A term to never use,,,,on slope and off slope!!

pavelski wrote:Mike3000,
Ha,,,,,the book ! ( and now You Tube ) !
Learning by the book,,,is fine to get the "main idea" of what skiing is all about, but well travelled skiers will tell you that the book can never prepare you for;
-the challenges you will face ( both physical and mental)
-the many senses awakened in you
-the fears and joys you will have
-the freedom discovered
-the techniques and strategies you must and will acquire.

The book is so "intellectual" skiing is so sensual !

Sorry Mike but yes a one time book read is fine, but if you want soar then get lessons at least to get basics. 90% of skiers do just 3 major "errors" and if they could avoid these they will enjoy skiing so much more.

Strange how skiers will pay many euros for great outfits, skis, hotel etc,,,,but on themselves to be better skiers,,,,,,,,,,,

You deserve it,,,,,,so do it ! As the French say it,,you will have, "pure bonheur" !

Thank you very much for the comments. I have had a few lessons.
Here's me on a tune up at a fridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNpzSZSfpoI

Mike 3000,

Nice nice turns,

Smooth!
Now try this,,,,,

See if you can delay that body turn half a second! See if you can let the skis "grab" that loose snow BEFORE your upper body turns!

You are well on your way to soaring!

Great tune up in fridge !

Imagine that but 2 km. long and 25 meters wide with 4-7 skiers on slope! Great practice run!

Enjoy your holidays.

Pavel

On the 'to plough or not to plough' question. I must say there's one time in particular that I wish people would plough (in a straight line). Going down a path. At end-of-day - when you have a slow person turning left and right across the path when they could be (at least some of the time) sticking to the inside with a plough when they need to cut off speed - would be a great help to all the people bottlenecking behind, who, in addition, all start parallel turning left to right and getting in eachother's way.

That's when I use a straight line plough - it signals to people behind that you're not about to change direction (or at least not very quickly). Also, when approaching the end of a run (especially in the area of a lift entrance) if you plough to slow down you do not cause those behind you to vere left and right potentially causing panic and mayhem.

All this begs an interesting question. Do you adjust your skiing to your style or to help those behind you?

And does anybody have any statistics which show whether paths have more accidents, more serious accidents or are the most fun place to exercise mind-reading? Have you ever had to go 'out of your comfort zone' (ie. off the edge of the path) to get around somebody who chose to hang a turn right as you drew alongside them? Indeed, when you're going down a path through the trees - do you look ahead for a nice little upside ridge you can go up and over to get around a slow path-blocker? And do you do that ridge on the one ski, the other lifted? Somebody could write a book on 'How to avoid people on the path, and best of all how to circumnavigate the one last final sharp left turn through a narrow tunnel that everybody is trying to squeeze through at the end of the run when they did not slow down in time and find a gap to get through'. :)

I have no idea about teaching ploughing or no. You have to learn this at some point but I probably suffered from learning at the begining.

For example as Meercat suggests, you have to plough down a narrow path (unless it is very narrow and slippy, where there is a funny alternate foot technique which I struggle with...). If I am going slowly down a path I keep looking behind, plow when someone is coming fast, and use as much of the wdith as seems safe otherwise. Obvious really (after being hit from behind once :P). And if there is somone in front who is not very confident, you stay behind them. Obvious? So you need to plough for sure.

I can't see how to avoid learning to snow-plough and stem-christies in the beginning. The space on the bunny slopes is limited so the task is to get the absolute beginners from there to normal "grown up slopes" ASAP, like in half-day. And it can only happen when they can comfortably control his speed and know how to change direction. If there was a way to keep beginners on bunny slopes for a week at least, probably snow-ploughs could be avoided at early stage, and they can learn straight to ski parallel. I still don't see the point, since it's a useful technique, just as stems. It really shouldn't lead to any bad habits - as it's sometimes claimed.

Innsbrucker wrote:I have no idea about teaching ploughing or no. You have to learn this at some point but I probably suffered from learning at the begining.

For example as Meercat suggests, you have to plough down a narrow path (unless it is very narrow and slippy, where there is a funny alternate foot technique which I struggle with...). If I am going slowly down a path I keep looking behind, plow when someone is coming fast, and use as much of the wdith as seems safe otherwise. Obvious really (after being hit from behind once :P). And if there is somone in front who is not very confident, you stay behind them. Obvious? So you need to plough for sure.

I think you are right on the mark here. There are generally 2 occasions that I use the snow plough. The first one being when going down narrow paths like this where there is a mixture of all abilities and there is no want to get wiped out from behind where someone has fallen out of time with the turns, or hitting the person in front for the same reason. Snow plough down the side is a safe option.

The other time i use a snow plough style of skiing is when approaching a lift that has a downhill approach and again slow movements are required - I cant see it being possible at all to do parallel turns in this environment!

in my opinion the snow plough has a place in all levels of skiing (safely)

Pavel

You will be pleased to know that the snowplough queen is dead. Long live the parallel queen who skis faster than mum and dad. And moans because we won't let her ski faster.

Dobby

Dobby,

I have the same problem but in reverse!

My son will not let ski ALONE with his girl because I will "influence" her to ski faster ! I plan to take my grand-daughter out of school for a special ski day ! I ski close to a ski center where there was an olympic downhill event ! I want her to "experience" going down a true olympic ski course! SLOWLY !

At one point Dobby, you must allow the bird out of nest ! Sooner is better than later even if it is too traumatic for parents!

Perhaps we can "switch" skiing partners someday ?

re comment s about that word,,,,,,,S,,,,,,,,,,, !

There is no doubt that snow,,,,,, has its place in the skiing skills repetoire ! Yes in specific contexts,,,but the sooner you get out of that context the better!

Please note **** Not very safe to look UP while skiing down ! Perhaps looking up while traversing slope,,,,, but looking up while skiing down,,,,,trees, rocks, crevasses come up very fast !!!!

Many of you have brought up the issue of skiing IN TRAFFIC !!!! My attitude is very much like driving a car in a snow storm !

You have two options;
1. follow herd/flock/pd etc,,, like many car drivers do
2. get out of herd context by slowing down, passing or changing slope

My experience has been that following herd results in increasing chances of "accidents" !
Being IN herd definitely will cause accidents - in my case.

As long as s,,,,,,,,, is NOT a panic technique,,by all means use it!

Innsbrucker,
Take a few seconds off and watch persons who s,,,,,,,,,, ! Focus on their upper torso! What do you see 99% of skiers doing ?

They are not doing the s,,,,,,correctly! That is putting gradual pressure on opposite ski tip so the SKI will turn!
So if you want to go RIGHT,,,,you gradually put pressure on left ski tip !

What do 99% of person do?

The skis are in a V or pie formation and go down the fall line,,,,,the shoulders/hands/arms rotate to right and the body goes into a torture, twisting posture FORCING knees/boots then skis to turn ( with great great effort ) into a right turn ! Verbiar ski bum that is the BAD BAD ineffective ski habit persons are learning! To force skis to turn !

Skis LOVE to turn,,,if you ask them, if you suggest to them, if you allow them to turn!

This bad habit is then passed along for many ,,,many years as person become an "expert" in forcing skis to turn !

Just my opinion !

I have accepted that the skis are in charge,,,,I am just along for the ride,,,the view and the experience ! It makes for a more pleasant time on the slopes !

Pavel