J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ir12daveor

I'm a snowboarder who learned how to ski last year. My whole aim of learning how to ski was to be able to tour so everything was about learning how to ride mixed terrain and powder from the word go.

The biggest tips that helped me were:

-Lean FORWARD!!! I've been told if I fall forward I'm doing something right!
-Try to keep pressure on both skis. I find if one ski becomes unweighted it drags in the snow and knocks me over.
-Use your hands. Keep them forward and as you plant your pole bring the other pole around ready for the next plant almost immediately. Plant the pole far infront and downhill and then really reach around with the other hand to get ready for the next pole plant. This brings your shoulders around and that in turn brings the skis around.
-Unweighting by shifting your weight up and forward just as you are planting your pole helps get the skis pointing down the mountain.

This can be practised on the piste. Its actually easier if it a bit steep. When its too flat then I find myself too easily unweighting one ski and falling over. If its steeper you effectively just get your self pointing down the fall line as quick as possible and then finish the turn.

Before you go, accept that you will fall over a few times. Being scared of falling will stiffen you up and make it more difficult.

If possible practice first on the piste, then try to find somewhere with only 5-10cm of powder and build up to deeper powder.

A few years back I've seen about a meter fall in 24hours. We were snowboarding one day on a piste that had been freshly prepared that morning. By midfternoon there was about 50cm on the piste! So much that we couldn't get going in a lot of places on it. Getting home that evening was a nightmare. It snowed all night till just before sunrise when it cleared up and we has a perfect blue sky all day.

Getting back to the resort was a challenge though. Traffic was chaos with everyone trying to get to the mountains and the roads were a touch slippery to say the least.

I got to take a look back some of the valleys for this tour today when I was in Lenzerheide. There looks to be enough snow now, but another dump wouldn't go astray either. The Avalanche risk and weather were not suitable to do the tour today, but hopefully things will settle down shortly.

Local media is now reporting that there was actually three avalanches. At least one of these may have been set off by another group. I just heard this on a radio report, I'll see if I can find any online articles in a little while.

Dave Mac wrote:

skiwakeblue wrote:Hey,

Can anyone tell me if you can ski from Saas Fee straight into Zermatt. Looking to go for a week at the end of Feb, but concerned about limited terrain?

Ta

You cannot ski from Saas Fee to Zermatt. Most of the T/Os organise one or two minibus day trips. Takes about an hour, and you do have to choose one of the peaks, as you only have about 5/6 hours. If you want a taste of Zermatt, I suggest it is worth it.

Also, suggest you take the bus to Saas Grund, it's interesting ~ skiing alongside the walls of the glacier.

That depends on if you have touring skis or not. The mountain guides office offers a tour from Saas-Fee to Zermatt if your skill level is high enough.

tino_11 wrote:I have nothing against helmets but do maintain some people may be lured into a sitation they are not equipped for by the use of protective equipment, therefore simply putting on a helmet may not be the most effective way of reducing risk of an accident.

I don't think anyone would argue that a helmet reduces the risk of an accident. What it may do though is reduce the severity of certain injuries should an accident occur. Its the same thing as someone saying I have bought an avalanche transceiver so I can now go into dangerous areas. The transciever does not magically reduce the risk of you getting caught in an avalanche.

Regardless of helmet (or any other safety equipment)use or not people still need to act responsibly. All a helmet does is provide a way of spreading the load of an impact around your head should an impact occur. I'd rather the helmet broke then have had the fracture in my skull that you had.

tino_11 wrote:

ir12daveor wrote:

tino_11 wrote:Does that happen to you as well, I thought it was just me :D

Seriously though, I do see your point and maybe I did not explain well enough, but I do feel strongly that protection has the ability to make certain people behave irresponibly in the first place. Not only in skiing but in a diverse range of activities from motoring to sex.

Certainly, but even riding within your limits does not mean you can't have an accident. After all that's what an accident is!

So everyone should live in bungalows then to prevent injury or death due to stair use?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/790609.stm

Great argument... comparing apples and oranges again. :?

tino_11 wrote:Does that happen to you as well, I thought it was just me :D

Seriously though, I do see your point and maybe I did not explain well enough, but I do feel strongly that protection has the ability to make certain people behave irresponibly in the first place. Not only in skiing but in a diverse range of activities from motoring to sex.

Certainly, but even riding within your limits does not mean you can't have an accident. After all that's what an accident is! If you are riding outside your limits and have an "accident" with someone else then you could potentially be seen as negligent.