Cornice Hucking Beginner

[dean_spirito]

Yea I don't recommend 4 point landings, especially not off natural features into variable terrain. Planting a pole at that speed is asking for a sprained wrist or separated shoulder. Exactly the reason jibbers, among others, have migrated towards much shorter poles; one less thing to impale yourself with.

 

[James]

Go to 28 secs for dropping.
Also there's proof that @Mike King was off the ground.

This was a rock which you couldn't see when you backed up a few feet. I only went from maybe 4- 5 feet above to start. The drop is only a few feet but it looks like a lot because of the landing and angle of approach.
Key advice given by Dean was not to look at the rock as you approach but look at the landing. Once you landed the speed was very high in a busy sea of spring snow. That was the hard part besides convincing myself to do it and stopping thoughts of everything bad that can happen.

This was an early one and I don't manage to keep my hands down.
@dean_spirito shows how it's done at 0:35 on a different rock that required a little pop I think.

 

[crgildart]

Yea I don't recommend 4 point landings, especially not off natural features into variable terrain. Planting a pole at that speed is asking for a sprained wrist or separated shoulder. Exactly the reason jibbers, among others, have migrated towards much shorter poles; one less thing to impale yourself with.

That is why we were taught to angle them back instead of reaching out. But, easier said than done.. Easier still to just keep the hands in front of you and pile tips behind you when landing.

Bumpers appear to still be going for the 4 pointers.. but scored on landings and how fast they start turning afterwards.

 

[Tricia]

@James got more rise than his bread dough!

@Mike King nicely done!
From James' video

 

[green26]

Really generous of you all. Thanks for all the advice and thoughts. Great. Now I'll re-read a few times to absorb. I'll let you know how things progress!

 

[Tricia]

Soooo, I've been playing around on @Bob Barnes Vimeo channel and found this gem.

 

[agreen]

I like the continuous movement flowing into the cornice. He seems to minimize the air time almost like absorbing a mogul. I've been using more of a dangle and drop technique but this looks much cooler. BTW I saw someone drop the huge cornice skiers left of cornice bowl at mammoth over Memorial weekend. He dropped straight down and then managed a tremendous amount of speed with long arcing turns over some bumpy terrain. Impressive!!!

 

[Xela]

Playing devil's advocate... It's sometimes easier to drop a cornice with some speed. Going straight off can be similar to getting air off a rollover. When you're in the air, it doesn't matter what the shape of the snow under you is. The key issues are speed and steepness at landing. When things get steep, there isn't much difference between skiing fall-line and falling.

 

[Rod9301]

I use a different technique on cornices:

Ski to it, make a turn right before the lip, knees bent a lot, and really finish the turn, reach down with the pole, and die down, turning in the opposite direction in the air.

So turn left before the lip, plant right pole, release the skis and turn to the right in the air.

This allows you to drop without a lot of speed and if the knees are bent a lot before the air turn, you minimize the drop.

 

[jimtransition]

I wrote some tips on getting air for the Portillo blog here http://www.skiportillo.com/en/blog/send-it-in-ski-portillo/, it's not specifically about cornices, but there might be something helpful for you in there.