5 Errors made by Skiers in the Spring

Haaaaa Spring skiing. The ultimate ski context. Freedom, sun and the shedding stage!

Yet many skiers make some basic important errors both technical and strategic at this time of the skiing cycle. Here are the most common errors.

1.Not respecting Nature
Many skiers do not know how to read "mother nature"! How to understand her messages since we live in out made made city cocoon. You have to observe the subtle signs that nature provides since in Spring "changes" can occur very fast! It is that period between winter and summer when sudden storms appear from no where. Where the sun plays hide and seek with you! Where the snow has many personalities.Where your body has new needs.
Ski with "wise" skier who can point out those danger signs, those traps that mother nature springs on us!


2.Having limited dress options.
Many skiers think skiing=winter so buy thickest jacket, warmest vest, mitts, heavy underwear, polar level sweater, etc....
In spring those options may be dangerous to you! Too much heat retention is as bad as none!
You see them, with heavy jackets opened all the way, mitts dangling from jacket hooks, ski pants rolled up above boots, helmets unstrapped! Sweat pourin down forehead It is called the "skiers sauna syndrome"! The final act is fainting due to too much heat!
Smart skiers never decide what to wear three weeks before ski trip. They never decide what to wear three days before skiing! Smart skier look up lodge projections FOR THAT DAY then look into there options bag and dress accordingly!
What are those options;
-light wind pants with no insulation
-light sweater or polar
-sun glasses
-light gloves like cycle gloves
-wind shirts and shorts (over cycling pants)
-solar cream and lip protection
-lots of bottled water
-lots of sucrose tablettes
(and I am sure Ise, Ellsetine, Jan, Bandit etc...will find more options to add)

3.Skiing like you always skied in winter
A small secret. Expert skiers "adapt" their skiing according to what mother nature gives them! Spring skiing to many is hard, difficult and just time to sit and tan! Why?
Well those well rolled, carpeted even boulevards you ski on during the winter have made "lazy" skiers out of you! A small rear rotation and skis follow! A straight line downhill run makes you look good! A swing of the right arm makes the skis turn!

Never try those moves in the Spring! The skiers who were practicing their effective ski technique, will now be rewarded!
The skis will not allow harder snow, thicker snow, heavier snow dictate where skis go.
In one day snow conditions can vary a great deal, and if you do not vary your skiing you will complain like 90% of skiers that snow is too sticky, not even etc etc....
Maybe mother nature is telling you to do your winter homework!

4.Start skiing at 11 AM. You had great party, slept in and now you get to ski runs at 11 AM! Worst time to start skiing since sun has warmed snow into "skier trap" mode!

What you do not know about that famous "skier trap snow"! Over centuries mother nature through evolution has experimented with the perfect snow to "eat skiers"! It has to be attractive to skier to get them on slope, yet it has to be thick enough to in an instant break a large bone, tear a large muscle, even crack a skull! In short an instant kill, like done by a Preying Mantis! Fast death!
The smart skiers come early so that they witness this snow transformation and can watch out for the kill zones! The poor neophyte "social skier" has no idea about kill zones and instant death until.......
( now you know why there are more ambulances parked at lodge)

5.This last error is perhaps to most dangerous since it goes beyond skiing. This last error often is repeated over and over again by the persons in skiing, in school, in marriage, at work!
Its roots or origins are in our ego-centric attitudes! I am better than...I am best at....I can conquer all...I will dominate.... There is a great French saying which is used more and more. It is , "enfant roi" attitude!
In spring skiing mother nature slowly reduces the margin of error and increases the danger level! This of course according to Darwinian Evolution theory is to "get rid of the weak skier species" so that next ski season only the smart strong wise skiers survive!
How does nature do this? Well it uses this ego inflating attitude to lure skiers to do just one more very fast straight down run(and at bottom is a big soft heavy snow bank)
It lures skier to just take that last 25 meter jump of that "soft soft snow cliff"

It lures the skier to the woods where the melted snow has created tree holes!

It lures skiers to ski over snow streams that swallow skiers in a second!

It lures skiers to go higher and higher in the mountains without glasses (and of course goggles are off) until eyes are red and blindness sets in.

It lures skiers to drink those 5 beers to quench thirst and then to try just one more run!

So skiers you have the choice! Learn and be back next winter or think that you are better than nature, stronger that nature, faster than nature ! We will see!

Off to Spring skiing for three weeks everyone,,,,see you ( well some of you) next winter!

Respectfully,
Pavel

Pavel,

You create spring dreams.

"Where the sun plays hide and seek with you!"

evoking memories of gliding through sun-dappled glades, rocking backwards and forwards, on hardpack, slush, marble, thick lumps, trying to ski softly.

My addition to your "carry with you" would be wax. It doesn't last long, but you feel smooth on take off.

Start skiing early in the day, ~ doncha just love rattling over the frozen piste machine tracks, knowing on the next run you are going to get the best grip of the winter.

As for domination of the mountain, I retain an everlasting memory of daily eyeing a potential jump above Soell, and planned to take it on the last run down on the last day. I gave it some respect, but flew over the edge of the jump. ....to discover that this was the March day when all the snow for 30 metres below that bank had melted, and all that awaited was sticky, ski-grabbing mud. Back at the Hotel Gansleit the old Haus Frau made me strip off my all-in-one outside in the street, and I snuck up the back stairs in T shirt and Y fronts.

Happy days

Dave Mac,
With humility I must confess that some of those errors were "sampled"!
You know the definition of an expert!

"It is someone who has done all the errors, thus knows how to avoid them NOW"

Yes I still have a thigh scar from sandpapering on Spring snow while wearing shorts.

I still have part of branch "inplanted" in my cheek.

As far as wax...some time ago a "special" very soft silver wax was made by TOKO which all spring skiers had! It has disappeared for market! I use wipes ( not the infant wipes Dave) which have wax saturated in each wipe!

Send me your email via PM and I will send you some picts of serious spring skiing in May! yes we still have snow in May if you know where to go!

You are my kind of skier!

If that is the definition of an expert, Pavel, then I cannot claim to be one, mainly because I have'nt yet done all the errors. I am fairly sure that a good few surprises remain.

One of the advantages of experience, (as opposed to capability), is you will do anything to avoid a fall. Earlier this year, on a back run in Niederau, I trailed off the edge, sampling some nice, but heavyish powder, got bumped, and landed with my weight back. A big forward heave is usually enough to get back on course, but then the ground fell away, and my dodgy knee refused to take part in the required heave. Not to worry, I knew this run ended in a run-out, I would be OK.

As a group of trees approached at an increasing speed, I thought about the merits of a helmet, instead of my "Dave Mac" woolly hat. Made it past the trees, steadied myself on the run-out, and skiied on, whistling. (Always a sure sign of a close miss) Forgot all about my thoughts on helmets.

Following the bashers down the hill at 9 am is certainly different to taking to the slopes at 1 pm that's for sure.

Or maybe that's the beer surge kicking in!

Mmmmm slush
My first reminder of spring skiing today, that sucking feeling as the slush grabs your skis at the bottom of the run. Every year is the same, the sudden realisation that you need to have weight back when you hit the wet stuff.

When you are overheating on the first warm day, you remember that you bought a light jacket specially for these conditions last year. Will remember to bring it next time.

I really thought congress had sold us out when they changed the daylight savings time dates last year (our clocks went forward last w/e). Turns out they did skiers a big favour by opening the hills relatively an hours earlier. An extra hour befor it gets too wet :).

Trencher