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Ski Clinics for the 2024-2025 Season
Here are the intended clinic offerings for the 2024-2025 season. Most clinics will happen in January and February.
You must be a CONC member to participate in any clinic, and clinics are free to members. Instructors are members who have experience teaching xc skiing or have recently attended CONC instructor training. Like most CONC events, the clinics are all powered by Volunteers!
Three main categories of clinics:
- Beginner Clinics on groomed terrain
- Advanced Clinics focused on downhill skills at Hoodoo Ski Area
- Beginner and Advanced clinics on ungroomed terrain.
Beginner Clinics on Groomed Terrain
CONC is offering a series of Beginner XC ski clinics: Basic, Advanced, Hills to help its members learn the basics of cross-country skiing on groomed XC trials and gain the skills and confidence so that they can develop the confidence to ski on easy XC trails and participate on beginner ski events. Learning on groomed terrain allows the focus to be on skills and techniques rather than the varying terrain conditions experienced in the ungroomed environment.
Basic Beginner XC Ski Clinic
New to cross-country skiing? Never skied before? Or XC skied years ago or only a couple times in recent years? Never took a ski lesson or one a long time ago? Still puzzled about moving effortless on XC skis on snow?
CONC is offering Basic Beginner Cross Country ski lessons for its members on groomed XC ski trails. The primary goal is to get the novice or beginner skier comfortable XC skis and learn how to use them to glide over the snow. By clinic’s conclusion the beginner skier will accomplish:
- putting on and taking off skis and poles
- developed a sense of basic balance, weight transfer and movement on XC skis
- introduced to diagonal striding and double poling
- ski on flat to gentle terrain on groomed trails and tracks
By lesson’s end, you will have learned basic skills and gained confidence to ski trails using a basic diagonal stride in ease and comfort, adapting newly found knowledge to navigating easy up and downhills
Oh, did we mention. Everyone falls down onto snow at some point—its a sure way of stopping. We’ll show you how to get back up on your skis with minimal frustration.
Advanced Beginner XC Ski Clinic
Graduate of CONC’s basic beginner XC ski clinic? Or been skiing for a while but never or not recently taken a XC ski lesson? Or just need to refresher lesson on the basics? Then signup for CONC’s Advanced Beginner XC Ski Clinic to be held on groomed XC ski trails. The goals of the Advanced Beginner clinic are:
- brief review of the basics and underlying skills covered in Basic Beginner clinic
- refinement of diagonal striding and double poling techniques
- introduce more skills and techniques for going uphill and downhill
- achieve confidence to ski gentle to moderate terrain
By lesson’s end, you will be moving along the trails with ease eager to apply your technique to groomed trail skiing.
Hills: Advanced Beginner XC Up/Downhill Technique Ski Clinic
Are you an accomplished XC skier at the Advanced Beginner level but find hills on groomed XC ski trails to be a challenge. The Hills: Advanced Beginner XC Up/Downhill Technique Ski Clinic will help you become a confident hill skier by building a solid foundation of skills. The goals of the Hills clinic are:
- adapting diagonal striding for uphills
- learn and practice other uphill techniques (herringbone, side-step, etc)
- control speed and stop using variations of the wedge (aka snowplow)
- make basic turns in a wedge
By lesson’s end, you’ll be moving with ease up hills of varying degree of steepness and descending in style using a combination of straight run, wedge and wedge turn on groomed trails.
Equipment for Basic Beginner, Advanced Beginner, and Hills: Advanced Beginner
Clinics will be offered on groomed XC trails with set tracks. The set tracks can accommodate a ski up to 70 mm in width. Recommended skis are double-cambered classic no-wax skis. Skis, boots and poles are available for rent at local ski shops. Please ascertain that your skis, boots, and poles are properly sized for your weight and height. Skis should be waxed prior to the clinic. We recommend applying MaxiGlide available at local ski shops.
Ski Trail Venues
CONC beginner ski clinics will be held on groomed XC ski trails with set tracks at either Meissner or Swampy sno-park west of Bend. A sno-park permit is required to park.
Both the XC Downhill clinic and the Telemark clinic will be offered at Hoodoo, taking advantage of their Thrifty Thursday discounted lift ticket. You will have to buy your own lift ticket. The benefits of conducting the clinic here is that students get to focus on the downhill skills and reserve energy for that, rather than expending energy climbing the hill before working on downhill skills.
X-C Downhill Clinic at Hoodoo
This clinic is for anyone wanting to continue to progress your skills, especially working on better ski control in the downhill mode. Coaches will work on a progression to include: Basic Body Positioning, Step Turns, Snow Plow Wedge, Wedge Turns, Kick Turns, Edge Control, Proper Hand Position, Pole Use, and much more. This is not a telemark clinic. CONC is offering a telemark clinic later in the season.
This clinic will be at Hoodoo, and you will have to purchase a discounted lift ticket ($33) to participate.
Prerequisites for this clinic are strict. Novice to intermediate skiers with some downhill experiences are invited. However, if you have lesser skills, the clinic will get frustrating for you and slow others down. The following equipment is required: skis of 88-90 or wider mm in width, three pin or cable bindings and appropriate beefy boots to match, wider skis in the 100 or more-shovel range are even better. REQUIRED: LEGITIMATE RUNAWAY STRAPS, SKI HELMET, ADJUSTABLE BACKCOUNTRY OR ALPINE POLES AND APPROPRIATE DRESS (ALPINE SKIING AND RIDING THE LIFT IS MUCH COLDER THAN A NORDIC TOUR). NNN-BC boots and bindings are not allowed unless you modify to allow for use of a ski leash (not easy to do). Pine Mountain Sports rents nice beefy backcountry skis with the new Rottefella Explore binding system and it is easy to add a leash to that system.
Telemark Clinic
Learn the oldest and most graceful turn in skiing. Join us at Hoodoo ski resort for an introduction to telemark skiing. We will focus on a progression of skills and drills that will guide you on your way to learning to telemark.
Skills covered: proper weight distribution, the telemark stance, lead changes, proper hand placement and pole use, wedge to tele turns, telemark to stop turn, step tele, and linking turns together.
This clinic will be at Hoodoo, and you will have to purchase a discounted lift ticket ($33) to participate.
We will start by using the very beginner lift at Hoodoo, The slope on this lift is super mellow, great for teaching and learning without being intimidated. If folks are progressing and comfortable, we can move on to other lifts and slopes. We will clinic for 2.5-3hours and break for lunch. You can bring lunch or grab something from the café in the lodge. I plan to free ski after lunch and folks are welcome to join me practicing and learning the mountain. Will stay on greens and easy blues after lunch.
Prerequisites: CONC’s XCD clinic or solid downhill ski control including snowplow wedge and wedge turns, P turns, Step turns and generally comfortable on skis on downhill landscapes.
Equipment requirements: Wide and beefy backcountry set ups with fish scales is OK, skis need to be 110mmwide at shovel (front) and 90mm wide under foot (or wider) with 75mm and 3 pin bindings or cable bindings. All skis must have retention devices or ski brakes. Even better for the clinic would be a true telemark setup: 75mm bindings (cable) or NTN, and tele specific skis with no scales. I have a few pair of loaner 75mm skis if you have 75mm boots for backcountry and want to try a true telemark ski instead. Please contact Woody for this as we would need to adjust bindings the week prior to the clinic. REQUIRED: LEGITIMATE RUNAWAY STRAPS, SKI HELMET, ADJUSTABLE BACKCOUNTRY OR ALPINE POLES AND APPROPRIATE DRESS (ALPINE SKIING AND RIDING THE LIFT IS MUCH COLDER THAN A NORDIC TOUR).
Backcountry skiing is the heart of CONC. The miles and miles of trails we maintain are ungroomed, marked only with blue diamonds and perhaps the tracks of someone who got going earlier than you did. This is a much more uncontrolled environment. Conditions vary widely. A trail that was easy peasy last week could be mildly terrifying today with different snow conditions. As such, these clinics will adapt to changing conditions.
Introduction to Backcountry Clinic
So, you’ve been working on your diagonal stride technique on groomed terrain, but how do you make the transition to the miles and miles of ungroomed trails? This clinic will introduce the skills and techniques needed for exploring ungroomed trails, including skiing on the flat, easy uphill, moderate downhill, stopping, getting back up, a discussion on gear, and dealing with variable snow conditions.
Appropriate ski equipment: 58-70 mm width skis. Wider skis (65 mm or more) will be easier for downhill.
Intermediate Nordic Tour Clinic
This cross-country ski clinic will focus on techniques and tips to build confidence while traveling off the beaten path. Required proficiency level is advanced beginner to intermediate. The clinic will provide a moveable feast of instruction for uphill and downhill, as well as guidance in efficient techniques for dealing with variable snow conditions. Advanced beginners will gain tips and techniques for skiing green or blue backcountry Nordic trails. Intermediate Nordic skiers will build on skills to more efficiently negotiate ungroomed trail conditions (advanced skiers are also invited to attend to review and refresh their already existing skill set). The group will stop at locations along the tour to receive instruction, practice, and then receive feedback before moving on to the next site for subsequent drills.
The gear required for this trip is as follows:
- Full metal edged skis at least 65mm wide at the tip.
- three pin, Xplore or NNN BC bindings
- a stiffer soled backcountry touring boot
- adjustable or full length poles with a powder basket
- day pack with the 10 essentials
- glide wax of some kind
- lunch
- spare gloves and hat