Skiing Etiquette

AJ wrote:
Ally if someone whizzed past my kids on a particular narrow section just because they were skiing slower than them i would not be best pleased.
Experience should tell you that patience is a vertue and anything other than would probably end up with a pole being planted where the sun dont shine by MOI.

Is that really fair on everyone else? The FIS rules are just a good bit of common sense :

RESPECT FOR OTHERS - You must behave in such a way that you do not endanger others.

CONTROL OF SPEED AND SKIING - You must be in control, and adapt your speed and manner of skiing to your ability and the prevailing conditions of terrain, snow and weather, as well as to the density of other skiers.

CHOICE OF ROUTE - You must choose your route in such a way that, when coming from behind, you do not endanger others ahead.

OVERTAKING - Make sure that you leave enough room when overtaking others for any voluntary or involuntary movements that they may make.

ENTERING AND STARTING - When entering a marked run, or starting again after stopping, make sure that you look both up and down the run to ensure that you can do so without endangering yourself or other skiers.

STOPPING - Unless absolutely necessary, you must avoid stopping on the piste in narrow places or where visibility is restricted.

CLIMBING AND DESCENDING ON FOOT -When climbing or descending on foot, you must keep to the sides of the piste.

RESPECT FOR SIGNALS AND MARKINGS -You must respect all signals and markings.

ASSISTANCE - If an accident occurs, every skier is duty bound to assist.

IDENTIFICATION - Following an accident, every skier and witness, whether responsible or not for causing the accident, must exchange names and addresses.

If you're observing those, like choice of route and overtaking, there's no reason you shouldn't pass skiers in front of you. It's not unreasonable that the quicker skier having observed all of those rules should expect some reciprocal respect and courtesy from the slope user in front.

remarkable, one star for quoting the FIS rules, someone needs to grow up :roll:

AllyG wrote:

very difficult safely overtaking wobbly, erratic, learners. If your teacher has whizzed past them, you have no option I'm always a bit worried that the learners are going to suddenly swerve into me.

Ally

Ise i totally agree with the FIS rules but thats not what Ally implied.Where ever there is doubt the action or act should not take place.
He/she implied VERY DIFFICULT TO OVERTAKE, Then if its difficult dont do it wait as its probably not safe to do so.

IF YOUR TEACHER HAS WHIZZED PAST THEM THEN YOU HAVE NO OPTION. You always have the option, Is it safe or not.I would hope that the teacher would have made the right decision.


AJ Adele

This has got out of hand.
I think it went Pete Tong when Gaz said blues were for learners. He has come back and said he didnt mean they were ONLY for learners, but his original post did give the impression that experienced skiers should not be using blues. Hence why I said "Interesting". He has however had the decency to come back and correct his statement, and that should be the end of it. 2 people suggesting their Dad is bigger than the other persons is not the way to resolve it. I should know, I have all too often had these kind of spats on here in the past.

As for this business of passing someone on a narrow blue, I have to respect everyones opinions, but ultimately agree with what Ise says about adhering to the FIS rules and passing with caution. There is absolutely nothing wrong with passing someone inexperienced or going particularly slow on a narrow blue track, provided you have given them sufficient room and dont cause an accident if they suddenly stop or change direction. A good enough skier should be able to cope with either of those scenarios. People going slowly unfortunately can cause problems behind them, and need to accept that other people might want to get past, so there is nothing rude or wrong with passing someone, no matter how old on any kind of piste, provided of course there is no danger caused by doing so.

Thats quite often where I position my poles behind my back and tap them together, to alert the person in front I am coming past. Most people seem to understand it and appreciate it. I guess those that dont like being passed are the sort of people who drive at 55mph in the outside lane of a dual carriageway?

Hi AJ,
I am a very nervous, anxious skier myself, and incredibly safety conscious. I'm generally criticized for going too slowly - in fact I got chucked out of one of my ski classes and sent into the lower group for going too slowly.

I said the instructor whizzes past, not I whiz past. The instructors are generally fantastic skiers, and they can ski off the side of the piste, round those poles etc. to safely overtake the beginners on a narrow blue 'road'.

And then I am left stuck behind the beginner, afraid to overtake in case there is a collision. Which is why I have developed the technique of letting them know that I wish to overtake them. I ski behind them, and say 'Excusez-moi, je voudrais depasser a droight/gauche' and 'excuse me I would like to overtake on the right/left', and wait to make sure they have understood, before I overtake. If they don't seem to understand, or they're too wobbly and I decide it's not safe, then I stay stuck behind them until the narrow bit ends, and then when I catch up with the rest of my group I explain that I was stuck behind a beginner, and hope I don't get told off too badly for holding everyone up.

So I suppose you're right and I shouldn't have said I have 'no option', because clearly I do, and sometimes I do wait.

Anyway, you can be reassured that I've never caused a learner to fall over, whereas last year, in Mottaret, I was ski-ing on a blue run, with another member of my ski class beside me, and a total idiot skied in between both of us, hit both of us and made us both fall over, and then skied off without apologizing or stopping to see if we were O.K.

Ally

Hi Ally,

Sometimes its hard to put into words and express an opinion on a forum without the meaning of what were trying to say getting lost in the text.
I wasnt having a dig at you in general, Just an opinion on what you said. Take the time to ski at your own pace and your confidence will grow and most of all have fun.So sorry if i sounded snotty it wasnt intentional.



AJ Adele

Hi AJ,
Thanks for the apology - as you said, sometimes things come out wrong when one types them on the internet.

I do go faster now on red runs, but only when I feel confident enough, and I still go slowly on black runs. I like to have enough time to enjoy the view of the mountains.

I hate those blue 'roads'. I wish they'd get rid of them all, or at least make a diversionary route around them, so that beginners and experienced skiers wouldn't all have to go down them. They get icy and overcrowded, and they're too hard really for the beginners. I suppose the only good thing about mixing the beginners and the experienced skiers, is that if a beginner falls over, there's usually an experienced skier around to help them up if they're stuck, or find their ski, or whatever.

Thanks again,

Ally

AllyG wrote:m. I ski behind them, and say 'Excusez-moi, je voudrais depasser a droight/gauche' and 'excuse me I would like to overtake on the right/left', and wait to make sure they have understood, before I overtake.

that's impressive :D I'd normally stick at droit/gauche/links/recht :D the only time I need to do this as a rule is on a long track out of a black or a road off an off-piste run so I don't wait around for them to see if they're wobbly or not.