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learning to ski off piste

 brian
brian
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Yoda, yeah, yeah, I know. At least you didn't mention the pole drag. In my defence, it's a 3 year old pic before I'd been to "welcome to the new millenium" lessons, I was on narrow skis and it's quite windblown, thick snow (Scotland).
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
First off, people only ski the stuff when it is easy....and although that is good for confidence it doesn't help the next time you do it and the snow is...err..different. So stick at it...

Ever-changing snow needs an ever-changing turn and you need to be able to do it at will.

The biggest single mistake ...given that the snow is good/ not unhelpful ... is people turn out of the fall-line too quickly which makes the turns after ....all too jerky and prone to tripping you up. Pick a slope you can gun.

And if you haven't got a good turn on piste, you have no hope of getting it right off it.
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 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?
Having just found/resurrected this thread for someone else, I thought I'd take my courage in my hands and post the results of last season's powder mission (not really after a critique, thanks, far too cowardly!)

This one was actually on my birthday so it was rather a nice present to have things begin to click

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a272/zurisee/?action=view&current=P1000832.flv

And this one a few days later in very flat light that made it all "doing by feeling" (good practice I guess):

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a272/zurisee/?action=view&current=P1000888.flv

Neither of them was particularly deep, but we were doing between boot top and knee as well, just having too much fun to film

It's all a bit slow and steady yet and I'm under no illusions that there's a way to go, but it's progress from no turns at all.
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eng_ch, looks good, very controlled, good fore-aft balance, great rounded turns most of the time with no rushing the skis past the fall line: a really good foundation to build your skills on. Slight hesitation at cross-over, but that will reduce as you gain confidence as you let the skis run a bit faster and put a bit more energy into the turn (gives you a bit more momentum to play with and makes the transition a bit easier). Smile
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
eng_ch, fantastic, you look really good - streets ahead of what I managed to achieve last season. Not sure if I ever posted the fact that after my off-piste course in Klosters, I skied the following week with someone who'd witnessed my efforts off-piste the previous season. He said, 'what's happened? You look less confident than last year.' And that immediately after a week of tuition. Blow that for a game of soldiers! I'm aiming to sign up for a Snoworks week next season, to see if that helps. Anyway, you look great, the thinking that Brian decried obviously paid dividends. Toofy Grin
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rob@rar, Hurtle, thank you. Actually I was lucky insofar as we had a couple of days of really good conditions on a flat piste locally.

Day 1 I just kept diving off the edge of the piste, only about a ski-turn's length effectively using the piste markers as slalom poles, to see if I could turn in one direction. Then repeated that on the other side. Then went far enough the other side of the piste markers to fit in turns in both directions to see if I could link 2 (one in each direction) before diving back to the safety of the piste. Then I managed to link up to 8 turns before I bottled it. At the end of that day we took the cross-country route back to the car which involved lots of nice flat boot-deep powder to practice gentle turns - that was the day I looked back on S shapes and went "woohoo"! Far to excited to stop for a pic! Finishing up with one v short steep section which was nice and easy to go round the edge of to minimise it

Day 2 I went about 20m then 50m from the edge of the piste (50 was way beyond comfort zone) with a fraction more gradient - and spent a day face-planting big time! Then we got to Courchevel in April, had great conditions and somehow it just clicked.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
eng_ch, nice skiing, as you progress try to introduce more pole planting. You tend to rotate your whole body to make the turns, try to find a nice pitch like the second video and see if you can keep your upper body square to the fall line and let your legs run out wide and turn with the lower body and feet at the slower speeds... also you tend to stem turn at the slower speeds which is a good technique to have but with a bit more speed as Rob points out will help allow the skis to remain more parallel as your confidence grows. Smile
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Quote:

not really after a critique, thanks, far too cowardly
Toofy Grin
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Hurtle wrote:
Quote:

not really after a critique, thanks, far too cowardly
Toofy Grin


It's called blissful ignorance!

Skimottaret, thanks for that - lots of points I have already mentally noted for next season. Just staying on my feet is/was the achievement lol

Forgot to add, credit where it's due, it's not entirely my own work - had a few valuable tips privately and a couple of hours' private lesson going right back to the "learn-the-alphabet" stage
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