Snow Skills

There’s few sensations as satisfying in skiing as letting a pair of shaped skis carve their way down the mountain.  That’s a great image, letting the skis do the work and you just mostly going for the ride.  You can create great carved skiing turns if you steer your legs just a little.

Thanks to shorter ski lengths and exaggerated sidecuts, it only takes a little effort to turn a shaped ski. Just because it’s easy, however, doesn’t mean more steering is better. You’ll maintain better control by thinking about turning your foot so that the toes and heel are moving the same amount in opposite directions. Ignore, for the moment, that you have somewhere between 150 and 170 cm of skis under you and just concentrate on what your foot only is doing.  By focusing on turning the feet, you’ll avoid excessive twisting of your legs that will rob you of stability and control. Your motto for steering when carving should be ‘less is more’.