Is it me?

Thanks Pablo,
Well, if it's as complicated as all that, I'm glad I didn't have a go at carving in the deep powder.

I will have a look at the videos later, thanks very much :D

Tony,
I don't see what people have against the humble snow-plough. I find it very useful, even now. I use it when I'm trying not to slide into the person in front of me in the lift queue, when I'm going down a very narrow, icy, blue run blocked by masses of people, in the boarder cross park to cut my speed down a bit before going parallel over the jumps, and in fact it does work in powder but only if you use it to turn and then go parallel afterwards (I tried it out myself when the instructor wasn't there to tell me off). I even saw my instructor in a snow-plough while he was talking to another instructor, and I noticed that the pipers in kilts were doing the snow-plough in Scotland the other day.

Ally

Ally, you almost address what is wrong with using a 'wedge' in your own post. The instructor was probably just trying to discourage it for use in powder where it is more of a hindrance than a useful tool IME. I doubt the instructor meant that it was useless at all times, no one can doubt its use in certain situations - even the pros use it to kill a little speed in skiercross.

Just because you see someone else doing it doesn't mean you should.

Tony_H wrote: And definitely DON'T snowplough. Ever.

Pablo,
I was really responding to Tony's comments on the snowplough. And I'm very glad to hear that even the professionals sometimes use it in the skiercross. I did a very sneaky snow-plough behind my morning instructor in the boardercross park so that he couldn't see it and tell me off - my nice afternoon instructor didn't mind me doing one at all in there.

I had an instructor in Val Thorens last year who wouldn't let us do one in that boardercross park and I hadn't been in it before (neither had he because it was brand new - not even finished in fact) and I shot out of that one at the end like a cork out of a bottle - much too fast - and I didn't want to do that again.

Ally

You made some interesting points though. I am sure it 'works' (to a point) in powder but isn't necessarily the right tactic to adopt. Skiing backwards in powder 'works' but I definitely wouldn't advise it ;)

Feel sad for the person who doesn't know enough to say what they think is wrong with what someone says, but knows enough to hit the rating button. Must be very frustrating for them :lol:


Trencher

Trencher wrote:Feel sad for the person who doesn't know enough to say what they think is wrong with what someone says, but knows enough to hit the rating button. Must be very frustrating for them :lol:

Trencher

That is such a dumb action. I re-read right through all the posts, and there was nothing in the least bit offensive. If anything, it was a progressive, enquiring & technical discourse.

Yesterday, I reported the same down-rating activity to a couple of my postings, on another thread. Ally agreed that there was nothing offensive then either.

Sad people.

If you ignore the idiot they will go away, the more the fuss and reaction the more it will continue

Ian Wickham wrote:If you ignore the idiot they will go away, the more the fuss and reaction the more it will continue

I'm not sure I agree Ian, especially when a posting is clearly innoffensive. I know that Trencher, TonyH and myself have been downstarred on a number of occasions, and there may well be others.

I don't think it does any harm to highlight idiocy now and again. If it makes the culprits see some sense, well and good.

Ah well, the sun is up, we have fresh snow, gotta think about making tracks. :-)