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How do the rollers perpendicular to runs form?
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Poster:
A snowHead
Poster:
A snowHead
Over the last few days, we've encountered several runs where rollers have formed perpendicular to the direction of travel. These are most prevalent on fairly shallow gradients on runs such as blue roads and form all the way across the piste. How are they formed? (I've noticed these in the past but don't think I've ever got round to accessing the collective wisdom of Snowheads to find it what they are - if I've asked before and I've forgotten, feel free to direct me back to my original post
)
Obviously
A snowHead
isn't a real person
Obviously
A snowHead
isn't a real person
What happens is a small pertuberance causes one skier to come up a little then down the other side forcing a small depressesion. The next skier does the same but because the the depression is now slightly deeper they hit it with more force and the ski rebounds up then down the other side. causing another depression. Skier after skier goes down each hitting the depression and bouncing up. As all skiers are travelling at more or less the same speed with more or less the same rebound frequency in their skis the "washboard" develops.
The same effect can be seen on dirt haul roads where lorry after lorry going at the same speed bounces up and down at the same frequency.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I guess similar to moguls. First skier hits a slight depression or soft patch on the run and the slight added pressure pushes a little snow forward. This in turn increases the effect for the next skier who pushes a little more snow forward, and so on. The effect gets greater each time, a bit like the wobbly bridge effect on the millennium footbridge.
Occurs in tiny increments but with enough traffic over a narrow flat can result in rollers.
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Possibly like washboard effect on dirt roads?
https://perso.ens-lyon.fr/nicolas.taberlet/washboard/
this study found it was just down to the speed of the wheel passing over the road rather than anything else and it happened at quite low speeds. Maybe loads of relatively slow moving skiers on a blue road have a similar effect?
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Makes sense. With dirt roads the wheels push dirt back. I'd imagine on snow it's the other way round and snow gets pushed forward.
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