 Poster: A snowHead
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He's a remarkable man. Son of crofters north of Inverness, former trucker and motor engineer. Taught British skiers and racers in Wengen, when the Swiss Ski School was pretty much closed to foreign teachers. Dogmatic like you wouldn't believe, but a hell of a teacher. He taught a strict carved turn back in the 1970s, when 'compact' (short) skis started to encourage a more skidded approach. Each was valid, and Ali got into a few scrapes with the other BASI trainers over this.
Here is Ali, still running his ski clinics in Tignes:
http://www.alirossskiingclinics.com/index.php
The Sunday Times made him famous in 1974 as the ski instructor of the paper's then editor Harold (now Sir Harold) Evans and two of his colleagues on the editorial staff. They wrote a very influential book - 'We Learned to Ski'. Highly recommended for your ski library - can be obtained secondhand through the www.abebooks.co.uk book-selling network.
Front cover here: http://www.sirharoldevans.com/images/ski294.jpg
Haven't skied with Ali since 1990, at the international launch of the Salomon ski on the Saas Fee glacier. That was some circus, at the dawn of the season, switched from Val Thorens due to lack of snow. Val Thorens promotional material was handed out in the Swiss resort!
I have to hand it to Ali for totally deconstructing my skiing, and reconstructing it, over a period of a fortnight, which was all that the BASI course comprised in 1975. When you learn from a master like this, everything starts to be fun again, and so much less effort ... so much safer.
If you want to ski with Ali, go and see him. He has some remarkable stories, but he'll also discipline you in technique!
Anyone skied with Ali recently?
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 4-02-10 7:04; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Having been involved with British skiing since 1967 Ali Ross is the only person I would willing pay to give me a private lesson. Ali Ross and John Shedden have done more for British Skiiing than any other person. Both should be rewarded in some creditable way.
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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?
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BASI had ther opportunity of having Ali as their President. But choose a retired rugby player with limited knowlege of skiing instead. What kind of Board of Management do we have
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Well - if we're dropping names in "who taught me to ski" ...... any one skiid with Fred http://www.fredfoxon.co.uk/
He was my ski-guru at Pontypool in 1976: excellent guy 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Fred edited (or Ed fredited) a major edition of the BASI manual in the (guessing) early 1990s. He used to thrash Cairngorm on exceptionally long skis for his head height.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Alpine Logic wrote: |
| BASI had ther opportunity of having Ali as their President. |
That would have been great, symbolically, but bear in mind that Ali is not your typical team player/leader. My impression of him, over the years, is that he does his thing in his own way - without too much discussion about it! What was so significant about his teaching in the mid-1970s was that he was right, and he saw the future (carving). The other BASI players around him were promoting a more skidded approach, which was valid but hardly exciting or powerful. These were times of a great revolution in ski technique, resulting from the plastic ski boot - people were just buying their first pairs at the time, having chucked away their leather boots - which suddenly gave recreational skiers the potential to carve (so long as they learned a few tricks).
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I leant my skis up against his Landrover once and he went beserk.
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I'm not surprised. He probably thought you were a disrespectful little southern [insert 4-letter word of choice].
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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.
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I was "on the intermediate plateau" and did several of his courses around 1990'ish in Tignes - I'd done lessons in France, so just angulating was a bit of a culture shock, but it changed my skiing big time. 20 odd years later, you can still see his influence in my skiing. And those dreadfull vids that Moira shot, when you thought you were so angulated that your backside was on the ground and in reality you'd hardly flexed at all. Image that sticks in my mind is Ali doing GS turns over the bumps at the base of the Grand Motte glacier - bumps, what bumps ? Hard work but good fun and very effective.
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mikeh, I too was a "Rosser" for a few years around that time. Maybe we know each other? 'Twas the days when the Alpaka was privately owned by two very large dogs and a tabby cat, although I stayed in the Bec Rouge and the Arbina.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Yoda - I did his courses when he was working with Supertravel - I think it was a chap called Sander Carling who owned the Alpaka. I stayed in a chalet which was up a bit of a side turning on the right as you come up into Tignes Le Lac, I dont remember its name. I remember that we always seemed to end up in the hire shop up a side turning behind the big block of flats in the centre having been sent to rent 2m slalom skis, usually Rossi 4S's. I came home with a cracking pair of black Dynastar Coupe du Monde Slaloms from there one year. Massive pair of ski's. Happy days
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You know it makes sense.
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kevinrhead, presumably you also know Colin Whiteside?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I met Ali Ross when in Tignes some people in the same chalet were doing a course with him. Most of them seemed to be treating his course as some sort of epiphany, but he did seem to insist on one type of boot / ski combination which I thought at the time was a little over the top..... having said that all the people who took his lessons really seemed to enjoy them, it all seemed a little messianic to me 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Sondra Norheim, now there was someone who'd have been good to have skied with.....way, way ahead of his and probably everyone else's time until possibly the late 1980's/early 90's 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I stayed with Ali in Wengen way back, he was an inspiration then and still is now. While other members of the BASI hierarchy were still stuck in their 'feet together',epileptic Austrian short swing'  technique, Ali with his wee A frame and open stance was like breath of fresh air.
Definitely one of my life time votes for good guy...
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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?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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ccl, quite right. Being adaptable is what you need. A fixed stance (whether it be ankles bolted together, or skiing like you're riding a horse) is done for reasons of "style" not efficiency. Fortunately the evolution of teaching has been away from contrived, stylistic nonsense.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
That was success then - and it looked good.
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Funny how opinions of what looks good change!
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He's a genius. He really is. Last year all we did was view his 20-year-old how-to-ski video and on the basis of that my wife (the most scared skier in the world) was going down red runs for the first time in 10 years within an hour of getting on the snow.
I'm not quite so scared but I didn't start skiing till my late 30s, so I'm never going to look like I've been skiing all my life. Just on the basis of the video I felt I'd actually "got it" for the first time ever. So last week we went on his introductory skiing clinic.
His approach is entirely different from anyone else. Forget all this "looking down the hill" or "shifting your weight" or "standing up between the turns" stuff. He just wants you to go from one edge to the other. And it works.
He's also a lovely bloke.
rogercorke
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rogercorke, welcome to snowHeads 
Good to hear that Ali has been of help to you and yours. Back in the old days he would encourage edging by the "hand on the knee" exercise - perhaps creating a small A frame as has been suggested above. I'd be interested to know if he still uses that or does he now have a different approach?
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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.
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| Quote: |
Forget all this "looking down the hill" or "shifting your weight" or "standing up between the turns" stuff.
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I haven't had any ski teachers who've told me to look down the hill or stand up between the turns for a long time now. Though I did do some "flexion/extension" for a lesson in the powder last week.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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maggi, do you really look like a bag of spanners or do you just feel that way? Our group of Rossers (no T in Typhoo thankyou) had just come down a pretty rutted crap piste feeling like we were all over the place and said to Ali "how come you looked your usual graceful self doing that and we were terrible?" - he said, "ah, but you don't know how I felt  "
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Yoda, OK, I feel like a bag of spanners a lot of the time. OTOH, some of my group (disclaimer - not snowHeads) are quite complimentary about my skiing. But as they mostly ski like a bag of spanners I'm not quite sure of their judgment!
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| Yoda wrote: |
| maggi, do you really look like a bag of spanners or do you just feel that way? Our group of Rossers (no T in Typhoo thankyou) had just come down a pretty rutted crap piste feeling like we were all over the place and said to Ali "how come you looked your usual graceful self doing that and we were terrible?" - he said, "ah, but you don't know how I felt " |
I've had that exact same thing said to me on one of my first off-piste lessons. It was a really useful thing to learn: skiing complex snow or terrain will feel awkward, uncontrolled, disjointed, but that is how it feels to everyone including the guys who appear to be flowing down the slope with complete ease.
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You know it makes sense.
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Yoda, rob@rar, me too, about three weeks ago. It was really helpful.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Do I remember correctly that Ali taught on a temporary dry slope in the grounds of Lords cricket ground at the end of 1971?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Me
| Quote: |
Yoda wrote:
maggi, do you really look like a bag of spanners or do you just feel that way? Our group of Rossers (no T in Typhoo thankyou) had just come down a pretty rutted crap piste feeling like we were all over the place and said to Ali "how come you looked your usual graceful self doing that and we were terrible?" - he said, "ah, but you don't know how I felt wink "
I've had that exact same thing said to me on one of my first off-piste lessons. It was a really useful thing to learn: skiing complex snow or terrain will feel awkward, uncontrolled, disjointed, but that is how it feels to everyone including the guys who appear to be flowing down the slope with complete ease.
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Me three!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Back in the old days he would encourage edging by the "hand on the knee" exercise - perhaps creating a small A frame as has been suggested above. I'd be interested to know if he still uses that or does he now have a different approach?
Yes, he still does this. Every morning for the first few turns, you progressively push your knee over to get the feel of the skis going onto their edges. It's really effective.
roger
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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?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Thanks to this thread, I bought Ali's book. I figured my wife would benefit from it and my mate, who is coming to Tignes with me in March, will certainly benefit from it.
I looked at Ali's classes. My wife would get in but I think my friend needs some one to one to get him back up to a solid intermediate standard, first.
The book arrived this morning and seems easy to follow. I would like the video too, but it seems out of stock everywhere.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Will probably not bother with our usual private lessons anymore after the legendary Ali Ross. Have also just managed to get his video (second hand) from Amazon. Will study before next trip. Bought some fantastic skis - Dynastar Legend Eden Fluid - with approval from Ali. Can't wait to try them out as got them at end of Tignes trip.
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Geisha Skis, welcome to s - and good to hear you had a positive experience. Did you buy the skis at Guy's shop?
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FAQ
But the old skills are not entirely redundant when the feet come together in the bumps. 
) a friend lent me an Ali Ross's ski video to watch. He looked like poetry in motion and skiing looked so easy! Unfortunately, when I started skiing I looked like a bag of spanners. And compared to Ali, I still do! 
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) even given the relatively modest entry requirements (stem turns down a red piste IIRC). He was not amused to say the least. Maybe everyone should send in a video of themselves these days 