mountain land there is plenty of opportunity for bold and skillful souls to engage in backcountry skiing.

The biggest ski resorts in Montana are Big Sky and Whitefish. However, there are other ones too, such as the famous Bridger Bowl, there is Blacktail, there is also Red Lodge. I have skied Whitefish and visited Bridger Bowl.

Have you ever skied in Montana, where and when — please share!

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Good Stuff!

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