Could it be the speed of ascent that has an effect?
It certainly seems to be with me - cable cars pretty much guarantee pins and needles etc at the top. Annoying but at least it's predictable now.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
rob@rar,
Quote:
a bit mean
GrahamN, yikes Glad you're on the mend. Lip injuries are so attractive, aren't they? I was once stationary on the plateau between Courchevel and Meribel, waiting in a group of people, when an out-of-control Brit careered down the path from the upper lift and cannoned into me: because he was so much taller than me (most people area) the belt buckle on his fartbag - but of course!! - caught my lip. I spent the next four weeks looking like something out of a horror movie.
Sideslipping rocks.
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?
Interestingly and possibly a little unusually, when I first learned to ski (1:1), my ESF instructor focused on sliding as the preferred means of speed control in trickier places as opposed to the snow plough - something that was only acknowledged and practically discouraged.
Interestingly and possibly a little unusually, when I first learned to ski (1:1), my ESF instructor focused on sliding as the preferred means of speed control in trickier places as opposed to the snow plough - something that was only acknowledged and practically discouraged.
I've got a friend who learned to ski at Les Arcs using their Ski Evolutif method. She can't snowplough to this day.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
I think it is a deficiency in ski design, they should be fitted with effective brakes & they would help me slow in between trees.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Spud9 wrote:
I've got a friend who learned to ski at Les Arcs using their Ski Evolutif method. She can't snowplough to this day.
I can't either... showstopper on BASI preliminary course last year, guess I'll never be an instructor.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Spud9, Ski Evolutif lots of sliding around on Blades!!!!!
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
One of my memories from my first week skiing, was standing at on the saddle between Courchevel and Meribel, at the bottom of the short section of red run from the Saulire lift. It was late afternoon, VERY icy and I was looking back up the run wondering how many times I'd fallen. There must have been 300 bodies littering the slope and the only people on thier feet were the instructors... who were all side-slipping.
Nothing wrong with side-slipping when the conditions call for it.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
adithorp, if it was icy up there it would have been hellish further down, surprised you didn't go down in the bubble
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.
Dr John, Once I'd got down that I wasn't going to walk back up!
I'd done it earlier and it wasn't as bad, but the blue around the corner to Meribel had been bad. I got talked into going back and tried the red back to meribel (my firrst red) and that was fine. I think the top was so bad everyone was taking the "easy" blue after that and making that bad, but that left the red ok.
All that icy stuff my first week means it never bothers me now. I quite like hearing the noise it makes; Means everybody else is coming down to my level.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Yoda
I live about fifty feet amsl, so 10,000 ft is quite an impact on me. I'm not supposed to fly up there without oxygen, so when I got to the top of Aiguille rouge obviously the forst thing I did was to challenge my companions to a foot race to the triangulation point. Gasp, gasp, plod, gasp, gasp plod. the forst bit of the Schilthorn is taken carefully too.
I didn't repeat the experience because all I found up there was a fairly bare expanse of rocks and ice. There was much better stuff down below.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
jonm wrote:
Quote:
Could it be the speed of ascent that has an effect?
It certainly seems to be with me - cable cars pretty much guarantee pins and needles etc at the top. Annoying but at least it's predictable now.
That's interesting. I had a dodgy experience heading up to the glacier in Tignes last year (3200m if I remember correctly). Felt wobbly, breathless and sick when I got off that train thingy at the top. I know I've been higher than that before so couldn't understand why I reacted so badly at the time.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Tignes glacier absolutely crushed me the first day I went up there, it was October and I went from sea level straight there and just felt ill all day.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hmm, due to be in Tignes soon, perhaps a bit of a walk round on the day I arrive, before I ski, might be in order.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Regukar skiing at altitude on the 1st day of a trip doesn't seem to affect me, but Day 1 of an EoSB a couple of years ago nearly killed me when I did a day's guided off-piste with BernardC. It wasn't the skiing but the 40 minute walk up a ridge at about 3,000m into a howling gale which was almost the end of me. It was a nice view at the top although all I wanted to do was vomit So the moral of the tale is never ski with BernardC on the first day of your trip. Or maybe don't go berserk on day 1.
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?
Are instructors trained to look out for the symptoms of being at altitude in their punters? My kids instructors had taken the kids up their before we went up, so I don't know if they had a problem, but would an instructor have realised if either them or an adult punter was having problems?
Megamum, most of us are equipped with common sense, too.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
GrahamN, no, I just did a basic Activity 1st Aid with St John (I'd left it too late to book with BASP) and it wasn't covered. I'm sure BASP would cover it, and in more details than the general stuff that was touched on in BASI (which I think was during the theory sessions on the L1).
After all it is free
After all it is free
DaveC, I'm quite sure you are, and didn't mean to imply otherwise I must admit I got breathless once up on the Corvatch in the summer on a walking trip, and it wasn't until I'd come down that I worked out why
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Breathlessness I can cope with, but the pins and needles down both sides of my face scared the life out of me
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
rob@rar, the one I did was put on by our slope, by a guy who is a skier, but also runs foreign expeditions (I guess upper end of Exodus and beyond), so what we did was actually a modified version of their expedition 1st aid course. So covered quite a lot of stuff, plus a degree of improvisation which could well be useful for more back-country style skiing. Interestingly another guy who did a BASP course said that was about 90% resuscitation, with everything else squeezed into the remaining time .
Anyway back on track....
The interesting thing, thinking back to what I was doing with the group last week was that while I was overtly concentrating on rotational skills (with a sort of half-way house between plough-parallels and skiddy javelins), what I was actually getting them to do, through about three variations of the task, was work on a) balance and centring b) pressure control with strong outside ski dominance c) extension-flexion, d) control of line and speed e) upper body management, and then in the last few minutes let them have their head blending in a bit of (maybe only 70-80%) carving. So we actually covered pretty much every skill group while they thought they were having a session on rotation . Worked wonders.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
GrahamN wrote:
So we actually covered pretty much every skill group while they thought they were having a session on rotation . Worked wonders.
I think that is often the case, and is the same as my experience when teaching clients with Inside Out Skiing. But it is important to have one focus area as getting your clients/athletes to "work on everything" in one session is a bit adventurous. For example, I'm running a session soon on balance, but it's going to be important to have reasonable edge control because it is very difficult to balance on a ski that is moving around underneath you too much because you're not able to get it to grip the snow...
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.
rob@rar, (I see I seem to have inadvertently switched threads - this discussion started originally in the pressure turning thread - but almost fits in here as well) - quite, and it only sort of developed that way sort of organically, in that these were all reasonably advanced skiers who can actually do all this stuff if they put their minds to it, but often forget to do so. The things that were preventing the effective execution of the rotation task all ended up being the other bits that we ended up working on clandestinely. Had I presented it as a "10 minutes on A, 10 minutes on B" etc, everyone would have got confused (not least me) and it would all have been skirted over - or we'd have concentrated too much on each individual activity, whereas what I guess what we were really working on was getting the blending right, with each blend element actually being activated rather than just falling by the wayside. And it's also an example of using the outputs to dictate where the inputs need some refinement.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Megamum wrote:
There was a short (maybe 50 or so yards) but fairly steep section of marked black in Switzerland last year, A couple of days before I had pulled a cat out the bag and skied it without side slipping - not with style, but with hanging on with my edges for grim death turns, however, I DID do it. When I went back it was with the intention of doing it again (I'd done it once, I could sure as hell do it again). However, when I got there there was a motorway car crash of people on it in various stages of skiing it, sitting on it, falling on it and generally being less than predictable on it. I reasoned that I couldn't guarantee to get the turns in on the places I'd need to and so in the finish side slipped the entire pitch. It was a brilliant side slip - controlled progressive, effective, but I still feel as though I bottled it un-necessarily and look back on the event with shame
Why shame? Feel proud of your choice and your technique. You sized up the slope and chose a way of skiing it that would not endanger yourself or others.
My ski teachers have suggested some drills to me. (1) On a short wide steep slope where falling would not be a worry, imagine a corridor the width of a piste basher (a recently bashed piste helps) and ski down turning within that corridor. Repeat but on longer slopes. Repeat but imagining a narrower corridor. (2) Side slip down a steep slope varying your speed from fast to very slow and back. (3) When side slipping, pick a mark in the snow directly down the fall line from your boots. Side slip down to that mark. For the last four or five metres slow down gradually coming to a stop with your boots over that mark.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Quote:
... Side slip and stay safe.
And then later practice skiing an imaginary narrow 'corridor' on a shorter \ wider slope that's of similar steepness to the one you want to master. This keeps you safe, gives you good quality practice and limits of the consequences of a tumble.
Check >this video <out for some serious side slipping, about 1:30 in
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
geoffers, liking the skills at 2:50 You'd want an early draw on that job.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
david@mediacopy, Yes, didn't it start getting chopped up as more and more went down it.
I take the point about the side slipping - those folks made it look quite cool. Mind you my slope wasn't (quite ) on that scale
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
jonm, Ahhh, it's lovely to watch a well controlled side slip. Very nice.
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?
geoffers, Brilliant!. Was that the world side-slipping championships? LoL. Think it illustrates perfectly the context of this thread even if it is beyond my skill level.
david@mediacopy, Yes, didn't it start getting chopped up as more and more went down it.
I take the point about the side slipping - those folks made it look quite cool. Mind you my slope wasn't (quite ) on that scale
If you want to look quite cool side slipping then nonchalantly pretend to have a conversation on your mobile phone, gesticulate with the poles held in the other hand and shrug your shoulders a few times.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
My worst experience as a novice was trying to hold a snow plough down a long road (green descent at Deux Alpes). I had to crash into the rocks on the side after a minute of it.
It took me a few days to work out that you can swing the skis round sideways and skid the whole lot to a stop. Like most people do when they slow down to meet the rest of the group on a piste.
After all it is free
After all it is free
Linked hockey stops. The trick is maintaining the co-directions of the linked stops. First one is you going 45 degrees right to the fall line, doing a hockey stop with skis point down and 45 degrees left of the fall line, hockey stop ends with a hard edge set, you pushing off of said edge set with enough force to both get skis moving 45 left of fall line and switch to a hockey stop with directions reversed and repeat. For really narrow chutes where you need to go slow, use less of an angle and push harder. Snow plows are just ineffective in really steep terrain. Likewise, pivot slips (and sideslips) get hung up in rough deep snow terrain.
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.
Ghost, I was taught that sort of technique, I think, to deal with making a very narrow corridor in the slightly more decent snow to one side of an otherwise boiler plate piste. The instructor got me doing very short turns (they felt like hockey stop type manouevres) and then encouraged me to almost stop using the edges into the side of the mountain after each turn to control the speed. Does that sound like the same sort of thing?
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
Glad you're on the mend. Lip injuries are so attractive, aren't they? I was once stationary on the plateau between Courchevel and Meribel, waiting in a group of people, when an out-of-control Brit careered down the path from the upper lift and cannoned into me: because he was so much taller than me (most people area) the belt buckle on his fartbag - but of course!! - caught my lip. I spent the next four weeks looking like something out of a horror movie.
So the moral of the tale is never ski with 
You'd want an early draw on that job.
