Ski Utah Blog - Related Articles

Ski extravaganza at Deer Valley

Posted by Jodi Saeland on March 7, 2010

After 6 Friday afternoon lessons at Deer Valley, we have arrived at the Ski Extravaganza.  It is the last day of lessons and the kids put on a little show for the parents to show them what they have learned during their time.  It is a beautiful day at Deer Valley and I've decided to take Brennan out to the moving carpet to see if he'll do a little skiing as well.  After lugging all our equipment in and getting Emily sorted out, me and Bren head out.  First off....way overdressed.  Ok, up the hill we go anyway to get to the beginner area.  I've done everything right...had snacks, water, change pants...what could really go wrong.  Yep...you guessed it....he doesn't want to go!  We go up once and he lays down on the ground and won't move.  He's sweating because I've overdressed him and he's done before we started.  Again, a lesson I've taught throughout my blog to everyone but myself, DON'T try to teach your 2 year old to ski.  Get an instructor.  At this age, if they don't want to do it...game over!  So, we decide to lounge in the sun and wait for Emily's show to begin.

The show is for all the Bambi and Reindeers.  Since Emily is 4, she's still a Bambi so she has had her lessons with Myles and one other little girl which has been nice.  I've blogged about the whole program in a previous entry, but it really is nice to have the 2 on 1 lesson at this age.  The kids get a lot of attention and can really learn almost one on one the correct techniques.  If you can't quite afford a private lesson, this is definitely the way to go.  Also, gaining the trust of the same instructor week after week, a good relationship is built.  The kids get to know the routine of the day and can concentrate on building their skills vs wondering what is happening next.

After me and Brennan have had our sit time, let the show begin.  I still have my ski boots on; so does Brennan.  We stop to say hi to Ruby and then off we go.   After carrying Bren up the hill where all the parents are lining the ski run in the sun, I'm roasting and worn out.  Quite a sight, the 2 of us.  The music is playing over the loudspeakers and the announcer is letting us know what is happening.  Each instructor will ski down with his group as they announce their names.  Could this be the start of Emilys Olympic training? :)  Each instructor has a name for their group and have put balloons or some decoration on the kids helmets.  We watch as each group comes down and finally here comes Emily.  "Team Tiger" is what name Myles has given them.  Now, since Em is just 4, I haven't had many of those "heart swelling, eyes tearing moments"....this is one of them.  Em has come so far this year and I am so proud!  It doesn't matter than Brennan is pulling the rope down and laying on the ground 1/2 way on the slope..here comes Em!!  She skis down and at the bottom gets a "medal".  A gal puts a "medal" around her neck.  (It is a big cookie wrapped in tinfoil, better than a gold medal!)  I have included the whole video and it is so cute .

A successful 6 weeks at Deer Valley and I would recommend it to anybody who has the time to bring the kids.  It is well worth it and definitely an experience I won't forget.  Thanks Myles...our Australian instructor at Deer Valley for the winter.  Deer Valley employs many seasonal workers from Chile, Australia and New Zealand.  A great global flare for the thousands of visitors every year.  It also is a great place in the summer to mountain bike and hike as well.  I would definitely check it out in the off season.  It is quiet with beautiful scenery and you may have the mountain to yourself

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The Amazing Utah Adventures of the Travelocity Roaming Gnome

Posted by The Ski Utah Yeti on February 10, 2010

Last week Travelocity pinned Utah vs. Tahoe in a heated competition to see where the Roaming Gnome would go to cure his ‘cabin fever.’

Over 280,000 votes were cast and thousands of comments lobbied for the two destinations, but at the end of the day, it was Utah which won by a mere 0.02% of the votes. Who would have known that this bearded garden Gnome was such a rockstar?!? The Gnome was enthusiastically greeted by fans across the state and created quite a stir wherever he went. The two-foot tall celebrity was given V.I.P. treatment and sampled the best that Utah could offer. 

The Gnome skied and snowboarded with Olympians in Park City, drove a bobsled, sun-tanned on Deer Valley's famous McHenry's beach and sampled spirits at High West Distillery. He hucked cliffs at Snowbird, rode the tram and relaxed at the Cliff Spa. In Salt Lake City, he boogied with the Jazz dancers and sang with the Mormon Tabernacle choir. He curled at the Utah Olympic Oval and drank beers with his friends at Squatters. The Gnome did all this and more, but his favorite thing about Utah was, "The locals and their Greatest Snow on Earth®."

Thank you to everyone for their support and for voting him to Utah!

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Westminster Students look to Crystal Ball to Predict Olympic Quotas

Posted by Jessica Kunzer - Communication Director on November 11, 2009

U.S. Snowboarding is a step ahead of the curve this Olympic season as a project in conjunction with its partnership with Westminster College has enabled officials to forecast how many athletes will be Vancouver Bound this year.
When Westminster College freshman Claire Bonner discovered that her final management project would not be just another boring assignment, she and her fellow classmate Karl Gerner gladly accepted. Originally thinking they would be creating a statistical program for the college’s ski team, they were stoked to find out that they would be developing a unique forecasting model to help U.S. Snowboarding make decisions on where specific halfpipe athletes should compete, and which athletes would ultimately make the 2010 Olympic team.

In the past, U.S. Snowboarding's athletes attended as many World Cup events as possible in order to ensure athlete qualification, as there was no data available to show which competitions were most advantageous to attend and which were not.

"We decided to create a model to help U.S. Snowboarding get rid of those educated guesses," Bonner explained.

While the U.S. Ski Team and U.S. Snowboarding has been a partner of Westminster College for nearly five years, U.S. Snowboarding first approached Westminster College in 2008 to ask for help with forecasting its athletes' competition schedules to maximize the U.S. team’s Olympic chances. With the team’s domination of the 2002 and 2006 Olympic Games, it hoped to continue a strong performance while balancing its athletes’ busy schedules. A key part of that is ensuring that U.S. athletes have strong results on the World Cup circuit which is used to determine national quotas for each of the three snowboarding Olympic events. The goal was to maximize the quota spots in as many events as possible.

Using a spreadsheet-based software suite for predictive modeling, forecasting and simulation called Crystal Ball, the students put together a program that could determine which athletes should compete and where they needed to compete to get maximum results while minimizing costs and interference to the athletes’ professional competition schedules. Since many snowboarders juggle their schedules with major events like World Cups, U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix, the U.S. Open and X-Games, it was essential to develop a system that could help them balance their season.

After working tireless hours in the library and seeking guidance from their professor, Dr. Alysse Morton, the students completed what they considered to be a “perfect” model for the team.  The model is capable of taking the athletes’ previous, present and future predicted scores, as well as the scores from other competing athletes from around the world to predict whether the athletes would qualify for the Olympics or not.

"The model works by predicting a range that each athlete could score in a given competition based on their previous results in similar events, such as the World Cup," described Bonner. "Then this score is multiplied by either a one, if they attended the event, or a zero if they did not attend the event. Then all of the athletes are put in order based on their ranking in the raw scores. The rank received is assigned with corresponding points to the athlete."

While the program sounds relatively easy to understand, the duo had a few glitches along the way.

"The main problem we faced when working on this project was the actual gathering of the previous athlete data due to many of the athletes' short history competing at the World Cup level. Also, snowboarding halfpipe is a relatively new sport in the Olympic Games, which made it hard to gather good data. We had to predict the athletes’ average performance and calculate the possible range that they could achieve at their maximum and their minimum potential," said Gerner.

U.S. Snowboarding Program director Jeremy Forster believes the model was very useful in planning the upcoming competition season.

"The work that was done was a great help in planning our season and the athletes’ schedules," he said.  "The initial forecasting was very useful and looks like it will be quite accurate once the final Olympic quota spots are determined on January 18, 2010."

When asked if any of the results surprised him, he noted, "In general, I think the results were expected but the model helped validate our initial thoughts."

All in all, the feedback the students received was very positive.

"Overall, I think they did a great job.  Both Claire and Karl put a lot of time into understanding the goal of the project and researching the results of the athletes to make sure the data was as accurate as possible," said Forster.

"All the feedback we have received from USSA has been extremely positive," echoed Bonner. "I believe that they are truly stoked about being able to reduce their costs and have the ability to predict more accurately which athletes are going to qualify for the Olympics."

The students are continuing to refine the numbers throughout the 2009 season to ensure the model is as accurate as possible. In January, when the official Olympic team is finally selected, the students will find out just how accurate the model really is.

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