Zack Novak, 2016 Recipient of the Petzl Scholarship
I grew up about as far from skiing as possible, both physically and conceptually. No one in my family skied, and home was in Jerusalem, Israel. So I knew very well that as part of my progression down the road to becoming an American Mountain Guide would be to focus hard on the ski discipline.
Casey Graham and Will Nunez assessing the snowpack on Red Lady. Photo: Zack Novak
I spent two seasons in Vail nearly a decade ago learning to ski on Telemark gear. And two years ago, around the same time that I was starting to come to terms with the fact that in order to become a mountain guide I would have to live in a country with mountains, I bought my first Alpine Touring setup and started working through the growing pains of learning how to ski with my heels locked down.
During my Rock Guide Course in 2014, I was drilling friends about the discipline that seamed least defined to me; skiing. The message came across loud and clear from all of them, “it’s all about movement skills,” they said. On rock, it’s really easy to quantify movement with letter and number grades, on skis however, it’s more subjective. So I did what they all recommended, bought a ski pass and started to pound out the turns. As much as skiing in the backcountry is one of the most enjoyable things we do, you just don’t make nearly as many turns as you do skiing a full day at the resort where you can spend over thirty thousand vertical feet focusing on perfecting every type of turn.
Will Nunez on top of Axtell. Photo: Zack Novak
Sure enough, during the Ski Guide Course in Crested Butte, when I asked our instructors what they look for in ski technique, the words “it should look inspirational” were used to define the bottom line of what we should be aspiring to in our skiing. That has been a huge challenge to live up to as someone who did not grow up on skis. Luckily, skiing is also tons of fun, so I’m happy to take this on as a lifelong pursuit!
Whether you’re an IFMGA pinned guide that just likes to read AMGA blog posts, a skier or climber that’s looking to hire a guide, or a prospective guide course participant on your path to certification, here are some of the things we covered during the course:
- Vince Anderson’s five W’s of skiing: We Won’t Walk Will We?
- How to assemble and use a rescue sled in a drill that will test everything from building snow anchors to passing knots
- Client care includes the music that you choose to plug into the stereo in the snow cat, and although some might like the Eagles, others probably don’t
- Lots of Euro words to describe different types of turns and track setting
- More styles of kick turns than you ever thought possible, all of which should be avoided if possible
Steve Banks, Casey Graham and Dick Chasse on Gothic. Photo: Zack Novak
After nearly a decade on skis, I may not be up to par with the kids that grew up racing on ice YET, but I can definitely hold my own in the group, and hopefully I am “Inspirational” at least some of the time.
The Ski Guide Course was a great stepping stone that solidified the expectations of what a ski guide should be able to do, and allowed me to fine tune the skills that we use every day in the mountains.
Huge thanks to our instructors, Vince Anderson, Mike Soucy and Steve Banks, the great crew of people that got together and helped make the course amazing, and of course Petzl for the scholarship that helped allow me to take this course.
Vince Anderson, Karin Pocock, Will Nunez and Christopher Martin on Redwell. Photo: Zack Novak
