Skiing Etiquette

Lots of negative comments about behaviour of the French but they've always been quite polite in La Plagne.....compared to Bardonecchia anyway. I was knocked over several times last week on beginners slopes learning to board, by people skiing over my snowboard or into me.

I think there is a real lack of understanding as well - people ovetaking constantly on the narrow blue road runs which are particularly tricky for learners of both disciplines leaving no room to put turns in to control speed :evil:

KevinC wrote:I think there is a real lack of understanding as well - people ovetaking constantly on the narrow blue road runs which are particularly tricky for learners of both disciplines leaving no room to put turns in to control speed :evil:

It does seem so. There's no particular reason that not being able to control your speed gives you right of way, you wouldn't tolerate on the road or even on a pavement so there's no reason to tolerate it on ski slope. If you can't control your speed without taking the whole slope or track to do so then it's not the problem of the poor guy behind you who can. Skiers have no excuse at all, there's a perfectly good technique in the snow plough to control speed without taking the whole slope, it's more difficult for snowboarders but it's still a basic technique they need to master.

It's just like being on the road, there's no good reason the rest of us should drive at 20 mph on the slightest gradient merely because the guy in front has decided to buy a caravan :D

Kevin,
I don't like those really narrow blue 'roads' either, and they tend to get quite icy.

Sometimes the red runs lead into these, and the good skiers can't help ski-ing down them, and it can be very difficult safely overtaking wobbly, erratic, learners. If your teacher has whizzed past them, you have no option but to overtake, or hold up the whole lesson. I usually say, in French and English, that I wish to overtake and which side, and then I go past, but I'm always a bit worried that the learners are going to suddenly swerve into me. I used to go down them in a snow plough, and keep to the side so that other people could overtake, but I suppose if you're boarding you don't have that option (I don't know anything about boarding).

Ally

ise wrote:

KevinC wrote:I think there is a real lack of understanding as well - people ovetaking constantly on the narrow blue road runs which are particularly tricky for learners of both disciplines leaving no room to put turns in to control speed :evil:

It does seem so. There's no particular reason that not being able to control your speed gives you right of way, you wouldn't tolerate on the road or even on a pavement so there's no reason to tolerate it on ski slope. If you can't control your speed without taking the whole slope or track to do so then it's not the problem of the poor guy behind you who can. Skiers have no excuse at all, there's a perfectly good technique in the snow plough to control speed without taking the whole slope, it's more difficult for snowboarders but it's still a basic technique they need to master.

It's just like being on the road, there's no good reason the rest of us should drive at 20 mph on the slightest gradient merely because the guy in front has decided to buy a caravan :D

That, ise, is absolutely spot on. If a learner is on a tricky blue narrow run, maybe he should get off it very quickly or think twice about going on it, or at the very least keep to one side.

Has anyone else picked up on this pole tapping technique to warn people in front you are coming up faster from behind?

Pole tapping method?

The things that annoy me the most are boarders walking up the middle of the slope then sitting down in the middle of the slope to have a chat and a smoke before putting their boards on. This can be group of up to ten and a number of groups that you have to avoid on your way down, surely it is not to difficult if you want to walk up the slope to walk up the edge then sit and put your boards on at the edge also. I do not want to get into a skiers / boarders thing but I am sorry this always tends be boarders rather than skiers, possibly because the slope I am talking about has a button lift and the new boarders find it tricky to use.

tap your poles together s they hear you.

The trouble is it makes some people react with an attack of self righteousness and/or veer around erratically. Personally I'd have thought it was a courtesy to alert someone you were behind them but then a) it doesn't really happen to me and b) I'd know already.

:lol: If I heard someone tapping their poles behind me I would immediately look behind me with the result of going face down in the snow and causing even more of a problem, us beginners need to concentrate very hard in what is front us :lol: