What are your cues for good skiing?

[Scruffy]

^ Nice @Tony S ^, you put a lot of thought into it.

ETA: Opps, I took your top on page 3 .. Buffer friends

 

[Chris V.]

Steeps

• ...Feeling engagement of the shovels immediately. Sensing that skis are parallel with the angle of the slope, or even tips heavy by a little.

Yeah, that's good. A lot of the challenge of steeps is that the required angle of the skis changes so rapidly. We need to use the tips to feel the oncoming snow. The tails only feel the snow we've already passed.

Watching others flail. Okay, I'm not proud of this. But when I'm standing at the top of a pitch with low confidence, what often happens is that I watch two or three people go down ahead of me and immediately my attitude changes to "Oh, for Pete's sake, I may suck but I can damn well do better than THAT!" And then I do. Apologies in advance, buffer friends.

LOL, there's never a shortage of opportunities for this, on any slope on any mountain. Cues aren't always "that was good." They can be "don't do that."

 

[green26]

among dozens of other things, the two that I think about most lately, in order of importance -

1. No ski tip lead
2. Skis do the same thing at the same time, non-sequential

 

[KingGrump]

All Turns, All Terrain

• Strong feeling of being ahead of the skis, "piloting the plane" with assurance, at initiation.
• Both hands visible all the time.
• Pleasant surprise that the exact turn I imagined at transition time is coming to fruition.
• Same feeling of weightless confidence ("flying") and "slowed time" that others have described.
• Childlike sense of wanting to seek out and ski over stuff, knowing that it will work out. "What's that over there!?"
• Sustained rhythm (but with plenty of rubato allowed and encouraged if terrain dictates). A few turns with a beat is one thing. But putting together dozens of turns over an entire pitch at a consistent pace feels so good.

Arc-to-Arc Carving

• Inside hand presses visibly straight down the fall line as turn develops and skis cross under.
• A very small natural-feeling forearm movement at the moment of maximum angulation allows knuckles to brush snow. (This is an occasional sanity check, not a habit. If doing this puts me in the back seat, that's a negative cue, probably indicating insufficient counter and over-weighted inside ski.)
• "Knowing" that edge grip is simply not an issue, even on very hard snow.
• "Pressing the gas pedal" with the ball of my outside foot as the ski bends and resistance increases, which counter-intuitively tightens the arc satisfyingly.
• Feeling the pressure move along the length of my foot near the end of the turn (ball -> arch).
• Stance feels "too wide" in the belly of the turn. (I tend to have feet too close.)

Moguls

• Pole plants consistently past the crests of the bumps. (Thanks, James.)
• Skiing slower than I could (and therefore better) because each turn is so delicious, happening at its appointed time, not before or after. (When you dance, the band doesn't usually change the tempo as the dance progresses, right? Yet how many of us speed up as we ski a bump pitch?)
• Feet making "barstool" pivots, hips and torso still square, on demand, as quickly as needed, but only if needed.
• Seeing two turns ahead.
• In challenging deep, steep, choppy, nasty bumps, I ski better when I keep my line "high," not falling into the troughs except where the transitions in and out are gradual rather than abrupt. I think of it as "following the AT". (That's "Appalachian Trail," for you westerners.) Imagine looking at the line of the trail on a relief map.
• Realization that speed control is happening through all phases of the turn, even while skis are pointed straight down the fall line! (I especially notice this on blue pitches in softer snow, when I am skiing on or close to a zipper line.)
• Feeling "heavy" and swoopy on the back slopes, light in the troughs. (Strong compression in the troughs is a negative cue indicating my speed control is happening too late in the turn.)
• Being able to mix up line choice and tactics at will. E.g., going from the "AT" line to a super-swoopy "just under the rim of the toilet bowl" every-other-bump line. (Josh and KG have worked with me on this one.)

Steeps

• Leading down the fall line with my head at the end of transition. Feeling engagement of the shovels immediately. Sensing that skis are parallel with the angle of the slope, or even tips heavy by a little. First half of what others have described as "round turns," probably.
• Concentrating effectively on single-phase initiation. (An initiation where I pre-position my skis for the new turn at the end of the old one, with a sequential or even subtly stepped move, is a negative cue. This is a really ingrained bad habit with me.)
• Slow, unhurried exit from the fall line, brushing all the way through the turn. (Rushed pivot with lack of motion along the ski's length at the bottom of the turn is a negative cue.) Second half of what others have described as "round turns," probably.
• Watching others flail. Okay, I'm not proud of this. But when I'm standing at the top of a pitch with low confidence, what often happens is that I watch two or three people go down ahead of me and immediately my attitude changes to "Oh, for Pete's sake, I may suck but I can damn well do better than THAT!" And then I do. Apologies in advance, buffer friends.

With all that thinking, when do you actually get to do any skiing?

 

[Tony S]

With all that thinking, when do you actually get to do any skiing?

Not skiing has definitely been a major problem this year. Not qualifying early for the vaccine under the "codger" provision isn't helping.

Meanwhile I'm happy that I've been able to cover for you in the thinking department. (After that latest knife-twisting batch of Taos pics you deserve some crap.)

 

[mister moose]

• Strong feeling of being ahead of the skis, "piloting the plane" with assurance, at initiation.

For me, this is the essence of everything you said, and it is my overall answer. The rest is details on how you get there.

If I feel relaxed (not to be confused with lazy) , if I feel on top of the situation, if both my brain and body are positioned where they need to be slightly before they need to be there... then all is well.

• Watching others flail. Okay, I'm not proud of this. But when I'm standing at the top of a pitch with low confidence, what often happens is that I watch two or three people go down ahead of me and immediately my attitude changes to "Oh, for Pete's sake, I may suck but I can damn well do better than THAT!" And then I do. Apologies in advance, buffer friends.

I know this feeling, but alas it does not always lead to success.

 

[Uncle-A]

A cue to tell us how successful we are at it might be, what forces do we feel on the soles of our feet? Or, can we pick up the inside ski and not quickly fall to the inside?

I agree with this, the feedback I get from the soles of my feet. When the ski force is felt and translated into the next movement. Although part of that is a good boot fit but part is the ski reaction to the snow. This is something I don't get on the blue ice we get here in the NE. So that is also when I know that I am off my best.

 

[Chris V.]

Although part of that is a good boot fit but part is the ski reaction to the snow. This is something I don't get on the blue ice we get here in the NE.

If you feel no force coming up through the soles of your feet, it's going to be a problem.

 

[James]

If you feel no force coming up through the soles of your feet, it's going to be a problem.

Not necessarily.

Now, what would be interesting is what cues are the air people using that lets them know they’re ok.

 

[Doug Briggs]

The slippery side is down and I don't have snow jammed into my goggles.

 

[David Chaus]

The absence of feeling I'm working my quads. If they are overworked I can feel it, and it usually means I'm relying on them too much due to being in the back seat.

When things are working, I can feel the pressure build up under my feet at the with the maximum pressure at the apex of the turns.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Hoots were had today. Sorry no pictures, but Breck reported 8 and skied 12.

 

[Uncle-A]

Hoots were had today. Sorry no pictures, but Breck reported 8 and skied 12.

Fresh and spring conditions no wonder there was hoots.