Wildcat's Aristoteles live, laugh and learn on the slopes

By Marty Basch

At the first bend in the Polecat Trail, Martha Leich stopped and waited for her guys to catch up."First we are going to take some turns to warm up," she said to the telemark skiers. "Then I'm going to take your poles away."And that's what she did.She wasn't being mean. Leich was teaching. She was trying to get these telemark skiers, all men over 50 and crossover alpine skiers, to think about what they were doing. Over the course of the two hours she spent with them, the North Conway ski instructor would try to get them to slow down. Make the pole plant and make the turn. Use the edges. Leich knew the men well. There wasn't any grumbling, just some good-natured kidding. She was with the Aristoteles.The Aristoteles are a spin-off of the Tuesday program at Wildcat Mountain in Pinkham Notch called the Aristocats. Open to the over 50 crowd, the plan includes a lift ticket, lesson and lunch for under $50. They ski, ride the lift, laugh, and in the case of the Aristoteles, improve their telemark technique together. "These are my tele guys," said Leich. "I've been skiing with them for several years."One of the regulars for the past six years or so was Dick Ayer of Glen. A former New York State high school math teacher for 35 years, Ayer and his wife moved to the Mount Washington Valley about 10 years ago. Ayer was an alpine skier. "I found that I had some time and wanted to learn how to tele," he said during a chairlift ride to the start of another run. "This was a good spot to do it. Now I am on telemark skis two times a week and alpine the rest of the week."Ayer fell in with the Aristoteles, and it is where he is on most Tuesdays, even when the mercury is in the teens like it was the other day."The first couple of years, my learning curve was pretty slow," said Ayer. "But the shorter shaped skis helped a great deal."One helmeted, goggled Aristotele said he isn't athletic, but enjoys doing athletic things. He also races through gates once a week and spends Tuesdays at Wildcat skiing with other like-minded telemarkers. He believes the experience makes him a better skier.That must work for Roland Dubois, 68. He was an alpine skier, and found the Aristoteles. Now, after just two years on telemark skiers, he teaches it, albeit at the entry-level."This is exciting for me," says Dubois. "This is more technical than alpine skiing. I go slower, I'm more meticulous."For alpine skiers learning turns on free-heel skis and with bent knees, a new awareness evolves. They may be going down a mountain they've been skiing for years, but they do it in a new way, on different skis and boots."Tele slows me down a little bit," said Ayer. "It changes your approach to trails and conditions. If you find areas where you aren't comfortable, you can put your heels down and parallel just as well."Leich led the Aristoteles around Wildcat. After the Polecat Trail, she glided to the other side of the mountain, stopping along the way to give pointers, before elegantly descending the Cheetah Trail. Instead of heading to the top of the 4,000 foot peak, she stuck to the lower mountain with the group, off the Bobcat chair. Now she has the bunch try mono-mark, not changing the lead foot in a turn. She demonstrated and did it effortlessly. As the Aristoteles followed, some fall back into a parallel turn.On the lower mountain and easier terrain, the skiers could work with slower movements. Leich was working on a progression, getting the men to start out on standard telemark turns and then trying the more difficult mono mark turns."The idea is not to start out too fast," said ski instructor Bob Foppiano, also on telemark skis. "Once you get the rhythm, it flows."The beauty of watching the Aristoteles try synchronized turns down the trail is in knowing that they have learned this new way to ski at a later time in life. Cliches be damned. They are the old dogs who can learn new tricks. "This is a great bunch," said Dubois. "They are always trying to learn new stuff. We don't care what kind of turn we make as long as we make a turn. Throw in a parallel and no one says anything. I like that attitude."Columnist Marty Basch can be reached at marty@martybasch.com.