I taught myself to ski, and was usually (always) high. Got to be a "high" expert, triple black diamond slopes, tree runs in the powder, air when it offered itself. Then, for social reasons, I skied with straight folks and skied straight with them...what a difference. I became awkward, no flow of turns, I could eventually get it together but never as dynamic. People without experience compare my varied results to the feeling you get after drinking that you are doing great when actually you are not. Skiing difficult terrain actually refutes the comparison...high performance runs or garage sale falls, and even one beer pushes you towards the garage sale.

Your experience with running suggests that it wasn't just, as I had assumed, "state dependent learning", but something more. You didn't learn to trail run while high and yet found that doing so improved your flow. High level skiing IS flow, in the feet, the torso, the hands, and flow can't be faked, any more than the pitch of a run can be lessened by your attitude;)