Skiing Powder

Tons of snow! And you came home to more here. Hope you had a fab time Kate.

So, I think the leaning back thing is definately an old school ski style (longer skis = lean back to get the tips out of the snow), I think I'll just go for it and see what works for me :wink:

I had a fab time thanks :D

My instructor definitely says don't lean back, but the best advice was to use firmer pole plants, and also to turn harder, almost using your hips and bum to shift the snow out of the way. It's taken almost 39 years, but I knew my arse would come in useful one day.... :lol:

kateshaw wrote:

I knew my arse would come in useful one day.... :lol:

Fat backsides are good for us apparently...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8451674.stm

:D

kateshaw wrote:My husband values his life far too much to take pics of me having a meltdown :lol:

Great photos Kate, I'm guessing the meltdown one was you in the tub!!

So, through no choice of my own I ended up skiing through powder, and it wasn't off piste. We had a massive dump of snow Friday night/Sat morning in VDI last week, it was also horrendously windy and the bashers had been out but all the snow had blown across the pistes, so I went for it, not quite as elegantly as planned, but I got a few turns in and didn't fall over.

Its a start :mrgreen:

As mentioned elsewhere, this week I had my first powder lesson from GF, who is not a ski teacher, but is able to take some responsibility for assessing what is safe for me to try. She said to stay back a bit, and take more weight on upper legs, so the tips do not dig in. It seemed to work, and felt natural, but whether more forward weight would have caused a problem, I have not yet tested.

There were layers of ice crust, so not great powder, and I imagine the weight should be fairly even, as you do not want tips digging through an ice crust and tails staying on top. But maybe someone will correct me about all this. As I mentioned in another thread, keeping the weight back a bit felt totally different than the feeling of the weight falling backwards on piste owing to bad technique. It felt perfectly secure, just a bit more demanding on upper legs.

You may get away with leaning back on a shallow pitch, BUT I can assure you that you will not get away with doing so on anything steeper!

If your speed is OK, your tips will naturally come towards the surface.

Dorset Boy wrote:You may get away with leaning back on a shallow pitch, BUT I can assure you that you will not get away with doing so on anything steeper!

If your speed is OK, your tips will naturally come towards the surface.

Wot Dorset Boy says :thumbup:

I think if you plan on standing neutral in your boots, you can move fore and aft if you need to. If the tips are dug in (for whatever reason) it should be enough just to lift your toes in your boots to raise them. Avoid leaning back as it can put your knees at risk.