What Spring Snow Teaches Us.

There are two types of skiers- those who dream of spring snow and those who dread it!

Here is why.

Spring is the time of final summative examinations. The year's learning all based on one, two or three hour examinations. Time of stress. You can not avoid these reviews of your learning. It begins in elementary school, high school and university.

So it is with skiing.

The skiers that practice their technique, that work on their "weaknesses", that improve, then face the spring snow examination with less stress than "others"

Let us see what spring snow teaches us all.



There are two major characteristics of spring snow; variable and unforgiving!

Let me explain.

Variable
The consistency and form of the snow in a slope or run varies greatly. Also during the day this snow changes it "identity" from hard crusty to soupy texture.

Unforgiving
Spring snow knows that you have skied all winter. No excuses now, thus it does not allow "cheating" by; body rotations, leaning back, muscled turns, shorter skis, straight downhill turns, etc... All cheaters will be caught!


Spring snow is the final examination of all skiers. So let us look at the content of this examination! In short this is a "sneak peek" of your spring skiing examination!

You decide at the end of this presentation if you should look forward to spring skiing or dread it.

Variable factor
The snow changes gradually its consistency to determine if you can also change your skiing style and technique. All "good" skiers adapt to the conditions. In the morning the snow is level, uniform and resistant to ski edges. It holds the ski edges. At this point of the day the snow just wants to know if you can carve an even series of turns. No excuses here since all conditions are on your side.

By 10 AM the competency bar has been raised. The snow is now softer. The run is more varied. The sun is warmer. The cheaters are getting sore legs. The side sliders are not dominating the snow. Once in a while the snow will catch the skis going side ways. The skiers sitting back now are letting the tips ride "above" the snow grooves. Imperceptibly the snow is taking over!
It is deciding where your skis are going. The battle is on!

By 1PM the snow is like corn or porridge ! This is when the men and boys ( and girls and women) are defined into two groups! This is when your skis seem to have their own mind. This is when you see skiers cry!
This is when snow takes over and makes you humble.

Wait there is more.

The smart skier accepts nature's lesson and stops skiing. The smart skier learns nature's lesson and promises that next year he/she will take lessons.
There are those however who still do not get message. Still feel they are better, more powerful than nature, Still feel their "cheating" skills will over come spring snow.

They have no idea what spring snow has stored for them.

By 3 PM the curtain is ready. Like in a boxing match, or a bullfight, spring snow has slowly "weakened" the unprepared. The muscles are aching, the snow has "dried" the victim, the brain is in "reaction " mode.

Now the spring snow changes again into thousands of microscopic ball-bearings. While before it was a cement like mixture, now it is silky fast. Mind you, not everywhere! Just where the early shadows are. The spring snow is playing with you. Just like a Matador ! A little twirl here! Then a little speed there! Some sticky spots here,,,then ups a quick roller coaster ride on ball-bearings there. Your mind can not follow. You are that bully chasing an ever moving target.

Either to accept defeat or you end up in the hospital!

Such is the final examination. No cheating allowed!

That is what spring snow teaches all skiers. It rewards those skiers that have paid their dues. That have worked at the basics. That have taken the time and effort to learn and master the correct and effective skiing technique. Because effective skiing is adapting your technique to mother nature, not the other way around.

The reward if you do?

A resort all to yourself. Ski runs that you will never forget. Skiing in T-shirt and shorts. Freedom and fresh air that last a Summer. Just like today. 20 skiers on the slopes. 500 in the bar!

Cheers fellow skiers. See you at graduation!!!!!

Pavel - you're absolutely right. I love spring skiing because I can really apply everything I've learned during the season and truly "test" myself. Also, I feel like no workout on earth compares to skiing variable Spring conditions. I love the way my legs feel at the end of the day and the feeling of accomplishment I get in knowing that I just skied about every cr*ppy snow condition possible in one day.

This year was my first experience of slush, infact this year was my first experience of a lot of snow conditions - sheet ice in Wengen in January and hot slush in Saalbach in March.

I hated the slush. I was trying so hard to perfect the neat little turns the instructor had been performing in the morning. There he was, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh - there I was, sat on my imaginary chair on the back of the skis, straddling one soggy dollop before impacting the next side on. At one point I longed for the sheet ice that covered parts of Wengen last January (the rest was grass by the way). At least on the ice I could turn!

Then the last day of the holiday arrived. No lessons and no instructor watching. Time to re-try some techniques picked up from a slightly mad Slovenian ski instructor during a 2hr private lesson the previous season. This largely involved adopting the tuck position, pointing the skis towards the the lift at the bottom of the piste and handing your brain over to a responsible adult to look after for a while. Time for ze 'alpha' turns as my Slovenian friend would have said! Large sweeping carved turns with a enough speed and momentum that no amount of half meter tall piles of slush were ever going to stop me. All of a sudden my Skis were doing all the work and I was the exstatic passenger who occasionaly asked them nicely for the odd change in direction. The piles of slush that were originaly causing me so much grief were now targets to be destroyed. It was great!

I think what I learnt from this was that at times you just have to simply wipe your mind of all the hundreds of things you are trying to remember on each and every turn and just go for it. Chances are you've spend a lot of cash to be on that piste so enjoy it - whatever the conditions.

P.S. I've posted a question about helmets in the Ski Hardware forum as a direct result of the above :shock:

I usually ski at Xmas or early new year, when its always been packed, crunchy, cold and sunny. Easy skiing? I think not. Mayrhofen in Feb was different conditions each day - sheet ice first thing in the morning, then soft bumps appearing, followed by donuts everywhere. Some mornings there was fresh powder up to your shins, others it was bumpy and lumpy, so each day was a challenge. I have never been worked so hard in my skiing life.

However, contrast that to Sauze last week (18th march) when there was little snow lower down, but fantastic snow on the pistes higher up, supplemented by a huge drop in temps and some fresh snow during the week. Long cruising reds, that did very from slidey ice first thing to pleasant cruising between 11 and 3, but cold temps meant there was no real variance, and it was a cruising paradise all day long. So much so that the only queues were for the last chair down at 4.45pm.

Perfecto.

A new observation.....

In January we skied in Wengen, Switzerland. The conditions were pretty much Ice everywhere. A few weeks later I visited our local dry slope, did three runs and went home. I just couldn't do it. The skis simply wouldn't turn.

In March we were in Austria and low down it was mainly slushy from lunch onwards. Yesterday I was back at the same dry slope - not a problem! Infact it was probably the most fun I've had at the slope (if that's possible on an artifical slope).

I think the extra effort required to ski in slush was somehow committed to memory with the result being that the extra resistance that the dry slope creates was no longer a problem.

As I keep saying to the girlfriend, the variable conditions we experienced on the last two holidays can only make us better skiiers!

We all want perfectly groomed billiard table surface runs, however it makes us, "lazy" skiers. It does not make us better skiers. Spring snow demands total control of skis, an "can do" attitude, and finally a skier who really is in the driver"s seat.

Yes you work more, but it makes you better skier. You can not "cheat" with Spring snow!

Why do you think there are so few skiers at 11 AM on the slopes in Spring?