This is a wonderful and simple way of skiing. It works beautifully on
groomed terrain. It can also be modified slightly to work in crud, bumps,
and powder. I will explain the modifications later. Here's the basic technique.
I am assuming you are skiing shaped skis here but that is not necessary if you insist on
making things tough on yourself. I want you to start with a balanced
body position while skiing. Your body is balanced for skiing when your toes,
knees, and shoulders are all in a virticle line (i.e. your knees are directly above your toes etc). That can't
happen without you bending your knees and getting your weight forward (Nastrovia)!
Lets ski!
Start traversing down the mountain in the balanced position. You have to
decide which is your downhill ski. Once you do I want you to take all your
weight off of the downhill ski by raising it slightly. Don't lift it off
the snow but remove all the weight from it by pulling your leg up. Now tip
the unweighted ski in the direction of that foot's little toe. While doing this
push this ski forward. If you are not turning in the direction of this unweighted ski you are now defying physics and gravity. Keep your skis on this new edge and reweight the unweighted ski. Has turning ever been this easy? This
simple technique will keep your skis turning all day with as little effort
as any other technique.
Modification for bumps, powder, and crud:
Get your skis as close to one another as possible. Unweight both of your
skis by pulling both of you legs up slightly. Tip your skis in the direction
of the turn, i.e. towards the little toe of the downhill ski. Gently re-establish your weight on your skis. Keep your skis close together. Pretty easy and simple right? Practice both of these turns on terrain you are comfortable
with and than take them to the steeps, powder, and bumps.
Modification for mere mortals:
I am trying to keep this simple but I can't ignore this. Most of us, especially when learning to ski (by the way this learning never ends) "sit back" or have our weight to far back. The technique I described above about saying push you ski forward can lead to getting your weight to far back. If that is the case than instead of pushing the "toe tipping" ski forward pull your other ski back. That will help keep you weight forward. You will almost always have more weight on the turning ski (physics, centrifugal force, etc rule) but try and keep weight on both skis and keep your skies somewhat close, (i.e. hip or shoulder width apart). That is basically the Mahre brothers, "White Pass Turn." That pretty much speaks for itself.
Return to "Learn to Ski page"
Return Home