Skill comes in handy and all, but unless you are Obi Wan Kenobi, you won't be making the same high-g slalom turns in a foot of fresh that can be made on hard cord.
Depends on the density and depth of the snow. Heli skiing this year was really interesting -- the ski was bending so much I really wondered if it was going to fold and pressure management became the big issue!Skill comes in handy and all, but unless you are Obi Wan Kenobi, you won't be making the same high-g slalom turns in a foot of fresh that can be made on hard cord.
12" of new on the groom. ♡Skill comes in handy and all, but unless you are Obi Wan Kenobi, you won't be making the same high-g slalom turns in a foot of fresh that can be made on hard cord.
Skill comes in handy and all, but unless you are Obi Wan Kenobi, you won't be making the same high-g slalom turns in a foot of fresh that can be made on hard cord.
You pretty much have to "carve" in the soft snow. In some ways I prefer it, but it has limitations and drawbacks. One is so much "snow" - corn/slush, can build up on the outside boot that the outside ski bogs down.
If you've learned to turn by pushing the right ski to go left, or you just lean in and rotate the skis, you're going to have a bad time. In other words, if you're technique relys on pushing to an edge, or a surface with low friction to lateral displacement, (hard snow and twisting the skis), it doesn't work well in 3-d snow.
Anyone got any tips on adapting a hard snow/ice carving style, to the softer snow (even on the groomers) out west?
So sometimes in the spring we talk about following the sun in order to find soft conditions, but you might want to think about how to not follow the sun (shade, north-facing, higher elevation) to do the opposite.
@Mike King pretty much nailed what you need to do.
Stop juicing the tails at the bottom of the turn and ski more from the center of the ski through the whole turn. (If the tail won't release, you're probably balancing too far aft)
Do less tipping of the ski relative to the snow, and more angulating to tip the ski relative to you (with your legs) so you can slip/grip at will.
I'm not hearing you describe as a snow surface that's too soft to support the speeds/turns you're trying to create, I'm hearing you describe a skier that's on snow that's showing him the cheat he uses to carve at home is a cheat (albeit a highly effective one in the right condition).
TONS of good info (THANK YOU) and ...It is perfectly natural for it to feel like your skiing has taken a step or 2 backwards while learning new movement patterns or skills. Best of luck to you, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.
It's hard for me to call it a cheat, since I'm basically doing what all the instructional info on carving says to do, but it IS totally the wrong technique for the conditions. I'm trying to ski the skis more like I did my old straight skis, rather than carving like I would on corduroy. It makes things more manageable, but that's where I'm really catching edges. I'm definitely on my heels more than I'd like, so I'm making a conscious effort to try to prevent that.
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It's hard for me to call it a cheat, since I'm basically doing what all the instructional info on carving says to do, but it IS totally the wrong technique for the conditions. I'm trying to ski the skis more like I did my old straight skis, rather than carving like I would on corduroy. It makes things more manageable, but that's where I'm really catching edges. I'm definitely on my heels more than I'd like, so I'm making a conscious effort to try to prevent that.
The snow I've been encountering off-piste at Breck is grippy under the few inches of fresh. Are your edges catching in the soft and/or loose scraped snow or in the hard surface below?
You can get away with this on hard snow, as you eventually displace the ski far enough to create sufficient edge angle that the ski bites and pushes you across the hill.