Learning Off-Piste?

Generally feet closer together (worked for me first time), drive the feet further forward. In deep powder people are often way too far back or too forward. Steer the skis as you always would.

None of those stupid tight S turns.....massive fast wide turns, rather like GS turns, down a steep face :D

bennyboy wrote:

None of those stupid tight S turns.....massive fast wide turns, rather like GS turns, down a steep face :D

Well, I guess if you're going to use big fat skis that make it easier you might as well go the whole hog and do the easiest type of turns possible )

Neiltoo wrote:

bennyboy wrote:

None of those stupid tight S turns.....massive fast wide turns, rather like GS turns, down a steep face :D

Well, I guess if you're going to use big fat skis that make it easier you might as well go the whole hog and do the easiest type of turns possible )

I don't know, sometimes I think we do tiny little turns more to impress other people than for our own enjoyment or just because we think we're supposed to :D

I always though a good definition of Freeride wouldn't include such constrained, rigid turns and be something more fluid and dynamic using the terrain features a little more. Some slopes call for small turns but a lot don't, on more varied terrain I find I don't want to dump so much speed sometimes as well.

But I suppose you don't want to trash the slope either :lol:

ise wrote:

I don't know, sometimes I think we do tiny little turns more to impress other people than for our own enjoyment or just because we think we're supposed to :D

I'm sure that there is some truth in that :D

Sometimes I think I'm having so much fun I don't want the slope to end, the more turns I make the longer it takes to get to the bottom :lol: (sad I know, but I never claimed not to be.)

As I only get to ski a couple of weeks a year these days [still don't know how this happened ) ] there are less and less slopes that I know well enough to want to really fly down, not knowing whats over the next rise - this could also be down to 'getting older' )

Last week in Bardonecchia, I found myself on a blue run that is usually pisted but due to heavy snow fall it was about two feet deep in powder. I probably spent more time looking at the sky than skiing, but it was great fun and at least it didnt hurt when I fell over. I am due to go to Canada in 6 six weeks so hope I will benefit from this experience and more importantly put to good use any information that I can gain from this post.

In my experience, mastering the varied conditions found off piste is all about practice. This makes it all the more difficult for a 2 week a year skier because you can obviously only practice in the conditions you find.
Some conditions, spring snow, for example, require very little changes in technique from what you do on piste. Powder takes practice and is as much a psychological challenge as a technical one.
As said above, leaning back doesn't work - the reason that some people think it is necessary is because of what they think they see others doing. When you ski in deep snow your skis are not parallel to the ground. The tips float higher in the snow than the tails, so although you are balanced over your feet, in relation to the angle of the slope it can look as if you are 'leaning back'.
There are many more qualified here than me to give advice but broadly your weight should be more evenly spread over both skis in powder than when on the piste. This is more easily achieved if you keep fairly much to the fall line, the more you turn across the slope the harder to keep both skis equally weighted.
If you try to turn your skis with your shoulders on piste this will make life really hard in powder.
The more you practice in less than perfect conditions the better you will get, but be careful, as Ise has mentioned you don't have to go far off piste to get in trouble and don't ever assume that because you see someone else ski where you want to go that it is safe.