Spending a Weekend at Seven Springs With Top PSIA Ski Instructor, Michael Rogan

I am busy in the city wrapping up another week. I'm finding it hard to keep my mind on my ToDo list because I keep getting distracted by the piles of snow outside my window.

Snowlapalooza has been a blessing to those of us who ski or snowboard and I just can't wait to get up to Seven Springs this weekend. I'm excited to get on snow to work on the tips and techniques I received this past weekend from top PSIA ski instructor Michael Rogan.

I was in the lucky position to spend nearly the entire weekend with Rogan as Willi's hosted his Nordica sponsored trip here to Seven Springs. We were incredibly lucky, as I understand, because aparently Seven Springs was the only North American resort on Michael's schedule this season other than his home base, Heavenly Ski Resort - we really made the most of it.

It was Wintefest for Pittsburgh's local TV station WTAE, Seven Springs was buried in snow and it couldn't be a better time to showcase Rogan's on-snow talents.

Having arrived Thursday evening Rogan worked early on Friday with the Seven Springs Snowsport School. Iwan Fuchs, Seven Springs Snowsport School Director, was grateful he and his staff had the chance to work with Rogan - remember he is the Top Dog in their world :)

Seven Springs Snowsport school is already recognized as one of the greats in the East and adding on-snow training with Michael Rogan helps them to stand out just that much more. They felt the time spent with Michael was immensely helpful and they continued to learn from him as they shadowed the 'civilian' groups that worked with him on Friday afternoon and Saturday after he did a quick live spot on WTAE.

Rogan has a light air and good sense of humor. When asked if he prefered 'Mike' or 'Michael' he smiled as he answered, "If your asking, it's 'Michael', but not because I care - my mom does." At dinner Friday evening Michael talked about developing his passion for skiing in his early years at a local resort with his younger brother. In 1985 he turned that passion for skiing into a passion for teaching skiing. That passion was shining brightly when he worked with approximately 30 people, in 3 two-hour sessions. Each of the groups that went out with Rogan came back all smiles - many felt working with Michael gave them the critical breakthrough they'd been hoping for. Rogan is incredibly kind and personable with a gentle demenor that immediately puts people at ease. His great communication skills makes him incredibly easy to understand and he is able to explain concepts well enough for his students to truly understand complex concepts and then translate those ideas to on-snow performance. The ski instructors that shadowed the civilian workshops were a huge help and in turn they enjoyed listening to Michael work with the group and learned a great deal about how to integrate those skills into their teaching style by helping students utilize that knowledge on the hill.

This amazing event gained much attention in the Twitterverse and the entire mountain has been a-buzz with talk of how great working with Michael Rogan was. I can only hope we will be so lucky to have him back next year!

Until then I'll see ya on the slopes!

Kjerstin

Snow Deva