Women : In a Class by Themselves : Female skiers leave the men behind, and take lessons designed especially for them.

I live part-time in a mountain town in the Sierra Nevada, but I don’t ski. As far as I’m concerned, schussing is what you do when people talk during movies, quads are a body part I prefer not to think about, and vertical feet can be corrected with orthopedic shoes.

So it was with some trepidation that I trudged up the mountain last spring to join a three-day women’s ski workshop at Heavenly Ski Resort, the largest of 15 downhill ski areas in the Lake Tahoe region, within yodeling distance of my cabin on the South Shore.

Since this stately slice of the Sierra gets an average of 250 inches of snow a year, I can’t avoid the white stuff entirely. In the two years I lived here, I tried--and enjoyed--snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. But as an East Coast native who defined a high elevation as the third floor of a Baltimore row house, I was afraid of breaking a body part (mine or someone else’s) while hurtling down a mountain.

Fear had kept me off the hill, and shame delivered me to it. Last winter, I flew to the Colorado Rockies on a business trip; I was the only non-skier in a group of mostly women who seemed to me to speak a different language. Moguls and bindings and black diamonds--what were they talking about? There was one thing I did understand: “You can do it, Ellen. Just try.” So, when I got back to Tahoe and heard that Heavenly was offering a women-only seminar, I signed up.

The sport’s macho image notwithstanding, women now make up half the skiing population, and more than half of the nation’s 300-plus ski areas will offer women-only ski seminars this season. (The first, at nearby Squaw Valley, was founded in 1975.)

Some programs are tailored for novices who, like me, hope to overcome their fear within the safety net of a group of supportive women. But most are geared toward intermediate skiers who want to break through to the next level. Designed and taught by the ski resorts’ most talented female instructors, the one- to five-day clinics generally include on-the-slope instruction, video analysis, lectures on fitness and the latest advances in ski technology, warm-up exercise classes, apres-ski soirees and, sometimes, lodging.

As I discovered over our first get-acquainted breakfast at Heavenly’s base lodge, most of my 11 classmates had been taught by men, and many skied with male partners.

“I think my husband’s hoping for a miracle cure,” said 41-year-old Sacramento resident Debra Coubal, who hoped the workshop would help narrow the gap between their skiing abilities.

“As for my son Kevin,” she added, “he has talked me down a couple of bump runs, and he’s only 8. I want to get better, and I like the idea of working on it with other women. Women tend to be more honest among women. And it’s just fun to hang out together.”

Debra was taking the seminar with her sister Erin Beck, a credit analyst from the Bay Area. “I’ve always had guy instructors, and I wondered what it would be like to just ski with women,” she said. “Men are more focused on speed: ‘Oh, are you back there, honey?’ I like to ski, stop, enjoy the scenery, chat, take a picture. That’s the skiing experience to me.”

“All-male groups tend to be a little more competitive,” explained our instructor, Brigit Shumate, who has raced professionally for the Women’s Pro Tour. “Men are intent on beating each other down the slope, while women try to help one another. Women want to be just as challenged, but that ego involvement isn’t there.”

“Men are sometimes difficult to teach,” added her colleague Lisa Ritchey. “They listen to one another more, rather than listening to the instructor.”

*

That first morning, I was heartened to learn that three of my fellow students were nurses. I intended to stick close to them. However, as I was the only novice in the group, the instructors decided to pair me with a private teacher, and I was separated from the three women I had privately assigned to save my life. Instructor Brigit was from my hometown, Baltimore, and I tried to absorb her advice as Lisa led me off to suit up: “The best learner is someone who really wants to do it,” Brigit assured me. “Remember: Fear management. Nurturing environment. Empowerment. Fun.”

In the rental shop, Lisa--who also teaches sailing and water skiing--outfitted me with boots, skis and poles. Even with practice, I don’t think I’ll ever walk comfortably in those boots. But, with Lisa’s help, I hobbled up a short hill next to the ski shop and worked on Lesson No. 1: The wedge. This was the maneuver that would help me to slow down and stop, and all morning I practiced it. There were lots of young children around, learning the same lesson. For them, I hid my fear.

On our way to lunch with the rest of the group, Lisa and I were scooped up by the Gunbarrel chairlift and headed up Monument Peak, the massive, 10,100-foot mountain that straddles the California and Nevada borders and forms Heavenly’s centerpiece. (A second mountain, called East Peak, is on the Nevada side of the resort.)

Heavenly is no slouch when it comes to ski area: 79 trails, 4,800 skiable patrolled acres, 24 chairlifts, including three high-speed quads (four-person lifts), and breathtaking views of Lake Tahoe, the Sierra’s crown jewel. I never tire of looking at North America’s largest and deepest alpine lake, and watching it from the chairlift that afternoon seemed its own reward.

After lunch at the base of the tram and a few more hours of practice on the slopes, our class met at the base lodge for an informal “tech talk,” a 20-minute session held each day of the workshop.

Forget all the emotional wiring that distinguishes men from women, we were told: There is difference enough in the build. Women have wider hips and a lower center of gravity, and that pelvic tilt causes most women to shift back on their skis, which can throw them off balance. Our instructors suggested that some 60% of women could benefit from heel lifts to bring their hips forward; they cost less than $10 and could mean the difference between a good day and bad day of skiing.

Another tip from Heavenly’s female staff: Women’s specialty skis, which first appeared as novelty items on the market about 10 years ago, have become increasingly sophisticated. Shorter and lighter than men’s skis, they’re often a better match for a woman’s slighter build.

Mark Twain once called the air at Lake Tahoe “the air that angels breathe.” That may be, but by my second day on the slopes, it was all I could do just to breathe.

I had fallen down more times than I could count. Once, I didn’t hop off the chairlift in time, and the operator had to shut it down just for me.

There was a lot of fresh snow--about three feet--so the snow wasn’t packed or smooth. At times, my movements were more those of a cross-country skier plowing through virgin terrain--which explained my sore arms.

Lisa had taken me to the top of a short hill, which, thankfully, I had to myself. We had just advanced from wedges to turns, and I needed a lot of room. My turns were wide--too wide.

Later that day, Lisa asked if I was ready to try the beginner’s slope.

“I’ll never be ready,” my interior voice was saying, but I heard myself answer, “Yes.”

It took me awhile, but I made it down that slope. I fell a few times, and every time I picked up real speed I slowed myself down.

Always, I worried about losing control. I didn’t lose all my fear, but I lost some of it, and in its place exhilaration and a sense of success moved in. When Lisa told me I’d done well for a non-athlete, I wanted to kneel in the powder and grovel my thanks.

A few days after the workshop, I ran into classmate Julie Schwindeman at the grocery store. She’s 41, and has two kids, ages 8 and 9. A graphic artist, she has had some health problems. A couple of times, I saw her wince from the pain that is ever-present in her back. But she took the clinic because her dream was to ski with her children.

“Being with women really helped. I felt very supported,” she told me. “I actually skied with my son for the first time today. I don’t know who was more proud, my son or me. It felt so good, like a prayer answered.”

As for me, my all-women alpine adventure was less about skiing than about confronting my fear, stretching my abilities and becoming more a part of the mountain I inhabit.

There are different ways to know a place, and now I know this one in new ways.

Maybe Twain was right. This is the air that angels breathe.

GUIDEBOOK

For Women Only

Heavenly Ski School: Women’s ski seminars are available this winter Jan. 19-21, Feb. 10-12 and March 18-20. The $299 package price includes lift tickets for three days, six hours of daily instruction in small groups, an equipment seminar, a video analysis, a follow-up evaluation, continental breakfast and lunch daily, and a wine-and-cheese party. The $509 package includes all of the above, plus hotel lodging at the Tahoe Seasons resort across from the ski area (per person, double occupancy). Contact the school during office hours at P.O. Box 2180, Stateline, Nev. 89449; telephone (702) 586-7000, Ext. 6206, or (800) 2-HEAVEN (243-2836).

For more information: More than 150 ski resorts offer women’s ski seminars. A list of programs is included in the new book “WomenSki: Everything You Need to Know to Really Enjoy Skiing,” Claudia Carbone (World Leisure Corp., Boston, 1994; $14.95) available in bookstores, or call (800) 444-2524 to order.