Tag Archives: Turning

Steering angle

The term steering angle is used a lot in these articles.

It’s a simple concept. Most turns aren’t fully carved. The skis are rotated through an angle prior to engaging the edge to start carving. That angle is called the initial steering angle. If you want to carve a turn with radius shorter than the capability of the ski, you will need to establish a steering angle first. The shorter the turn, the greater the initial steering angle. Look at pictures of World Cup racers and you will see them using steering angles all the time (see Ron LeMaster Ultimate Skiing).

There are three ways to establish a steering angle at the beginning of a turn:

  1. Rotate the skis while they are flat during crossover
  2. Jump the skis round in the air
  3. Use an uphill stem followed by a step of the inside ski

Again, you can see examples of all of these in Ron LeMaster’s Ultimate Skiing.

 

Conquering crud

Crud: heavy powder, slush, breakable crust, chopped up ruts. Nightmare or challenge?

With a few simple rules you can sail down slopes where lesser mortals flounder. You may even have a smile on your face as you pass by. 🙂

Rule 1: The skis must not move sideways. To clarify: the skis must not move sideways edge first. If you try to twist the skis as you would with a skidded turn, the edges will catch and down you go.  The killer technique for crud is to tilt the skis on a big edge angle and push down and out. The skis may move sideways, but it will base first – pushing the snow away to the side like a snowplough. If you’ve been on a Snoworks course, you will recognize this technique – they even call it pushing.

Rule 2: You must be balanced at all times. Crud is rough and unpredictable. If you are slightly off balance and hit a change in the snow, you will end up more off balance, and eventually crash – or tire yourself out making lots of recoveries. A wider, lower stance generally gives better balance. When you do hit a change in the snow you can make quick fore/aft changes in balance just with a movement of the ankles – push the feet forward or backward underneath you accordingly as the snow slows you down or speeds you up. See Ultimate Skiing (LeMaster) Chapter 5 for details of these fore-aft adjustments.

Rule 3: The skis must leave the snow to start a turn. It you try to initiate a turn in crud by twisting the skis, you will catch an edge and crash. Or if it’s too heavy to twist, you’ll just carry on in the same direction and the turn won’t materialize. You need to get the skis out of the snow to steer them. The idea is to jump the skis out of the snow, rotate to establish the new steering angle, tilt to the edge angle required (usually a lot), and land on the new edges ready to start pushing to the side (see Rule 1). If the snow is not too heavy, you might get away with a big unweighting rather than jumping. It takes a bit of practice to coordinate the jump-twist-tilt movement, but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll be amazed at what you can ski. Alternatively, if you’re not confident enough to try the jump, stemming allows you to place the skis one at a time into the new turn.

So use the rules, practice a lot, fall a bit, and you’ll soon be seeking out crud on a search and destroy mission instead of dreading it.

Remember though, heavy snow creates greater twisting forces on the body and its joints. So don’t overdo it. Let discretion be the better part of valour. As Don Whillans once said: The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure you are too.