Powder/crud breakthrough

[Mikey]

Had 8" of snow fall overnight at Big Sky, but a bit late getting out due to getting some work done on my boots.

Still some clean lines but mostly soft crud. Started out rough for both Nat and I but after watching a couple guys and also putting all those drills we have been doing, and just trying to relax and stay confident, something just clicked.

Man, this is fun! One of my problems has been a lazy inside ski coming to parallel, skiing balanced in powder/ heavy crud will cure that I found

Great day.

Not claiming total victory, but a big step in the right directiion and another set of conditiins I can now enjoy.

 

[cosmoliu]

That's great. It took about 20 years of destination skiing with a couple of inches here, a couple of inches there, and with some years lacking fresh snow entirely, for me to get some semblance of powder competence. The problem is that you never get to work your way up with 2" one day, 4" the next and 10" a couple of days later to take advantage of drills and mileage. You might just begin to get the idea and then have to go home. And the next year you have to start again from scratch. Or maybe you get a three foot dump and have no clue what to do with it. And these days, with fat skis everywhere, fresh pow never lasts longer than 15 milliseconds. I finally got my powder legs established with a week out of your dreams at Snowbird when it snowed 6-8" every day I was there. It took that much consistency/repetition for powder technique to finally sink in such that now it really is like having learned to ride a bike.

 

[Josh Matta]

the realit y is I bet your groomer skiing will be better because of it.

 

[Mikey]

That's great. It took about 20 years of destination skiing with a couple of inches here, a couple of inches there, and with some years lacking fresh snow entirely, for me to get some semblance of powder competence. The problem is that you never get to work your way up with 2" one day, 4" the next and 10" a couple of days later to take advantage of drills and mileage. You might just begin to get the idea and then have to go home. And the next year you have to start again from scratch. Or maybe you get a three foot dump and have no clue what to do with it. And these days, with fat skis everywhere, fresh pow never lasts longer than 15 milliseconds. I finally got my powder legs established with a week out of your dreams at Snowbird when it snowed 6-8" every day I was there. It took that much consistency/repetition for powder technique to finally sink in such that now it really is like having learned to ride a bike.

the reality is I bet your groomer skiing will be better because of it.

Very true. Today's conditions were to be avoided..just a day off for me in the past. I've tried and failed miserably many times. Had one "starting to get there" day last year. Nat was a little disappointed with her skiing todayy, but I told her that it was pretty hard for most people and this is your first time in these conditions. We did 11 runs of mostly blue after a couple warm-up greens. It started clicking on the third run and started really feeling it on the 4th. Kind of rough at the end on some steeper chopped up blue runs.

The key for us has been drills. 3 runs every day...and having lots of time to ski last season and this season. Nat had a couple of very nice (for us) bump runs the other day, that seemed to click for her once her pivot slips became smooth and true pivots. She also seems to have a good feel and vision for where to turn so she is ahead of me right now in skiing bumps...gives me a good target.

good times.

 

[Fuller]

Curious to know which drills you think have helped you the most in soft snow? I'm guessing that they are all focused on the basics rather than actual soft snow tactics.

Whitefish got about 12" yesterday and I think I skied it pretty well (for me). The previous week I had been on the groomers with my Head iTitans and I credit those skis for really helping me embed some fundamental moves into my skiing toolbox. That definitely carried over to the soft stuff. I'm not where I want to be but I think I've moved up a notch or two, especially if you consider the increase in adverse conditions that I now enjoy.

 

[Mikey]

Curious to know which drills you think have helped you the most in soft snow? I'm guessing that they are all focused on the basics rather than actual soft snow tactics.

Whitefish got about 12" yesterday and I think I skied it pretty well (for me). The previous week I had been on the groomers with my Head iTitans and I credit those skis for really helping me embed some fundamental moves into my skiing toolbox. That definitely carried over to the soft stuff. I'm not where I want to be but I think I've moved up a notch or two, especially if you consider the increase in adverse conditions that I now enjoy.

As you say, really just the basics of overall balance (fore-aft, on-edge), angulation, separation. We do pivot-slips/falling leaf, javelin, recently Schlopy drill. I feel like as the pivot-slips have have become pretty clean and the Schlopy drill has felt more comfortable, that I'm feeling more comfortable on more difficult terrain which helped me today.

We do many other things to work on balance and just get comfortable on every edge of the ski in various positions so it is slowly opening things up for us.

It's really becoming a lot more fun on the mountain.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Isn't it amazing how skills acquisitions expands mountain access?

 

[PTskier]

For fore & aft balance, try this. On a flat section of deep snow, ski straight, not too fast. Push your feet a few inches forward, pull them a few inches back, feel where your skis are happiest riding. Your skis will tell you when they are not struggling. You do not need to see your ski tips. Find an indicator for yourself so you can identify this spot. Maybe the feel of your shin against your boot tongue, or whatever works for you. This is your "home" position where you're centered.

For side to side balance, keep even weight on both feet all the time. Really wide skis can let the skier deviate, but there's no need to do that.

Angulation and upper/lower body separation (counter) are critical. The Schlopy drill is great. Pivot slips, not so much. Don't get into the habit of sliding your skis sideways in snow that won't let you slide them, it'll dump you. Picture an airplane banking a turn in the sky. Picture your skis on edge banking around a turn in the snow. That's what angulation, counter, separation gives you. To end the turn and go the other way, just relax both legs. Your skis will flatten & rise, then you bank them around a turn the other way. And, just balance. If it gets steep, when you relax your legs and let the skis flatten, pull you heels up toward your hips, then extend and angulate the other way.

 

[T-Square]

Congratulations, it’s great when things come together and work. Keep doing it.

 

[Mikey]

For fore & aft balance, try this. On a flat section of deep snow, ski straight, not too fast. Push your feet a few inches forward, pull them a few inches back, feel where your skis are happiest riding. Your skis will tell you when they are not struggling. You do not need to see your ski tips. Find an indicator for yourself so you can identify this spot. Maybe the feel of your shin against your boot tongue, or whatever works for you. This is your "home" position where you're centered.

For side to side balance, keep even weight on both feet all the time. Really wide skis can let the skier deviate, but there's no need to do that.

Angulation and upper/lower body separation (counter) are critical. The Schlopy drill is great. Pivot slips, not so much. Don't get into the habit of sliding your skis sideways in snow that won't let you slide them, it'll dump you. Picture an airplane banking a turn in the sky. Picture your skis on edge banking around a turn in the snow. That's what angulation, counter, separation gives you. To end the turn and go the other way, just relax both legs. Your skis will flatten & rise, then you bank them around a turn the other way. And, just balance. If it gets steep, when you relax your legs and let the skis flatten, pull you heels up toward your hips, then extend and angulate the other way.

All the drills we have been doing have just helped us in all areas of balance, separation, angulation. Doing enough of them, and skiing in different conditions, it's been easy for my body to automatically adapt. Especially so for Nat, who would get overwhelmed with lots of explanation (as I'm guessing many do) but has improved a lot through drills (and then fuller explanation afterwards after she saw improvement). I like the pivot slips because they really help my separation and balance and that's the part that is useful to me in powder...keeping my upper body quiet (definitely NO sliding! ). Javelin turns has also helped in that respect and just overall balance. We just recently started practicing the Schlopy drill to work on angulation and lateral balance and feel like those have gone pretty well.

The powder day started out rough, then was able to ski larger rounder turns (picturing/feeling the banking and feeling that "balance" point as you described), but after I watched a couple guys skiing really well and effortless in shorter more fluid turns, and thinking about the Schlopy drill and how my body felt, it just sort of clicked. Focusing hard and willing myself on the first couple turns, I found I could ski those shorter, more fluid/flowing turns that felt almost effortless and then transition between the two (larger rounder turns) when I wanted. I spent some time in the cruddy area off to the side yesterday and it felt pretty good.

 

[karlo]

This is such a nice report. What a wonderful example of taking control of one's own development, and not just take lessons. Not to say that lessons shouldn't be taken.

 

[Doby Man]

The best technique for skiing crud is edge locked arc to arc racing style turns simply because the crud itself "locks" your edges from skidding/twisting. The good news is that you can practice this on any groomer on any snowpack without missing a beat. The truth is that a skier can garner most of their alternative terrain development at a higher pace on groomers as well as that doing the opposite ingrains faulty movement patterns more often than not.

 

[jimmy]

Here's another exercise you might find helpful and hopefully fun. Find a groomer with ungroomed snow on the side. Make short turns off the groomer into the deep snow and back onto the groomer. Gives you a feel for fore/aft balance when you ski off and back onto the groomed.

 

[PTskier]

The best technique for skiing crud is edge locked arc to arc racing style turns simply because the crud itself "locks" your edges from skidding/twisting. The good news is that you can practice this on any groomer on any snowpack without missing a beat. The truth is that a skier can garner most of their alternative terrain development at a higher pace on groomers as well as that doing the opposite ingrains faulty movement patterns more often than not.

Yes. The skis are on edge slicing through the lumps, not flat, skidding and bouncing and getting thrown over the lumps.

 

[Mikey]

Well, so Saturday before last was almost a disaster..well, it was a disaster, but the outcome was good. It dumped big time at Big Sky and I was pretty excited to try out our new but rough powder skills. We got to the top of a blue run with pristine snow. It was pretty windy, cold and continuing dump. Some quick reminders and off we went. I now understand the term 3d powder. Pretty cool. I was doing pretty good, but got ahead of Nat. Big mistake. The depth really messed with her and she went into defensive mode and it just got worse. She was *very* upset about halfway down and was in no mood to listen. Just took the rest of the way in easy, manageable bite size portions and made it down. She declared that her powder days were over. Never again. Called it a day. After a good nap she was ready to listen. We talked through it, but still, her feeling was no more powder/crud. We worked on drills last week and I kept talking to her about the experience and about mid-week last week, I could see she was starting to warm back up to it. Basically, she had all these tools and left her toolbox at home that day.

Long story short, it snowed here today. Not deep powder but a fair amount and tons of crud. We skied 18 runs today and every single run was either a bump run, crud run, seeking out any powder we could find. 0 groomed runs. We both had an absolute blast. Best day skiing thus far. It's getting there....not too far away from things really clicking. @PTskier, your description of above is right on and that slicing through crud feeling is so cool. Terrain coming at us is finally starting to slow down even though we are actually skiing faster with more confidence.