Instructor Profile #9: Jeanne Weiser

Mogul Queen Jeanne Weiser started skiing when she was 17 at Apple Hill, in Allentown.  Her first time was “not fun,” as she was “falling all over the place.”  She has come a long way since then!  She has skied many different places and, although she is approaching retirement age, is one of the best bump skiers around!

---

Growing up in Whitehall, Jeanne first skied many local places, including Doe (now Bear Creek), Hahn Mountain, Camelback, and Little Gap (now Blue Mountain).  She visited and took lessons at Stowe, Vermont and her first time out west was in 1977, where she thought “oh my God” as she saw Aspen.  She went to Zermatt the following year, which was her “most favorite” trip.  She has returned to Colorado many times and in 1996, met Robert Redford at Sundance.  She asked to take a picture with him, and felt brushed off until she told him how much she enjoyed skiing his mountain.  She said his tone changed dramatically once he realized she wanted to talk skiing and not movies.

Robert Redford with Jeanne (rockin' that one piece outfit!)   March, 1996 at Sundance, Utah.     

Jeanne became interested in moguls on trips to Vermont, where she used to follow a friend from her Tannenbaum ski club ski through the bumps.  Her husband Tom gave her a VHS tape featuring Olympic Mogul winner Nelson Carmichael, and she would watch it and follow his advice to “ski from your feet up to your head.”  On her first trip to Telluride, she felt like she really “conquered the moguls.”  The snow was so fluffy and forgiving that she “wasn’t afraid to be forward” and be “on top of them.”

Fortunate to have friends with mountain accommodations, Jeanne and Tom go to Snowbird, Utah yearly and other ski trips with friends.  Jeanne likes to ski groomers first to warm up and spends about half of her day on steeps, moguls and other slopes where she “likes to ski fast.”  She is usually the last woman skiing in a group of 9 - 12 people.

Jeanne “loves adventure” and finds it on her bike when she’s not on the slopes.  She rides about 2,000 miles per year.  To celebrate her 60th birthday, she and a friend from kindergarten rode along the Danube from Vienna to Budapest.  For her 50th, Jeanne, her husband, and her daughter Corrie did a Southwest trip, including Vegas, the Hoover Dam, Sedona, and rafting on the Grand Canyon.  (I suggested a safari for her next milestone birthday, but she’s got a few years to decide.)

Starting as an instructor at Blue Mountain in 2008, Jeanne was the only woman with Bob Howard’s ITC group.  She is a member of PSIA, and passed the skiing part of her level 2 on a 2015 trip to Killington with many other Blue instructors.  She earned a perfect score of 6 in the bumps from examiner Peter Howard (see her at the scene showing 6 fingers above!).  She is active with the Ptarmigan Ski Club, serving as the vice president, and she helps set up social activities, including parties at Blue.

Jeanne works part time at the Lehigh County courthouse, facilitating mediation procedures, and also as a bike and river guide with the Wildlands Conservancy in Emmaus.  She has been married to Tom for 36 years (he learned how to ski after they met — wise man!) and their daughter Corrie was married three years ago and honeymooned skiing at Breckenridge.  

One of Jeanne’s favorite lessons seems custom-made for her.  A student from Moravian College wanted “to ski moguls better.”  ‘Challenge accepted’ as they both had a great time on the bumps on that slope and Main Street that day.

Jeanne’s tips for better mogul skiing:

Upper body high
Hands up
Knees ready to flex
Remember to breathe with each compression.
Become a shock absorber!