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Inside the DSG Clinic Experience

Inside the DSG Clinic Experience

Posted by Samantha Simma on Mar 1st 2020

This winter season, DSG held only one backcountry clinic with Stephanie Schwartz. The limited availability this season made the clinic all the more valuable to attendees, who traveled from around the country to receive coaching from the best of the best, at Togwotee Mountain Lodge, in Moran, Wyoming.

The long weekend was broken into two days of beginner backcountry coaching and two days of intermediate. Some brave ladies opted for all four days of progressive training in the backcountry, pushing their bodies to the absolute limits. Was it worth it? I would venture there was a resounding, “Yes!”

The anxious anticipation was palpable in the fireside gathering room of Togwotee Mountain Lodge on the first day of the intermediate clinic. Giddy expressions adorned a group of gals that was clad in a range of colorful technical gear. Introductions were made among clinic participants and Mountain Labs & Clinics crew of coaches. Stephanie reminded the group that this was a stress-free, encouraging environment, and cautioned that, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Indeed, it wasn’t, but the women who had already attended the two-day beginner segment of the clinic echoed the same sentiment: “I learned more in those two days than I have in all my years of riding.”

A recent snow storm had blessed the Continental Divide with enough snow to fill in recent tracks, but not enough to suggest over-the-hood face-shots. For learning and fine-tuning, the conditions were perfect. Why? Because powder conditions combined with a mountain sled are more forgiving than hard-pack. There would be no cheating on technique in these conditions.

Eagerly, participants followed the coaches to a large play area close to the lodge. There, they were released to expel some of that pent-up energy and demonstrate the baseline of their current skill set.

After breaking the large group into two smaller, more-manageable groups, the coaches started their training. Over the course of those two fast-paced days, participants learned and practiced proper technique for body positioning, side-hilling, powder turns, J-hooks, and tree riding. Whatever individuals asked for, the coaches prioritized. It was a learning environment that was directly channeled at the goals of each individual rider, while still developing the skills of every rider, regardless of where they were at prior to the clinic.

At first, I was daunted by the idea of doing a side hill in front of the rest of my group. But my less-than-stellar first attempt was met with a round of hooting and hollering encouragement. Enough for me to give it another go…and another…and another.

By no means did this clinic result in a group of perfect riders. And yet, each rider in attendance was given a clearly defined set of skills to walk away with and practice into perfection on their own time.

There is an inherent value in this clinic model, and it stems from the all-female setup. This model is purposeful. The priority is to show all the women in attendance how they can utilize their gender-specific strengths to execute the skills they need to thrive in the backcountry. Men and women are built differently, and instead of muscling around your snow pony, this clinic teaches women to leverage their strengths in each technique.

No rider is the same. No clinic is the same. But in this environment, every single attendee has the opportunity to learn the skills they didn’t know and fine-tune the ones they thought they did. I can attest that each woman walked away from this experience with more confidence, more skill, and more sisterhood.