I would argue that no one has taught more people to heliski powder than Robert Koell, aka Roko. The Austrian skier grew up skiing to school and ski racing in his uncle\u2019s ski school at a resort his dad built. He was a coach for the Austrian ski team and arrived at Canadian Mountain Holidays in 1989 with a plan to spend a year learning English before returning to coaching. More than 30 years later, he\u2019s still guiding with CMH, rotating through the operation\u2019s stable of lodges. He\u2019s written training programs for CMH\u2019s powder masters, enabling skiers in their 80s and even 90s to stay on skis. And he\u2019s able to break down the techniques required to rip pow into bite-sized morsels revolving around the notion of up-and-down movement, creating a solid platform in soft snow, focusing on angulation of joints and eliminating bad habits.\xa0
2:45: Skied to school as a 3-year-old in Austria\u2019s Tirol.
3:50: Injury as a ski racer pushed him into coaching.\xa0
4:45: Coaching for the Austrian ski team from 1986 to 1989.\xa0
6:02: Decides to stay with CMH
8:14: Powder is an interesting medium, with all ranges of shapes, weights and feels.\xa0
9:00: Subtle difference between skiing hard pack and skiing powder \u201cBuild your own platform.\u201d
10:00: Dispelling the myth that skiing powder is for experts. Experts can ski chopped powder. Untrammeled powder is for everyone.\xa0
12:15: Equally weighted versus weighting each ski.\xa0
14:20: Overcoming intimidation by \u201cseeing obstacles as friends.\u201d
15:30: Give people the feeling they are in control and "the scary things aren\u2019t so scary any more.\u201d
16:40: Balancing the need for speed and control in powder.
20:00: Motion is lotion. Don\u2019t be static on skis.\xa0
20:25: Vertical movement is the heartbeat of skiing.\xa0
21:50: But keep vertical movement in a range. Not too high. Not too low.
22:12: Handling the \u201cfall-line effect.\u201d
24:20: Use small, linked turns to control speed in powder and maintain equal weight on both skis.\xa0
26:50: Use bone structure to weight and unweight skis.\xa0
28:30: Effective up-and-down movement using bone structure and momentum.\xa0
31:00 Building CMH\u2019s \u201cPowder Masters Program\u201d to help veteran clients in their 80s keep skiing into their 90s.\xa0
34:40: Best advice is to think about angulation in shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.\xa0
36:30: Every learning process begins with destruction.\xa0
38:10: Learn the soft hockey stop to butter through sketchy terrain and variable snow.\xa0