Skiing

Sell me that Chorus please before you end up in hospital.

Depending on where you're heading, it's nothing but a towel in the sauna.

Two days school is enough to give you the confidence to head off and enjoy the mountains.

After that it's just time spent building your confidence.

My top tip is that when you find yourself thinking 'It's my last day, I'm going to bomb a black run before I go home' you should immediately get off your skis. Just like the last hour on a track day when you think 'I'm going to do one last really fast lap' it can only end in death and/or serious injury.

Had a lesson, spent around six hours skiing, annoyingly shit at it, will go back again tomorrow.

Problem is turning enough, I get so far and then the inner ski digs in and won't turn further- I need to keep the edge up, but the way of doing that is escaping me at the moment.

You'll always be able to develop a better technique with skiing, whereas with snowboarding you're either shit or shit hot.

It's hard when you're taller - higher centre of gravity.

Are you turning parallel or snowploughing?
Turning in skiing is all about finding the sweetspot for transferring the wight from one ski to another. When learning, your weight should always be on the downhill ski whilst moving across the piste - in the front of the boot, with the knee bent - head and hands pointing down the fall line. When you want to turn, standing up allows you to pivot and bring the other ski into play. As you make the turn, your weight should be in the middle of the boot, before returning to the front as you begin another traverse.

Later on you can learn how sharing the weight between the skis and using your edges can help you in different snow conditions.

It will take you 3-4 days to stop feeling like a bag of shit, hopefully you'll get 'that moment' where everything clicks towards the end of that period. I'm not saying you'll be tearing up the park by the end of the week, but you should be skiing red runs.

It is worth it though - once you're good at it, it's like flying.

Three important things in skiing:

1) Go faster.
Sounds stupid, but you'll be more stable.

2) Learn to fall.
You're going to fall. Choosing how and when that will happen rather than trying to cling on and losing control will probably spare you injuries. If you feel yourself lose control, and you can see a safe fall, do it.

3) Look around, and up on the piste. Be aware of where everyone else is.

Snowploughing- or "pizza!" As the instructor kept saying.

I'm wondering now about raising the inside ski a little when in the turn. Gah.

We'll see tomorrow I guess- then sadly I'm at work all week.

Ah you're in America. Pizza - French fry!

Yep. Whilst eating dinner last night I read about snowplough turns etc and what I read made sense- and directly contradicted some of the things that the instructor said.

I have a bunch of errands to run today which means next skiing day will be Saturday, will try to ski both days of next weekend.

When I am back in the uk is it better to pop to an indoor slope in country, or pop over to Europe for a long weekend to continue to learn?

Much much better to be on a proper mountain. You get longer runs, better qualified instructors and a nice view at lunch time!

I second this. If you've got the time to travel you'll get better value for money compared to spending dollars on an inexperienced instructor sending you down the same short slope indoors.

you don't need an instructor. just get out there and ski. start on smaller shit go bigger as you get better. the one comment about weighting the front is imperative however, but its not "weight". A far better word is pressure.

Pressure on the front (think driving your big toe into the ground for the outside ski) brings the tips into the turn. pressure on the back (think about your heel) will bring the back in. every turn should be some element of transiting front to center to back pressure. that how you snap into and out of each turn.

but just ski and have fun.

Once you are able to do something resembling skiing, the best thing you can do is ski with people who are better than you are are. They'll wait if you're ready.

double post

couple of my brothers friends and mutual ski partners at Alta from this year

I am no where near this good but i can roll with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icNitz_QUOs

Problem is turning enough, I get so far and then the inner ski digs in and won't turn further- I need to keep the edge up, but the way of doing that is escaping me at the moment.

I struggled with this, it's just about putting weight/pressure on the outside ski and unloading the inside almost completely. What got me sorted was practicing one foot skiing in a straight line on a gentle slope, once I had the confidence to balance on one leg it all became easy.

You don't want to unweight the uphill ski. You want to bring the uphill ski far in front of the outer. This weights the back of the inner ski relative to the outer ski and as such it turns a bit less aggressively.

All truth in though skiing really isnt this conscious of an activity. If your inner ski is turning up the mountain then it's overpowering you and you need to ski harder.

you also may have badly tuned skis, but that can still be compensated for by simply not letting the ski tell you what to do.

people spend years trying to learn to use the inner ski. not "un-use" it. unfortunately skiing is hard work. theres not lazy way to get down a mountain. The less hard work you do, the less control you'll be in. 50% of skiing is realizing you have control over the skis.

you don't need an instructor.

I disagree with this, lessons are incredibly cost effective when you're starting out in the first week or so.
I think everyone could benefit from a few hours with an instructor every so often.

I agree, although skiing with someone better than you can be just as good sometimes!

You don't want to unweight the uphill ski. You want to bring the uphill ski far in front of the outer. This weights the back of the inner ski relative to the outer ski and as such it turns a bit less aggressively.

Not in the pizza / snowplough stage Dammit is at, that will make him fall over...

I find it very difficult to teach people to ski - so much of it I learned before I was a little kid. I tend to say things like "just do it like this" without explaining any of it.

Spent half a week trying to teach an ex gf to ski once - it did not go well. Being able to teach people to ski is a real skill.

I do sometimes despair/lol at people who spend thousands of pounds going skiing but are too cheap to pay for lessons.

You married her?

Anybody with a brain goes on a ski holiday to enjoy at his ability. Why waste some others holiday?

Ha. No!

Is she an athlete?

It's impossible to get someone skiing that isn't strong enough to power the skis.

I don't think strength is more important in any sport than in skiing.