Dodge Ridge
MVP:
YouTube—I watched dozens of beginner’s videos on skiing and it accelerated how fast I picked up skiiing when I was on the slopes! It helped me get my money’s worth during the ski lesson. I especially recommend the videos on the REI channel!
Resort Review:
I found Dodge Ridge to be small, but awesome for what it is.
I believe the place was built to accommodate far fewer people than it currently allows, but given it’s proximity to the bay area, and the low prices, it wasn’t a surprise how many people were there.
It was sold out when I tried to get it, but their $99 beginner package that includes rentals, beginner lifts, and a group lesson is bonkers value.
Their private lesson price was comparable to other smaller ski resorts. The instructor that I got was really good. He realized how athletic Kyle and I were and fast-forwarded through the very early parts of the lesson.
Because of how many people were there, the beginning and the end of the runs were crowded, but good snow is good snow, so I had a great time.
Their food prices ranged around $10/person, which was much lower than I had expected. Their vegan burger tasted just fine to me.
What I Learned:
I learned how to ski! I really enjoyed it too, as it’s kind of like hopping from side to side when you’re trying to go fast, and zigzagging in exaggerated curves when trying to go slow. I found it more intuitive than a snowboard, though that’s probably due to my experience on ice skates.
Next time I go skiing, I want to test myself with parallel skiing and then move on to trying to learn how to carve on blue runs.
I skied with sunglasses on, and it worked fine since the weather was so nice. But I want to get goggles for the next time I ski.
Compared to when I learned how to snowboard by myself at Northstar 20 years ago, where I fell every time exiting the ski lift, I only fell once on skis (and it was due to my snowboarding lift mate).
Fears Faced:
Fear of Crashing—I thought I’d be immune to this because of my experience snowboarding, but it had been more than a few years since I had last snowboarded, and more than 10 years since I had gone down blue slopes on my snowboard. When I was trying to figure out parallel turns, I started to pick up speed and it genuinely scared me. I leaned back, lost balance, and ate snow. I did this a few times before I realized that I had to commit and lean forward to stay in control of the skis. My last run was my best one, where I felt in control the whole time.
Friends:
Asking Kyle if he wanted to go ski with me was an awesome decision. I found out that like me, he was an intermediate level snowboarder who wanted to learn how to ski. After we found out that the group lessons were fully booked out, he convinced me to take the private lesson (after his personal great experience taking snowboarding lessons years after he first learned how to snowboard), which turned out to be a great decision. We learned really fast under the instructor’s guidance, and got pretty comfortable on the beginner slopes. On top of all that, he made for a fun conversation partner when we ate in the town of Sonora.
What Happened?
During my avalanche class, I made a vow to learn how to ski so that I could back country ski when it was a powder day. I started my journey in learning how to ski at Dodge Ridge with Kyle.
We arrived about an hour before our scheduled class, and spent that time renting our gear and getting ready without any time pressure. Even with our slow pace, we were ready 15 minutes before our class, which was perfect.
Our class was 2 hours, but it went by in a whirl. There was so much to learn. First, we learned the basics of our ski equipment (how to carry, wear, etc). Then we learned the basic pizza/french-fry technique. Then we learned wedge turns on this short slope area that was used with a magic carpet lift (only for people taking lessons). Once we had that down (I’m going to bet this was around the 40 minute mark), we rode the lift to go down my first green run on skis! We rode up to the top of a run called Clementine, and slowly made our way down using and learning wedge turns. I think on the second run, I felt like I mastered the wedge turn, so it was time to learn the parallel turn. We then went down Clementine a few more times before our lesson was over. I felt pretty comfortable on skis parallel turning on the gentler slopes, but when it got steep, I ended up going too fast and falling down.
It being 11am, Kyle and I went over to the cafe to scarf down lunch, which turned out to be yummier and cheaper than we had expected. It was so full however, we had trouble finding seats. We were going to eat standing up, until this lady saw us and shared her table with us, which was super nice.
After lunch, we went down this run called Ego Alley, which our instructor pointed out to us to try, as it was a bit longer and advanced than Clementine. I think we both crashed at once on this run, but did well otherwise. I felt like I was getting the hang of parallel skiing and felt my confidence growing. However, Kyle had worked out his legs the day before, so he called it and headed back down to his hotel room. I felt fine and lined up again.
I met some cool people on the lift and found out they were both learning how to snowboard by themselves. They had drove up from Tracy and were fun to talk to. This time down Ego Alley, I again crashed the first time I picked up speed, but reminded myself to commit. I just kept telling myself to commit. Commit. Commit!
I lined up once more on the same lift, and decided to go down the Bunny Trail. However, before I could, I think I must have waited 20 or so minutes just to get on the lift. This part felt draining, and I told myself that this would be the last run. Good new though, is that I finally didn’t fall, and went down at a good clip (I think I hit 20mph). I felt in control, and felt confident about my skiing abilities.
Afterwards, I skied past the lift and returned my gear. It had been a great day of skiing, though I did start to feel some pain in my right knee. I think I must have hurt it on one of my falls. Still, I had a big smile on my face, and was looking forward to my next ski day.