Mad Ramblings of a Snowboarder's first Morning on Ski's

A snowHead

Well I did it.

Day after day of clear blue sunshine and no fresh snow, it had been pure piste cruising all week. So, after some procrastination I decided it was time to hang up my board and try skiing for the morning. I’d had some very basic beginner lessons on a dry maybe 22-23 years ago but nothing since and never been on snow on planks. Now was that time.

After the pain of trying several clunky heavy inflexible boots, which later I discovered would have zero grip on the hard pack snow, I got a pair that felt as comfortable as I can imagine ski boots can be, and I lugged them back to my chalet with the skis. After snowboarding everything seemed to weigh a ton. The 75m walk from the chalet to the piste, which I normally skip down in my snowboard boots, became a clunky slippery slidy affair, and I finally felt a bit of sympathy for my wife who’d been struggling up and down there all week in her ski boots.

I can honestly say for the first time on snow in as many years as I can remember I actually felt a little nervous as I clumsily clunked the heavy boots into the bindings. Though I do confess to secretly quite enjoying that moment as you slam down the heel and the binding “snaps” into place with a very satisfactory sounding clunk. Much less effort than bending over double to ratchet up the snowboard bindings. The gentle run down to the La Tania Gondola which I'd normally straight line on my board was a wobbly knee shaking affair with a couple of vague snow plough turns.

A friend and her husband had kindly agreed to a go-slow morning to essentially baby sit me and give me informal lessons. My first instinct was to head up the lanches chair to the wide gentle blue/green across to Loze. However they insisted we take the narrow cat track green, Plan Fontaine, back down to La Tania first. She told me later this was because as it was a narrow track it would therefore force me to put small turns in to control my speed, as opposed to taking long traverses with occasional turns at each end on a wide piste. The first few hundred metres were shaky . After nervously semi-careering down the narrow flatish track as a complete beginner again, veering toward the edge, then back toward the mountain side, snow ploughing hard to control speed, and stopping when things were about to go horribly wrong, it wasn’t long before I was overtaken by my friends 4 year old daughter in ski school. However I soon relaxed and out of sheer principle I was determined to overtake the 4 year olds again, and her strategy seemed to be working. I quickly worked out I wanted to get off snowploughing turning to ease my already burning thighs and knees.

What surprised me is that, after years of boarding, I always thought skiing looked much more relaxed than snowboarding, rather quite lazy even, especially on flatter sections where skiers just seem to point down hill and go. Lesson nos. 1. I’m now happy to admit it’s not quite as lazy it looks and if it’s the one thing that held me back on the morning it was burning thighs forcing me to stop every few hundred metres.

By about a third of the way down the green I was off pure snow plough turns and trying and having reasonable success at keeping the ski’s together, sliding from one side of the piste to the other feeling a bit more under control. I was in no way styling it or skiing purely parallel, but I was largely off snow ploughs at least and it was starting to feel a bit more natural. This was a big relief to my legs. Gradually I was feeling more in control and I felt duly smug as we overtook the 4 years olds again. TAKE THAT KIDS ! Let the Experience of age rule !

We then came to what I described as “steep” bit of the green. Having spent the previous days flying down Suisses on my board, this was somewhat a comedown. How my would-be instructors laughed at me for describing a bit of green as “steep”. On my board I’d have flown round the corner and down the drop and carried on without even noticing, but on ski’s this bit certainly felt steep as it stopped above looking down. The snow was hard packed and scrapped and just looking at it I wasn’t sure how the hell I was going to put in a turn. Well I went for it, started a poorly committed turn, slipped on the hard pack and found myself unceremoniously lying on the mountain, thumb bent under the pole. Ouch. Damn cumbersome those wretched poles. Two weeks later at my desk my thumb is still sore from that fall. Lesson number two learnt – I’d always thought skiing on hard pack and ice looked much easy as having two edges I always figured skiers had a reserve if one slips.

Fall number one out of the way we continued down. After a few flaky turns following the confidence knock, things picked up again and I happily skied on down the green and I even managed to straight line the bits I needed to pick up speed to get over the flatter uphill stretch at the bottom of the green before joining Folyeres above La Tania. When we got to La Tania I really quite enjoyed where it opened out on to Folyeres down past the beginner Troika drag. After being confined to the green cat track it was suddenly nice and open and very easy, and there was much more snow coverage to turn in. I was able to pretty much casually ski down freely turning at my leisure, admittedly being cautious of those bombing down past me. I enjoyed it so much I quickly went up the drag a couple of times. I was starting to get the concept of turning on ski’s now. I’d talked about the theory and watched my skiing friends on lots of occasions, but now I was actually starting to feel what they meant talking about weight transfer from one ski to the other.

Up the La Tania gondola again and this time up the Lanches chair. We took the Col De La Loze blue across the top. It starts off wide on natural rollers and ends up as the narrow track past the big boulder across to Loze. Piste conditions here were hard but consistent and generally very good so the added steepness on the rollers didn’t seem to phase me. I wasn’t fast but felt comfortable enough putting in turns where I wanted and even straight lining down the last roller to make the flat section across to Loze. It was somewhere around here where the subtle weight transfer seemed to sub-consciously click – weight off the inside leg and accelerate down on the outside leg and the skis turn round the inside leg. Once this had dawned on me I realised I could easily weave little turns with subtle shifts. It was sort of a revelation and quite satisfying to look back at my little tracks, although admittedly I had no speed confidence so I could only do this on the flatter sections.

We continued down the blue – initially Anenomes which goes on to become Lac Bleu. This faces east (ish) and had received the morning sun. As a result the snow was already soft and getting heavy. An entirely new surface to ski on. Generally I got down fairly well. I didn’t have style but was able to link turns and I felt reasonably in control, however I confess this heavier snow really took it out of my legs on the planks and I needed a couple of rests down this short stretch before having a gentle cruise down the Lac Est green to the Biollay chair.

Riding up the Biollay chair I remember looking up across at Coombe Saluire and (I think) Piste M noting they looked like they had been piste bashed from the distance and might be quite nice – suddenly I remember I was on planks and they were currently way outside my league. Lesson nos. 3 learnt - looking at a piste map was important again, as unlike being on my board I had to think about where I could go and what runs were off the top of any given lift and whether I’d be able to get down them.

The top of Biollay was as far as we would get for the morning. It was mid morning and time to start heading back. Lesson number 4. I’d cover far less ground as a beginner again. We headed back down Biollay taking the left fork right down next to the Biollay chair. I really quite enjoyed the top stretch along the ridge, though I found the wide steep stretch back down to the lift a bit tougher as it was exceptionally hard packed. I didn’t fall, but at best I “got down” the steep section and found it harder to commit to turns and quite leg burning. We headed up Coqs, and took the blue runs, Cretes and Arolles down to the top of the La Tania gondola. Now was crunch time. I’d already done Plan Fontaine and I didn’t really want to get the gondola down – decision made. I’d have a crack at Folyeres.

I think Folyeres is relatively steep in places for a blue, but at least its drop-flat-drop-flat, a sort of a roller coaster down to La Tania. I think if my muscles had been fresher I’d have really quite enjoyed it. I was generally happy on the run, but by now I really couldn’t do more than a few hundred metres without needing to rest. I racked up minor fall number two as I hit a scrapped patch of snow and couldn’t control it, but otherwise it was a gentle and slow flow down. I confess to be being rather pleased with myself at skiing Folyeres, even though it hurt, and I thanked my friends for baby-sitting me all morning and sent them on their way to do a few more zooms down Folyeres whilst I played a bit on the Troika drag to practice my new skills before we had to get back to the chalet to relieve the nannies who were on half day.

All in all I really quite enjoyed it my morning skiing. It was certainly most welcome slipping back into my comfy snowboard boots the next morning and the mountain opening up to me again as I strapped into my familiar snowboard bindings. So in summary, back on my board:

I didn’t miss faffing with poles on the chair lift
I didn’t miss those awful inflexible boots forcing your knees to bend all day.
I did miss the convenience of being able to ski off the top of a chairlift without having to stop to do up the bindings.
I did miss the sensation of being able to swing one way to another with those subtle changes from one leg to the other, leaving surprisingly (for a beginner) nice lines.
I didn’t miss the inability to sit down just off the edge of the piste !
I didn't miss the nerves from hearing the loud scraping of snowboarders putting in turns behind me !

In some respects I really enjoyed being a beginner again, though in other respects it was frustrating making slow progress round the mountain and being more limited as to where I could go.

Would I do it again ? I hope so. If there’s fresh snow in resort I doubt I’d sacrifice time on my board. But when there’s been a snow drought and there’s pure piste cruising on offer I definitely plan to dedicate a little time to two-planking.

G

A snowHead

That was a really interesting read, and as someone who has friends that tried boarding after years of skiing, good to hear how it is viewed the other way round. How you managed to remember which runs you did and in what order though - impressive. I can barely remember from run to run. Quite intrigued by the fact that you found it much physically tougher - I had always thought boarding looked tougher on the legs because you couldn't move your individual feet/legs to ease the pressure.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Your thighs are probably burning because you are leaning too far back. Good story, always fun to read and reminds me how much work it can be for new skiiers.

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Nice post

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

good effort and excellent write up.

thanks for taking the time Very Happy

Callai, i think i can remember the runs i did and in what order for most trips/days/holidays in the past 5 years! snowHead

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Thanks for the post. I just did the exact same thing and your experience mirrors mine. Like you i was surprised at how physical it seemed compared to boarding although as Monium says it's probably due to my poor technique. I will go skiing again but I think i'll save it for poor snow days, unless some day i get competent enough on the skis to go ski touring - that looks like a great game.

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Good post!

After all it is free

Great write up, nice to see an unbiased view of the pro's and cons's. Sounds like you made some good progress, how much do you reckon your time on a board helped, balance, reading the mountain etc etc

One thing I will say is don't base your view of ski boots on a set of hire boots, which are the most god awful instruments of torture you can find on the mountain. Your own boots, fitted by someone who knows what they are doing with custom footbeds are a world apart. Admitedly not quite as comfy as board boots, but a 1000 times better than hire boots.

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I can ski all day in most conditions without getting weary. 2 hours of snowboarding last winter had me whimpering with exhaustion though! All new muscle movements and the stress of not being able to relax.

I think we forget as we master a skill how difficult it is for beginners.

Next step for me i think is telemarking - that looks fun!

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Having re-skim read what I wrote I should appologise for the typos and grammar in places. Still, life's too short to go back and correct it now:-)
EDIT - Couldn't resist - had to go back and correct the blindingly obvious typos, though there's probably still a few left.

I think I wrote it up as I did really quite enjoy it and it's sort of helped cement the memory.

Surprisingly, other than the leg burn from the leg positioning and the lack of grip on the ice, I think the boots I ended up with were pretty comfortable. Don't get me wrong I was pleased when they came off as I felt half the weight and could have jumped to the moon, but they seemed tight enough without cutting anything off and I had no rubbing anyway or significant movement. My wife and several friends often used to complaing about heel lift or rubbing in hire boots and I luckily enough didn;t have any of that - though this is possibly as I was doing easy stuff I doubt i was doing any agrresive movements.

I think time on a board definately helped, as my concept of what the edges were doing was there from the start, plus as you say just reading the mountain.

Actually remembering back, one interesting thing I noted was how much I found the edges would "bite" in compared to my board. I thought learning to throw a 90 degree turn to skid sideways to a stop (which I'm sure proably has a proper name) would be really easy, but I found it harder than I expected to get the skis to stop biting the edge through a turn and to actually skid out sideways to stop.

I do wonder if the guy gave me ski's more above my level that had much better edges. I did tell him I'd only ever done some very basic dry slope stuff some 20 years ago, and recall being surprised when he asked me "how aggresive a skier are you".

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Gazzza, Excellent post. Very interesting reading. Very Happy

On the physical toughness, I guess it's just different muscle groups being used slightly differently, so it's a case of what you are used to. That said being snowboard everyday I honestly expected my muscles to be able to adpat to skiing better than they did. I suppose I wasn't properly relaxed for much of it, especially the first hour maybe, which I guess burns you out much quicker.

Actually if I think back to my first ever snowbaord lesson at Tamworth snowdome many years ago, I did levels 1 and 2 over a 3 hour session. This basically just covered toe sliding and heel sliding down a very short nursery slope. Thinking back, the night after that lesson I could barey walk.

You know it makes sense.

Gazzza, Good read.

I tried skiing for a few hours this year.
I've been boarding for 5 years now but before that I was a "skier" for 2 weeks, with even one proper holiday in Les Deux Alpes and I was doing rather well on skis.
This time, I could not move, it took me 40min to go down a 1km run with lots of falls. I could not do any turns, etc, like complete beginner.
OK conditions did not help - icy and very steep and extremely busy red run.
It was down-beating experience as I hoped I will do much better. I have to try again on more friendly slope.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Gazzza, Interesting read and well done!

From the sounds of it you got the basics sorted really quite quickly.
That it feels much more tiring is normal, it is all new to you, you won't be as relaxed as you are on the board for a while.

If you want to give it another go, I'd recommend a session with a proper instructor; You describe a thing or 2 that an instructor, combined with your apparent (quick) pace of learning, should figure out quite quickly.

A snowHead

A snowHead

Interesting read - have promised missus that i'll give the planks'n'poles a go sometime, maybe when the juniors learn...

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Fascinating read, and really brought back the memories. For the most part, I hugely enjoyed learning to ski (in Meribel in 2006). But it was probably the most shattering six days of my life. I'm a keen middle distance runner, but that counted for very little.

Was highly amused last year when my wife and a snowboarder friend swapped kit in Les Arcs. She went from level 9 to sliding down a green run on her backside. Can't say I was tempted; I'd have been worse still.

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One other observation i had on the transfer from board to skis was just how vulnerable the knees felt. Even when learning to snowboard, when you catch edges and come down hard, generally you end up just bruised and sore, but on the skis when i ragdolled it a few times i was very aware of the possibility of doing serious damage to the knees. Is that why you always hear skiers going on about their ACLs?

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I think i might give a days boarding a go this year.

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Mad Ramblings of a Snowboarder's first Morning on Ski's

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