Snow Skills

Release both edges at the same time to start a turn.

Black diamond trails will respect you if you develop the ability to edge your skis throughout the entire turn. From a sideslip, practice the skill of releasing your edges initially with your ankles and then supplement the motion with your knees. From these subtle movements, now be even more precise by focusing on the downhill ankle releasing milli-seconds ahead of the uphill ankle. Think about the little toe of your downhill foot leading the way to release all the remaining body parts to enter the turn. From these fine movements, release both skis simultaneously at the start of a turn and ride your edges through the turn. You’ll show gravity who’s the boss.

To improve skiing from a seeing focus, try the following:

Seeing: “Put your jacket zipper over the downhill edge of your inside ski”

The jacket zipper is a visual clue that your balance is in the best position through a turn. In order to place your jacket zipper in that position, you’ll find you have to adjust the orientation of your torso through the turn. Your torso will continuously tilt toward gravity, and you’ll use your legs to create this alignment. As you see your jacket zipper stay over the downhill edge of the inside ski, you should also see your outside leg set up outside of your hips for good balance.

This is a simple seeing focus, try it with a trailing partner for best feedback!

Want to become an expert skier? Use your pole swings all the time.

The motion of your poles can provide a significant boost to your skiing skills on diamond terrain. The ability to swing your outside pole to establish the beginning on a new turn will add timing and flow to your skiing and produce steadier balance and movements in higher-gravity areas. Focus on swinging the pole evenly out and back and let that swing be the result of wrist movements as opposed to a reaching motion by the arm. Skiing without a pole swing is like The Lone Ranger without Tonto: it’s really noticeable that something’s missing.

For Skiers, remember the basics: put most of your weight on the outside ski.

Here’s a simple tip from a thinking focus:

“Keep your inside leg light.”

When I think about keeping my inside leg light, the outside leg becomes ‘heavy’ in the sense that it’s the primary place for my weight. The ‘light’ focus lets me enter a turn with more balancing on the outside foot than inside, a ballpark of 60% of the balance for a typical turn. The ‘light’ 40% of weight on the inside leg can only be accomplished if I let my body move toward the outside at the top of the turn

Be aware that the percentage of balance mix will vary with snow conditions, terrain, and speed; regardless, thinking about keeping your inside leg light will direct your balance to the outside ski where it belongs.

For Intermediate Skiers, keep your stance hip-width and steady through the turn.

Standing on a level surface, hold your poles straight up and down against the outermost part of your hips. Now create a stance where the outside of your boots is aligned to the inside of each pole. With this hip-width stance, identify how far apart your knees are and focus on maintaining that width. Beware the part of the turn just past where your skis face down the hill; this is the point where the feet tend to want to come closer together. Resist that tendency and improve your turns by keeping your feet hip-width apart.

How will skiing green circle terrain make you a black diamond skier?!? Because the pitch, width, and typically good snow conditions of easier trails will give you the opportunity to break out of your present habits. A green circle trail will provide a comfort zone to allow you to try out new movements and modify ones that have grown too familiar.

An ideal practice trail would be relatively wide (100 ft.), an alignment directly down gravity (without sloping to either side), and have relatively little other traffic. Try working on these improvement tips on green terrain in the morning and then move to black terrain in the afternoon: you’ll find a new level of control and be more successful at changing your skills to match a steeper pitch.

Half your day of skiing and riding is spent on the lifts. While safety is an issue all day long, riding the lifts represents a time to be more vigilant, especially if you’re riding with the lift with a child.

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Your skiing stance is essential to your success in keeping your balance on the move oven uneven terrain. Improve your stance through an awareness of the width of your feet:

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One of the keys to good balance in skiing and riding is to understand that your balance is not built on the base of the skis, but on the edges:

Unless you’re in the lift line, you’re almost never standing on the flats of your skis/board; a skiing turn occurs only because the skis are on edge. If the ski/board is flat, it has no grip. You can put your gear on and stand in your living room all day long, but practicing your stance on the bases on a firm, flat, and stationary surface is basically worthless.

A mental image of a stance at a standstill has only limited value and the sensation of a stationary posture doesn’t equal what you feel on the slopes. Building good balance must happen on the hill and is most effective if you work on it while moving.

Try some easy turns on easy, groomed terrain. Focus on balancing your weight on the sides of your feet (skiers) or toes and heels (riders) and use that image to concentrate your energy into the snow through the edges, not the base(s). Skiers will feel their balance along their boots on the little toe/big toe, alternating from side to side. Focus on tipping the boot back and forth without twisting it. Riders will feel the balance at the ball of their foot and heel by moving their ankle, similar to the way you push toward and pull away from the gas pedal while driving.

One of the toughest factors in skiing moguls is to know where to find a path through them.  At first glance, a mogul field may look like chaos, but it can be made more manageable.  There are always many paths through any mogul field, and some are more desirable than others; make it easier by taking a trip to the refrigerator!

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