Q & A With Chester

Send your questions to me at chester@black-diamond.com

Q: Any suggestions on where I can get my boots properly fit/ adjusted? Denver area is fine or elsewhere if its worth the trip and $$...

A: Yes, it is absolutely worth the money. I had custom footbeds made for my Raichle racing boots a few years ago. My feet don't hurt at the end of a day anymore. A good bootfitter will take it even further, doing things with the shell or the liner to make it fit you like it should. One bootfitter I have been recommended is Lee Kinney at The Custom Foot in Englewood, CO. He has a website at www.thecustomfoot.com that gives a bit more information on what he does. I plan on taking my wife there in the near future to get her boots done up right.

Q: My wife had tried skiing once in the midwest and hated it. She is now willing to give it another shot, provided that I take a lesson with her, and we go slow. What she is looking for is if any place puts together a package deal: Lift tickets/ski rentals/lesson all in one. Not that we couldn't race around town renting skis locally and then getting a ticket at King Sooper or whatever, but if it were even with $20 or something, it'd be worth it to do it all there.

A: All of the areas offer combo deal of lift, lesson, rentals. Some even offer a deal where you pay xx for a lesson and you get a season pass, but I don't recall off the top of my head who it is.

But all things being equal, I would go to Copper Mountain for this. Their mountain is naturally divided in such a way that all of the beginning ski school stuff is done in one area served by two slow moving lifts (Union Creek). You don't have the problems other areas do of all skiers being funneled into the same base area. It can be pretty freaky to be toodling along and have someone come blasting past you at 60mph. They may be in total control, but it is disconcerting for the less experienced skier. None of that at Copper. They also have a rental shop and ski school signup stuff all right there at the Union Creek base area. Just rent a locker to stuff your shoes and other belongings into and you are good to go.

The base of Peak 8 at Breckenridge would be another option, but I really prefer Copper for this type of thing. And I don't even work or ski there anymore. ;)

Q: I want to step up my skiing this year so Im looking for some lessons or whatever I can do to take it up a notch. Time on the mountain is the best, and I hope to get as much as possible. Just want to make the best of it.

A: Most areas offer advanced lessons. The benefit of this is that the higher the level, the mor elikely it will be a private lesson, since people don't seem to think they need lessons after a certain point. Check your favorite area's website too - most of them offer specialty clinics to focus one a specific aspect. Racing, bumps, and steeps are just some of the ones I have seen offered.

Who is this Chester guy and why should I listen to him about skiing?

Hey, it's a free world. But I am not a mindless zombie just giving you unbased opinions. To be sure, what you see here are most certainly my opinions. But mind you, I have worked in the business and still have clients in the business. With these experiences in hand, I bring you my opinions on a variety of ski-related subjects. Don't believe me? View some of my past work from rec.skiing and rec.skiing.alpine, particularly the Somewhat Daily and Rather Infrequent Reports. If you really want to know more about me, a bio is available.