Aspen Adult Week?

[skateflo]

Just read a report on adultedge message group and it sounds like the 35 attendees had a wonderful, learning week. Ellen are you here?

Would love to hear any reports from people here who went to this seminar. Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems like Lake Placid and Aspen adult weeks are the only ones we hear about. Surely there must be others. Details, details, please?

[montanarose]

This was my first time attending any kind of adult-oriented skating
week and I absolutely loved it. For one thing, it really was an "adult" week
in that the majority of the participants were in their 40s/50s/60s as
opposed to being in their early 20s or 30s. Not that there's anything wrong
with that ;-) but just that it's nice to be around folks who are more or
less in one's own demographic (I'm 57).

The coaches were wonderful and obviously oriented towards teaching adults.
The ice was the best I've ever skated on. We were divided into two groups
(beginner to pre-bronze; bronze to masters) and each group had daily
sessions in edges, power, freestyle, moves/dance; plus a daily group class
and a daily open dance session. There was a daily off-ice session as well.
If one attended all the scheduled activities you would end up spending an
hour a day training off-ice and four or more hours a day on ice, to include
private lessons if so desired. I ended up doing only two of the five off-ice
sessions: I decided I couldn't do everything and elected to spend as much
time as I could on the ice.

Our guest instructor was Ann Margrethe Frei (of the "Magic Of Style" video
series). She did two hours of off-ice training and three hours of on-ice
training, gave private lessons, skated in our Friday night "closing
ceremonies" and was just generally an approachable, down-to-earth,
non-diva-esque person. Not to mention being a walking advertisement for the
virtues of skating into one's golden years. We should all be so lucky!

Drawbacks? Unless you're local (in my case I live a four-hour drive away
which, out here, is considered nothing) Aspen is not all that accessible.
You can fly to Denver and rent a car for the drive (about five hours from
DIA), or you can fly to Denver and then fly into Aspen on a small plane: one
of life's more thrilling experiences but not for the faint of heart. And
Aspen itself is on the expensive side -- you can find a pretty good deal on
a hotel room, as little as $125 or so a night, but eating out is pricey and
shopping even more so (assuming you have enough energy left over to even
think about it). And at an altitude of 8000 feet you may need a little time
to acclimate to the thinner air and its lower oxygen concentration.

But it's a great experience, and I hope to do it again.


Ellen

[mikawendy]

After seeing Avon & Vail (family reunion), I really wished I had hung around afterward to go to the Aspen Adult Skate Week. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, montanarose! Hopefully I can convince my family to have their next reunion there!